I am having difficulty with emotional eating, and I would like some help. I'm actually desperate enough to consider getting a counselor to help me. But what kind? There are all sorts. I don't know where to start, nor would I like to make it my life's work to research it all. Counseling in general has never helped me, but I thought this was a specific enough issue that is very common with many people and that there might be some sort of counseling that can deal with this. Any suggestions?

I know I need to soothe myself somehow other than by eating. I have difficulty identifying emotions when the idea to eat something non-nutritious but soothing kicks in. It becomes a compulsion, something very hard to dislodge from my mind. I hate it with a passion. My husband tells me that I have several times come to a black and white resolve about not eating certain things, but I always crumble. Only when I counted damn carbs on a spreadsheet did I manage to avoid the carb train or carb rollercoaster, ie carbs are soothing, but after an hour or so I want more. So generally I eat protein and vegetables mostly.

Anyone worked on these issues in counseling and have any inkling what sort of counselor/counseling I should be looking for? I didn't find any threads here on emotional eating, and just 8 with "eating" in the subject line. They didn't appear relevant to my question, though I didn't read them all in detail either.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Now I looked at this eating thread which says a number of people ate more (comfort food - carbs) when they were facing tough issues in therapy.

http://forums.psychcentral.com/psych...s-come-up.html
I'm facing tough issues all the time. My life is never settled! So I really need to learn to soothe myself. I hate being in the city, because nature soothes me, but for now I'm stuck in the city.