Eating Disorder Therapy in Hamilton, Ontario

Reconnecting With Your Body Through Healing
Eating disorders often begin as ways to manage overwhelming emotional pain. Restriction can numb. Bingeing can soothe. Purging can punish. Control can create a sense of safety. These strategies often make sense in the context of what someone has lived through, but over time they disconnect you from your body, your emotions, and your life.

At eFIT, we understand recovery as a process of reconnection. Healing happens psychologically, physically, and relationally. That is why our approach integrates emotion focused therapy, somatic regulation, movement, nutrition support, and community. Recovery becomes more sustainable when the whole system is supported, not just eating behaviors alone.

You can book a free consultation to explore our group-based Evolve Therapy Program or individual Embark Therapy Program.

What Drives Eating Disorders? The eFIT Perspective

From the eFIT perspective, eating disorders often develop as self-regulation strategies when emotional experiences feel unsafe, overwhelming, or unmanageable. When emotions cannot be felt or expressed directly, behaviors such as restriction, bingeing, or purging can become ways to cope, offering temporary relief while reinforcing long-term disconnection.

Emotion Focused Therapy understands recovery as helping individuals:

• Access and accept painful emotions rather than avoiding or numbing them
• Build tolerance for emotional experience without needing disordered behaviors
• Transform maladaptive emotional states such as shame, guilt, aloneness, powerlessness, or fear into more adaptive experiences of self-compassion, agency, and care

Research shows that emotion focused approaches can be effective in eating disorder treatment, particularly in reducing emotional distress and increasing a sense of agency and self-efficacy beyond symptom control.

Common Signs We Work With

• Restricting food or controlling intake, with intense distress around eating
• Binge eating, with or without compensatory behaviors
• Preoccupation with body shape, weight, or food control
• Emotional numbness, shame, or harsh self-criticism linked to eating
• Difficulty sensing hunger, fullness, or internal bodily cues
• Physical complications such as low energy, digestive issues, or medical instability

How the eFIT Model Supports Lasting Recovery

Psychotherapy (EFT-Informed and Emotion Focused)
We help you safely connect with and process the emotions underlying disordered eating, including shame, disgust, guilt, grief, fear, and longing. Therapy focuses on addressing negative body image, understanding the emotional roots of eating behaviors, and reconnecting with resilient parts of yourself that may have been blocked by years of suppression and coping. The goal is not just stopping behaviors, but building emotional resilience and self-trust.

Somatic Regulation
Long-term disordered eating often disrupts the mind-body connection and interoceptive awareness, or the ability to sense hunger, fullness, and internal safety. Somatic practices help restore this connection by gently rebuilding awareness of bodily signals. Over time, this supports emotional stability and can increase comfort and acceptance in the body after years of self-criticism or disgust.

Physical Movement
Movement can be a powerful part of recovery when it is introduced carefully and with support. At eFIT, exercise is never used as punishment or as permission to eat. Our team ensures that you are medically and nutritionally ready, and that movement supports strength, empowerment, and capacity rather than control. Our gym is body-neutral, has no mirrors, and is not focused on appearance. We care about strength, function, mobility, and long-term health, and we help you learn to care about those things too.

Nutrition Support
Recovery often begins with restoring nourishment in a safe and supported way. Our nutrition team provides evidence-based nutrition therapy that prioritizes permission, intuitive eating, and mind-body awareness rather than restriction. You will build practical, sustainable skills that support emotional regulation, physical health, and long-term well-being.

Community and Group Work
Eating disorders thrive in secrecy and isolation. Our Evolve groups offer safety, validation, and belonging. Healing alongside others reduces shame, builds connection, and creates resilience through shared experience and support.