SPECIALTY · ORTHOREXIA
When healthy becomes harmful, that is worth paying attention to.
If you are looking for an orthorexia therapist in Santa Clarita or throughout California, chances are you have been wondering for a while whether what you are experiencing is actually a problem. I am a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in exactly this.
Ph.D. -Eating Disorder Psychologist
Telehealth in Santa Clarita and throughout California
Adults, Teens 14+, and Families
From the outside it can look like discipline or dedication. Inside, the rules around food and exercise have become rigid, consuming, and hard to imagine living without.
YOU MIGHT RECOGNIZE THIS
What orthorexia and compulsive exercise feel like
What started as wanting to feel well has quietly taken over. The behaviors look healthy from the outside. Inside, they are driven by anxiety, not wellness.
Eating anything outside your defined parameters triggers intense anxiety or guilt, sometimes for the rest of the day.
Missing a workout, even due to illness or injury, ruins your mood or fills you with dread.
You spend significant time planning, researching, or thinking about food and exercise. This is often more than feels comfortable.
Dining out, traveling, or eating food you did not prepare yourself is deeply uncomfortable or avoided entirely.
The rules feel protective, but they are also shrinking your world, your social life, your spontaneity, your ease.
You don't have to meet a formal diagnosis to deserve support. If the rules are taking more than they are giving, that is worth exploring.
UNDERSTANDING THE CONDITIONS
What are orthorexia and compulsive exercise?
Orthorexia is an obsessive preoccupation with eating correctly or cleanly, to a degree that interferes with quality of life, relationships, and wellbeing. Unlike anorexia, the focus is on the quality and purity of food rather than the quantity, though restriction is often present in both.
Compulsive exercise involves using movement in a driven, obligatory way that is disconnected from enjoyment or genuine health. It continues through injury, illness, exhaustion, and despite negative consequences. Exercise feels less like a choice and more like a requirement.
Signs that food or exercise may have become problematic:
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Rigid, inflexible food rules
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Avoiding social situations involving food
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Exercising through pain or illness
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Exercise used primarily to compensate for eating
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Intense guilt after eating "impure" foods
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Significant time spent on food research or planning
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Extreme distress when unable to exercise
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Relationships or responsibilities affected by food or exercise rules
Are these real eating disorders?
Neither orthorexia nor compulsive exercise is currently a standalone diagnosis in the DSM. That does not mean they are not real, and it does not mean they do not cause real suffering. Both respond well to treatment, and both deserve to be taken seriously.
TREATMENT
How I treat orthorexia and compulsive exercise
Treatment focuses on loosening the grip of rigid rules, understanding what function they are serving emotionally, and gradually building more flexibility and freedom. We work at the behavioral level and underneath it where the anxiety and meaning live.
How do I know if my relationship with food or exercise is a problem?
A useful question to ask yourself is whether the rules around food or exercise are adding to your life or taking away from it. If they are causing distress, limiting your social life, or feel impossible to relax, it is worth exploring, regardless of whether it meets a clinical threshold.
What about athletes?
Compulsive exercise can be particularly difficult to identify in athletes, where high training loads are normalized. If exercise feels driven by anxiety or obligation rather than enjoyment and purpose, and if rest feels intolerable, those are important signals worth exploring.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-E)
We identify and challenge the beliefs that drive rigid food and exercise rules, including perfectionism, black-and-white thinking, and the overvaluation of control. CBT-E provides a structured framework for change.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
We explore what the rules have been doing for you emotionally, what they protect, what they organize, and what a life with more flexibility might require you to feel. This deeper work addresses the roots, not just the surface.
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP)
Gradually and collaboratively, we practice eating outside the rules and tolerating the anxiety that follows, building evidence that flexibility is survivable and, eventually, freeing.
WHO I SEE
Who I work with
I work with adults, teens aged 14 and older, and families navigating anorexia nervosa in Santa Clarita and throughout California via telehealth.
Adults
Individual therapy for adults whose relationship with food or exercise has quietly become more about control and anxiety than genuine wellbeing.
Teens (14+)
Specialized care for adolescents developing rigid patterns around food or exercise, with family involvement where helpful.
Families
Support and guidance for parents and caregivers.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently Asked Questions
01
Is it really a problem if I just want to eat healthy?
Wanting to eat well is not a problem. Orthorexia becomes a concern when the pursuit of healthy eating causes significant anxiety, limits your social life, or takes up a disproportionate amount of your mental energy. The question is not what you eat, but how much control the rules have over your life.
02
I exercise a lot, but I am also an athlete. How do I know if it is compulsive?
The key distinction is the relationship with exercise, not the volume. If rest feels terrifying, if missing a session ruins your day, or if exercise is primarily driven by anxiety or compensation rather than performance or enjoyment, those are signs worth exploring.
03
Will you tell me to stop exercising or eat foods I am uncomfortable with?
No. Change happens collaboratively and gradually. We build toward flexibility together, at a pace that feels manageable. Nothing is forced or prescribed without your input.
04
Do you take insurance?
I am an out-of-network provider and do not bill insurance directly. A superbill is provided after each session, which you can submit to your insurance for possible out-of-network reimbursement. I recommend contacting your insurance provider to understand your out-of-network benefits before we begin.
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Related Specialties
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