Maria Blahut

Parents, are you struggling with your children on the Autism Spectrum or developmental delays? Are your children displaying challenges with difficulties in identifying emotions, relating to others or adjusting to their school environment? Or perhaps you have experienced difficulties with things such as feeling sadness, or lack of motivation or maybe you’ve even struggled with feelings of panic when you are out in public and worried something bad will happen to you? I specialize in working with children, adolescents and adults managing Autism Spectrum Disorders, Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities and Physical Disabilities.

I focus on looking at the whole person and the uniqueness of each individual. I partner with clients to dispel beliefs about themselves that have limited their ability to fully realize their goals. I look at where clients are focusing their thoughts, how that may be having a negative impact, and work to shift that mindset to be more confident and productive.

I have experience in a variety of settings including ABA therapy. My approach is optimistic and I focus on the human capacity to overcome hardships, pain and despair. Together we can embrace each situation in a warm, safe and accepting therapeutic environment. I believe that everyone has strengths and that even our greatest challenges can become a superpower.

Maria Blahut

Eating Disorders - It's Not About the Food

By Kelly Lopez

If it’s not about the food, what is it really about?

The eating disorder serves a function, it does a job. Despite the problems an eating disorder creates, it is an effort to cope, shield against, communicate, and solve problems. Behaviors may be a way to establish a sense of power or control, self-worth, strength, and containment. Bringing may be used to numb pain. Purging may be a way to release emotions. When one cannot cope in healthy ways, adaptive functions (behaviors) are created to ensure a sense of safety, security, and control.
According to Carolyn Costin*, some of the “adaptive functions that eating disorder behaviors commonly serve are”:
It’s not about the food, it’s a way of coping with low self-esteem, negative emotions, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, unstable home, difficulty resolving conflict and much more.
*Costin, Carolyn. The Eating Disorder Sourcebook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Causes, Treatments and Prevention of Eating Disorders. 3rd. edition, McGraw Hill, 2007.
Fuller, Kristen. “Eating Disorders: It’s Not All about Food.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 Mar. 2017