Why Healing from an Eating Disorder Comes Before Trauma Work: Understanding the Role of EMDR After Stabilization
Many people who live with eating disorders also have a history of trauma. It’s natural to want to heal from everything at once — to finally process the painful experiences that may have contributed to your struggles with food, body image, or self-worth.
However, one of the most important steps in lasting recovery is understanding the sequence of healing:
Before diving into deep trauma work such as EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), it’s essential to first achieve stabilization in your eating disorder recovery.
Let’s explore why that’s so important — and how trauma-focused therapy like EMDR can support you after you’ve built a foundation of stability and safety.
The Connection Between Eating Disorders and Trauma
Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or OSFED often develop as coping mechanisms. Trauma, whether it’s from childhood experiences, abuse, neglect, or chronic stress, can leave emotional wounds that feel overwhelming.
Food behaviors — restricting, binging, purging, or over-controlling — can become ways to manage feelings that seem too painful or chaotic. In this sense, the eating disorder often serves as a form of protection from trauma that hasn’t yet been processed.
Step One: Building Safety and Stability
Before trauma processing begins, clients need to develop a sense of emotional and physical safety.
This includes:
Establishing regular eating patterns and medical stability
Developing coping tools to manage intense emotions without harmful behaviors
Building trust with your therapist and creating a safe therapeutic environment
Learning grounding techniques and mindfulness skills
Trying to do trauma work too soon can actually feel destabilizing. When your body and mind are still in “survival mode,” revisiting trauma memories may trigger stronger urges to use eating disorder behaviors again.
Stabilization isn’t about delaying healing — it’s about preparing your system to handle deep emotional work safely.
Step Two: Trauma Work with EMDR Therapy
Once a stable foundation is established, trauma-focused therapy such as EMDR can become an incredibly powerful next step.
EMDR helps you process and reframe distressing memories so they no longer feel as triggering or defining. It supports the brain’s natural healing process by using bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or sounds) to safely revisit and reprocess trauma.
In eating disorder recovery, EMDR can help you:
Reduce trauma-related triggers
Heal shame, guilt, and body-related trauma
Strengthen self-compassion and body trust
Feel more in control and grounded
When done after stabilization, EMDR can create lasting change and deeper emotional healing.
Healing in the Right Order Leads to Lasting Recovery
It’s understandable to want to “get to the root” of your eating disorder right away. But healing works best when it’s paced thoughtfully.
By first stabilizing your relationship with food and your body, you build the emotional capacity needed to engage in trauma work — safely and effectively. While, I don’t specialize in treating eating disorders, I recommend visiting The Eating Recovery Center, since they specialize in helping people heal from eating disorders, and they work with most major insurances, including Kaiser.
You Deserve to Heal — Safely and Fully
If the eating disorder has been addressed and you feel like there’s deeper trauma behind it, you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Healing happens step by step — and we’ll walk with you every part of the way.
👉 Contact me today to schedule a confidential consultation and learn how we can support your recovery and trauma healing.
