Intuitive Eating Counseling in Philadelphia, PA

Intuitive eating is a method that helps you connect to your body’s physical needs by recognizing and honoring your hunger and fullness cues. The goal is to help you to develop a relaxed and flexible approach to food that doesn’t focus on intentional weight loss. 

Intuitive eating is guided by 10 principles that I incorporate into our work together. Our sessions will be structured around these principles:

Reject the Diet Mentality

Social justice and anti-oppression are the roots of this principle. We’ll look at how diet culture has harmed you and hold these systems accountable rather than blaming yourself. 

Honor Your Hunger

Skipping meals or not eating enough will trigger eating past fullness, excessive hunger makes it difficult to eat in a conscious and intentional way. The goal is to eat a variety of foods on a consistent basis to meet your body’s biological need for hunger. 

Make Peace with Food

Giving yourself full permission to eat and stop fighting with yourself on what you’re supposed to eat.  Forbidden foods or telling yourself “you can’t eat that” will lead to feeling deprived, which may trigger over-eating. 

Discover the Satisfaction Factor

Diet culture often pathologizes eating for pleasure while intuitive eating embraces it as a natural part of being human. Food isn’t just about fueling our bodies, but can be a way to connect with others.

Intuitive eating helps you connect with the pleasure of eating by having foods you truly enjoy in an environment that is relaxed. Enjoying foods on the holidays, cultural traditions or simply eating because it tastes good.  Satisfying your emotional and physical needs will also lead to a more embodied relationship with food. 

Feel Your Fullness

Learning to recognize your body’s signals of fullness through mindful eating practices. 

Challenge the Food Police

Learning to notice that voice in your head that tells you carbs are bad or tells you when you should or shouldn’t eat something. 

Cope with your Emotions with Kindness

Finding ways to cope and manage your feelings in ways beyond food. Recognizing the source of your emotions and addressing any emotional needs that are not being met in your life. 

Respect Your Body

Learning to accept your body size and that genetics are not something you can control. 

Movement - Feel the Difference

Focusing on how your body and mind feels after movement, and what types of exercise feel enjoyable to you. Learning to approach movement from a balanced place, rather than a way to burn calories or punish yourself. 

Honor Your Health- Gentle Nutrition 

Learning to eat food that meets your nutritional needs, tastes good, and honors your culture. Having a relaxed relationship with food that doesn’t need to be perfect. 

Intuitive eating helps you trust your body’s signals, rather than relying on diets to know when and what to eat. The more we try to control what we eat, the more we trigger that inner-rebel part that will ultimately push back against any food rules. The more we try to avoid certain foods, the more they occupy our head space. If you’re constantly hungry and under-nourished, you’ll always be thinking about food. Letting go of those constraints and giving yourself full permission to eat might help you feel less consumed by thoughts around food. 

If you struggle with binging or emotional eating, intuitive eating helps you connect to your hunger and fullness cues.  You’ll learn to be more present during the experience of eating, and feel better able to honor your feelings of fullness. 

Sometimes binge eating is caused by feeling deprived, and other times it’s a way to cope with feelings that are overwhelming. Together, we’ll get to the root of what’s triggering  your binging so we can create a plan that works for you. 

We;ll use talk therapy and writing exercises to explore your eating patterns and implement intuitive eating exercises. The Intuitive Eating workbook is used as a guideline for structuring our sessions. I recommend that people purchase their own copy and follow along.