Disordered Eating · Nutritionist Support · Women's Only
A specialty track for women navigating an eating disorder alongside substance use, trauma, or mental health concerns. Clinical therapy plus Registered Dietitian support for meal planning, accountability, and nutritional rebuilding.
“Anchored tides saved my life. I had been to an inpantient facility before and my sobriety wasn't lasting, until I found this place. I enjoyed the different groups and the staff and women are so welcoming. I felt so comfortable here, which I hadn't felt before. I now have the confidence to succeed in life. Very thankful for this place.”
A women-only outpatient specialty track — for adult women navigating anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and OSFED — clinically significant from any starting point.
Registered Dietitian on the clinical team — meal planning, grocery support, and nutritional rebuilding that integrates directly with therapy — not a separate referral.
Integrated with substance use, trauma, and mental health — the eating disorder is rarely the only story. We treat the picture, not the diagnosis in isolation.
Outpatient — not residential or medical stabilization — women who need higher medical care are flagged at assessment and referred to the appropriate provider before any outpatient work begins.
Covered by most major commercial PPO plans — including dietitian sessions when they're part of a coordinated clinical plan. Benefits verified before her first session.
The picture isn't always what you'd expect
For many of the women we treat, the eating disorder doesn't look the way the cultural image suggests. She might have been functioning, achieving, parenting, and showing up for years while the eating disorder quietly ran the background of her life. The clinical significance isn't determined by appearance — it's determined by what the relationship with food, body, and eating is doing to her.
See what we treat
What we treat
Our eating disorders track supports adult women navigating:
When outpatient isn't the right level of care
Our admissions team flags this during assessment — and we refer out before we ever begin outpatient work.
What the Registered Dietitian adds
A Registered Dietitian is part of our clinical team, and her work integrates directly with the rest of treatment rather than running on a separate track.
Not idealized plans — the kind a woman can actually follow on a Tuesday with two kids and a full inbox.
Including the aisles of the store that have historically been the hardest to walk down.
Gradual reintroduction of foods, food groups, and eating cadences after restrictive or undernourished patterns.
Food-related triggers, body image work, and the emotional content underneath behaviors — one team, one plan.
Not abstinence. Not perfection. Not a new set of rigid rules. Sustainable, flexible, lived-in eating.
Eating disorder behavior doesn't shift in a therapy room alone. It shifts in the kitchen, the restaurant, the grocery store, and the family dinner table. Dietitian work alongside therapy is, in our experience, what makes the change stick.
Levels of care for eating disorders
Calibrated to where a woman is clinically. PHP is the highest level of care we offer; IOP is the structured step-down or entry point; OP is the long-horizon maintenance level.
For women with higher-acuity eating disorder presentations who are medically cleared for outpatient programming.
Intensive individual and group therapy, dietitian support, and psychiatric care.
Read about PHPReduced weekly hours — often the step-down from PHP or the entry point when ED is significant but doesn't require full-day care.
Therapy and dietitian sessions on a cadence that fits real life.
Read about IOPLower-frequency clinical and dietitian support for women maintaining recovery, often after stepping down from higher levels.
The clinician doesn't change when the cadence lightens.
Read about OPEating disorder history and behavior, substance use, mental health, trauma, and medical readiness for outpatient. If outpatient isn't the right level, we refer to the appropriate provider first.
Depending on what's clinically primary, you enter the eating disorders track on its own — or alongside substance use, trauma, or mental health tracks. A clinical decision, not a self-select menu.
Individual therapy, women's-only group, EMDR where indicated, psychiatric care, and Registered Dietitian sessions — scheduled into your weekly plan.
Most women start in PHP or IOP and step down to outpatient as patterns stabilize. The clinical relationship continues across levels of care; the cadence is what changes.
Why eating disorders in women deserve specialty care
Modalities used in our eating disorders track
The clinical picture for any individual woman often doesn't fit neatly into one diagnostic category — and the modalities are chosen alongside her, not imposed from a template.
