Books I Recommend in Eating Disorder Therapy (From a Salt Lake City Therapist)
As an eating disorder therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah, I’m often asked for book recommendations to support the work we’re doing in therapy. While self-help books can be incredibly helpful, they are not a substitute for working with a trained professional who can help you understand the emotional, relational, and biological roots of your eating disorder.
These are the books I most often recommend to clients who are in eating disorder therapy or who are beginning to consider it. They support intuitive eating, body respect, trauma-informed care, and self-compassion, all core parts of the work I do with women in recovery.
These books are meant to support the therapeutic process and offer understanding between sessions, not to replace the depth of healing that happens in eating disorder therapy.
How These Books Support Eating Disorder Therapy
In eating disorder therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah, we focus on helping you rebuild trust with your body, reduce shame, and understand the emotional and relational roots of disordered eating. The books below support this work by reinforcing intuitive eating, body respect, trauma-informed care, and self-compassion. While they can’t replace therapy, they often deepen insight and help clients feel less alone in the recovery process.
Intuitive Eating
“Intuitive Eating” is the book I need everyone on the entire planet to read. Intuitive eating for eating disorder recovery is the sweet elixir in helping people with an eating disorder or disordered eating make peace with food. If you want the short version of it, Whether you are a chronic dieter, struggling with restriction, binging, or food just feels complicated to you, you have gotta get your hot, little hands on a copy of this. The vast majority of us have moved away from being connected with our internal bodily cues when it comes to eating, and this book will help you get back to it. Intuitive Eating is often a goal we focus on in therapy.
2. The Anti-Diet
Before you are tempted to start another diet or lifestyle change with food, read “The Anti-Diet”. This book identifies some of the harms of dieting and introduces the concept of “diet culture”. “The Anti-Diet will challenge what you’ve believed about dieting and wellness based on scientific research.
3. Health At Every Size
“Health At Every Size” challenges the preconceived notion that thinness=health. This book utilizes scientific research to challenge what we have been led to believe about weight and being healthy. “Health At Every Size” is not only a book but is a movement to accept the body you are in regardless of size. This is the approach I utilize in therapy with my clients. “Health At Every Size” has a primary focus to develop behaviors that promote health outside of weight loss.
4. Life without ED
If you are struggling with an eating disorder or if you think someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, read “Life Without ED”. I have had many clients read this book and finally understand their eating disorder in a new light. They have had their parents, husbands, friends, etc. read it to help get more insight and awareness on what it is like to have an eating disorder This is an extremely helpful read no matter where you or your loved one are at in recovery.
5. More Than A Body
“More Than A Body” is a powerful read on body image. It will challenge some of the ideals you are holding onto about your body. This book offers an alternative perspective on recognizing your body is good regardless of how it looks. The authors have done extensive research on body image, and if you are looking to improve in this area, this book will help you with this goal.
6. Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind To Yourself
“Self-Compassion” is a powerful book for my people who struggle to be kind to themselves. I work with people who hold high standards for themselves and give themselves a hard time when they don’t achieve those standards. Rather than focusing on self-esteem, practicing being kind and compassionate to yourself is what this book offers. Self-compassion is a big part of the therapeutic work I do with people, and this book can be helpful in understanding how to do that more fully.
7. Body Kindness
“Body Kindness” is based on four principles 1. What you do 2. How you feel 3. Who you are and 4. Where you belong. This book provides a practical approach to connect and care for yourself. It provides exercises and prompts to help you understand your values and how to live them. Most of us need help being kind to our bodies, and this book will help you do it.
8. The Body Is Not An Apology
“The Body Is Not An Apology.” This book is a powerful book on really healing your relationship with your body. I love the questions and prompts in this book that challenges how you view your body and other people’s bodies. This is a must read for body image work and the majority of clients I work with struggle with their body image.
9. The Body Keeps the Score
“The Body Keeps the Score” is a heavy and comprehensive book of research and case studies on how trauma impacts the body and the brain. I find this book can be pretty triggering to people that have experiences trauma so I don’t recommend diving headfirst into reading it. I reference this book at least once a day as a therapist because of how often the concepts are useful in the work I do with clients. If you have experienced trauma and want to learn more about yourself, I would consider reading this book when you are in the emotional space to do so.
10. What Happened to You
“What Happened to You” is another trauma-informed book written by Oprah and a psychiatrist and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry. This book is a good alternative to “The Body Keeps the Score” as it is less triggering to some. Oprah shares her experiences of trauma while Dr. Perry helps break trauma down and make sense of behaviors, emotions, and reactions through a scientific lens. This book may help you understand more fully your behavior and yourself.
I hope these books are useful to you as you work in therapy. I hope they help you understand more about yourself and to begin being more kind to yourself.
I work with women across Utah who are in eating disorder recovery or beginning to explore therapy, including clients in Salt Lake City, Provo, Logan, Ogden, Cedar City, St. George, and surrounding areas. Many find that reading these books brings insight and validation, but also highlights the need for deeper support around shame, trauma, and their relationship with food and their bodies. Through online eating disorder therapy in Utah, women are able to work with a specialist even if there isn’t an eating disorder therapist in their immediate area.
Begin Eating Disorder Therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah
If you’re reading through these books and seeing yourself in the pages, it may be a sign that your relationship with food and your body has been shaped by more than just willpower or knowledge. Eating disorders are not a personal failure — they are deeply tied to shame, anxiety, trauma, and the ways we learned to cope.
I provide eating disorder therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah, for women who are tired of fighting with food, feeling disconnected from their bodies, or cycling through restriction and guilt. In therapy, we work to understand the emotional and relational roots of your eating patterns and to build a safer, more compassionate relationship with yourself.
If you live in Salt Lake City or anywhere in Utah, you can also work with me through secure online eating disorder therapy in Utah, so you don’t have to wait for a specialist in your immediate area to get support.
To get started:
We’ll talk about what you’ve been struggling with and what you’re hoping for
If it feels like a good fit, we’ll begin eating disorder therapy together
Many of the women I work with also struggle with binge eating, body image, and anxiety, and these concerns often overlap. Therapy can help you address them in an integrated, trauma-informed way.
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in Utah
I know it’s difficult to find an eating disorder therapist in many parts of Utah. In order to really recover from your eating, you need the help of a professional who has the experience, training, and expertise. This is why I provide online therapy in Utah. It’s effective and convenient while helping you dive into eating disorder recovery.
Online counseling also means that wherever you are in Utah, we can work together. I work with clients in Cedar City, St. George, Logan, Salt Lake City, Provo, Heber City, and more.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of Maple Canyon Therapy in Utah. She specializes in working with women who struggle with eating disorders, binge eating, body image, and the emotional impact of chronic dieting, shame, and anxiety. Ashlee has provided eating disorder treatment across all levels of care, including inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient settings, and brings a trauma-informed, Health at Every Size®-aligned approach to her work.
She provides eating disorder therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as online eating disorder therapy for women throughout Utah, and frequently integrates intuitive eating, attachment-informed care, and compassion-focused interventions into her treatment. Ashlee is passionate about helping women develop a safer, more trusting relationship with food and their bodies, and about supporting recovery in a way that is respectful, non-shaming, and sustainable.
When she’s not in session, Ashlee enjoys spending time with her husband and their two Goldendoodles and exploring Southern Utah, including Zion National Park.