LGBTQ+ Affirming
Weight-Inclusive
HAES®-Aligned
Informed by Body Trust® Principles
LGBTQ+ Affirming Weight-Inclusive HAES®-Aligned Informed by Body Trust® Principles
Virtual Therapy Throughout Oregon & Colorado
Therapy for Body Image, Disordered Eating, Anxiety & Midlife Transitions in Newport, Oregon
Helping women and gender-expansive adults build a more compassionate relationship with food, their bodies, and themselves.
You Don't Have to Keep Fighting Yourself
Many people begin therapy feeling exhausted by the pressure to be different. They’ve spent years being hard on themselves, questioning their decisions, putting their needs aside, or believing they must change before feeling okay.
Thoughts about food, your body, or what you should do differently may take up more space than you’d like. A conversation keeps replaying after it ends. Putting yourself first brings guilt instead of relief. Even when you seem capable to others, you may still feel like you should be doing better or have everything figured out by now.
You may recognize yourself in some of these experiences:
✓ "I'm constantly second-guessing myself."
✓ "I feel guilty whenever I put myself first."
✓ "I don't know who I am outside of my roles and responsibilities."
✓ "I'm tired of being at war with my body."
✓ "I spend way too much time thinking about food."
✓ "I don't trust myself around food."
✓ "I've been trying to fix my body for as long as I can remember."
✓ "I've been dealing with this for a long time, and I'm tired of it."
Many people I work with have spent years believing they must earn their worth through weight loss, productivity, perfection, or caring for others before themselves.
Therapy offers an opportunity to step back from those expectations, decide which ones still fit your life, and begin making choices that reflect your own values instead.
What Change Can Look Like
Most people don’t come to therapy to change who they are. They come because they’re tired of carrying so much.
Over time, many people spend less time thinking about food, their body, or whether they’re doing enough. Decisions become easier because they’re guided more by their values than fear of disappointing others. They begin setting boundaries with less guilt and find more time and energy for the people, relationships, and experiences that matter most.
You might begin to notice:
✓ Spending less time thinking about food, weight, and your body
✓ Feeling less at war with your body
✓ Feeling more confident making decisions
✓ Setting boundaries with less guilt
✓ Responding to yourself with more kindness when things don't go as planned
✓ Having more time and energy for the people and parts of life that matter most
Every person’s experience is different, but many spend less time fighting themselves and more time living by what matters most.
Areas of Focus
The concerns that bring people to therapy often overlap. Explore the area that best reflects what you're experiencing.
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Body Image & Disordered Eating
Food guilt, body shame, and constant thoughts about food or your appearance can take up more space than you'd like. Together, we'll work toward rebuilding trust with food, your body, and yourself through HAES®-aligned, weight-inclusive care informed by principles of Body Trust®, self-compassion, and mindfulness.
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Anxiety & Perfectionism
Anxiety, overthinking, perfectionism, and constant self-criticism can leave you mentally exhausted. Together, we'll work toward responding to yourself with greater confidence, flexibility, and self-compassion.
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Midlife Transitions
Perimenopause, menopause, caregiving, changing relationships, health concerns, and shifting roles can make midlife overwhelming. Therapy supports you as you navigate this season and decide what you want the next chapter of your life to look like.
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LGBTQ+ Affirming
You deserve a place where you can show up fully as yourself without having to explain, justify, or defend who you are. Therapy is tailored to your experiences, relationships, identity, and goals.
Meet Heather Pierce, LMFT
Hi, I'm Heather, founder of Riding Waves Counseling.
I work with women and gender-expansive adults navigating body image concerns, disordered eating, anxiety, perfectionism, and the challenges that often come with midlife.
As a fat, LGBTQ+ provider, I bring both professional expertise and lived experience, offering therapy that’s inclusive, compassionate, and informed by Body Trust® principles.
I believe people deserve support that does not ask them to earn their worth through weight loss, productivity, perfection, or self-sacrifice.
Therapy can be a place to step back from the pressures and expectations you've carried for years, question messages that have shaped how you see yourself, and decide which expectations fit your life. My role is not to tell you who you should be. It's to support you as you build greater trust in yourself and make choices that reflect your values, needs, and priorities.
If you're looking for a therapist who will meet you with compassion, honesty, and respect, I'd be honored to support you.
informed by Body Trust® principles.
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informed by Body Trust® principles. 〰️
What It's Like to Work Together
Finding the right therapist matters. Here are a few things you can expect when we work together.
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My work is grounded in weight-inclusive, HAES®-aligned care and informed by Body Trust® principles, self-compassion, and respect for the inherent wisdom of each person's lived experience. You won't be encouraged to pursue weight loss as the goal of therapy. Instead, we'll focus on building a healthier relationship with food, your body, and yourself.
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I believe each person is the expert on their own life. Rather than assuming I know what is best, we'll work together to identify what feels most important to you and shape therapy around your experiences, values, identities, and goals.
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Therapy is a place to explore what’s been weighing on you and build new ways of responding. Along with support and encouragement, I often incorporate education, practical tools, and honest feedback when they support our goals.
Here's How Therapy Works
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. Many people I work with don't meet the criteria for an eating disorder but still spend a great deal of time thinking about food, their body, dieting, or whether they're "doing it right." If your relationship with food or your body affects your daily life, therapy can help.
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That's very common. Body image concerns, disordered eating, anxiety, perfectionism, and major life transitions often overlap. We don't need to fit everything into one category. Together, we'll focus on what feels most important to you and create an approach that reflects your needs, values, and goals.
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Health at Every Size® (HAES®) is a weight-inclusive approach that recognizes body diversity and challenges weight stigma. This framework supports clients in caring for their physical and emotional well-being without making weight loss the goal. My practice is grounded in HAES®-aligned, weight-inclusive care, so therapy focuses on building a more compassionate relationship with food, your body, and yourself rather than pursuing weight loss as the goal.
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Body Trust® is a framework that supports healing from body shame, chronic dieting, and the belief that worth is determined by body size or appearance. It encourages a more compassionate and trusting relationship with the body while challenging harmful cultural messages about weight and worth. These principles guide my work as clients rebuild trust with their bodies and themselves.
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Your free 15-minute consultation is an opportunity to discuss what’s bringing you to therapy, answer your questions, and see whether working together feels like the right fit. There’s no pressure to commit. If we decide to move forward, we’ll discuss next steps. If it doesn’t feel right, I’ll help you find another therapist or resource that better meets your needs.
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Visit the full FAQ page for answers to questions about virtual therapy, fees, insurance, scheduling, and other details about working together.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
You don’t have to keep measuring your worth by your body, productivity, or how much you do for others.
If you're ready to spend less time fighting yourself and more time focusing on the people and parts of life that matter most to you, I'd be honored to support you.