Evidence-based work on the cognitive distortions around food, body, and worth that drive eating disorder behavior.
Distress tolerance and emotion regulation — central to interrupting the cycles that keep eating disorders running.
For women whose eating disorder sits on top of unprocessed trauma. Our clinicians are EMDR-credentialed.
Meal planning, grocery support, nutritional rebuilding, and education — coordinated directly with your therapy.
Body, food, and eating are heavy forms of shame for women. The group is structured to let it surface safely.
Medication management and psychiatric follow-up — integrated with the rest of the clinical plan.
Most major commercial plans cover behavioral health treatment for eating disorders, including dietitian sessions when they're part of a coordinated clinical plan.
We are happy to verify your benefits prior to any commitment and let you know what your plan covers. Please note: we do not accept Medi-Cal or Medicaid.
PPO, HMO, and EPO accepted
Out-of-network
Not sure if you’re covered? Verify your insurance in 2 minutes
Why women choose Anchored Tides for ED treatment
Most outpatient women's programs leave nutrition to the woman to figure out. We don't — and we don't outsource it either.
A dedicated room for the kind of shame around food and body that women rarely speak out loud in mixed-gender settings.
ED rarely arrives alone. One assessment, one treatment plan, one clinical team — across whichever conditions are in play.
Not a default. For some women it helps; for others, it's counterproductive. The conversation is collaborative and clinically guided.
Becca Edge (CEO/Co-Founder), Amy Dutton (Co-Founder), and Clinical Director Zoe Tambling, LMFT.
Joint Commission accredited · NAATP member · DHCS License #300386AP.
If you or someone you love is in immediate crisis
Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or call 911. For eating disorder–specific support outside of an active crisis, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders Helpline is reachable at 1-866-662-1235.
Anchored Tides is not a 24/7 crisis line. For non-emergency admissions and clinical questions, call us at (866) 329-6639.
Our Huntington Beach location
Service areas
Most women travel in from Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, and the wider Southern California coast for our eating disorders track.
No. Many women in this track present with eating disorder behaviors that don't yet meet full diagnostic criteria but are still clinically significant and worth treating. Diagnosis is part of the clinical assessment, not a prerequisite for the first conversation. If the food, the body, or the behavior is shaping your life in ways you don't want it to, that's enough of a reason to reach out.
Yes. Registered Dietitian sessions are part of the treatment plan, scheduled as clinically appropriate. The dietitian is a member of the clinical team, not an outside referral, and her work coordinates directly with your therapy.
Yes. Many women come in with both — eating disorders and substance use often travel together, and we treat them in an integrated way through our Dual Diagnosis framework. One plan, one team.
No. We are an outpatient program — PHP, IOP, and OP levels of care. Women who need residential treatment or medical stabilization for an eating disorder require a higher level of care first. Our admissions team will flag this during assessment and refer to the appropriate provider.
Most major commercial plans cover behavioral health treatment for eating disorders, often including dietitian support when it's part of a coordinated clinical plan. We verify your specific benefits before admission so you know what's covered before you start.
Anorexia nervosa involves restriction of food intake, weight loss, and an intense fear of weight gain. Bulimia nervosa involves cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors like purging, restricting, or over-exercising. Binge eating disorder involves recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food with a sense of loss of control, without consistent compensatory behaviors. All three are clinically significant. The clinical picture for any individual woman often doesn't fit neatly into one category — and our work meets her where she actually is.
Yes. Many of the women we work with have a long history with food and body, and they reach out during a season when something is shifting — perimenopause, a life transition, a grief, a relationship change. Maintenance and resurgence support are part of what the track offers.
Weight monitoring is a clinical decision, not a default. Some women benefit from it; for others, it's counterproductive or actively destabilizing. Whether and how weight is monitored is determined collaboratively, with clinical judgment guiding the conversation.
Evidence & accountability
This page was reviewed by Zoe Tambling, LMFT on . The references below informed the specific topics noted with each citation.
