ARFID Therapy
Avoidant and Restrictive Intake Disorder (ARFID) is a serious—and highly misunderstood—experience.
Characterized as an eating disorder, standard treatment approaches often miss the mark in properly addressing this diagnosis
by attempting to fit it into the stereotypical “eating disorder” mold.
You deserve better.
2) We collaborate to identify your goals.
Goals for those who seek therapy for ARFID can be different for everyone and they are not black and white.
I don’t set the goal for you, but I can help guide you in finding the right goals for yourself.
Common goals that my clients with ARFID may come in with may look like:
Increase variety and willingness to try new foods
Decrease fear around certain foods
The overlap with neurodivergence often lays the groundwork for non-eating related goals as well, such as:
Increase awareness or access to food when the executive function isn’t executive functioning
Build tolerance of uncomfortable body sensations during or outside of mealtimes
Some clients also come in with no idea about what goals they might want to set and that’s okay, too.
We can explore what distress ARFID might be causing you and how you might hope things could be difference.
Ultimately, I will not choose these goals for you or decide when these goals are met.
3) We do the work together.
Regardless of what you hope to accomplishment in our time together, we are in it together and I follow your lead. Whether you hope for a therapist that will challenge you to step out of your comfort zone, or benefit more from someone that will provide education for you to explore at your own speed.
How can therapy help with ARFID?
1) We build an understanding of your experience.
“Why do you always eat the same thing? You really need to branch out more.”
”Why are you so picky?”
”Why does eating have to be a whole thing with you?”
Heard any comments like this and probably a hundred more? But we know it’s not that simple.
ARFID comes in 3 bold flavors:
Lack of interest: food is not interesting, it is a chore to engage with it, and the hunger cues are lacking
Sensory avoidant: food’s got to have the right feel/smell/appearance/etc. or it’s not getting eaten
Fear of aversive consequences: avoiding food to due to fear of potential illness or injury
Not only are these all valid and understandable reasons for ARFID to develop, but they’re also very common experiences in particular for those with neurodivergent identities and/or trauma histories. Let’s tease out what might be dangerous versus what might just connect with how you’re wired!
