Exploring the Unconscious: Depth Psychology and eating Disorders

Written by ED and OCD Therapy Founder: Allyson Inez Ford, MA, LPCC

Getting to the root of Food and Body Struggles

As someone who has always been curious about what is not being said, it makes sense that I naturally draw towards psychodynamic explorations of food and body struggles with my clients. I see most food and body image struggles as a metaphors for something else, something deeper.

This is not everyone’s experience with an eating disorder, especially ARFID- where sensory sensitivities and neurodivergence often play a big role.

However, for the purposes of this blog post, I want to explore the connection between the unconscious and eating disorders, and how psychodynamic therapy can help you get to the root of your relationship to food and your body.

What is psychodynamic therapy?

Psychodynamic therapy is a form of therapy rooted in the idea that our present-day thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are shaped by unconscious processes and early relational experiences. It grew out of psychoanalytic theory, but modern psychodynamic therapy is typically more relational, collaborative and flexible than the classical image of someone lying on a couch while a silent analyst takes notes.

At its core, psychodynamic therapy assumes that we develop patterns for survival in childhood and adolescence. These patterns once made sense. They protected us, helped us attach, or helped us endure environments that felt unsafe or unpredictable. The challenge is that these same patterns often continue operating long after the original circumstances have changed. We find ourselves repeating relational dynamics, reacting intensely to minor triggers, or holding deeply ingrained beliefs about our worth that feel immovable. Psychodynamic work aims to make these patterns conscious so they can be understood, witnessed with compassion and ultimately- transformed.

The Depth Psychology Umbrella

Depth psychology is a broader umbrella that includes psychodynamic therapy but also draws from Jungian, archetypal and other traditions that focus on the unconscious, symbolism and the deeper layers of the psyche. While psychodynamic therapy often emphasizes early attachment and relational experiences, depth psychology expands the lens to include themes such as the shadow, archetypes, individuation and the symbolic meaning of symptoms.

In practice, there is significant overlap. Both approaches are concerned with what lives beneath the surface. Both assume that symptoms are not random and that insight can be healing. Depth psychology simply widens the frame. It invites us to see eating disorder behaviors not only as conditioned responses to family dynamics, but also as expressions of disowned parts of the self, internalized cultural narratives and unmet psychological needs that may not yet have language.

When I describe my work with eating disorders as depth-oriented or psychodynamic, I mean that I am listening for the story underneath the symptoms. I am paying attention to relational wounds, to collective trauma, to unconscious beliefs about worth and belonging and to the symbolic role the eating disorder has come to play in someone’s life.

The goal is not just behavioral change, but deeper integration and self-understanding that makes lasting recovery possible. Personally, this was the key in my own sustained recovery- I had to know the “why” in order to challenge the behaviors. Without the “why”- I felt stuck.

Below are a few psychodynamic/ depth psychology techniques I use in my work with eating disorders

Projection: When the Critic Feels Like the World

Projection refers to the unconscious process of attributing our own disowned feelings, fears, or beliefs onto others. In eating disorder work, this often shows up in the belief that everyone is judging your body, watching what you eat, or silently evaluating your worth.

Sometimes other people are judgmental. We live in a body-obsessed culture and this is particularly true for folks in marginalized bodies. In addition, what often feels like external scrutiny is actually an internalized voice that has become so familiar it feels like your reality. A client might say, “Everyone thinks I’ve let myself go,” when what is really present is a deeply internalized shame about weight gain or insecurity in one’s current sense of self.

When we gently explore projection in therapy, we are not invalidating lived experiences of anti-fatness or oppression. We are helping differentiate between what is happening outside of you and what has been absorbed inside of you. That differentiation can be incredibly empowering. It allows clients to begin reclaiming their own voice from the internalized critic (which often does come from the culture).

Corrective Emotional Experiences: Rewriting Relational Memory

Many people with eating disorders grew up in environments where their emotions were minimized, their needs were inconvenient or their bodies were commented on in ways that left lasting wounds. A corrective emotional experience occurs when a new relational experience disconfirms an old, painful expectation.

If you expect to be shamed for eating, and instead you are met with warmth and curiosity, something shifts. If you expect that expressing anger will lead to rejection, and instead the relationship holds, your nervous system begins to update its beliefs about what is possible.

In eating disorder recovery, corrective emotional experiences are not dramatic or theatrical- they are often quiet and built over time. A therapist who does not flinch when you talk about bingeing and purging. A friend who continues to love you in a changing body. A partner who welcomes your needs rather than resenting them. These moments slowly rewrite relational memory and weaken the eating disorder’s argument that you must shrink, control, or disappear in order to be safe. The scientific term for this is actually called memory reconsolidation and its a core mechanism of change for many different therapeutic approaches (including EMDR, IFS, Somatic Experiencing, Psychodynamic, ERP and more).

Shadow Work: Meeting the Parts You Were Taught to Hide

The “shadow” in depth psychology refers to the parts of ourselves that we learned were unacceptable. These parts get pushed out of awareness because at some point, it was safer to hide them than to express them.

