HAES and Intuitive Eating therapy, minus the diet talk
Weight-inclusive therapy in Denver and online across Colorado for people who are tired of fighting their bodies. We focus on how you treat yourself, and we leave the scale out of it.
- ApproachWeight-inclusive care
- CliniciansThree Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors
- Fees$175 to $200 per session
- WhereDenver & online statewide
Health without a number attached
Health at Every Size, or HAES, starts from a plain observation: weight is a poor stand-in for health, and chasing a smaller body has cost a lot of people their peace with food.
The HAES principles are stewarded by the Association for Size Diversity and Health. They separate health behaviors from body size, and they treat weight stigma as a real source of harm. They also take seriously what research and most people’s own history show: diets rarely produce lasting weight loss, and the cycle of losing and regaining tends to leave people more preoccupied with food than when they started.
In therapy, that means we never set weight-loss goals and we never weigh you. We pay attention to eating that answers to your body’s signals, movement you might enjoy, sleep, stress, and the way you talk to yourself. Some clients come in after twenty years on and off diets. Others just want food to take up less room in their head.
The ten principles, in plain words
Intuitive Eating was created by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, and first published as a book in 1995. Its ten principles are a way back to trusting your own hunger, fullness and satisfaction. They aren’t a new set of rules to pass or fail.
Reject the Diet Mentality
Letting go of the hope that the next plan will be the one. If diet after diet hasn’t worked, that tells you something about diets.
Honor Your Hunger
Eating enough, and regularly, so your body stops sounding the alarm. Hunger that gets ignored for long enough tends to come back as eating that feels out of control.
Make Peace with Food
Giving yourself real permission to eat. The foods you forbid are usually the ones you can’t stop thinking about.
Challenge the Food Police
Talking back to the voice that calls you good for skipping dessert and bad for having it.
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Eating food you actually like, somewhere you can enjoy it. A satisfying meal makes “enough” much easier to recognize.
Feel Your Fullness
Noticing the point where you’re comfortably full. That gets easier once you trust more food will be there later.
Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
Finding comfort that doesn’t all run through food, without shaming yourself for the times it does.
Respect Your Body
Treating the body you have right now with basic dignity: clothes that fit, rest, care. You don’t have to love it to respect it.
Movement: Feel the Difference
Moving because it feels good, with the calorie math left out. Walks count. So do rest days.
Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition
Choosing food that supports your health and still tastes good. It comes last on purpose, once the rules have loosened their grip.
We work through these at your pace and in whatever order makes sense for you. Plenty of people spend months on the first three, and that’s fine.
People who are worn out by diet culture
You don’t need a diagnosis or a dramatic story. If any of these sound familiar, this work is probably a good fit.
- You’ve started over on Monday more times than you can count
- Certain foods feel off limits, and then they’re all you can think about
- You exercise to earn food, or to make up for it afterward
- You skip the pool, the photos, or the party because of how you think you’ll look
- Your body changed with pregnancy, illness, medication, or age, and you’re struggling with it
- You’re in eating disorder recovery and want a weight-neutral therapist
- You’re a parent who doesn’t want to pass food worries on to your kids
- You want health support that doesn’t open with your weight
“As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I also help clients heal their relationship with food and body, because diet culture takes up a ridiculous amount of brain space.”
Becca Moravec, LPC, LMFT · Read her bio →
What the work looks like week to week
Sessions are 50 minutes, usually weekly at first. Some weeks go deep into history. Others are about what to do at dinner tonight.
Where the rules came from
We get curious about the family, culture and experiences that taught you how to eat and how to look, and what those rules have been protecting you from.
Body trust →Back in touch with your body
Gentle, body-based tools for noticing hunger, fullness, and the places where stress and shame show up physically.
A beginner’s guide →Real life, this week
How to get through a family event where everyone is dieting, or what to say when a doctor brings up your weight before anything else.
Intuitive Eating in therapy →Most people notice food taking up less space within a few months. Years of dieting don’t unwind on a fixed schedule, though, and we won’t pretend they do. We work alongside weight-inclusive dietitians and doctors when that helps, in person in Denver or online anywhere in Colorado.
Questions about HAES therapy
HAES is a health framework: a set of principles for caring for your health without making weight the measure of it. Intuitive Eating is a specific approach to rebuilding your relationship with food and eating. They fit together well, and we usually use both.
It can be. HAES and Intuitive Eating are compatible with eating disorder recovery, but some pieces, like eating by hunger cues, may need to wait until your body is medically stable and your treatment team agrees. We’ll talk honestly about where you are, and if you need more support than weekly outpatient therapy, we’ll help you find it. Our disordered eating page has more on levels of care.
It’s a common fear, and an understandable one. What usually happens is that eating settles once restriction stops and you start responding to your body’s signals. There may be a stretch where certain foods feel loud. The preoccupation and the swings tend to come from restriction itself, and they ease as the restriction does.
Yes. We often work alongside medical providers and dietitians who share a weight-inclusive approach. If you have a medical condition that affects how you eat, we can help coordinate care.
Yes. Our Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors see clients by secure video anywhere in Colorado, and all three also see clients in person at our Denver office. See online therapy in Colorado for how video sessions work.
Individual sessions are 50 minutes and cost $175 with Natalie or Jillian, or $200 with Becca. We’re out of network, so we don’t bill insurance directly, but we provide a superbill after each session that you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement.
Who to see for this
Food can take up less of your day
Book a free 15-minute consultation. We’ll ask what you’re hoping for and match you with one of our Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors.
Schedule a Free Consultation