Disordered-Eating Support in New Jersey
Colleen Makowsky offers disordered-eating support for adults across New Jersey — practical, evidence-based, by secure video.
Disordered-eating support at Colleen Makowsky LPC addresses the emotional and behavioral patterns underneath food, weight, and body concerns — restriction, bingeing, chronic dieting, and the emotions around them. This is not a nutrition program.
When disordered eating support is needed
Scope of Practice: I work with disordered-eating patterns in adults — body image, food guilt, restrictive habits, binge cycles — at a non-medical level. For active eating disorders that require medical monitoring, dietitian coordination, or a higher level of care, I can refer you to a colleague who can help.
Disordered eating isn’t always dramatic. Have you been struggling inside— years of food guilt, body shame, restrictive habits that look like “healthy eating” from the outside, binge cycles that nobody else sees. Colleen can help— at a non-medical level.
Body image work
The mirror moment. The photograph reaction. The clothing-store dressing-room spiral. Body image isn’t just “self-esteem” — it’s a relationship with your own physical self shaped by decades of media, family, comparison, and culture. CBT addresses the thought patterns. ACT addresses your beliefs and values, separate from how you look.
Food guilt
The “I shouldn’t have eaten that” loop. The pre-meal anxiety. The post-meal self-loathing — good food, bad food, clean eating, cheat days. Food guilt is exhausting in a way that’s hard to explain to people who don’t experience it. CBT plus ACT helps clients separate eating decisions from moral self-judgment.
Restrictive habits
Skipping meals, food rules (“never after 8pm,” “only on weekdays”), shrinking the list of “allowed” foods, exercise to “earn” eating. Restriction is socially praised in ways binge eating isn’t — which is part of what makes it hard to see the behavior as a problem. Colleen helps clients adjust the thought patterns underneath.
Binge cycles
Restrict, binge, shame, restrict. The cycle is exhausting and isolating. CBT can help clients challenge cognitive distortions (“I already broke the rule, may as well finish”), ACT for values-work, trauma-informed care for the patterns underneath. Colleen helps clients break binge cycles and enjoy eating again.
Exercise compulsion
Exercise has gone from “I want to” to “I have to.” Rest days create anxiety. Missing a workout creates guilt. The relationship with movement has become a coping mechanism, not a choice. We work with the thought patterns, the function the exercise is serving, and what would be different if movement could feel optional.
Disordered eating after weight loss
You lost the weight. The “after” was supposed to feel different. Instead, the relationship with food is more uncomfortable, more rule-bound, more anxious. This is common instead of the “success story.” We work with the emotions and patterns which are separate from the weight-loss itself.
Chronic dieting fatigue
Twenty years of diets. Five years of macros. Three years of keto that became another set of rules. You’re tired. The relationship with food has become a job, not an enjoyable part of life. ACT helps clarify your relationship with food — separate from the weight-loss industry’s instructions.
When you want non-medical support, not a treatment team
You don’t need your vitals monitored. You don’t need a dietitian on the team. You want one-on-one work on the emotions and patterns — body image, food guilt, restriction logic, binge cycles — with someone who will match you with the appropriate care if your situation does cross the medical line.
Evidence-based disordered eating support in New Jersey
Disordered eating support at this practice is grounded in three evidence-based approaches — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as primary, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for values-work, and trauma-informed care for the patterns underneath. The work is practical: you leave each session with something to try, not just an insight.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT for disordered eating targets the thought patterns underneath the behaviors — moral framing of food (“good” vs “bad”), all-or-nothing rules, post-eating self-judgment, body-image cognitive distortions. Practical, structured, week-by-week. Strong evidence base for help with eating patterns.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps clarify your relationship with food — separate from diet-culture framing, separate from the weight-loss industry’s promises. Values clarification, willingness work, and committed action around food and body acceptance. Useful when the goal is “feel like a healthy person again,” not just “fix the symptom.”
Trauma-informed care
For a lot of adults, disordered eating evolved from the past — childhood food messaging, family-of-origin dynamics, control-related trauma. Trauma-informed care is part of the work — we address the unhealthy patterns and the trauma behind it, all at your pace.
If unhealthy eating patterns are preventing you from enjoying life, reach out for a consultation.
How disordered eating support actually works
People often arrive expecting protocols — food plans, meal logs, scales. That’s not what happens. What happens is more useful: we explore the unhealthy behaviors, along with the thoughts and feelings, and build a new relationship with the self and food.
CBT is the strongest evidence base for disordered eating treatment
Decades of clinical trial data show CBT reduces binge frequency, lowers cognitive distortion around eating, and improves body-image distress for adults at a non-medical level of care. The work is practical and structured.
CBT helps clients interrupt the thought-and-impulse chain before the behavior is activated.
Scope of practice — defining a non-medical level
Active eating disorders involving medical risk require a high level of care— vitals monitoring, re-feeding, electrolyte balance, coordinated dietitian care. I work with the thought-and-behavior patterns underneath disordered eating: body image, food guilt, restriction logic, binge cycles. If your situation requires medical-monitoring, I refer to an appropriate level of care.
Colleen works with clients who do not require medical-monitoring, she also works with clients who have been discharged from a higher level of care to support recovery .
Weight-inclusive, non-stigmatizing — the HAES question
A weight-inclusive, non-stigmatizing approach that focuses on wellness — I don’t moralize body size, prescribe weight loss, or treat thinness as the goal. I’m not a HAES-certified practitioner and I don’t prescribe the HAES framework as a protocol. I work with your relationship to food and body without using weight as the success metric.