In eating disorder recovery, the shadow often includes anger, sexuality, ambition, neediness, hunger, grief, shame and desire. Many of my clients were socialized to be agreeable, small, self-sacrificing or high-achieving. Their eating disorder helped them maintain the “mask” they needed to hold up to the world. It numbed their anger, muted their appetite (symbolic for having needs) and disciplined their bodies out of subconscious punishment.

Shadow work in therapy means slowly making room for these disowned parts. It means helping someone say, “I am furious,” without immediately turning that fury inward through restriction or purging. It means allowing desire to exist without punishment or shame. As these shadow parts are integrated rather than suppressed, the eating disorder often becomes less necessary. In other words, it doesn’t need to work so hard to protect you anymore when we get to the root of healing.

Persona: The Mask That Becomes a Cage

The persona is the social mask we develop to survive and belong. It is shaped by family systems, cultural expectations, gender norms, trauma, neurotypicality and other experiences of oppression. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a persona. We all do. The problem arises when we over-identify with it and lose contact with our authentic selves.

In eating disorder work, I frequently see personas like the Good Daughter, the Responsible One, the Caretaker, the Achiever, the Strong Friend or the Cool Girl. These identities are often reinforced and praised. Underneath them, however, may live insecurity, exhaustion, resentment, loneliness, loss of self and unmet needs.

The eating disorder can function as a way to maintain your mask (or persona). It helps you keep performing. It gives you a sense of control when you are not allowed to have preferences or boundaries. For neurodivergent folks, masking is also about trying to stay safe in an ableist and sanist world. In recovery, we gently question who you are beyond the role. Who are you if you are not the “easy” one? Who are you if your body is not the project? What are your true interests, values and passions? Is there another way to find safety in this world than disowning who you are?

Complexes: When Insight Is Not Enough

A complex is an emotionally charged pattern rooted in past experiences that can override logic and intention. Many people with eating disorders understand, on an intellectual level, that they are worthy and deserving of nourishment. Yet they still feel compelled to restrict, binge, or purge.

That gap between knowing and feeling is often the work of a complex. For example, a worthlessness complex that formed in childhood emotional neglect can be activated by minor criticism in adulthood. Suddenly, the urge to restrict feels urgent and justified.

Naming complexes allows us to externalize the pattern without shaming the person. Instead of “What is wrong with me?” the question becomes “What part of me is activated right now?” This shift opens space for compassion and choice.

The Unconscious: Symptoms as Communication

Depth psychology holds that symptoms are meaningful. They are not random glitches to eliminate, but communications from parts of the psyche that do not yet have language.

Restriction can communicate a need for control in chaos or a feeling that desire is unsafe. Bingeing can communicate unmet emotional hunger or rebellion. Purging can represent an attempt to rid oneself of shame or disgust. These interpretations are not fixed or universal, however these are some common examples I see in my work with clients.

When we approach eating disorder behaviors symbolically, we move away from moralizing and toward understanding. The question becomes less about stopping the behavior at all costs and more about helping the underlying need find a new expression. This is actually the overarching goal in one of my favorite modalities: Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy for eating disorders.

Individuation: Recovery as Becoming Whole

Jung described individuation as the lifelong process of becoming more fully oneself. In eating disorder recovery, this concept resonates deeply. Recovery is not simply the absence of behaviors. It is the gradual reclamation of identity, voice and agency.

Many clients tell me they do not know who they are without the eating disorder. It has been their coping strategy, their companion, their structure, sometimes their only sense of stability. Individuation invites a different vision of recovery. It asks, “Who are you becoming?” rather than only “What are you stopping?”

As clients integrate shadow parts, loosen rigid personas, and experience corrective relationships, they begin to feel more internally coherent. They are less fragmented. They are less at war with themselves. That wholeness is what makes recovery sustainable and “worth it.”

Beyond Symptom Management

Depth psychology is one lens we conceptualize eating disorders through- but certainly not the only. In conjunction with psychodynamic therapy, people often still need meal support, exposure work, cognitive interventions and skills for emotion regulation. But when we only target behavior, we risk missing the story that gave rise to it. There is room for all of these interventions to flow together like an intricate piece of art.

Eating disorder recovery is about becoming more whole. It is about reclaiming disowned parts, experiencing relationships that update old wounds, nourishing your body and spirit and discovering that you can take up space in this world without apology.

When we approach eating disorders through a depth lens, we are not just helping someone eat differently, we are helping them come home to themselves.

Reach out to Start Healing

Did this resonate with you?! Feel free to reach out for more information on how depth psychology frameworks can strengthen your recovery from food and body struggles. If you’re looking for an eating disorder or body image therapist, we’d love to support you.

We see clients in CA, WA, UT, TN, MD & FL. We have an in person office in San Diego, CA and see the rest of our folks virtually.

We look forward to hearing from you!