Working with individuals in eating disorder recovery throughout the years, we found that trauma and PTSD can often interfere with one’s ability to fully heal from their eating disorder. Unfortunately, traditional eating disorder treatment often requires that a person is “recovered” from their eating disorder symptoms before addressing their trauma. While ideal in theory, this does not always work in practice. Time and time again, we have seen a similar pattern: client reduces their eating disorder behaviors, experiences an overwhelming resurgence of trauma symptoms, and then returns to the eating disorder behaviors that helped them cope in the first place. 

At Body Liberation Collective, we believe that a person who is healing their relationship to food and their body, can also work through their trauma simultaneously  However, we also believe that talk therapy isn’t enough when it comes to healing from trauma and PTSD, as it doesn’t access the implicit memories that are critical to healing. 

This is why we employ Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), an evidence-based trauma treatment that utilizes storytelling as a powerful form of healing. 

During therapy sessions, we guide clients through the process of recounting their life story, focusing particularly on traumatic events. Through a systematic, yet flexible, approach, we assist our clients in constructing a coherent narrative that allows them to place their traumatic experiences within the broader context of their life story. This process helps clients properly organize their memories rather than having them show up spontaneously in the form of intrusive images, thoughts, emotions and/or body sensations. 

We’ve found that this work, while incredibly challenging, has offered our clients the ability to let go of some of their old forms of coping, notably eating disorder symptoms, that have helped them survive, manage and distance themselves from what has happened to them. 

We feel honored that we get the opportunity to hold space for our clients’ stories.