Good therapy is practical. You should leave each session with something you can use — not just insight that stays in the room.
How we start — your first three steps
Reach out
Open the secure intake form or call (917) 519-8447. It takes about a minute, and we’ll set up your free 15-minute consultation from there.
15-minute call (free)
We get on the phone for fifteen minutes. You tell me what’s bringing you in, I tell you how I can help. We discuss whether support at a non-medical level is appropriate — or whether you need a higher level of care. No charge. No pressure.
First session, then ongoing work
Sessions run 38 to 53 minutes, by secure video, weekly. Disordered eating counseling typically spans six to twelve months — it varies by individual. You should notice change in the first 3-4 sessions.
WHAT A SESSION LOOKS LIKE
What a disordered eating session looks like
Practical sessions, by secure video. Here’s what we cover — and what you leave with.
What’s underneath the eating
Underneath disordered eating there’s usually trauma, anxiety, depression, or a family-of-origin food culture that’s become a habit. We explore all the layers — the disordered eating work and what’s underneath — at your pace.
Trauma underneath disordered eating
Childhood food messaging, family-of-origin food dynamics, control-related trauma, body-related comments and shaming. For a lot of adults, the eating patterns are the visible part of the pain. Colleen provides trauma-informed care alongside eating disorder work. We address both at your pace.
Anxiety and eating patterns
Eating to soothe anxiety. Restricting to control the anxiety. The loop is exhausting. CBT plus ACT challenges unhealthy patterns — we address cognitive distortions and clarify values.
Depression and eating patterns
Depression is common in clients with disordered eating. Behavioral-activation framing (along with CBT and ACT) helps separate “I’m depressed because of my eating” from “I’m eating this way because I’m depressed” — usually it’s a loop. We get to the root of the depression.
Family-of-origin food culture
Growing up with a parent on a permanent diet. Or a household where food was love. Or where bodies were commented on relentlessly. Now you carry the patterns. Adult co-recovery work isn’t blame work — it’s pattern work. We look at what got modeled and what you want to be different now.
When to reach out for disordered eating support
Most people wait too long. The signs disordered eating counseling can help usually look like this.
If active medical monitoring is needed, Colleen will refer you to the appropriate provider/program.
Colleen Makowsky offers disordered eating support across New Jersey
Colleen Makowsky
MA · LPC · NCC · CCTP · CAIMHP
Licensed counselor in Fort Lee, NJ. Adults across all of New Jersey by secure video.
MA in Community Counseling, Montclair State University. Trauma-informed (CCTP) — weight-inclusive, non-stigmatizing approach to food and body work.
CBT · ACT · trauma-informed care for disordered eating at a non-medical level.
OUR LOCATION
Online disordered eating support across New Jersey
I’m a service-area provider — I work with adults statewide by secure video. My base is Fort Lee, NJ (Bergen County), but you can see me from anywhere in New Jersey.
Hours
By appointment
Weekdays and weekends
Morning, afternoon, evening
Phone
(917) 519-8447
EXPLORE OTHER SERVICES
Types of therapy
Substance-Use Counseling · Self-Esteem & Life Transitions · Anxiety Therapy · Depression Therapy · Individual Therapy
Common questions about disordered eating support in New Jersey
Do you treat eating disorders?
Active eating disorders — especially ones involving medical risk, vitals monitoring, re-feeding, or coordinated care with a dietitian — need a treatment team, not a solo counselor. I work with the patterns underneath: body image, food guilt, restrictive habits, binge cycles. If you’re not sure whether your situation is “disordered eating” or something that needs a higher level of care, we can discuss this on the 15-minute consultation.
Do you work with HAES, Health At Every Size?
My work is weight-inclusive and non-stigmatizing — I don’t moralize body size, prescribe weight loss, or treat thinness as the goal. I’m not a HAES-certified practitioner and I don’t prescribe the HAES framework as a protocol. I work with your relationship to food and body without using weight as the success metric. If you’re looking for a clinician who works strictly within the HAES protocol, I’m happy to refer.
What’s the difference between counseling with you and a treatment program?
An eating disorder treatment program — residential, IOP, PHP — is structured care with a medical team, a dietitian, group work, and (where relevant) medical monitoring of weight, vitals, and lab tests. I offer one-on-one outpatient counseling to adults whose disordered eating patterns do not require medical monitoring, and I provide counseling to clients who have been discharged from a treatment program and want support in recovery.
What treatment modalities do you use?
CBT for the thought-and-impulse behavior patterns. ACT for values-work and improving the relationship with food and body. Trauma-informed care to identify and resolve the roots of patterns.
What does insurance cover?
I accept Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, Optum/UnitedHealthcare/Oxford, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Oscar, and Medicare. Medicaid is not accepted. Out-of-network billing is available — I can provide a superbill on request. For details, see insurance and cost.
How long are sessions?
38 to 53 minutes, occasionally 60 minutes if needed, online by secure video.
How long does disordered eating counseling take?
Most clients work with me for 6 to 12 months — but it varies by individual. Disordered eating work often involves a focused initial phase, followed by a longer maintenance phase at reduced frequency.
What happens on the free 15-minute call?
You tell me what’s bringing you in, I ask a few questions about your symptoms, I tell you how I can help. We discuss whether disordered eating support at a non-medical level is appropriate or if a higher level of care would suit your needs. No charge. No pressure.
RELATED SPECIALTIES
Substance-Use Counseling in NJ · Self-Esteem in NJ · Anxiety Therapy in NJ
READY TO START?
Schedule your free 15-minute consultation
Reach out for a 15-minute consultation to see if Colleen can help, or if a higher level of care is needed.