Eating Disorder Therapy in Ann Arbor, MI
There is no threshold to cross and no weight that qualifies you. Therapists and dietitians in one team, and no scales in the therapy room.
(734) 555-0141Six Things That Are Not Standard
Each of these exists because it is the reason somebody delayed getting help, sometimes for years.
No weigh-ins in the therapy room
Medical monitoring is real and necessary, and it happens with your physician or dietitian — not at the start of the hour you came to talk. Being weighed before therapy makes the session about the number for the next forty minutes.
No 'sick enough' threshold
You do not need a diagnosis, a BMI, or a certain frequency of behaviour. Most eating disorders occur in people at completely ordinary weights, and waiting to qualify is how a treatable few months becomes an entrenched few years.
The dietitian is down the corridor
Not a referral across town. Our therapists and dietitians work in the same practice and actually talk to each other, so you stop being the person carrying messages between two professionals with half the picture each.
No before-and-after photos, anywhere
Not on this site, not in the office. Recovery imagery centred on bodies is at best unhelpful and at worst actively triggering, and there is no version of it that belongs on a clinical website.
We do not discuss weights or numbers
Not calories, not goal weights, not what you ate in comparison to anyone else. Specific numbers are the currency of the disorder and repeating them in session mostly feeds it.
We say when you need more than us
This is outpatient care. If you need a higher level — day treatment, residential, or medical stabilisation — we will say so directly and help you get there rather than holding on to a case we cannot safely carry.
The Waiting Is the Most Dangerous Part
Almost everybody who calls has been thinking about calling for a long time. A year is common. Four is not unusual. And the reason is nearly always the same sentence, in some form: it is not bad enough yet.
That sentence is produced by the illness, and it is remarkably effective. It sets a threshold that keeps moving — a number, a frequency, a level of visible harm — and every time you approach it, it relocates. Meanwhile the behaviours become more automatic, the neural grooves deepen, and what could have been a few months of work becomes a few years.
So we have removed as many thresholds as we can. No diagnosis needed to book. No weight criteria. No requirement that anything has visibly fallen apart. If you are thinking about food, your body, or eating more than you want to be, that is a sufficient reason and it is the only one we need.
We are also plain that most eating disorders occur at ordinary weights, and that the stereotype of who has one is wrong often enough to be dangerous — it delays men, older adults, athletes and people in larger bodies for years.
- ✓No diagnosis, weight criterion or threshold required to start
- ✓Most eating disorders occur at completely ordinary weights
- ✓The stereotype delays men, older adults, athletes and larger-bodied people
- ✓Thinking about it more than you want to is a sufficient reason to call
Four Things People Believe That Keep Them Away
Every one of these comes up in the first ten minutes, usually apologetically.
I'm not thin enough for this to count
The large majority of people with eating disorders are not underweight — atypical anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder all occur at ordinary or higher weights, and the medical risks are comparable. Weight is one of the least reliable indicators of severity, and using it as your own entry criterion is the illness setting the door policy.
I'll be made to eat things in front of someone
Not in the first session, and never as an ambush. Food exposure is a real part of treatment for some people, and when it happens it is planned, discussed and agreed in advance. Nobody here will produce a meal you did not know was coming.
They'll send me to hospital
Outpatient care is what we do and what most people need. Higher levels of care exist for medical instability, and if you are in that position we will say so plainly and help you get there — but that is a specific clinical situation, not the default outcome of asking for help.
Part of me doesn't want to stop
That is not an obstacle to treatment; it is one of the most reliable features of the illness and we plan around it. Ambivalence is expected from day one. Anyone who requires you to arrive fully committed does not understand what they are treating.
You Did Not Cause This, and You Are Part of the Treatment
For a long time families were treated as the cause. That view is decades out of date and it did enormous harm, and it is worth saying clearly because a great many parents still arrive braced for blame.
Eating disorders arise from a tangle of genetic, biological and environmental factors. Parents did not cause them. What the evidence does show is that for adolescents, parents are the single most effective resource available — which is the basis of Family-Based Treatment, the best-supported approach for teenagers.
FBT is demanding and we will not undersell it. In the first phase parents take full charge of food, which is exhausting, and it frequently makes the household worse before it gets better. We tell families that at the start rather than at week six, because being warned is what makes it survivable.
For adults, families are involved at whatever level the person chooses. Partners and parents can also be seen separately here — supporting somebody with an eating disorder is its own load and it deserves its own hour.
- ✓Families do not cause eating disorders — that view is decades out of date
- ✓For adolescents, parents are the most effective resource available (FBT)
- ✓FBT is genuinely hard, and we say how hard at the start, not at week six
- ✓Partners and parents can be seen separately, as clients in their own right
What We Treat
Six presentations. You do not need to know which one you have — working that out is our job.
