Eating Disorder Treatment in Bergen County, NJ |Anorexia, Bulimia, BED & ARFID

Compassionate, Evidence-Based Eating Disorder Therapy Serving Englewood, Tenafly, Alpine, Englewood Cliffs, Ridgewood, Teaneck, Fort Lee & All of Bergen County | In-Person in Englewood, NJ | Virtual Therapy Across New Jersey

Eating disorders are among the most misunderstood, most underdiagnosed, and most dangerous mental health conditions that exist. They do not look the way most people expect them to look. They do not announce themselves. They do not arrive wearing a single face.

The person with an eating disorder might be sitting across from you at a school fundraiser in Ridgewood. They might be picking up their children from Tenafly Elementary. They might be at the gym in Alpine at 6am, again, or quietly skipping dinner again, or excusing themselves from the restaurant table in Englewood Cliffs and not coming back for a while. They might be someone whose body looks completely fine to everyone around them, because eating disorders do not live in a body type. They live in a relationship with food, with the body, and with the self that has become organized around fear, control, shame, and survival.

If any part of that sounds familiar, this page was written for you. Or for the person you love and are quietly terrified about.

At Clear Light Therapy, we provide specialized, compassionate, evidence-based treatment for eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and ARFID, for teens and adults throughout Bergen County and across New Jersey. We use a HAES-informed framework, which means we reject the idea that health is determined by body size, and we approach every client with the radical belief that their body deserves care regardless of what it looks like or what the scale says. Our treatment draws on CBT-E, DBT, and ACT, the most rigorously researched approaches available for eating disorder recovery. And we understand, deeply, that eating disorders rarely travel alone.

Eating Disorders Are Not About Food

This is the first thing we want every person who reaches out to understand. An eating disorder is not, at its core, about food. It is about everything food has come to represent: control in a life that feels out of control. Safety in a body that feels unsafe. Worth that has been tied to thinness, smallness, or discipline. A way of managing emotions that became a trap. A coping mechanism that worked until it started taking more than it gave.

Eating disorders affect up to 5% of the population, and most often develop in adolescence and young adulthood, though they affect people of all genders, ages, body sizes, and backgrounds. They are not a phase. They are not vanity. They are not something a person can simply decide to stop. They are serious medical and psychiatric conditions with the highest mortality rate of any mental health diagnosis, and they require specialized treatment from clinicians who genuinely understand them.

In communities like Tenafly, Alpine, Ridgewood, and Englewood Cliffs, the pressure around food and bodies can be particularly acute. Diet culture is everywhere. The social media feeds. The conversations at school pickup. The wellness culture that frames restriction as health and thinness as virtue. For someone who is already vulnerable to disordered eating, that cultural environment is not neutral. It is activating, and it can push a struggling person much further than anyone around them realizes.

Anorexia Nervosa: When Restriction Becomes a Way of Living

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by intense fear of weight gain, severe restriction of food intake, and a distorted relationship with body image, where a person sees themselves as larger than they are and evaluates their worth heavily through the lens of weight, shape, and the control they exert over both. It is one of the most medically serious psychiatric conditions in existence, and it is also one that people around the affected person often do not recognize until things have become very serious.

In Bergen County communities, we frequently see anorexia in high-achieving adolescents and adults who are praised for their discipline and willpower right up until the point where the restriction has gone so far that the praise stops making sense. We see it in people who have been dieting since childhood. We see it in athletes, dancers, perfectionists, people who are used to earning approval through effort and performance and who have turned that same relentless standard on their bodies.

Anorexia is not something that resolves with more nutritional information. It requires comprehensive treatment that addresses the psychological drivers of restriction: the distorted thinking about weight and shape, the deep anxiety about losing control, the identity that has become built around thinness, and the emotional experiences that food restriction has been managing. At Clear Light Therapy, we treat anorexia using CBT-E, which was specifically designed for eating disorders and directly targets the overvaluation of weight and shape that sits at the core of anorexia's maintenance. We also work collaboratively with dietitians and medical providers when needed, because recovery from anorexia requires a team.

Bulimia Nervosa: The Cycle Nobody Talks About

Bulimia nervosa is characterized by recurrent cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors, most commonly self-induced purging, but also excessive exercise, laxative use, or extreme

restriction. People with bulimia are excessively preoccupied with thoughts of food, weight, and shape, and their self-worth is tied to these in ways that feel inescapable.

Bulimia is one of the most secretive eating disorders. Most people living with it are doing so entirely alone, often for years, sometimes decades, before they tell anyone. The shame is enormous. The binges feel out of control and disgusting. The purging feels like a fix and a punishment simultaneously. The cycle is exhausting and relentless, and every attempt to stop it through willpower tends to make the next binge worse.

