The women I work with don’t struggle with food or money because they lack discipline.
They struggle because their nervous systems are under constant pressure from perfectionism, over-responsibility, and anxiety.
When your system lives on high alert, eating and spending become reliable ways to feel better (even if they cause shame after).
Therapy for emotional eating and emotional spending helps you interrupt this cycle at the root. We won’t add any more rules, but instead work with your nervous system instead of against it.
Therapy for Emotional Eating, Emotional Spending & Anxiety in Greenville, SC
Emotional Eating and Anxiety: Why It Starts Long Before Food
The Scale at the Doctor’s Office
The nurse calls your name.
“Step on the scale.”
You try not to look. You always try not to look. But of course you do.
Then the hot, heavy shame floods your chest, just like always.
So your brain snaps into action: Time to get serious.
A plan appears instantly. You want to fix it.
Fast forward a couple weeks.
You miss lunch, so you grab something quick. You’ve “been good,” so it’s probably fine?
Then you’re standing in the pantry, eating without quite realizing you’re eating, feeling all warm and sweet and numb.
Then the spell breaks and the shame rushes back in.
“How did I let this happen?”
How Emotional Eating and Emotional Spending Are Connected
Some of my clients binge. Some don’t.
They restrict, graze, or overspend.
They obsess, over-plan, or mentally spiral.
They overwork, over commit, and over budget.
The exact details of it don’t matter so much, because it’s all the same nervous system pattern.
See the moment right after the gut punch “How did I let this happen?” is where most overachievers try to fix the problem.
But here’s the truth:
The behavior isn’t the root issue. It’s the nervous system trying to come down from overload.
Emotional Eating & Spending as Nervous System Coping
When something really difficult happens (a late fee, a conflict, a sense of failure, a sudden loss of control), your nervous system spikes.
Buzzy.
Tight.
Braced.
Your brain wants certainty now.
Food, spending, planning, or rules offer fast relief.
Until they don’t.
But please hear me when I say this isn’t weakness.
This is your body’s best attempt at protection.
How Therapy with Emilea Richardson Helps Interrupt the Cycle
Reworking the Inner Mama Bear
Inside you is a fierce protector, an inner Mama Bear, if you will.
Right now, she treats anxiety like a dangerous threat instead of a sign.
She responds with:
rigidity instead of steadiness
control instead of comfort
discipline instead of safety
In therapy, we give her a new job description.
Not “stand down,” but stand with.
You experience what it’s like to have intense feelings met with calm, clarity, and containment.
My anxious overachiever clients in SC describe it like they can finally exhale. They can surf their big feelings. Less panic attacks, less shame when checking the bank account, more confidence.
What We Do in Therapy for Emotional Eating and Spending
Map Your Nervous System
1
Not a generic chart. Yours. A unique break down of what your body and brain are experiencing day in, day out.
We identify what spikes you, what collapses you, and what actually brings relief.
Build Tools That Work in Real Life
2
Not affirmations.
Not trackers.
Real-time tools we practice together, designed for your actual stress levels that help in session and out of session.
Create More Than One Escape Hatch
3
Food or spending doesn’t have to be the only exit from overwhelming things.
We expand your options so your system has flexibility instead of panic.
You Don’t Need More Discipline
I promise you -
Food isn’t the enemy (or the cure).
Money isn’t the enemy (or the silver bullet).
Your body isn’t the enemy (or your savior).
Your nervous system learned skills that helped once. Just like medicine in the wrong dose becomes poison, those helpful skills aren’t helping anymore.
With therapy for emotional eating, emotional spending, and anxiety in Greenville, SC, you can learn new ones that actually work.
Eating doesn’t have to feel like a storm.
Spending doesn’t have to feel like dissociation.
Life doesn’t have to swing between restriction and chaos.
If you’re ready, I’d love to be the grizzly on your team.