Orange County · Telehealth
ARFID Therapy
Outpatient psychotherapy for avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, offered by telehealth where care can lawfully and clinically be provided.
What this can feel like
ARFID is not about body image. People with ARFID restrict what or how much they eat for other reasons — sensory experiences that are genuinely intolerable, fear following a frightening episode such as choking or vomiting, or simply very little interest in eating.
It is often misunderstood as picky eating that someone should have outgrown. That framing misses both how constraining it can be and how much distress usually sits underneath it.
What it can affect
Eating disorders rarely stay in one part of life.
- Range of food
- The set of tolerated foods can narrow over time, sometimes considerably.
- Nutrition and growth
- Restricted intake can affect nutritional status, which often warrants medical and dietetic involvement.
- Social life
- Meals with others, travel, school, and events can become sources of anxiety or avoidance.
- Family life
- Mealtimes at home can become a recurring source of conflict and worry for everyone involved.
How therapy may help
Understanding the pattern before asking you to change it.
Therapy begins by identifying what is actually driving the avoidance, because the three common presentations — sensory sensitivity, fear of aversive consequences, and low interest in eating — call for different work.
From there, treatment tends to move gradually and collaboratively, at a pace that does not overwhelm, and often involves parents or partners where that is appropriate.
Approach
Treatment is individualized and paced to the person. Cognitive behavioral and exposure-based approaches are frequently relevant, and family-based treatment is often valuable with younger clients. Coordination with a dietitian or physician is common where nutritional status is a concern.
Coordinated care
Working alongside your other providers.
Eating-disorder treatment frequently involves more than one provider. When clinically appropriate and authorized under a signed release, the clinician coordinates with dietitians, physicians, psychiatrists, and treatment programs, and with family members where their involvement is part of the treatment plan.
Related support
Where to go next.
Common questions
Questions about arfid
Is ARFID just picky eating?
No. ARFID is a recognized eating disorder in which restriction causes meaningful nutritional, medical, social, or psychological consequences. It is distinct from ordinary food preferences in both degree and impact.
My child has ARFID. Would I be involved?
Very likely, yes. With adolescents, parents and caregivers frequently play an important role, and family involvement is approached deliberately, with clear expectations about confidentiality, consent, and each person's role.
Does ARFID involve body-image concerns?
Typically not. That distinction matters clinically, because it changes what the work needs to address. Where body-image concerns are also present, they are assessed and addressed on their own terms.
This page is general education, not individualized clinical advice. Reading it does not create a therapeutic relationship. For guidance about your own situation, speak with a qualified clinician.
Reconnect with yourself beyond the eating disorder.
A complimentary 15-minute consultation is a place to ask questions and find out whether this practice is a reasonable fit.