Meet Emotional Eating Therapist, Faith Brandt
Kindful Body has recently welcomed a new eating disorder therapist to the team, Faith Brandt, LPCC.
In high school, she was the “Anne Landers” of her friend group, giving out advice and support to those who needed it. Her journey into providing professional therapy has roots in tragedy. Faith made the decision to pursue a college education after a dear friend was fatally struck by a car. “It was a huge wake-up call for me to move forward on my journey and find my purpose.”
Having struggled with an eating disorder herself, the eating disorder therapy field was a natural fit for her after she received her Master’s in community counseling.
Faith is an excellent therapist for clients who struggle with emotional eating.
She also works well with clients who want to gain a better understanding of their emotions and improve their communication skills. Her therapy modalities include Mindful Self Compassion, Mindful Eating, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) through the lens of Mindfulness, Yoga, Hakomi: Body-Centered Psychotherapy, and Guided Meditation.
She wants her clients to feel empowered in their therapy work with her. “The most common thing I see is strong inner critics, in which clients have negative thoughts/beliefs about themselves which can cause anxiety, depression, lack of confidence and many more unfavorable symptoms.” Faith helps clients work through this self-judgment with mindful self-compassion.
“Clients usually forget their strengths and how they have navigated life successfully up until this point. Therefore, I focus on increasing a client's mindfulness of strengths from the past, which clients can then access and apply to their current situation.”
She views eating disorders as a disconnection from the self, and wants the field to treat them as such: “I would like the mental health field to increase its ability to approach ED’s more holistically, seeing/treating the person as multifaceted, like a beautiful gem.”
Faith wants clients to know that going to therapy doesn’t mean anything is “wrong” with them. “You have the potential to live a very joyous and peaceful life and counseling says something positive about your commitment to yourself. There is no need to suffer alone.”
In her free time, Faith enjoys dancing, hiking, spending time with her cats, friends, and family, playing guitar, beading, meditating, practicing yoga, running, drinking coffee and reading.
“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
– Buddha