Eating Disorders & Self-Injury · Ages 5 and up
These struggles are rarely about food or the behavior itself. Recovery is possible.
Eating disorders and self-injury are often ways of coping with pain that can feel impossible to put into words. Recovery is possible, and compassionate help makes a real difference.
What it looks like
What these struggles can look like
These concerns take many forms, and we approach every one of them without judgment. Often they show up as some mix of the following.
- A difficult or painful relationship with eating
- Deep distress around body image
- Behaviors that feel secret or hard to name
- Self-injury as a way to cope with overwhelming feelings
- Underlying anxiety, depression, or trauma
- Feeling that the behavior is a way to manage inner pain
Compassionate, person-centered care focused on recovery
We provide therapy for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and disordered eating and body-image concerns, as well as self-injury. These conditions can be serious, and we approach them without judgment and with genuine care.
Our clinicians use evidence-based approaches to help patients understand the function of these behaviors, build healthier coping skills, and address the anxiety, depression, or trauma that so often underlie them. When a higher level of care or a medical or nutritional provider is needed, we help coordinate it.
Eating disorders frequently begin in adolescence. We treat teens and adults, involving families where it's helpful.
Our approach
How eating disorder treatment works at LodeStone
A whole-picture, coordinated path, not a one-size-fits-all plan.
Understand the whole picture
We start without judgment, learning what these behaviors do for you and what pain they may be helping you cope with.
Build healthier coping and address the roots
Using evidence-based approaches, we help you develop healthier coping skills and address the anxiety, depression, or trauma that often underlie these struggles.
Coordinate the care
When a higher level of care or a medical or nutritional provider is needed, we help coordinate it, and we involve families where it's helpful.
Not sure where to start? Get answers and we will match you with the right clinician.
We provide this care in person at our Hinsdale and Woodstock offices, and by telehealth across Illinois. We are in-network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice, Aetna, Medicare, and United Behavioral Health, and we verify your benefits before your first visit.
A closer look
Understanding eating disorders and self-injury, without judgment
From the outside, these behaviors look like the problem. From the inside, they're usually a solution that's gone dangerous: a way to manage pain, chaos, or numbness that has no other outlet. That's why willpower lectures don't help and shame makes things worse. Effective treatment starts by understanding what the behavior does for you, then builds something safer that can do that job instead.
When to reach out
When symptoms begin to interfere with health, relationships, or life goals, therapy can help. If food, weight, or body image is crowding out schoolwork, friendships, or peace of mind, if rituals and secrecy are growing, or if self-injury has become the way overwhelming feelings get handled, that's enough. Earlier support means easier recovery, and no one here will question whether you qualify.
How care comes together
Therapy works on the function of the behavior and on the anxiety, depression, or trauma underneath it. Because eating disorders can affect the body, we coordinate with medical and nutrition providers when needed, and we can facilitate a higher level of care when it's beneficial. Our whole-person approach often involves family members for ongoing support.
Your first steps
What to expect when you start
Reaching out about something this private takes courage. Here's exactly what you're walking into.
Before your first visit
Start with the get-answers form or a phone call; you don't need to name specifics before you're ready. We'll match you with the right clinician and verify your insurance benefits before your first visit.
Your first session
A private, judgment-free conversation that moves at your pace. Your clinician has heard all of it before, and nothing you're not ready to say will be forced. Together you'll agree on what safety and progress look like.
The ongoing work
Building coping skills that genuinely replace the behavior, treating what's underneath, and coordinating with medical or nutrition providers when needed, with family included where it helps.
Good to know
Eating disorder and self-injury care: frequently asked questions
Do I have to be at a dangerous weight to deserve help?+
No, and this belief keeps too many people suffering too long. Eating disorders occur at every body size, and severity is measured in how much of your life the struggle is consuming, not in any number. If it's taking up room in your head, you qualify.
Will you make me give up the behavior immediately?+
Safety comes first, always, but lasting change is built, not demanded. We work on understanding what the behavior does for you and putting real skills in its place, so letting go becomes possible rather than terrifying. Honesty about setbacks is welcome here, not punished.
My teen is struggling. How involved will I be?+
Involved, and on the same team as your child. With adolescents, family involvement measurably helps recovery, so you'll get guidance on meals, monitoring, and what to say and not say, while your teen keeps the private space therapy requires.
Will my insurance cover treatment?+
We are in-network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice, Aetna, Medicare, and United Behavioral Health, and we verify your benefits before your first visit so you know exactly what to expect.
Is outpatient therapy enough, or will I need more?+
For many people, outpatient work is the right level; for some, a period of more intensive or medically supervised care is the safer path, and we'll tell you honestly which we're seeing. When a higher level of care is needed, we help coordinate it and we're here when you step back down.