Heidi Hartig (she/her)

Body Image issues exist on a spectrum from Body Negativity to Body Positivity. When you are struggling with hating your body, sometimes the idea of going to the other end can feel too daunting. We focus on shifting more towards the middle: Body Neutrality. We talk about how to reduce the shame and panic that can come up with body thoughts and ways to cope through bad body image days.

Self-worth is inherently tied into eating disorders. Many times we are operating off of core beliefs of being unworthy, undeserving, or incapable of managing the day-to-day; however, these are often irrational. They feel incredibly real and hard to break; however, we work towards fact checking these beliefs, identifying how they developed, and work on replacing them with different, more rational beliefs.

I have worked in the ED field for over 7 years, including as the director of a PHP/IOP program. Eating Disorders are so much more than just the behaviors themselves. We work to identify how the eating disorder is serving you and learn how to tackle those issues. I practice from a Harm Reduction approach and believe that recovery is not one-size-fits-all. Together, we will design a recovery that works best for you and allows a life that feels better than one stuck in an ED.

Harm reduction recognizes that it's incredibly difficult to go "cold turkey" on behaviors. We use eating disorders for a reason, and removing all of those behaviors at once can cause more harm than good. We work together to identify small goals targeting the reduction of behaviors; however, this is completely client led. We will talk suggestions and strategies on how to work towards these goals and alternate the course, if needed.

DBT skills cover four areas: Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation, Mindful Awareness, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. In sessions, we talk about some of these skills and how they can be applied in different scenarios.

My primary modality is CBT, primarily a subset called Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). REBT is the idea that we all have irrational core beliefs that have developed, leading to a lot of "Must" and "Should" language. We work together to identify these beliefs, how they impact you, and what more rational replacement beliefs might be.