Eating Disorder Assessment & Treatment
Eating Disorder Therapy • Adults • Burlington, ON
When thoughts about food, eating, or your body take up too much space, it can be hard to imagine things feeling different. Maybe you're exhausted by rules around eating, caught in cycles that feel difficult to change, or unsure whether what you're experiencing is serious enough to seek help.
You don't have to have everything figured out before reaching out.
At Shoreacres Therapy, we offer individual, in-person and online therapy for adults experiencing eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image concerns. Our approach combines evidence-based treatment with compassion, collaboration, and respect for your individual experience.
You deserve a life that isn't centred around food.
When food takes up too much space
You spend much of your day thinking about what you've eaten, what you will eat, or whether you've eaten “the right way.” These thoughts may be affecting your concentration, relationships, or ability to enjoy everyday life.
When your relationship with your body feels painful
Body image concerns, self-criticism, and pressure from diet culture can make it difficult to feel at ease with yourself. You deserve support even if you don't identify with a specific eating disorder diagnosis.
When eating patterns feel difficult to change
You may feel caught in cycles of restriction, binge eating, compensatory behaviours, or rigid food rules, even when part of you wants things to be different.
When part of you wants help, but another part is afraid
You can want things to change and still feel uncertain about recovery. Therapy can make room for both feelings, without expecting you to feel completely ready before you begin.
01 — Understand what’s keeping you stuck
Explore the thoughts, emotions, and patterns that shape your relationship with food and your body. Together, we can begin to understand what these patterns do for you and why they can be difficult to change.
02 — Build skills for difficult moments
Develop practical ways to navigate distress, manage urges, regulate emotions, and work toward more flexible and consistent eating patterns.
03 — Reconnect with what matters most
Make room for relationships, interests, and values that may have been pushed aside by food and body concerns. Recovery goals should reflect what matters to you, not just what you want to change.
Treatment may integrate Enhanced Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT-E), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), depending on your needs. Care is individualized and may involve collaboration with your family physician and a registered dietitian.
What happens next?
Taking the first step, at your pace.
Explore your options •
Learn about our services and available appointments to decide whether our approach may be a good fit.
Begin with a conversation •
An initial assessment helps us understand what you've been experiencing, what support you're looking for, and what treatment may be appropriate.
Develop a plan together •
Work collaboratively on goals and next steps, including coordination with other healthcare professionals when needed.
Eating Disorders are complex neurobiological disorders that require a multidisciplinary team approach to treatment. Clinical Psychologists at Shoreacres Therapy work closely with family physicians and registered dieticians as part of a holistic approach to your care.
While treatment occurs online and 1:1 with one of our clinicians, we may recommend medical monitoring from your family doctor if there are any concerns at all about your medical stability, as well as a referral to a Registered Dietitian who specializes in eating disorders.
We can help you build a healthy connection with food and your body in a way that is supportive, encouraging and at your own pace.
Dr. Sarah Haller is trained in the assessment and treatment of eating disorders in adults, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Treatment is also available for adults presenting with body image concerns and disordered eating who do not meet DSM-5 criteria for an eating disorder. Our team is an ally to the LGBTQIA community, committed to providing culturally competent and supportive care. We take a Health At Every Size approach to your care.
Questions
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No formal eating disorder diagnosis is required to seek support for an eating disorder, disordered eating or body image concerns. A psychological assessment can provide clarity on diagnoses and guide treatment.
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Ambivalence - both wanting and not wanting something - is incredibly common in individuals with eating disorders. There can be a logical understanding you have that the behaviours you engage in are damaging to your body, mind, and overall health and well-being, and yet, giving up behaviours you have grown accustomed to for months or years is not easy and can feel destabilizing.
At Shoreacres Therapy, we work slowly and mindfully with patients to take treatment at their own pace, working through any feelings of ambivalence that might show up. It’s normal to feel excited to change and scared - eager to start one day, and reluctant the next.
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An assessment helps your clinician understand your eating concerns, relevant history, emotional well-being and treatment needs. You can ask questions and discuss what you hope to get out of therapy.
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As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Haller uses cognitive-behaviour therapy enhanced (CBT-E) to treat eating disorders. CBT-E is an empirically validated, structured protocol for the treatment of eating disorders. Treatment focuses on addressing the maintaining mechanisms of the eating problem, while building tools for managing urges to engage in eating disorder behaviours. Treatment offers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for 20 appointments.
Dr. Haller also integrates elements of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in her work with clients.
Treatment is tailored to individuals’ needs, with sometimes numerous sessions spent addressing barriers to receiving more structured treatment. Dr. Haller meets clients where they are at in terms of their readiness to change.
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At Shoreacres Therapy, we take a health at every size approach (HAES) to treatment. We support clients in forging a healthy relationship with food and with their bodies. One possible outcome of beginning to treat your body with more respect and kindness is weight loss. Another possibility is that beginning to relate to yourself differently results in a reduced importance of the goal of weight loss. You may become more accepting of the body you are in regardless of the number on the scale.
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Your care needs will be discussed with you. Medical monitoring is an important part of eating disorder treatment, and collaboration with a family doctor and eating disorder-informed dietitian may be a part of your recommended treatment plan.
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In keeping with the CBT-E protocol for eating disorders, treatment occurs on a weekly basis for around 10 appointments, and then occurs every other week for an additional 10 or so sessions.
Clinicians at Shoreacres Therapy modify treatment to fit your needs and are willing to work with folks who might have limited insurance coverage at a reduced fee if necessary. We understand how difficult it is to find the right help for an eating disorder, and support patients where I can to get the help they need as soon as possible.
Healing your relationship with food and your body can feel overwhelming, especially when you've been struggling for a long time. You may feel uncertain about change or unsure where to begin. You don't need to have all the answers before reaching out.
At Shoreacres Therapy, we offer compassionate, evidence-based support to help you better understand your relationship with food, navigate difficult emotions, and work toward a life that feels less defined by eating disorder thoughts and behaviours.
You deserve support, wherever you are in your journey.