Twenty minutes spent at the mirror again, late for work, and full of shame
01 / Body dysmorphiaBDD Therapy in Iowa City
When you walk around not feeling like yourself, like every time you catch yourself in a mirror, the glance is met with shame. When you constantly shame yourself based on your body, life becomes incredibly exhausting. Luckily, you can turn things around. You can work towards a healthy connection to yourself.
02 / Is this you?What Body Dysmorphic Disorder Can Feel Like
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) can feel like being an imposter in your own skin. Every little imperfection, no matter how small, can become a gigantic focal point, suffocating your confidence and your energy. Mirrors can become anxiety trigger points, your body can feel like a vessel for shame and criticism, and your days can start to revolve around how you look.
About 2 in 100 adults live with BDD (Veale and colleagues, Body Image, 2016). It can be treated.
03 / Therapy and medicationWhat research shows helps
The best-studied therapy for BDD is cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT. A 2016 review of seven trials found that CBT eased symptoms (Harrison and colleagues, Clinical Psychology Review).
Medication can help too. In one trial, about half of the adults who took a medicine called fluoxetine got better (Phillips and colleagues, 2002). I cannot prescribe medication. Your doctor or psychiatrist can prescribe it. Therapy with me runs alongside that care.
04 / How I WorkFour approaches, one step at a time
If painful memories still shape how you see your body, EMDR helps you reprocess them. We start by widening your window of tolerance, the amount of emotion you can feel while staying emotionally regulated. Before any EMDR, we take time for skills work, resourcing and overall wellness. That groundwork supports long-term change.
DBT skills work builds emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills for the moments when shame tries to take over.
Ego-State Therapy helps prepare you for EMDR by helping you through any dissociative feelings you may be experiencing.
NARM is for adults who want to work on present negative patterns, like harsh self-judgment, without going back through each memory.
05 / The logisticsWhat it costs and how long it takes
I do not bill insurance, so you and I decide how your care goes. No insurance company sets a limit on the sessions you get.
You can still ask your insurer to pay you back. I will give you a superbill, which is an itemized receipt you send to them yourself.
You can also ask for a Good Faith Estimate before we start, and the No Surprises Act gives you the right to one. It lists what your care is likely to cost.
How long therapy takes is different for every client. One clear goal may take a handful of sessions, and patterns you have carried since childhood can take longer. I will give you my thoughts after the first few sessions, rather than a firm number on day one.
FreeFree Consultation
A relaxed, 15-minute talk about what you need and whether we fit. By phone, by video, or in person.
$185Therapy Sessions
Weekly 53-minute sessions shaped around your needs, in Iowa City or by telehealth in Iowa and North Carolina.
Free DownloadThe Grounding Guide
A one page set of grounding tools you can use the next time your body runs ahead of you.
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06 / Reach outA fifteen-minute call, and no obligation afterwards
Tell me what has been going on, and what you hope therapy with me can change. If I am not the right fit, I will tell you early and help you find a clinician who is.