Tessa Gordon LMFT, RYT

Eating disorders can feel hopeless, but they aren’t. Whether this is your first or umpteenth time seeking help, I believe everyone can recover.

There are many reasons eating disorders are invited into your life. Just as there are many reasons why a person develops an eating disorder, the way you recover will be just as unique. If there were a one-size-fits-all solution, that would perhaps be as deceptive as the problem itself. Whether it’s perfectionism, judgment, loneliness, self-improvement, health, fear, family issues… Together we will discover what invites these problems into your life and begin to find what recovery means for you.

What It’s Like to Work with Me:

Many of my clients have described me as the “anti-therapist,” which is a description I wear with pride. I bring enthusiasm, improvisation, imagination, and creativity into each session. My ability to think outside the nine dots and ask questions that others may not enables me to develop creative solutions with clients to help untangle what many would consider to be complicated problems. I believe in (and embrace) experimentation: the freedom to test things out and see how they fit, to explore the various facets of yourself, and to allow for complexities, contradictions, and messiness… all the stuff the eating disorder hates and recovery needs.

Eating disorders are strong; they need something stronger to overpower them. I want to help discover what that is for you.

My Approach:

As a Narrative therapist, my approach is rooted in a desire for social change. I employ a critical feminist, liberatory, anti-oppressive, Health at Every Size, fat-positive, trauma-informed approach. Narrative theory, an evolving set of ideas and practices, embraces a collaborative, non-pathologizing, agentic, anti-carceral, culturally-sensitive, and respectful approach to working with people, families, and communities.

Who I Work With:

I provide psychotherapy, eating disorder consultation, training, and mind-body movement services. My specialty areas include eating disorders, disordered eating, invisible/chronic illnesses & disabilities, anxiety, relationships, trauma, perfectionism, and shame. I have extensive experience working in the field of eating disorders and supporting clients who are living with a complicated relationship with food and/or their bodies.

A Bit More About Me: 

As someone who has walked this path, I carry with me an insider perspective to the challenges that come with this process. Now recovered, I love working with others to discover their own version of recovery, and find out what is keeping them stuck from living the life they desire. I am extremely passionate about working alongside individuals to discover and connect to their hopes, values, passions, and interests outside of the problem, and support them in re-(dis)covering what their “anti-eating disorder” life will look like.

My Professional Background:

I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Psychology from the University of Southern California and received my Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology, emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy and Narrative/Postmodern Therapies from Phillips Graduate University.

As a Certified Yoga, Nia, and Mindful Movement Instructor, I have dedicated my career to helping others establish a healthy relationship with food and body through my work in reclaiming body-focused forms of movement by shifting the language and intention in classes to foster an inclusive and empowering environment for all bodies.

I am an activist in the fight against weight stigma, body discrimination, eating disorder awareness, and media advocacy.