Specialized ARFID Therapy for Adults in Delaware

What ARFID Looks Like for Adults

You've been called a "picky eater" for as long as you can remember. The label never captured what's happening: you eat from a list of maybe ten or twelve foods, prepared the same way, from the same brands when possible. The list has shrunk over time.

Casual food meetups are deceptively hard: brunch with the friend group, the coffee date that turns into lunch, the office happy hour with the catered apps. You make excuses, leave early, or pick at the one thing that won't trigger a gag, and you spend the rest of the evening hungry.

Travel is hardest when the food is built into the itinerary: the hotel breakfast buffet, the conference catering, the group dinner at a restaurant someone else picked. You pack snacks in your suitcase, you scout grocery stores within walking distance of the hotel, and you do the math on how long you can survive on the safe foods you brought.

The harder part of dating with ARFID is the disclosure question. The first few dates you can get through on cover stories: you're not very hungry, you ate earlier, you have a sensitive stomach. By the fifth or sixth date, the cover stories are wearing thin. You have to decide: tell them, or keep up the cover stories, or end the thing before you have to choose.

Underneath all of it is a story you've carried for decades. That you're too sensitive, too rigid, too much work to feed.

What ARFID Recovery Can Look Like

You join the office potluck without spending the morning calculating which dish you can sample. You eat the slice of birthday cake. The all-hands lunch becomes a chance to talk to leadership without the food being a separate problem. You stop arriving at the office an hour early to eat enough to get through whatever shared meal is happening.

You join the brunch group and order something off the menu. The coffee date that turns into a meal stops being a logistics problem you have to manage in real time. You eat what's in front of you and pay attention to your friend's update on her job, instead of running calculations about what to do with your plate.

You travel and use the hotel breakfast for what it's for. The conference catering stops being a strategic problem you have to plan around. The corner store run for snacks stops being your real lunch. You eat what's available and put your energy into the sessions, the dinners, the people you came to meet.

You tell someone you've started seeing what ARFID is, when it makes sense to, and they ask you a clarifying question instead of pulling away. The cover stories stop being necessary because you can use the word ARFID, which wasn't a diagnosis when you were dating in your twenties.

The work expands your range enough that the limitations stop being the thing that organizes your social, professional, and family life. You say yes to the work conference in a city with no familiar restaurants. You accept the dinner invitation at the new coworker's house. You pick the restaurant for date night based on what looks good, not what you can survive.

Your bloodwork gets better. The vitamin deficiencies start to resolve, your energy comes back, and your doctor stops sounding worried at your annual.

The shame softens over months, not days. The next time someone comments on what's on your plate, the comment doesn't carry the weight it used to. You stop spending the days before social events rehearsing what you'll say about the meal. You stop reading menus the week before a dinner out.

About Your Adult ARFID Clinician: Grace Annan, LICSW, LCSW-QS

I'm Grace Annan, a licensed clinical social worker whose practice centers on adult ARFID, with related work in adult eating disorders, body image after body change, and adult ADHD and autism assessments.

Adult ARFID is one of the rarest specialties in adult mental health: most ARFID care is built for children, and adults who continue to experience ARFID often go years without finding a clinician who treats it as its own condition.

My work uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR), the evidence-based treatment developed at Harvard Medical School. Studies show about 7 out of 10 people no longer meet ARFID criteria after a course of CBT-AR. We work systematically through food exposure, sensory tolerance, and the daily-life impact of the eating limitations.

Delaware License: DE-Q1-0012397

More about me

Getting Started with ARFID Therapy in Delaware

Cost: $300 per session

Insurance: Private-pay, with monthly superbills you can submit to your insurance for potential out-of-network reimbursement. HSA and FSA accounts can be used for payment.

Frequency: Weekly sessions, typically 50 minutes.

Length of treatment: Most clients see meaningful progress within 20 to 30 sessions over 6 to 12 months. ARFID is specialized work, and I keep a small caseload so each client gets the focused attention this kind of therapy requires.

Format: Secure, HIPAA-compliant video. You can join from your home, your office, or anywhere private with a stable connection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I do ARFID therapy online if I live anywhere in Delaware? Yes. I'm licensed to provide telehealth services to adults throughout Delaware. The sessions take place over a secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform.

How do I know if I have ARFID versus being a picky eater? ARFID is more than preference. It's a restricted way of eating that affects your health (nutritional deficiencies, weight concerns), your daily functioning (avoiding meals or social events), or causes significant distress. If your eating limitations have followed you into adulthood and are interfering with your life, that's the line where it moves from preference into something a clinician can help with.

Do you take insurance? No. I'm a private-pay therapist. I provide monthly superbills you can submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement of out-of-network mental health services. Many PPO plans reimburse a portion of the fee.

What if I've never done therapy before? Many of my ARFID clients haven't. The focus is on practical skill-building and structured food exposure, not deep emotional processing. The work is concrete and the goals are clear.

Can I keep working on ARFID while I'm traveling for work or vacation? Yes. The sessions are virtual, so we can meet from a hotel, a rental, or anywhere with a private space and stable connection. Travel often gives us useful exposure scenarios to work with rather than disrupting treatment. We can plan ahead for trips that involve specific food challenges.

What if all my social plans revolve around food? Most adult social life involves food, which is why ARFID feels so socially limiting. Treatment includes practical work on the meals that come up most often in your life (brunch, dinner out, casual get-togethers) and longer-term work on expanding your range so the social calendar stops being a logistics problem.

Do you offer support options besides individual ARFID therapy? Individual therapy is the format for this work because food exposure planning needs to be tailored to your specific tolerance and history. I also lead a body image support group for adults in Delaware, but that's a separate offering for a different population.

Areas Served in Delaware

I provide online ARFID therapy to adults throughout Delaware, including Wilmington, Dover, Newark, Middletown, Bear, Smyrna, Milford, Seaford, Georgetown, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, Hockessin, Pike Creek, Claymont, and all surrounding communities. If you live anywhere in Delaware, you can work with me.

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