We understand legacy burdens as emotional, relational, and cultural debts carried by parts of the system that were simply trying to survive. Eating disorder behaviours often emerge as protectors, following these old rules to avoid pain, rejection, or perceived danger.

When we meet these parts with curiosity instead of control, and when we begin to name the inherited messages they carry, the system can begin to breathe. We don’t force healing; we make space for it.

When food has been paired with fear, shame, or scarcity, eating is no longer a simple act; it becomes a conversation between parts. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy helps us understand avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), binge eating, and childhood food trauma not as defiance but as protection. Beneath the picky eating or urgent binges are parts doing their best to survive a past that once made nourishment feel unsafe. IFS offers a compassionate roadmap to listen inward, meet those protectors, and help the system trust that nourishment no longer has to hurt.

Eating disorders aren’t just symptoms they are survival strategies. Explore how IFS therapy helps unpack the inner patterns that keep us stuck, and how healing begins with understanding, not blame.