What most people with bulimia do not know is that the binge purge cycle is not a moral failure. It is a physiological and psychological loop. The restriction that typically precedes binges creates physical and neurological conditions that make binge eating almost inevitable. The purge provides temporary relief from both the physical discomfort and the emotional shame. And then the guilt of the purge drives more restriction, which sets up the next binge. This is a cycle that willpower cannot break. Treatment can.

CBT-E is the prevailing treatment approach for adult eating disorders including bulimia nervosa, and rather than focusing on a specific diagnosis, treatment focuses on the problematic beliefs related to weight, shape, and eating that maintain the eating disorder. At Clear Light Therapy, we use CBT-E to interrupt the binge purge cycle at its cognitive and behavioral roots, and we integrate DBT skills to help clients develop healthier ways of managing the emotional states that trigger episodes.

Binge Eating Disorder: When Food Has Become the Only Relief

Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States, and also one of the most stigmatized. People with BED experience recurrent episodes of eating large amounts of food in a short period of time, accompanied by a profound sense of loss of control, and followed by intense shame, guilt, and distress. Unlike bulimia, binge eating disorder does not involve regular compensatory behaviors. The binge is not followed by purging. It is followed by silence, secrecy, and a kind of despair that is very hard to describe to someone who has not experienced it.

BED is not about being greedy or lacking self-discipline. It is a psychiatric disorder driven by emotional dysregulation, chronic dietary restriction, shame, and a relationship with food that has become the primary strategy for coping with difficult internal states. Stress. Loneliness. Anxiety. Emptiness. Boredom. The binge provides relief, briefly, and then takes everything it gave and more.

The research on BED treatment is clear: current guidelines recommend CBT as the treatment of choice for binge eating disorder, and DBT adapted for BED shows similarly strong results for clients who struggle primarily with emotional eating and emotion dysregulation. At Clear Light Therapy, treatment for BED focuses on normalizing eating patterns, addressing the emotional triggers that drive episodes, building genuine distress tolerance, and developing a relationship with food and the body that is not organized around shame.

We approach BED treatment within a HAES-informed framework. This means we do not make weight loss the goal of treatment. We make wellbeing the goal. We work to break the restrict-binge cycle rather than add another layer of restriction to it. For many clients, this is the first time a clinician has treated them without leading with their weight, and the difference it makes in therapeutic trust and engagement is profound.

ARFID: When Eating Feels Dangerous or Impossible

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder is a feeding and eating disorder that is often misunderstood, particularly in adults. ARFID is characterized by a persistent pattern of avoiding or restricting food intake, but crucially, the avoidance is not driven by fears about weight or body image. It is driven by something else: extreme sensory sensitivity to the texture, smell, color, or temperature of food; intense fear of choking, vomiting, or an adverse physical reaction; or a profound lack of interest in eating that goes far beyond picky eating.

People with ARFID do not have excessive concerns about their body weight or shape, and the impact on physical and mental health and the degree of malnutrition can be similar to the impact of anorexia nervosa. In children, ARFID can impair growth and development. In adults, it can impair nutrition, social functioning, and quality of life in ways that are deeply limiting. The person who cannot attend a dinner party because there will be nothing they can eat. The professional who struggles to get through a business lunch. The parent who cannot eat with their own family.

ARFID is highly treatable with the right approach. At Clear Light Therapy, we use cognitive behavioral and exposure-based techniques to gradually expand food repertoire and address the specific fears and sensory sensitivities driving restriction. We work compassionately, at a pace that respects the nervous system, without forcing or shaming. We also work to distinguish ARFID from other presentations and to address any co-occurring anxiety that is contributing to food avoidance.

Diet Culture, HAES, and Why We Do Not Treat Bodies as Problems to Fix

If you have spent years in communities where diet culture is the air everyone breathes, it can be difficult to see clearly how much damage it does. Diet culture is the belief system that assigns moral value to thinness, that treats certain foods as good and others as bad, that frames restriction as virtue and appetite as weakness, and that insists that every body should look more or less the same regardless of genetics, history, or individual variation.

Diet culture is not neutral. For people who are vulnerable to eating disorders, it is actively dangerous. It provides the ideology that eating disorders require to take hold and grow. The belief that thinner is healthier, that hunger should be controlled, that your body's signals cannot be trusted. These are the exact beliefs that eating disorders exploit.

At Clear Light Therapy, we practice within a HAES-informed framework. Health at Every Size is not a claim that every person is in perfect health at any weight. It is a framework that decouples weight from worth, that prioritizes sustainable, non-punitive approaches to wellbeing over weight-focused ones, and that treats every person's body with respect regardless of size. In practice, this means we do not set weight-related goals in treatment. We do not use language that pathologizes bodies. We work to help clients develop a relationship with food and their body that is guided by care and curiosity rather than fear and control.

