You Can’t Live A Full Life On An Empty Stomach
But you already know this, that’s why you’re here in the first place! You could spend the rest of your life stuck in the limbo of kinda-recovered, somewhat triggered. Or you could learn how to live fully recovered without requiring the world around you to stop being fatphobic, misogynistic, and diet-culture obsessed first.
Because unfortunately, I can’t make the world stop talking about diets. I can’t promise that your body won’t change, that someone won’t make a shitty comment, or that you’ll never have another body gremlin thought again.
What I can do is make sure those things no longer get to decide what you eat for dinner, whether you go swimming, if you let someone take the picture, or how much of your brain you lose to ED that day.
That’s the recovery I care about!
Eating disorder & Body image therapist with a sprinkle of no b.s.
Hi! I’m Cilla — covered-bridge fan girl, Coca Cola enthusiast and body griever turned body glimmer hype girl.
I believe as therapists, we owe it to our clients to keep doing our own damn work, too. And I’ve done A LOT of it…
For me, that looked like years of confronting multiple eating disorders, chronic perfectionism, OCD, ADHD, body grief, and a whole lot of beliefs about what recovery was “supposed” to look like.
My own experience as a client wasn't exactly rainbows and sunshine. There were therapists I loved, things that changed my life, and also moments where I remember thinking, you have absolutely no idea what I am trying to tell you right now.
Those experiences are a huge part of why I became determined to show up as the therapist I once needed.
Today, I sit with you carrying years of lived experience alongside my clinical experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor.
You Might Be Here For A Different Reason…
(And that’s kind of the point!)
I did not create Cilla Hope Wellness to just be another therapy practice. I love therapy, and I also know that not everybody needs another therapist, has access to one, or wants to spend another hour of their week on video talking about their feelings.
And sometimes the people who need support are actually the therapists sitting on the other side of the couch thinking, okay... now what?
So, this practice has grown with me.
There are resources for people doing their own recovery work, support and consultation for professionals doing this work with their clients, and opportunities to bring these conversations into rooms much bigger than my virtual therapy office.
So... what brought you here?
I’m Here For My Own Recovery
Maybe you know too much at this point. You can explain the effects of diet culture, challenge black & white thinking, use your go-to coping skills, and then your jeans fit differently and suddenly none of that information feels particularly helpful.
This is the stuff I LOVE talking about!
+ Resources
+ Group programs
+ Workshops/Retreats
+ 1:1 therapy
I’m a Therapist or Professional
Do you ever have a client who can beautifully explain exactly why their eating disorder is harmful... and then go home and do the exact thing you spent the session talking about? What if I told ya that knowing isn't always the problem.
I offer consultation, education, and workshops for helping professionals who want another brain in the room when eating disorders, ARFID, body image, perfectionism, and all the other wonderfully complicated human stuff gets messy.
+ Consultation
+ Professional Education
+ Workshops
I Want You to Come Speak
Looking for a speaker who can talk about eating disorders, recovery, body image, and diet culture without giving your audience the same presentation they have heard seventeen times?
I bring clinical knowledge, lived experience, humor, and a healthy amount of side-eye toward diet culture into conversations that are practical, nuanced, and actually worth having.
+ Keynotes
+ Panels
+ Professional Trainings
+ Workshops
You Don’t Need To Be My Client To Benefit From This Work
The Cilla Hope Wellness Toolbox
I LOVE a good coping tool. Buuut…
- Do I think another worksheet is going to single-handedly heal your relationship with your body? Probably not.
- Do I think having something useful to pull out when your brain is being particularly loud can make a difference? 100%.
So I've created a growing toolbox for exactly that!
holiday survival guide
Because nothing says "Happy Holidays!" quite like somebody commenting on what you're eating while another person explains the diet they're starting January 1st.
This one's for navigating food, body comments, boundaries, and recovery when everybody gets together for the holidays.
Pack Your Fanny Pack
A portable body-image coping toolkit for the days when changing rooms, pictures, restaurants, swimsuits, or simply existing in public feel like entirely too much.
Body Freedom Workbook
For the person who intellectually understands that their worth has nothing to do with their body, but would also like their nervous system to receive the memo.
Work through the thoughts, beliefs, and patterns keeping body image distress louder than you want it to be.
New on the blog
You've heard "just thank your body."
Lunch Box Notes is my weekly-ish corner of the internet for honest conversations about body image, eating disorder recovery, diet culture, body grief, and whatever else has been bouncing around my therapist brain that week.
A Body Image Support Newsletter
Cool. Discovered anything useful yet?
Work With An Eating Disorder Therapist
There's more to your life outside of thinking about your body
Seriously, you've got shit to do!
- Dinners to eat without replaying them afterward
- Pictures worth keeping even when you don't love how you look in them
- Clothes to wear because they fit your body TODAY
- Places to go and people to love
- Things to care about that have absolutely nothing to do with the size of your stomach
