Healing Your Relationship with Food, One Meal at a Time

Compassionate, hands-on support that helps you reconnect with eating in a safe, guided environment.

What Is Meal
Support Therapy?

Meal support therapy is a specialized form of nutrition intervention where we literally share meals together, providing real-time guidance, support, and processing during actual eating experiences.

This hands-on approach allows us to address challenges as they arise, helping you work through the complex thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that often surface around food.

Unlike traditional talk focused counseling, meal support occurs during actual eating situations—whether in our comfortable dining spaces or in real-world environments like restaurants (or even shared virtually). This allows us to address the practical, emotional, and behavioral aspects of eating as they naturally occur, creating opportunities for healing and growth that simply can't happen through conversation alone.

Meal support therapy is particularly valuable for individuals recovering from eating disorders, those working through significant food anxieties, or anyone who finds eating in social or public situations overwhelming. We provide a safe, supportive presence that helps normalize eating experiences while building confidence and resilience.

During these shared meals, we work together to challenge negative thoughts, process difficult emotions, practice new behaviors, and celebrate victories—both big and small. The goal is to gradually restore eating as a pleasurable, nourishing, and socially connected experience.

OUR APPROACH TO MEAL SUPPORT THERAPY

Present, Patient, & Deeply Therapeutic

Our meal support approach combines clinical expertise with genuine human connection, creating a therapeutic environment where healing can happen naturally.

We understand that eating disorders and food anxieties often involve deep-seated fears and complicated emotions that require careful, compassionate navigation.

We believe healing happens in relationship and that sharing meals together is one of the most powerful ways to restore positive associations with food. Our approach is collaborative, strength-based, and always focused on your long-term recovery and well-being.

What Our Meal Support Includes:

  • Pre-meal preparation and anxiety management techniques

  • Real-time support during eating experiences

  • Processing thoughts, feelings, and sensations that arise

  • Challenging eating disorder thoughts and behaviors in the moment

  • Practicing new, healthy ways of relating to food

  • Building tolerance for uncomfortable feelings around eating

  • Developing social eating skills and confidence

  • Post-meal processing and integration of the experience

How We Create Safety:

  • We start slowly and progress at your individual pace

  • We respect your comfort level while gently advancing your progress to what you accept as manageable

  • We provide consistent, non-judgmental support throughout the process

  • We help you develop coping strategies for challenging moments

  • We celebrate every step forward, no matter how small

  • We create predictable, supportive experiences that build trust

WHO IS IT FOR

Meal Support Therapy Is Ideal For Those Who:

  • Are recovering from an eating disorder and need hands-on support with meals

  • Experience significant anxiety around eating in front of others

  • Have specific foods or situations that feel overwhelming or triggering

  • Want to work on mechanical eating and hunger/fullness cue recognition

  • Need support challenging eating disorder thoughts in real-time

  • Are working to expand your food repertoire or challenge fear foods

  • Feel isolated or disconnected from normal eating experiences

  • Want to practice eating in social or restaurant environments

  • Need support maintaining structure and accountability around meals

  • Find traditional talk therapy helpful but need more practical, hands-on support

  • Have completed residential treatment and need continued support in real-world settings

  • Are working with a therapy team and need specialized nutrition support

  • Want to address the behavioral and emotional aspects of eating, not just the nutritional ones

  • Need help navigating social eating situations with confidence

  • Are ready to challenge themselves with guided, professional support

How You Will Benefit

✔ Increased Confidence

Build skills and resilience for eating in various situations

✔ Reduced Food Anxiety

Experience eating with less fear, stress, and overwhelming emotions

✔ Real-Time Processing

Work through challenges as they occur, with immediate support

✔ Normalized Eating

Restore eating as a normal, pleasurable part of daily life

✔ Lasting Change

Create new neural pathways and positive associations with food

✔ Practical Skills

Develop concrete strategies for managing difficult eating situations

✔ Social Connection

Practice eating with others in a safe, supportive environment

✔ Recovery Acceleration

Move more quickly through challenging aspects of eating disorder recovery

Frequently Asked Questions

  • We offer meal support in our comfortable dining spaces, community settings like restaurants, cafes, or other real-world eating environments, as well as virtually. We work with you to determine the most appropriate and therapeutic setting for your individual needs and treatment goals.

  • This depends entirely on your treatment goals, dietary needs, and where you are in your recovery process. We might work with familiar foods to build confidence, challenge foods to expand your repertoire, or feared foods as part of eating disorder recovery. Everything is planned collaboratively and proceeds at your pace.

  • Sessions typically last 60-90 minutes to allow time for pre-meal preparation, the eating experience itself, and post-meal processing. The exact length depends on the specific meal, your individual needs, and the complexity of what we're working on together.

  • While meal support is particularly valuable for eating disorder recovery, it's also helpful for anyone experiencing significant food anxiety, social eating challenges, or other complex relationships with food that benefit from hands-on, real-time support.

  • Yes, we share the meal experience with you. This helps normalize eating, provides modeling of healthy food relationships, and creates a more natural, less clinical environment.

  • We're trained to support you through any challenging emotions or experiences that arise during meals. We have strategies for managing anxiety, panic, and other difficult feelings.

  • Meal support therapy is designed to complement and enhance other forms of treatment. We work closely with your therapy team, including therapists, psychiatrists, and physicians, to ensure coordinated, comprehensive care.

  • Coverage varies by insurance plan and provider. We can also discuss our fee structure and payment options during your initial consultation.

Ready to Transform Your Eating Experience?

Eating doesn't have to be scary, stressful, or isolating—it can be nourishing, pleasurable, and connected.