Eating Disorder Treatment in Chicago: A Relational Approach

Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Why a Relational and Psychodynamic Approach Matters

Eating Disorders Awareness Week invites us to look beyond stereotypes.

Eating disorders are not limited to teenage girls. They do not only affect people in thin bodies. They are not simply about food, willpower, or appearance. Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions shaped by biology, culture, relationships, trauma, mood disorders, identity, and more.

At SpringSource: Eating, Weight & Mood Disorders, we specialize in evidence-based eating disorder treatment in Chicago and Northbrook for young, midlife, and older adults, with a particular focus on midlife women, individuals in higher-weight bodies, and those navigating GLP-1 medications. During Eating Disorders Awareness Week, we want to highlight something that’s often not discussed: the power of a relational and psychodynamic approach in recovery.

Because eating disorders are not just behavioral problems. They are relational adaptations.

What Is a Relational and Psychodynamic Approach to Eating Disorder Treatment?

A relational and psychodynamic approach explores how early attachment patterns, relational experiences, and unconscious emotional processes shape present-day behaviors.

Rather than focusing only on symptom elimination, this approach asks deeper questions:

• What function does this behavior serve?

• What feelings feel intolerable?

• What is the body expressing that words cannot?

• How do relational patterns repeat in food and self-care?

• Where did perfectionism or self-criticism begin?

Eating disorders often develop as adaptive strategies. They help individuals manage anxiety, shame, grief, anger, loneliness, or a sense of powerlessness. Restriction can create a sense of control. Bingeing can soothe emotional overwhelm. Compulsive exercise can regulate agitation. Purging can provide temporary relief.

In a relational framework, we understand that these behaviors once served a purpose such as protective function, but now are no longer serving the individual.

Dr. Angela Derrick notes, “Much of the initial work in therapy is understanding how the symptoms might have at one time felt beneficial or necessary to the individual. Once the client feels that the therapist truly understands and appreciates this, they are more likely to be able to consider the cost of the symptoms both historically and in the present. With this in mind, the therapy can then proceed into considering the implications of finding healthier ways to meet one’s needs. Without an appreciation from the therapist for what the symptoms represent, the client is likely to hold tight to the behaviors. This is one way in which having a strong therapeutic relationship is important in the treatment of an eating disorder.”

Why Relationship Is Central to Recovery

Many individuals with eating disorders carry deep internalized beliefs:

• “My needs are too much.” The belief that your needs are too much may have been communicated from an early age and reinforced in your adult relationships.

• “I must perform to be valued.” You might intellectually understand that this is not true, but your actions may consistently show a belief that you must earn worth through performance.

• “I cannot depend on others.” Your childhood & adult experiences may have taught you not to depend on others, as you perceive them as too risky and unreliable.

• “My body is wrong/shameful.” This may be a persistent and intrusive thought, belief, or feeling that you cannot seem to resolve or overcome.

• “If I lose control, I will fall apart.” You may feel deeply alone in the world with strong fears and a belief that your control is the only thing that stands between you and chaos.

• “My ability to restrict is the thing that makes me unique and special.” This one is particularly difficult, as you may fear losing your entire sense of self or the only thing you perceive as setting you apart and making you special.

These beliefs do not emerge in isolation. They are shaped in relationships.

Healing, therefore, also happens in relationship.

In relational psychodynamic therapy, the therapeutic relationship becomes a corrective emotional experience. Patients are met with consistency, curiosity, and compassion rather than judgment. Over time, individuals internalize a new way of relating to themselves.

This work is especially powerful for:

• Adults who have lived with symptoms for decades

• Midlife women experiencing relapse

• Individuals who feel “high functioning” but emotionally exhausted

• Those whose eating disorder intensified during major life transitions

At SpringSource, we integrate relational work with structured, evidence-based modalities where depth and practicality coexist.

Evidence-Based Therapies for Eating Disorder Treatment

While relational and psychodynamic work addresses underlying patterns, we also incorporate structured, evidence-based therapies to support behavioral and emotional change.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT helps individuals identify and challenge distorted thoughts about food, body, and self-worth. For example:

• All-or-nothing thinking around eating

• Catastrophic body image interpretations

• Moralizing food choices

CBT provides tools for cognitive flexibility while deeper relational themes are explored.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Many individuals with eating disorders struggle with emotional dysregulation. DBT helps build:

• Distress tolerance

• Emotion regulation skills

• Interpersonal effectiveness

• Mindfulness

For those who binge or purge in response to overwhelming feelings, DBT skills can reduce impulsivity while relational therapy explores the roots of those emotions.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT focuses on values-driven living rather than symptom elimination alone. Individuals learn to:

• Separate from self-critical thoughts

• Tolerate discomfort

• Clarify personal values

• Move toward meaningful action

This approach is especially helpful for midlife women reevaluating identity, purpose, and self-worth.

Harm Reduction Principles

Not every patient is ready for full behavioral abstinence immediately. Harm reduction allows for:

• Gradual behavioral shifts

• Increased safety

• Reduced shame

• Sustained engagement in care

This is particularly important for adults balancing careers, caregiving, and health conditions.

