(Warning for detailed discussions of eating disorders, ED recovery, calorie counting, and patient/therapist relationship)

It was a lot of things, honestly.

It was a long journey for Elsie to be able to heal her relationship with food and not force herself to calorie count. There were lots of things that went into her healing. Grayson had her mother come to sessions a few times so they could discuss boundaries around food and how she should and shouldn't treat Elsie. He used this as a way to drive a wedge between her and her mother, which would help him later.

He also had Elsie start practicing cooking skills, with the intention of having her connect with her food in a non-numerical way. Her mother had cooked all of her meals previously, and getting Elsie into the kitchen and being more hands-on with her food helped her think more about the flavor than the numbers. When she found she really loved cooking, he also encouraged her to try baking, which can be more difficult than cooking in some ways. It honestly helped her shift her focus from calories to the science of baking.

He also tied the consumption of food with pleasure. He would have her eat something whilst masturbation, occasionally while on the phone with him. He started having snacks in his office during session for her, often encouraging her to eat in front of him, for him.

The weight gain was incidental at first. She was finally consuming a proper amount of calories for the first time since her father died, and Grayson worked really hard with her to find worth in things other than the number on the scale and the size of the clothes that she wore. None of this was easy, don't get me wrong. I hope listing all of these things like this doesn't make it sound like it was easy for Elsie.

The road to recovery was difficult, and honestly, the fact that Grayson was grooming her on top of trying to help her recover from an eating disorder meant that she struggled in moments she wouldn't have otherwise. She was also seeing a nutritionist, and she and her mother went and saw a family therapist for a while. Having to keep secrets from these people was incredibly difficult for her, as Elsie is famously really bad at keeping secrets and lying, and this caused her to stumble more than once in her journey to recovery.

Even as a full-grown adult, Elsie will still occasionally struggle, especially during times of stress. She can't help but start looking at the details on the back of packages of food, and she has to work hard to keep herself from spiraling into calorie counting again. Something that helps her is baking something delicious for someone she loves. Genuinely, one of the best ways for Elsie to get out of the numbers spiral is to make a sweet treat for someone she cares about and watch how it brightens up their day. It helps her remember that food is not the enemy.