Unsure whether what you have counts? That is one of the most common questions we get, and the answer is almost always yes. Call and ask.
Four Steps, and Nothing Is Sprung on You
You will know what happens at every stage before it happens.
A free 20-minute call
With a therapist. No questions about weight, no questions about numbers. We will ask what is going on and whether outpatient care is the right level — and say so honestly if it is not.
An assessment session
Seventy-five minutes covering history, behaviours, medical picture and what you actually want to change. We will ask you to see a physician for basic bloodwork, which is about safety rather than qualifying.
A plan, including the dietitian
Most people work with both a therapist and a dietitian here. You get the plan in writing — what happens, roughly how long, and specifically what will be asked of you around food and when.
The work, then stepping down
Weekly for the first months, often fortnightly later. Recovery is not linear and slips are part of it rather than evidence of failure. We plan for you to finish, and the door stays open.
South Fourth Avenue
Ground floor, no scales anywhere a client can see one, and a waiting area with something to read that is not a health magazine.
What It Costs, Before You Have to Ask
Eating disorder treatment has a reputation for ruinous cost, which is mostly about residential care. Outpatient work is a different order of magnitude and here are the numbers.
Therapy sessions are $170 for 50 minutes. The assessment is 75 minutes at $230. Dietitian sessions are $150 for 50 minutes. Family-Based Treatment sessions run 80 minutes at $215, because the whole family is in the room.
We are in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Priority Health and Aetna. Eating disorders have relatively good insurance parity protection compared with much of mental health — many plans are legally required to cover them comparably to physical conditions, and a surprising number of people do not know that. We will check your specific benefits and tell you in writing what to expect.
Eight reduced-fee places are held at all times, starting at $70, split between therapy and nutrition so that cost never forces a choice between the two.
- ✓$170 therapy · $150 dietitian · $230 assessment · $215 for FBT sessions
- ✓In network with BCBS of Michigan, Priority Health and Aetna
- ✓Parity protections often apply — many people do not know this
- ✓Eight reduced-fee places from $70, split across therapy and nutrition
Shared With Permission, Names Changed
I spent four years telling myself I would get help when it got bad enough, and quietly meaning when I got thin enough to deserve it. Nobody here asked me to prove anything. That single fact is why I stayed past the first session.
Having the dietitian down the corridor rather than across town changed the whole thing. They actually talked to each other, so I stopped being the person carrying messages between two professionals who each had half the picture.
We did FBT for our fifteen-year-old and it was the hardest six months of our lives. What made it survivable was being told at the start exactly how hard it would be, and never once being treated as the cause of it.
Twenty Minutes, and Nobody Will Ask You to Qualify
No questions about weight and no questions about numbers — not on the call and not in the form. Tell us what is going on in whatever words you have. You can also write to hello@commontabletherapy.com.
Things People Ask on the First Call
Do I have to be weighed?
Not in therapy. Medical monitoring matters and it happens with your physician or, where clinically needed, with our dietitian — and even then it can be done blind, meaning you are weighed facing away and never told the number. That is a normal request and about a third of our clients make it.
I'm at a normal weight. Do I still qualify?
Yes, and this is the single most common reason people delay. The majority of eating disorders occur at ordinary or higher weights, and atypical anorexia carries medical risks comparable to the underweight presentation. Weight is a poor indicator of severity and a worse entry criterion.
Will you make me eat in front of you?
Not without planning it with you first. Supported eating is part of treatment for some people and genuinely useful, but it is always discussed and agreed in advance. There is no version of this where a meal appears unannounced.
Can men have eating disorders?
Yes, and they are substantially under-diagnosed — partly because the stereotype delays recognition and partly because screening questions were largely designed around women. Roughly one in five of our clients is male, and that proportion is rising as the assumption weakens.
Do you take insurance?
We are in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Priority Health and Aetna. Worth knowing: eating disorders often have stronger parity protection than other mental health conditions, meaning many plans must cover them comparably to physical illness. We check your specific plan and put the expected cost in writing.
What if I need more than outpatient care?
Then we will say so plainly and help you get there — we work alongside two intensive outpatient programmes and a residential programme in Michigan. It is not a rejection and it is not a failure; it is a level-of-care decision, and getting it right is part of what you are paying us for.
Book a Free 20-Minute Call
Tell us what is going on in whatever words you have — there are no questions here about weight or numbers, and there will not be on the call either. A therapist replies personally, usually within one business day.
- Visit us215 South Fourth Avenue, Suite 12, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
- Call us(734) 555-0141
- Email ushello@commontabletherapy.com