Eating Disorders in the LGBTQIA+ Community
By Dr. Colleen Reichmann, owner and clinical director of Wildflower Therapy
Our society has long had a problematic, black and white notion of who struggles with eating disorders. It’s a stereotype (white, emaciated, young, cisgender, and heterosexual) that leaves out so many- especially those in marginalized communities. One group of people who have been notably very negatively impacted by our tendency to conceptualize eating disorders in this reductive way is the LGBTQIA+ community. Because eating disorders actually affect queer, trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people at significantly higher rates than the general population. And yet our societal narrative of who to look out for when it comes to eating disorder awareness and identification keeps countless LGBTQIA+ people from recognizing their pain as something worthy of care.
When the Body Has Never Felt Safe
For many LGBTQIA+ people, the body has never felt neutral. It has been misgendered, scrutinized, sexualized, or rejected- and sometimes all at once. From an early age, queer and trans individuals often learn that their bodies are sites of both hypervisibility and vulnerability. In this context, food and weight can become ways of coping, protecting oneself, or trying to gain control in a world that feels unsafe.
Eating disorder behaviors are not about vanity for any population. But they are often especially poignant survival strategies for those in the queer community who have lived in fear and chronic invalidation.
How Eating Disorders Can Be Shaped by Identity and Dysphoria
One especially notable way that the eating disorder field has historically failed queer folks is by focusing on “loving your body as it is.” Many members of the LGBTQIA+ community describe how their eating disorder became intertwined with gender identity, sexual orientation, or dysphoria. Research indicates that trans folks restrict food to minimize body features that feel distressing at higher rates than the cis population. Gay men also report experiencing immense pressure to conform to narrow body ideals within queer spaces, as do nonbinary and gender fluid folks. The struggle of coping with hope weight changes affect gender expression or perceived gender expression deserves thoughtful exploration in the therapy space.
These experiences are deeply personal, but they do not exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by systemic stigma, discrimination, and cultural expectations placed on LGBTQIA+ bodies.
Why LGBTQIA+ Affirming Eating Disorder Treatment in Pennsylvania Matters
Because these factors are so central, LGBTQIA+ affirming eating disorder treatment must go beyond food plans, symptom reduction, or “your body is the least interesting thing about you!” Healing requires a therapeutic space where identity is respected, pronouns are honored, and the emotional impact of living in a marginalized body is fully understood.
A queer-affirming eating disorder therapist recognizes that ongoing cultural stress, trauma, and chronic hypervigilance are not side issues. They are often at the core of the disorder.
Finding a Queer Eating Disorder Therapist in Philadelphia
For many people in Philadelphia and across PA, working with a queer-affirming eating disorder therapist can feel profoundly different from past therapy experiences. In an affirming space, you do not need to explain your identity or justify why certain medical or body-focused experiences feel triggering. You are not asked to separate your eating disorder from your gender or sexuality. These things are explored together, with care and nuance.
This kind of therapy allows clients to feel seen as whole people, not problems to be fixed.
Recovery Might Look Different in the LGBTQIA+ Community
Recovery is not one-size-fits-all. We hear this all the time, but it’s especially true for LGBTQIA+ individuals. Healing may involve grieving the body you were told you should want, learning to nourish a body that challenges social norms, or coming to terms with changes that affect how you are gendered or perceived. These are NOT superficial concerns; they are deeply emotional experiences that deserve thoughtful, compassionate care.
Eating disorder treatment that centers queer and trans experiences allows space for these realities rather than rushing past them.
You Don’t Have to Be “Ready” to Begin Eating Disorder Therapy
If you are considering starting eating disorder therapy, just please know that you do not need certainty or confidence to start. You do not need the “right” diagnosis, the “right” body, or the perfect words. You do not need to hit some sort of rock bottom. Feeling tired, overwhelmed, or curious about a different way of living is enough.
Also, please know that if you are hoping to find a therapist with lived experience of an eating disorder, or who is queer themselves (or both)- this is valid, and a hope worthy of pursuing. You are allowed to ask for this when you call different therapy practices. Any therapist who is up to date and who has a solid understanding of our field will be able to speak to how much shared various identities can help in terms of creating a safe relationship.
Reclaiming the Right to Exist in Your Body
At its core, eating disorder recovery is about more than food. It’s about reclaiming your right to exist in your body without shame or punishment. For LGBTQIA+ people, this work is both deeply personal and quietly radical.
If you are looking for a queer eating disorder therapist in Philadelphia or LGBTQIA-affirming eating disorder treatment in Pennsylvania, support is available. You deserve care that honors your full identity and understands the real-world forces that shaped your relationship with your body.
You are not broken. You are responding to a world that has not always made space for you. And, though some of the more traditional eating disorder recovery spaces may not demonstrate this, there is a place for you in the recovery community too. Healing is possible- and often in highly individualized, radical and creative ways!
Looking for Eating Disorder Therapy in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania?
If this post resonated, our therapists at Wildflower Therapy support children, teens, adults, and families across Pennsylvania who are navigating things like eating disorders, disordered eating, ADHD, body image concerns, anxiety, depression, infertility, and maternal mental health/infertility.
We provide therapy in Philadelphia (and virtually throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Ohio, and Massechusetts.) We work with children, adolescents, and adults. We are neurodivergent-affirming, queer-celebratory, and feminist-relational in our work.
If you’re looking for a therapist in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, we’d be honored to walk alongside you. Please reach out today to book your free consultation call.