bash cat > /mnt/user-data/outputs/eating-disorder-therapy-landing.html << 'HTMLEOF' Eating Disorder Therapy | Dr. Priya Nair, PsyD | Austin & Texas
CBT & ACT FBT-Informed HAES-Aligned Body-Neutral

You were never always
like this. Meals were once
just meals.

Therapy for adults ready to stop organizing their life around food — and start building a relationship with themselves that actually holds.

Schedule a Free Consultation
In-person in Austin · Telehealth across TX Free 20-min consult All bodies. All presentations.
[Photo of
Dr. Priya Nair, PsyD]
"I finally said yes to dinner without checking the menu first."
— a client, 9 months into recovery
Does this sound familiar?

"I checked the menu before I replied to the dinner invitation. Just in case."

"When the order came out wrong, it felt like the whole day had collapsed."

"I freed up space in my notes app. I never told anyone what it was for."

"I spent the whole day thinking about what I was going to eat. Then about what I did eat."

"I figured I just had a problem with willpower. I figured I must be the problem."

These aren't signs of a lack of discipline. They're signs that something deeper has been running the show for a long time — and that it's been running it quietly, in ways nobody else could see. That's exactly what recovery can change.

The gap nobody talked about

What the world was saying.
What you were actually living.

What the world said

You look so healthy. What's your secret?

I wish I had your willpower.

She's so disciplined. Taking such good care of herself.

You should be proud. Most people can't commit like that.

What you were carrying

Praised for the exact thing that was harming you.

The compliments made it harder to stop. Or to ask for help.

"Taking care of myself." In reality, it had become all-consuming.

Meeting me in person, you probably wouldn't know. That was the point.

The world called it discipline. Willpower. A lifestyle. You knew what it was actually costing you.

The experience

You don't have to look a certain way to deserve support.

Eating disorders don't have a set appearance. They move quietly through high-achievers, athletes, people who look completely together from the outside. They show up in restricting and in bingeing, in rigid food rules dressed up as wellness, in a relationship with eating that takes up more mental space than anything else in your life.

The person who checks menus before confirming plans. The one who spent years assuming this was a willpower problem and read every book trying to fix it. The one who has been complimented for the thing that is quietly hollowing them out.

"This was never about food. Food became the place where something else — feeling out of control, feeling unsafe, feeling like nothing else was manageable — found its answer. That made sense. Until it didn't."

Recovery doesn't ask you to perform wellness. It asks you to understand what was actually happening — and to build something that holds without the rules.

Who I work with

Clients come to me when —

Eating is taking up all the mental space
The planning, the calculating, the deciding, the regret. There is no quiet. Food is the first and last thought of every day.
The body has become something to manage
Not live in. Scrutinize, control, punish, or fix. The relationship stopped feeling neutral a long time ago.
Social eating feels impossible
Restaurant menus are research. Invitations involve calculation. You go, but you're not really there. Or you stop going.
The "wellness" framing stopped working
It started as clean eating. A lifestyle. Now the rules have rules, and breaking them feels catastrophic.
They don't look like "someone who has an eating disorder"
And that's been the reason they haven't asked for help. Eating disorders don't have a size, a gender, or a required appearance.
You are no less deserving of support.
They've tried to fix this alone and can't
The willpower approach. The intuitive eating books. The tracking, then the not-tracking. Something beneath the behavior needs real attention.
What's actually happening

This was never a discipline problem.

"Obsessing over my food intake was my way of maintaining control — a control which gave me purpose but was ultimately killing me. The one thing I felt I had no external access to, I looked inwards to establish."

Eating disorders are the brain's attempt to manage something that feels unmanageable. Sometimes it's a feeling. Sometimes it's an environment. Sometimes it's a need for control in a life where control felt absent. The behavior made sense — it was an answer to a real problem. It just wasn't a sustainable one.

And because diet culture celebrates exactly what an eating disorder looks like in its early stages — the discipline, the restriction, the "wellness" — the disorder is often rewarded before it's ever recognized.

Recovery means understanding the original problem. Not just managing the symptoms.

