Compassionate Eating Disorder Recovery Support
Expert nutrition therapy to help you rebuild a peaceful, trusting relationship with food and your body.
RECOGNITION AND VALIDATION
Does this experience sound familiar?
Food may feel like a constant battle both in your head and at the table. Rigid rules, a compulsion to restrict intake or avoid pleasurable foods, worry and preoccupation about what and when to eat and how the food will impact your weight or appearance, the pressure to compensate for food eaten by engaging in obligatory exercise, or a belief that being in the smallest possible body is the path to happiness. When thoughts like these are present, they rob you not only of health, but of a life well lived.
You do not need a formal diagnosis to know that you no longer want to adhere to nutrition recommendations that convince you that your self-worth is earned by shrinking.
You may have spent years trying to adhere to weight-focused advice that left you more exhausted than well.
You might only know that eating does not feel like trust and that’s enough to begin this work.
Scope, plainly
What is Eating Disorder Treatment?
Eating disorders encompass a range of complex conditions, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, ARFID, and other specified and unspecified feeding or eating disorders.
These conditions involve disrupted eating patterns, distorted thoughts about food and body image, and behaviors that interfere with physical health and daily functioning. Recovery requires specialized care that addresses both the psychological and nutritional aspects of healing.
How we help
Support that meets you where you are
Assessment and plan
Your recovery journey begins with a thorough assessment of your medical nutrition history, relationship with food, eating patterns, and current nutritional status. We work collaboratively to create a personalized and holistic nutrition plan that supports both physical restoration and psychological healing.
Practical strategies
Counseling is focused on building insight and shifting mindset. Sessions may include meal planning guidance, challenging food fears, meal support or exposure work, processing difficult emotions around eating, and developing practical skills for real-world situations.
Supported Meals
Supported eating with one of our registered dietitians or recovery coaches, when meeting nutrition needs is a challenge or the ability to eat in varied contexts is difficult. Virtually or in person meal support allows for real time skill building and processing that furthers disordered eating recovery and aids in diet expansion.
Collaborative Multidisciplinary Care
We coordinate closely with your therapeutic and medical team to ensure comprehensive care.
Our approach to eating disorder treatment
How we work
We believe recovery is possible for everyone and that every human body has value.
Our non-diet, Health at Every Size approach focuses on healing your relationship with food rather than exclusively and artificially controlling weight. We understand that eating disorders serve a purpose, and we work with compassion to help you build insight into the function of your behaviors and to find healthier coping strategies.
Through wise eating plans, supported exposures, and purposeful nutrition education and counseling, we guide you toward food freedom and body trust.
Goals of eating disorder treatment:
- Normalize eating patterns and restore nutritional health
- Develop a peaceful, intuitive relationship with food
- Challenge distorted thoughts about food, weight, and body image
- Build confidence in social eating situations
- Establish sustainable, joyful eating habits
- Support long-term recovery and prevent relapse
- Create connection to the body through joyful movement
Who you will work with
Appleman Nutrition is founded and directed by Rebecca Appleman, RD. Nutrition was her second career. She trained in New York City, worked as the primary dietitian alongside talented therapists in eating-disorder day treatment and intensive outpatient programs, spent years providing outpatient nutrition counseling to eating disordered clients, then established her own private practice, and co-founded Columbus Park Collaborative (now Columbus Park), an eating disorder treatment center in New York City along the way.
Appleman Nutrition is a team of registered dietitians, with a highly curated skill set; not a “treats everything” mill. Our practice uses a tiered system of supervision, so we are pooling our expertise and experience for each client and care is never one person improvising alone.
Our clinicians are introduced on our team page, which details each dietitian’s clinical focus.
What to expect
How a first conversation works
Rebecca personally speaks with each new client to carefully guide best next steps and scheduling.
Connect with Rebecca & Schedule
You and Rebecca will discuss what is on your mind related to food and body, and Rebecca will determine the dietitian on our team best suited to guide you in meeting your needs. Appointment options are provided and fees are explained.
Begin Care
You have your full Nutrition Consultation, virtually or in person. This is the visit that creates a foundation for your work with us. Follow-up sessions are scheduled as indicated and in coordination with you.
How payment works
We are a private-pay practice. Clients are billed monthly, during the first week of the month, for all services provided during the previous month. We do not bill insurance or submit claims for you, however, we provide a detailed receipt (superbill) with procedure and diagnostic coding so you can seek reimbursement on your own if your plan has out-of-network nutrition benefits. Fees are discussed on the discovery call and a fee schedule is also included in our paperwork in your client portal.
Questions we can answer now
Frequently Asked Questions
Will you make me gain weight?
Our focus is on nutritional rehabilitation and helping your body find its natural, healthy weight. We don’t “make” anyone gain or lose weight. We support your body’s healing process.
Do you provide meal plans?
Sometimes. Treatment for clients with eating disorders is delicate and intricately nuanced. For certain clients, a structured and detailed meal pattern guiding daily food intake is absolutely necessary; for others, it may not be. And often the need for a meal plan, as well as the type of meal plan, shifts as treatment progresses. The depth of our consultation process helps us to determine your immediate needs for meal planning and we bend with you and recreate meal structures to meet your evolving needs throughout your recovery.
How long does recovery take?
Recovery is highly individual. Some clients work with us for several months, while others benefit from longer-term support. We meet you where you are and adjust our approach as needed.
Will you work with my therapist and doctor?
Absolutely. Collaborative care is essential for eating disorder recovery. We regularly communicate with your treatment team with your consent.
Do you provide family-based nutrition support?
Yes, we offer family-based nutrition strategies when clinically indicated, particularly for children and younger adolescents in recovery. This approach involves supporting parents and caregivers to guide structured refeeding and meal supervision during critical phases of treatment. We provide families with the tools, education, and ongoing support needed to create a safe, therapeutic eating environment at home while working toward the client’s treatment goals.
Related
Related concerns
Those struggling with any degree of disordered eating often also struggle with both weight and digestive concerns. If that’s you, you can read about how we address those concerns here.
If you are in immediate danger
Appleman Nutrition provides nutrition therapy. We are not an emergency room or a crisis clinic. If you are in immediate danger, please seek emergency medical care.
Ready to talk
You Deserve Food Freedom
Take the first step toward healing your relationship with food and reclaiming your life.
Insight from the practice
Occasional information and updates on nutrition and wellness from the Appleman Nutrition team.
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