Eating Disorders
Eating Disorders Counselling
Support for eating concerns, body image, and disordered eating: therapy for anyone navigating eating disorders, disordered eating, body image concerns, food anxiety, and the emotional patterns that can make eating feel complicated.
When your relationship with food starts shaping everyday life
Eating disorders affect individuals and the people around them. Bayridge offers weight-inclusive, trauma-informed care for anyone navigating eating disorders, disordered eating, body image concerns, and the emotional patterns around food, whether or not you have a formal diagnosis.
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A compassionate, weight-inclusive approach
Eating concerns sit on a spectrum, and people come to us at every point on it: with a long-standing diagnosis, or with chronic dieting and food anxiety that has never been named as anything at all. What we support includes:
- Anorexia nervosa
- Bulimia nervosa
- Binge-eating disorder
- ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder)
- OSFED (other specified feeding or eating disorder) / atypical eating disorders
- Disordered eating
- Binge/restrict cycles
- Body image concerns
Our approach is grounded in a Health at Every Size-aligned perspective. Rather than focusing therapy on weight loss, we explore the thoughts, emotions, behaviours, relationships, and experiences that may be contributing to your struggles with food and body image. Our relationships with food don’t develop in isolation: family expectations, cultural beliefs, gender roles, and comments about weight all shape them.
Therapy doesn’t have to mean being put on another diet
You won’t be told what you should weigh, asked to give up cultural foods, judged for your eating behaviours, or expected to recover perfectly. During your first session, we talk about what brought you to therapy, your current relationship with food and your body, and identify what support would be most helpful.
Outpatient care, and when you need more
We are not an inpatient medical clinic. Severe eating disorders sometimes need round-the-clock medical care, which is more than outpatient therapy can safely provide on its own. If you’re not sure how serious things are, that’s something your therapist can help you sort out in a first conversation, and if you need more support than we can offer, we’ll help you connect with it rather than leaving you to find it alone.
You might recognize some of this
You can start where you are.
- Constant thoughts about food, calories, or your body
- Guilt or shame after eating
- Avoiding certain foods or food groups
- Binge eating or feeling out of control around food
- Restricting intake or frequently dieting
- Exercising to compensate for eating
- Body checking or comparing your body to others
- Anxiety about eating socially or in front of others
- Changes in eating during periods of stress or transition
- Struggling to trust hunger, fullness, or body cues
This is a description of experiences, not a self-diagnosis checklist.
It may be time to talk to someone
You don't need to be in crisis to deserve support.
Consider reaching out if:
- Your relationship with food, weight, or your body is affecting daily life
- You feel out of control around food or trapped in a restrict/binge cycle
- You are constantly thinking about calories, your body, or the next meal
- Body image concerns are limiting what you do or how you feel about yourself
- You want support but are not sure whether your experience counts
You don't need to have everything figured out before you begin. Eating concerns exist on a spectrum, and reaching out is the practical move, not an overreaction.
Approaches a therapist may draw on
We match the approach to you, not the other way around. Your therapist may draw on one or several, depending on what fits.
Reshape the thoughts that keep disordered eating going.
Identifies and reshapes the thought patterns that maintain disordered eating and body image distress.
Therapists who work this way: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)Skills for distress, emotions and relationships.
Builds distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal skills: particularly effective for binge eating and binge/restrict cycles.
Therapists who work this way: Dialectic Behavioural Therapy (DBT)Separate who you are from the eating disorder.
Separates you from the eating disorder and explores the stories, beliefs, and cultural messages that shape your relationship with food and your body.
Therapists who work this way: Narrative TherapyNotice urges and body cues without acting on autopilot.
Trains present-moment awareness to notice urges, emotions, and body cues without being swept into automatic eating patterns.
Therapists who work this way: Mindfulness TherapyAddress the experiences underneath the eating.
Addresses the underlying trauma, attachment patterns, and emotional experiences that often drive disordered eating.
Therapists who work this way: Trauma-Informed TherapyA therapist who fits your situation
Our registered therapists have real experience helping people through what you are facing.
Rev. Chad Tomlinson
Registered Psychotherapist
MTS, MEd, MA, OCT, RP
Couples, Families, Individuals
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Gretchen Savery
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
MA, BA, RP (Qualifying)
Families, Individuals
View profile
Common questions
You don't need a formal diagnosis to seek support. Eating concerns exist on a spectrum, and therapy can be helpful whenever your relationship with food, movement, or your body is affecting your wellbeing.
Absolutely. Eating disorders and disordered eating can affect people across body sizes, genders, ages, and backgrounds. Appearance alone cannot tell us whether someone is struggling.
Yes. Binge-eating disorder, feeling out of control around food, and binge/restrict cycles are all part of what we support. Therapy starts with understanding what your eating behaviours are actually doing for you (what they manage, soothe, or protect you from) rather than treating them as a failure of willpower.
Yes, and that's our default. Body image work isn't about forcing yourself to love your body every day. It can begin with something more realistic: learning to treat your body with compassion, reducing body checking and comparison, and building a life that isn't organized around how your body looks.
No. Therapy here doesn't mean being put on another diet, being told what you "should" weigh, or giving up cultural foods. Rather than focusing on weight, we explore the thoughts, emotions, behaviours, relationships, and experiences that may be contributing to your struggles with food and body image. Where nutritional guidance would help, we can work alongside a dietitian.
We work with children, youth and adults ages 10 and up, with treatment adapted to each person's developmental stage, individual needs, and family circumstances. If you're looking for support outside that range, or you're not sure who the right fit would be, get in touch and we'll help you work it out.
Yes, when appropriate and with your consent. Eating disorders can affect both mental and physical health, so therapy may involve collaboration with your family doctor, dietitian, psychiatrist, or other healthcare providers so that your care is joined up rather than fragmented.
Care you can lean on
Sessions with our registered therapists are covered by most extended health and workplace benefit plans. Not sure what yours includes? We're happy to help you check before you book.
Sessions typically start at $150 and vary by therapist. Not sure where to begin? Our Intake Specialists can talk through fees, coverage, and which therapist fits what you are facing. Call (905) 319-1488 during business hours.
Ready when you are. We're here to listen.
Browse our registered therapists and reach out when you're ready. We'll usually reply within one business day.