This is not just a philosophical stance. It is a clinical one. Shame is one of the most powerful drivers of eating disorder behavior. A treatment environment that reinforces shame, even subtly, through weight-focused language or assumptions about what bodies should look like, is working against recovery from the inside.

The Connection Between Eating Disorders and Anxiety, OCD, and Depression

One of the most important things we want people in Bergen County to know is this: eating disorders rarely travel alone.

Research consistently shows that the majority of people with eating disorders have at least one co-occurring psychiatric condition. Anxiety disorders are among the most common, including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, and OCD. Depression is also extremely common, as are perfectionism, obsessional thinking, and trauma histories that have never been fully addressed.

This matters enormously for treatment. A person with anorexia who also has OCD will experience treatment differently than someone without OCD. The rigid, rule-based thinking of OCD can look like and interact with the rigidity of eating disorder cognitions in ways that require specialized clinical attention. A person with bulimia who has been managing severe anxiety through restriction and purging needs treatment that addresses the underlying anxiety, not just the eating disorder behaviors in isolation.

At Clear Light Therapy, we are equipped to treat this complexity. Our specialization in both eating disorders and anxiety disorders means we see the intersections clearly. We do not treat the eating disorder and leave the anxiety untouched. We do not address the anxiety without understanding how it is maintaining the eating disorder. We build treatment plans that hold the whole person, not just the presenting diagnosis.

This is one of the most important things that sets our practice apart from general eating disorder programs that do not have deep expertise in co-occurring OCD and anxiety.

How We Treat Eating Disorders at Clear Light Therapy

Our treatment approach integrates three evidence-based frameworks, applied according to each client's specific presentation and needs.

CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders)

CBT-E is a form of CBT especially designed for eating problems and disorders. It differs from standard CBT because it is based on and aims to address psychological and behavioral mechanisms specific to eating disorders. It is transdiagnostic, meaning it works across different eating disorder presentations rather than being built around a single diagnosis. CBT-E targets the overvaluation of weight and shape that sits at the core of most eating disorder maintenance, the dietary rules and restriction that fuel the cycle, the body checking and avoidance behaviors that reinforce distorted thinking, and the low self-esteem and perfectionism that make recovery harder. It is structured, individualized, and focused on building lasting change rather than short-term symptom reduction.

DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

DBT focuses on mindfulness, interpersonal relationships, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation. It is especially helpful for those who feel emotions very intensely. For clients with eating disorders, DBT addresses the emotional dysregulation that drives so much of the disordered behavior. The binge that follows a fight with a partner. The restriction that escalates when anxiety becomes unbearable. The purge that provides the only available relief from overwhelming shame. DBT builds a genuine toolkit for managing those emotional states differently, replacing eating disorder behaviors with skills that actually work without the devastating costs.

The four core DBT skill modules we draw on are mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Each of these addresses a different dimension of the emotional experience that eating disorders exploit. Together, they provide a comprehensive foundation for building a life that does not require an eating disorder to feel manageable.

ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

ACT helps clients develop a different relationship with the difficult thoughts, feelings, and bodily experiences that show up in eating disorder recovery. Instead of fighting the urge to restrict or binge, ACT works to help clients defuse from those urges, make room for the discomfort of recovery, and take actions that move toward the life they want rather than the life the eating disorder has designed for them. It is especially valuable for clients who are exhausted from the effort of trying to control their internal experience, and who need permission to approach recovery with more flexibility and self-compassion than they have been allowing themselves.

Recovery Is Possible. You Do Not Have to Be in Crisis to Deserve Help.

One of the greatest barriers to eating disorder treatment is the belief that things are not bad enough yet to warrant it. That the eating disorder has to be visible, or medically serious, or at its worst before reaching out is acceptable. This belief costs people years.

Eating disorders exist on a spectrum. Disordered eating that does not meet full diagnostic criteria still causes suffering and still responds to treatment. A person who has been restricting since high school and is now in their 30s has been living with an eating disorder for fifteen years, even if they have never been hospitalized, never lost enough weight to alarm a doctor, and never told anyone. That history matters. That suffering is real. And treatment can help.

At Clear Light Therapy, we work with clients at all stages of their relationship with food and their body. We do not require a formal diagnosis to work with someone. We require that the relationship with food is causing distress and interfering with life, and that the person is ready to begin exploring something different.

Recovery is not linear. It is not the absence of difficult days. It is the gradual, real, sometimes hard-won process of building a different relationship with food, with your body, and with yourself. We have seen it happen for people who had given up on it ever happening. We believe it is possible for you.

Serving Families Across Bergen County and Beyond

Clear Light Therapy is an out-of-network practice, which gives us the clinical freedom to provide genuinely specialized care without the constraints of managed care. Many clients with PPO plans are able to seek out-of-network reimbursement, and we provide detailed superbills for this purpose. We are transparent about fees from the very first conversation.

We offer in-person sessions at our Englewood office and virtual therapy throughout all of New Jersey.

