Therapy for Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating
Understanding eating disorders
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that can affect people of any age, gender, or background.
The three most common types are:
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Bulimia Nervosa
- Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
- ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)
- Orthorexia
Eating disorders can affect people in many different ways, including both emotional and physical challenges.With the right support, healing is possible.
Many people find meaningful progress with therapy that is tailored to their needs and that is grounded in experience with treating disordered eating patterns.
What are the signs of disordered eating?
Preoccupation with food, weight, or body image
Spending a lot of time thinking about meals, body shape, or appearance.
Restricting certain foods or entire food group
Avoiding specific foods or categories, often linked to guilt or control.
Skipping meals or eating only small portions
Limiting food intake or setting strict rules around when or how much to eat.
Feeling uncomfortable eating around others
Preferring to eat alone or feeling anxious during shared meals.
Withdrawal from social activities or supports
Pulling back from friends, family, or hobbies that once felt enjoyable.
Noticeable mood swings
Experiencing shifts in emotions such as irritability, sadness, or tension.
Frequent checking for perceived flaws in appearance
Spending time examining or criticizing parts of your body or reflection.
Significant changes in weight – up or down
Observing rapid or noticeable changes in weight, unrelated to health goals.
Types of eating disorders
This is one of the most common eating disorders in Canada. BED often involves eating more than you typically would in a short period of time and feeling a loss of control during those moments. It can feel like your relationship with food becomes harder to manage, especially in times of stress or emotional overwhelm.
Therapy can help you build a more peaceful connection with food and can help you build tools to navigate emotional moments with care and understanding.
Anorexia Nervosa can involve restricting food intake along with intense concerns about body weight or shape. For many people, it's linked with deeper emotional stress, perfectionism, or wanting to feel more in control when life feels overwhelming.
With the right support and with a trained eating disorder therapist, healing and recovery are possible.
Bulimia can involve cycles of eating and compensatory behaviours, often accompanied by difficult feelings about food and self-image. It's commonly linked with stress, perfectionism, or wanting to feel more in control.
Therapy provides a safe space to understand these patterns, to strengthen self-compassion, and to develop new ways of coping that support both emotional and physical well-being.
ARFID involves selective eating including avoiding foods or eating very little. Often driven by sensory sensitivities, low interest in food, or fear of aversive consequences such as choking, vomiting or illness. It is not primarily driven by body image concerns.
Therapy provides a safe space to understand these patterns, to strengthen self-compassion, and to develop new ways of coping that support both emotional and physical well-being.
Orthorexia is a pattern which involves a preoccupation with clean or healthy eating which becomes rigid and takes control over your behaviours and/or thoughts. It is a fixation on rigid food choices rather than quantity of meals/snacks or on body image.
Therapy can help you understand what drives these patterns, and can help you rebuild trust with yourself and flexibility around your choices.
How Layla makes it easier
Complete our brief intake form and connect with a care coordinator who will support with finding the best therapist match for you.
Therapy through Layla may be eligible for reimbursement under your health or workplace benefits plan. Please explore our FAQs if you have questions.
Take the first step
You’ll be connected to a Layla Care Coordinator who will help match you with the right therapists.
Still have questions?
Discover a library of expert-informed articles designed to educate and inspire.
Download free guides, webinars, tools, and other mental health resources
Have a question? Reach us directly by email info@layla.care or phone through phone: 647-374-4210
Frequently asked questions
Layla's therapists use a range of evidence-based approaches, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), internal family systems (IFS), somatic therapy approaches, mindfulness-based, trauma-focused, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), psychodynamic approaches and emotion-focused therapy (EFT). The approach used is tailored to each person's needs and you don’t need to know how these work before starting, your therapist can help explain and guide you to the approach that’s right for you.
Our therapists operate out of their own location, provide sessions in-person, online, or by phone.
Today, our therapists are located in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia
We are across many cities, including: Toronto, Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ajax, Barrie, Beamsville, Brampton, Burlington, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, Markham, Milton, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara Falls, North York, Oakville, Orangeville, Oshawa, Ottawa, Petawawa, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Scarborough, St. Catherines, Thornhill, Vaughan, Whitby, and Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, Sherwood Park, Kelowna, Vancouver, Victoria, Halifax and many more.
We are continuously building out our community.
At Layla we do not offer direct billing yet. If you are planning to use health benefits, our network of therapists includes Registered Social Workers (RSW), Registered Psychotherapists (RP) and Registered Psychologists (C.Psych), Psychological Associates (C.Psych.Assoc.), Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCC), and Registered Counselling Therapists (RCT) in select regions. When looking at your benefits package, we advise that you check to see if you are covered for any of those providers.
View our guide to finding a therapist covered by your health benefits.
Learn more in our Guide to Canadian Mental Health Care Providers.
View our detailed breakdown of student mental health coverage by universities and colleges across Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.
Please reach out to info@layla.care for help figuring out your benefits coverage.
Individual and Couples Therapy sessions are typically 50 minutes long. In some cases, your first session with the therapist will be a little longer.
Therapy can range from short-term to longer term depending on the client’s case and their goals. This can be discussed with your therapist, and the two of you can always collaboratively assess your timeline and progression.
Ultimately, you decide which therapist you want to proceed with based on your care coordinator's recommendations that are informed by the details you provide in your intake form and in your matching call. If you don't feel like the options suggested match what you are looking for, your care coordinator will be happy to discuss other options.
Several of our therapists offer sessions on weekends, and you can let us know of that preference when you sign up and we will do our best to accommodate.
Layla takes your privacy and the security of your information seriously. Electronic personal information shared with Layla is stored in a secure and encrypted way. Video sessions are not recorded. You can learn more about our privacy practices here.
Layla's support for therapist matching extends to re-matching when needed. Simply let us know what wasn’t quite working and we will match you with a therapist who better aligns with what you're looking for. We are also very interested in client feedback after instances such as these. Feedback will help us improve our matching process for future clients.
No, you don’t need a formal referral or diagnosis from another provider to access our therapy services. Fill out our intake form to book a call with a care coordinator who will discuss how we can assist you with your unique challenges and/or goals.