Understanding Eating Disorders in 2026

An examination of modern life shows that women today carry extraordinary responsibilities, with significant labor expenditures that go unrecognized and uncompensated. The invisible labor includes:

• Emotional management of households

• Coordinating children’s schedules

• Caregiving for aging parents

• Career pressures and professional performance

• Relationship maintenance

• Social obligations

• Community responsibilities

Many midlife women describe feeling constantly responsible and rarely supported.

Add to this:

• Menopause or perimenopause

• Body changes

• Sleep disruption

• Cultural messaging about productivity and appearance

The result is chronic stress.

When emotional needs are consistently deprioritized, food and body often become the site of control or self-soothing.

Restriction may feel like reclaiming power.

Binge eating may feel like relief.

Compulsive exercise may feel like the only “me time” one is afforded.

These behaviors are not random. They are relational and cultural responses.

Midlife Women and Eating Disorders

Research increasingly shows that eating disorders are not confined to adolescence. Many women experience:

• First-onset eating disorders in midlife

• Relapse after years of stability

• Intensified body dissatisfaction during peri and post menopause

• Increased emotional eating due to stress

Hormonal shifts affect appetite, mood, and sleep. Weight redistribution can feel distressing in a culture that equates thinness with worth. The prevailing diet culture advice, such as “you just need to eat less and move more,” is woefully insufficient, often harmful, and rarely works, especially in women’s bodies.

Women may feel invisible professionally and in their relationships, while simultaneously being hyper-visible physically. The pressure to remain youthful, competent, and selfless can become overwhelming.

In relational therapy, we explore:

• Where self-sacrifice began

• How identity became tied to productivity

• How anger or resentment is managed

• What boundaries feel unsafe

• How the body has been treated across the lifespan

Recovery for midlife women often involves reclaiming space and autonomy.

Eating Disorders, Weight, and GLP-1 Medications

As specialists in eating, weight & mood disorders, we also support individuals navigating GLP-1 medications.

GLP-1 medications can:

• Change appetite signals

• Reduce binge frequency

• Shift weight

• Alter mood

• Impact body image

For some, medication reduces suffering. For others, it activates new rigidity or perfectionism.

Relational therapy helps explore:

• What weight change represents emotionally

• Whether control is increasing or flexibility is growing

• How self-image shifts with body changes

• Whether shame decreases or relocates

Our approach is inclusive and non-judgmental with the goal of psychological clarity and sustainable health.

Why Depth Work Matters During Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Eating Disorders Awareness Week often focuses on warning signs and early detection. These are essential.

But awareness must also include understanding.

Eating disorders are rarely just about food. They are about:

• Attachment

• Autonomy

• Control

• Shame

• Identity

• Relational trauma

• Cultural pressure

If we treat only the behavior without addressing the relational roots, recovery may remain fragile.

A relational and psychodynamic approach strengthens recovery from the inside out.

The Role of Mood in Eating Disorders

Depression, anxiety, and trauma frequently coexist with eating disorders.

Mood instability can:

• Increase binge frequency

• Intensify restrictive patterns

• Exacerbate body dissatisfaction

• Reduce motivation for self-care

At SpringSource, we treat eating, weight, and mood disorders simultaneously.

This integrated model allows us to:

• Stabilize depression while addressing food behaviors

• Process trauma that underlies control dynamics

• Improve sleep and stress management

• Build relational capacity

Symptom reduction without emotional integration often leads to recurrence. Depth work reduces relapse risk.

What Recovery Looks Like

Recovery is not perfection.

Recovery might mean:

• Eating more consistently

• Reducing binge frequency

• Challenging rigid rules

• Expressing anger directly rather than through food

• Asking for help

• Setting boundaries

• Feeling sadness without numbing

• Living in a body with less hostility

For midlife women, recovery may also mean:

• Redistributing labor

• Saying no

• Allowing rest

• Letting identity expand beyond caretaking

• Reclaiming pleasure

These shifts are relational as much as behavioral.

Eating Disorder Treatment in Chicago & Northbrook with Virtual Care Throughout Illinois

SpringSource: Eating, Weight & Mood Disorders is a clinician-owned practice offering:

• Individual therapy

• Specialized GLP-1 mental health support

• A hybrid Intensive Outpatient Program for adults

• Treatment for binge eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia, and ARFID

• Higher-weight eating disorder treatment

• Therapy for midlife women

• Integrated mood disorder care

We provide in-person care in downtown Chicago and Northbrook, and virtual therapy across Illinois.

A Message for Eating Disorders Awareness Week

If you are struggling with food, body image, or control, especially in midlife, you are not alone, and you are not failing.

You may be carrying too much.

The invisible load is real. The pressure to perform is real. The cultural messaging is relentless.

Eating disorders are not signs of weakness. They are signals.

Signals that something inside needs attention, support, and care.

This Eating Disorders Awareness Week, we invite you to expand your understanding of recovery. It is not only about stopping behaviors. It is about transforming your relationships with: food, your body, others, and yourself.

About SpringSource: Eating, Weight & Mood Disorders

SpringSource specializes in eating disorder treatment in Chicago, Northbrook, and virtually throughout Illinois, with expertise in midlife women, higher-weight individuals, GLP-1 mental health support, and integrated mood disorder care.

We offer free 15-minute consultations to answer questions and help you explore next steps.

Recovery is always within reach.

Call 224-202-6260 to learn more.