It was supposed to be dinner.
Specialized, evidence-based treatment for adult eating disorders — covered by your insurance, delivered virtually anywhere in California.
In-network with Dr. Habashy: Aetna · Carelon · Cigna · Oscar. Don't see your plan? The 15-minute consultation is free regardless of insurance. Out-of-network superbills provided for PPO reimbursement. HSA/FSA accepted.
When the plate becomes a spreadsheet
You used to be able to eat. Now there is a number attached to every bite, every menu, every grocery list. The math runs constantly in the background — calories, grams, ratios, exceptions, rules that contradict rules. You've told yourself it's discipline, that you're just careful, that if you weren't doing this you'd lose control.
Here is what is actually happening: an eating disorder has restructured the part of your brain that decides what is safe to eat. The harder you try to think your way out of it, the more deeply it digs in. This is not a willpower problem. It's a clinical problem with a treatment that works.
An evidence-based path that actually works
Enhanced CBT (CBT-E) was developed by Christopher Fairburn at the University of Oxford and is the most rigorously studied outpatient treatment for adult eating disorders. It doesn't try to talk you out of your relationship with food — it identifies the specific psychological mechanisms keeping the disorder running, and gives you the skills to dismantle them one at a time.
What the research says
Across major published trials, CBT-E achieves full remission in approximately two-thirds of adult patients who complete the protocol, with gains sustained at 60-week follow-up. CBT-E is recommended as first-line care for adult eating disorders by the UK's NICE guidelines. (Fairburn CG, et al. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2009; updated trials through 2015. University of Oxford / CREDO.)
What this will actually feel like
You learn to see what's actually maintaining the disorder. The first phase builds a shared map — the dietary rules, the body checking, the rituals — so you can see the system, not just feel its grip.
You build flexibility around eating. Regular eating, broadening food variety, learning to interrupt the restraint-binge cycle — not by willpower, but through skills you learn and practice.
You learn to recognize “feeling fat” as a signal of underlying emotional distress. Body image work helps you identify and respond to emotions such as anxiety, shame, inadequacy, or loss of control that the eating disorder may misinterpret as body dissatisfaction.
You leave with relapse-prevention skills you keep. The final phase isn't closure — it's building your own toolkit for slips, stressors, and the long arc beyond treatment. Specialized ED care covered by insurance is genuinely rare in California; Grounded Therapy is one of the few practices doing both.
Dr. Jessica Habashy, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist · CA PSY36582
Dr. Habashy specializes in evidence-based eating disorder treatment across the lifespan — anorexia, bulimia, ARFID, OSFED, and binge eating disorder. She trained at UCSD's Eating Disorders Center (one of the country's leading FBT training sites) and in Stanford-area private practice, and works with manualized FBT, CBT-E, DBT, and ACT. She works virtually with families and individuals across California, with particular care for first-generation, LGBTQ+, and culturally marginalized families whose experiences have often been dismissed in conventional treatment.
The conversation you've been having with yourself.
No commitment, no intake forms — just a conversation about what you're facing and whether CBT-E is the right next step. In-network: Aetna · Carelon · Cigna · Oscar; out-of-network superbills + HSA/FSA accepted.