DR MARIANNE MILLER
CARING EATING DISORDER TREATMENT IN SAN DIEGO AND THROUGHOUT CALIFORNIA, TEXAS, AND WASHINGTON D.C. FOR ADULTS & TEENS
Breaking Free from Body Image Pressure: 5 Steps for Self-Love and Empowerment
If you struggle with binge eating and bulimia in California, Florida, Colorado, London, or anywhere else in the world, you’re likely grappling with body image pressure. The drive to have a certain body type is so strong, you can’t escape it. The fact is, you deserve to live a life filled with self-love and empowerment. Body image pressure takes away your power because it gets you to focus on changing your body instead of killing it in other ways of your life. It truly hijacks your brain. So let’s focus on five steps to cultivate self-love and empowerment so that you can life a life free from body image pressure.
A Mini-Guide to Practicing Self-Love in Binge Eating Treatment and Recovery
My word of the year is love. Yes, yes I got this idea from Lizzo’s album Special and from Sonya Renee Taylor’s book, The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love. After listening to the album hundreds of times and reading the book over and over again as I treated eating disorders in San Diego and coached recovering from binge eating in cities like London, Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, I figured it out. I linked the power of self-love to the binge eating recovery process. In order to help yourself recover from binge eating, You have to learn to love yourself. It may sound hard. It may even feel impossible. I’m here to give you hope that self-love is not only possible, it’s inevitable when you get the right binge eating help.
Six Ways to Stare Down Shame in Eating Disorder Recovery
Feel like shame sometimes hijacks your brain and leaves you wounded and broken, laying bleeding on the sidewalk? You’re not alone. Most people grapple with shame in eating disorder recovery. Whether it’s shame about your body, shame about your eating disorder behaviors, shame about your thoughts, or even deep, dark shame that you even exist—shame can be so pervasive and paralyzing. It can be especially hard in San Diego, where the “beautiful life” exists all around you and you feel even more shame because you feel as though you’re not a part of it. Whether you live in San Diego or elsewhere, I want to let you know that it IS possible to overcome shame in your eating disorder recovery. I’ve outlined six strategies to stare down shame, borrowing some from Dr. Brené Brown, who is a shame, courage, and vulnerability researcher.
Four Tips to Navigating Triggering Family Situations in Eating Disorder Recovery
Do you ever struggle with all of the focus on “family” and “togetherness” this time of year? Does it seem as though you can barely get through family events without feeling like you want to run out of the room screaming? Holidays can be such a challenge if you have an eating disorder. A lot of family-focused activities center around food, which can trigger a lot of anxiety and other uncomfortable emotions. It is hard when parents, spouses, grandparents, great-aunt Petunias, or whoever comment about your body and what you are (or aren’t) eating. Especially in San Diego, when in December you can be wearing tank tops, shorts, or a skirt as you take family trips to the beach. It can feel as though your body and how you eat is on display. It may seem that loved ones have free reign to comment on it. It really, really sucks. As an eating disorder therapist, I love helping people navigate family situations that can be tricky and triggering, so I’m here to help you get started.
Tapping into Mindfulness: Part 5 of Finding the Spiritual in Eating Disorder Treatment—A 5-Part Series
Has your soul ever ached? Is it difficult to reconcile living in such a beautiful place as San Diego and feeling such pain? Have you ever felt so far away from God that it hurt? Have you ever questioned your belief in God, or in any sort of higher power? Have you ever wondered how God can exist if there is such pain in the world? Have you felt angry with God? Have you ever felt hurt, shamed, disappointed, or discriminated by spiritual leaders? Many of these emotions and experiences can lead to spiritual pain. Spiritual pain is a soul-deep ache that is beyond depression or grief. Spiritual pain is an existential crisis in which the deepest parts of ourselves are crying out, “Is there a God or higher power out there?” “If so, how could this God or higher power let such pain and suffering happen?”
Diving Deeper into Spiritual Healing: Part 4 of Finding the Spiritual in Eating Disorder Treatment—A 5-Part Series
Sometimes when you feel overwhelmed by your spiritual pain, you can think that there is no hope. It is at these times when you need to dive deep into your pain to let yourself experience spiritual healing. If you struggle with disordered eating, you know how painful it can be . . . emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually. Becoming acutely aware of all aspects of your pain as you go about your daily life in San Diego lets you open yourself to healing. It’s like when you have an infection in your arm—you need to open it up and clean out all of the gunk and then put the medicine on it so it can heal. Spirituality can be your medicine—the balm for your soul.
Starting Your Journey to Spiritual Healing: Part 3 of Finding the Spiritual in Eating Disorder Treatment—A 5-Part Series
You’ve recognized that you’ve got some spiritual pain. Congratulate yourself for the awareness—it’s a hard thing to acknowledge. You may be thinking, is spiritual healing even possible. Do I even want it? I feel so far away from God or my higher power in my life in San Diego that it just seems like too big of a gulf to bridge. I understand that it can feel overwhelming. I want to encourage you that all you have to do is take the first, small step. Sometimes you have to walk before you run, and sometimes you have to tiptoe before you walk. Let’ go ahead and stick that foot out there and start the journey.
Dealing with Spiritual Pain: Part 2 of Finding the Spiritual in Eating Disorder Treatment—A 5-Part Series
Has your soul ever ached? Is it difficult to reconcile living in such a beautiful place as San Diego and feeling such pain? Have you ever felt so far away from God that it hurt? Have you ever questioned your belief in God, or in any sort of higher power? Have you ever wondered how God can exist if there is such pain in the world? Have you felt angry with God? Have you ever felt hurt, shamed, disappointed, or discriminated by spiritual leaders? Many of these emotions and experiences can lead to spiritual pain. Spiritual pain is a soul-deep ache that is beyond depression or grief. Spiritual pain is an existential crisis in which the deepest parts of ourselves are crying out, “Is there a God or higher power out there?” “If so, how could this God or higher power let such pain and suffering happen?”
Filling Your Spiritual Cup: Part 1 in a 5-Part Series on Finding the Spiritual in Eating Disorder Treatment
What brings you peace in your life in San Diego? When do you feel most connected to the world around you—to other people, to animals, to nature? When do you feel a sense of well-being? These are some of the questions I might ask my clients when getting them to focus on what feeds them spiritually in San Diego. In eating disorder recovery, so much of the focus can be on food and our bodies, but what often is a missing piece in treatment is nourishing our souls.