Body Image Concerns and Eating Disorders

Weiyen joined the Eating Disorders team in 2019. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and is interested in symptoms of anxiety, perfectionism, and their role in eating concerns, particularly with newer culture shifts towards “healthy” and “clean” eating. She aims to develop a collaborative environment in order to identify adaptive strategies for individuals to improve their relationship to food and maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Eduvigis Cruz-Arrieta joined the Eating Disorder team in February 2018. She is a licensed clinical psychologist with 20 years of experience, most recently focused on behavioral health approaches to staying healthy at any size. She brings her experiences as a woman, a bilingual emigrant with a multicultural inheritance, a former dancer, and a seasoned psychotherapist to her understanding of people's relationships to their bodies.

Renee Gibbs joined Columbia Health and the CPS Eating Disorder Treatment Team in 2020 after nine years of psychology practice in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Gibbs provided treatment and led program development efforts in eating disorder treatment and training at the VA, including serving as the national lead trainer and consultant for the Eating Disorder Initiative. Additionally, she was the clinician investigator for a research clinical trial that evaluated a treatment protocol for Binge Eating Disorder (BED) at the PRIME Innovation research program at VA Connecticut. She primarily practices eating disorder treatment from a cognitive-behavioral treatment orientation and is devoted to providing interdisciplinary care with the Eating Disorders treatment team.

Doreen has worked for many years as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. One of her main areas of interest is facilitating the emotional and psychological transition to adulthood. Eating disorders sometimes arise during this period of transitions. She understands that while a person may or may not be particularly distressed by eating disorder symptoms, these symptoms often do represent stress in one or more areas of a person’s life such as social, emotional, academics, and family. She takes a multidisciplinary approach in helping people recover from eating disorders. Doreen is fluent in Mandarin.

Sara is a psychologist at CPS who joined the Eating Disorders Team in 2022.  She is passionate about helping individuals improve their relationship with food and their bodies.  Sara is also particularly interested in the roles that family dynamics and intergenerational patterns play on body image and eating behaviors.  Sara thoroughly enjoys working and collaborating with the interdisciplinary team of providers as part of the ED treatment team.

Melanie is a psychologist at CPS who joined the Eating Disorders team in 2023. She brings her knowledge and experiences from outpatient eating disorder settings to inform her practice and work with the interdisciplinary team. She is passionate about helping individuals improve their relationships with their bodies, self and others, as well as food, emphasizing health at every size. Melanie strives to collaborate with students to create a warm and supportive space in order to individualize treatment and explore ways to live a more healthy balanced life.  

Brittany is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who joined CPS in February 2023. They have experience working with professionals in the entertainment and performing arts community, which informs their work with those struggling with eating or body image concerns. Brittany has a particular interest in working with individuals who have not felt welcome in traditional eating disorder healing spaces and creating a warm non-judgmental space. Brittany provides support to the multidisciplinary eating disorder team through helping students get connected to the right care and treatment team. 

Roseann is a board certified family nurse practitioner. She began her career in women's health, working at several hospitals and two birthing centers, as well as Planned Parenthood. She transitioned to student health, when she worked at Fordham University Health Service for 12 years. She enjoys the diversity of student health and focuses on education and prevention as integral parts of treatment.

Doctor Richards is a board-certified family physician with special interests in reproductive health, behavioral health, health promotion, and osteopathic manipulative medicine. After receiving her medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rowan University), Dr. Richards completed her family medicine residency at St. Barnabas Hospital. She spent the early part of her career as staff physician in St. Barnabas Hospital’s adolescent medicine department, where she helped write and implement a New York State Department of Health Comprehensive Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (CAPP) grant. While there, she also helped develop the Teen Health Center and Supporting Youth Development programs. Prior to her transition to college health, she served as associate program director of the Family Medicine Residency at St. Barnabas Hospital.

Schedule an appointment with Counseling and Psychological Services at 212-854-2878.

The Eating Disorders team can also coach and consult with concerned friends, roommates, parents, athletic staff, deans, residence-life staff, and faculty.