What recovery challenges

✗
The willpower myth
"I just need more self-control." Years of trying harder built the shame. Recovery dismantles the framework, not the person.
✗
The appearance myth
Eating disorders do not have a size. Severity is not visible from the outside. Your suffering is real regardless of what anyone else can see.
✗
The "wellness" disguise
Diet culture renamed itself. "Clean eating." "Lifestyle changes." "Biohacking." When the rules have rules, something deeper is running the show.
✓
What we work toward
Understanding what was actually happening beneath the behavior — and building a relationship with food and self that doesn't require management.
How we work together

Therapy that addresses the behavior and what's underneath it.

We work on two tracks: the relationship with food and body, and the emotional patterns that got expressed through it. Both need attention. Neither comes first in a vacuum.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ED-Adapted)
Untangles the thought patterns and food rules that have become automatic. So eating stops being a moral event.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Creates space between you and the disorder's voice — so it stops being the only thing you hear when food enters the room.
Emotion Regulation Skills
Builds the capacity to sit with hard feelings without using food to manage them — because the eating disorder was always a coping strategy first.
Body-Neutral Approach
Not body positivity on demand. A quieter goal: a body that is lived in rather than managed. We build toward that at your pace.
Psychodynamic Work
Explores the earlier context — what the behavior was originally solving for. Recovery that understands the origin holds longer.
Collaborative Care Coordination
When helpful, I work alongside dietitians and medical providers. Because recovery is not a solo profession.
What recovery actually looks like

Recovery looked like adding an extra splash of milk to my afternoon cup of tea.

The small moments that used to
require negotiation. And then don't.

Saying yes to dinner without checking the menu first.
Walking past the mirror on the way to the bathroom. Not stopping.
Eating something without running the calculation. Realizing it after the fact.
A day that isn't organized around food. Not because you're suppressing it. Because it isn't the loudest thing anymore.
The notes app has other things in it now.
Meals were once spontaneous. That can be true again. Not all at once. But incrementally, in real moments.

You were never always like this.
And you don't have to stay here.

Schedule a Free Consultation
[Photo of
Dr. Priya Nair, PsyD]
About your therapist

Dr. Priya Nair, PsyD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist · Eating Disorder Specialist

I work with adults who are exhausted from managing a relationship with food that has slowly taken over more and more of their life — and who are ready to understand what was actually happening, not just change the behavior.

"My work isn't about getting you to eat differently. It's about understanding what eating has been doing — and finding ways to live that don't require it to do that job."

I'm a body-neutral, HAES-aligned clinician. That means I'm not here to comment on your body, set appearance-based goals, or celebrate outcomes based on how you look. I'm here to help you build a relationship with yourself that holds up in the long term.

Sessions are warm, direct, and free of the wellness-industry language that has probably already done enough damage. Outside of practice, I'm usually at my kitchen table with too many open tabs, trying new recipes I find on obscure food blogs, and being consistently outwitted by my very stubborn rescue dog.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist (PsyD) Eating Disorder Specialist CBT / ACT Certified HAES-Aligned Body-Neutral Practice 10+ Years Experience
Getting started

Three steps. No particular presentation required.

1
Reach out
Fill out the short form. Say as much or as little as feels right. If I'm not the right fit, I'll help you find someone who is.
2
Free 20-min call
We talk through what's going on. No prep required. No weight, appearance, or body-related questions in the consultation.
3
First session
We begin with your story, not the symptoms. Safety before pace. We move at a speed that's actually sustainable.
Ready when you are

Schedule your free consultation

Fill out the form and I'll respond within 48 hours. You don't have to have this figured out before you reach out.

I respond within 48 hours. This form is not monitored around the clock — if you need immediate support, please see the resources below.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please reach out to specialized support.
National Alliance for Eating Disorders Helpline: 1-866-662-1235 (Mon–Fri, 9am–7pm ET) · Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 · 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988

One last thing

You've been figuring this out alone for a long time.

That's not a character flaw. It's what happens when the disorder looks like discipline from the outside. You don't have to justify needing support. You just have to reach out.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

In-person in Austin · Telehealth across Texas · All bodies welcome

HTMLEOF