Bergen County towns we serve: Englewood, Tenafly, Alpine, Englewood Cliffs, Ridgewood, Teaneck, Fort Lee, Hackensack, Cresskill, Demarest, Closter, Bergenfield, Dumont, Paramus, Mahwah, Ramsey, Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River, Wyckoff, Glen Rock, Fair Lawn, Oradell, River Edge, New Milford, Leonia, Edgewater, River Vale, Westwood, Park Ridge, Woodcliff Lake, Hillsdale, Waldwick, Midland Park, Norwood, Harrington Park, Haworth, Northvale, Rockleigh

Monmouth County towns we serve virtually: Rumson, Red Bank, Holmdel, Colts Neck, Fair Haven, Little Silver, Middletown, Shrewsbury, Tinton Falls, Freehold, Marlboro

And throughout all of New Jersey, including Hudson County, Essex County, Morris County, Somerset County, and Union County.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if what I am experiencing is an eating disorder or just disordered eating?

Both cause real suffering and both deserve attention. Eating disorders are diagnosed when patterns of disordered eating meet specific clinical criteria around frequency, duration, and impairment. Disordered eating sits below that clinical threshold but still significantly impacts quality of life. At Clear Light Therapy, we do not require a formal diagnosis to begin treatment. If your relationship with food is causing you distress, affecting your daily functioning, or taking up space in your mind that you wish it would not, that is enough of a reason to reach out.

Can you tell if someone has an eating disorder by looking at them?

No. This is one of the most important and most misunderstood facts about eating disorders. You cannot tell by looking at a person whether they have an eating disorder. Anorexia does not require a specific body type to be diagnosed. Bulimia is almost always invisible from the outside. Binge eating disorder affects people across the full range of body sizes. ARFID can be present in someone who appears to eat normally in some contexts. If you or someone you love is struggling with their relationship with food, the absence of visible physical signs is not evidence that nothing is wrong.

My child is struggling with food but says they do not have an eating disorder. What should I do?

Denial and minimization are common features of eating disorders, particularly anorexia. The eating disorder itself often becomes a voice that resists treatment. If you are concerned about your child's relationship with food, a consultation with a specialist is appropriate regardless of whether your child acknowledges a problem. Early intervention produces significantly better outcomes. Trust your instincts.

Do you work with clients who also have anxiety, OCD, or depression?

Yes, and we consider this one of our particular areas of strength. The majority of people with eating disorders have co-occurring anxiety, depression, OCD, or trauma histories. Our specialization in both eating disorders and anxiety disorders means we can hold the full clinical picture rather than treating each condition in isolation. This integrated approach is more effective and more compassionate than treating the eating disorder and leaving the rest untouched.

What does HAES mean and why does it matter for treatment?

HAES stands for Health at Every Size. It is a clinical and ethical framework that decouples weight from worth and refuses to treat body size as a proxy for health or virtue. In eating disorder treatment, it means we do not set weight loss as a goal, we do not use language that pathologizes bodies of any size, and we treat every client with dignity regardless of what their body looks like. Shame-based approaches to eating disorder treatment are not only less effective, they are actively harmful. A HAES-informed environment creates the safety that genuine recovery requires.

Is virtual therapy effective for eating disorder treatment?

Yes. CBT-E delivered remotely has demonstrated clinical utility with meaningful and consistent symptom change from admission to discharge across validated clinical measures. For many clients, working from home removes barriers to treatment and creates opportunities to practice skills in the real environments where eating disorder behaviors occur. We work virtually with clients throughout all of New Jersey with excellent results.

How long does eating disorder treatment take?

This depends on the severity and duration of the eating disorder, the presence of co-occurring conditions, and the level of support available outside of therapy. Many clients begin to experience meaningful shifts within the first several months of consistent, specialized treatment. Some clients work with us for a year or longer, particularly when the eating disorder has been present for many years. We are honest about timelines and individualize our approach to each client's pace and needs.

Ready to Take the First Step?

If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder in Bergen County or anywhere in New Jersey, we would be honored to be part of your recovery. A free 15-minute consultation is a no-pressure conversation where you can ask questions, share what has been happening, and find out whether Clear Light Therapy is the right fit. Dana, the practice owner, personally responds to every inquiry within 24 hours.

You do not need to have hit a bottom to deserve help. You just need to be ready to start.

Schedule Your Free 15-Minute Consultation Phone: (609) 384-4874
Email: danacolthart@therapywithdana.comAddress: 60 Chestnut Street, Englewood, NJ 07631

Virtual therapy available throughout all of New Jersey

Clear Light Therapy provides specialized eating disorder treatment including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and ARFID for teens and adults. We offer in-person therapy in Englewood, NJ, and virtual therapy across Bergen County, Monmouth County, and all of New Jersey. We are an out-of-network, HAES-informed practice.