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Emily Ciepcielinski, PhD, LPCS, CEDS

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United States
Charlotte, NC
Emily Ciepcielinski, PhD, LPCS, CEDS

Eating Disorders & Anxiety Specialist Providing counseling and counselor supervision services in the Charlotte, NC area.

Areas of clinical specialty include: eating disorders and the full range of disordered eating (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, chronic dieting, etc.), body image struggles, self-compassion and self-identity work, anxiety and depressive disorders, and general women’s wellness and stress management issues.

01/08/2026

So many highly sensitive people (as well as those who deal with high-functioning anxiety, huge overlap here) were praised for what actually kept their nervous systems on high alert.

“Easy.”
“Mature.”
“Calm under pressure.”
“Low-maintenance.”
“So capable.”
“So on-top-of things”.

These weren’t necessarily personality traits - they were adaptations or defense mechanisms in disguise.
Smart adaptions . Protective ones. Ones that helped you belong, succeed, or stay safe.

Healing isn’t about undoing these parts or certainly it’s not about becoming less sensitive.

It’s about helping your nervous system update, learning to harness that sensitivity and learn to better cope with those big thoughts and feelings… becoming more attuned to yourself, so that functioning no longer requires absolute exhaustion or self-neglect.

🤍 Save this if it named something you couldn’t quite put words to.

Follow .emilyciep for somatic, nervous-system-informed insights on anxiety, sensitivity, and healing.

01/07/2026

📌Group/Class Details (and DM me if you’re interested and/or have questions):

➡️8 week virtual group
➡️Wednesdays 12-1pm EST: Feb 25, March 4, March 11, March 25, April 1, April 15, April 22, April 29 (recordings will be available if you miss)
➡️$50/session

(Pay in full for discount, or option to pay weekly; however, responsible for payment for all sessions even if you have to miss; recordings available upon request)

Topics:

Weeks 1 & 2: Getting Started with Body Confidence
- Understand the fundamentals of body image and the influences shaping it
- Address your own body image fears and develop a new, empowering mindset
- Explore your hopes/dreams/goals for teaching body confidence & being a powerful role model

Weeks 3 & 4: Body Confident Skills - Foundations
- Learn essential communication and emotional regulation strategies that lay a foundation for body confidence
- Develop empowering core messages (based in research!) around bodies, food, health, and self-esteem
- Learn how to model/teach healthy behaviors in these areas

Weeks 5 & 6: Body Confident Skills - Navigating the Outside World
- Learn how to teach critical thinking skills to effectively navigate cultural and media influences, especially in this digital age
- Learn how to help others navigate peer, family, and other external influences
- Address your own internalized, negative messages and build resilience

Weeks 7 & 8: Next Steps & Long-term Effectiveness
- Summarize key takeaways for teaching lasting body confidence
- Create a personalized “Next Steps” action plan for continued success at both modeling and teaching body confidence
- Ensure long-term effectiveness with ongoing strategies- discuss barriers & obstacles that are bound to emerge

🙋‍♀️Again, please DM me if you want in!

01/06/2026

First off, happy 2026! I’m back in the office and it feels good. 🙌 Let’s get right to it- most of us really struggle with knowing what we’re feeling, and perhaps most importantly, what we’re needing… especially what our body is needing.

📣Here’s the thing: Emotions aren’t random. They don’t just “happen”.
They’re signals pointing to specific unmet needs - especially in the body. (Since the body is where we most hold and store emotions, it makes sense that we’d have to tend to the body as we release/process that emotion, right?)

When we meet the need underneath the emotion,
the emotion itself, the corresponding unhelpful/automatic behaviors associated with it, as well as our bodily symptoms associated with the enotion, don’t have to work so hard to get our attention.

What emotion have you been feeling lately - and what might it be asking for? 🤍

12/31/2025

🎉And that’s a wrap! What a year- these are the top 9 posts from 2025…we talked a lot about healing our nervous systems using a polyvagal, window-of-tolerance, and somatic parts-informed framework, we talked about the many parts of us in general (and what they’re trying to communicate), and we talked about what true healing from disordered eating and/or anxiety can look like…

Grateful for this community! And for all of you trying your best to show up each day, heal and grow a little more, and to be a light in your communities and families. ✨ We need you now more than ever!

Happy 2026!!

12/29/2025

I really love this time of year- the week between Christmas and New Year’s- where the world seems to slow down a bit, get a little more quiet… at least that’s what we try to do in my family, as the 5 of us head to the beach for some down time… the holiday hustle and bustle behind us.

I always try to find some time to reflect on the past year, and these questions are the ones on my mind right now. Less about setting a million different new goals and more about remembering what’s important and a chance to re-center. ❤️

Wishing you all a wonderful 2026 ✨✨

(I might be popping on here off and on, but I’m truly trying to unplug until school/work starts back up… see you then! I’m excited about some new ideas and projects for the new year- can’t wait to share 🤗)

12/18/2025

This graphic shows why exposures often “fail”, or why when we’re working really hard to overcome something, it can still feel like we’re stuck. I would venture to say that at some point in the process, you’re “escaping or avoiding”… it could even be a subtle thing you do that helps you bypass some uncomfortable emotion. But true healing will come when we stay with the emotion until its completion, finding ways to support us as we do. 🤍

Where do you get stuck in this cycle, or what specific ways do you escape or avoid? 👇🏼

12/16/2025

“Living in your head” is often a nervous system strategy we learn early on to survive and cope more effectively.
Thinking (and by this I’m referring to over-thinking/ruminating/obsessing…basically relying on your thinking mind so much you’re disconnected from the body) can create distance, control, and predictability when the body doesn’t feel safe.

Here’s just some of the ways we first learn how to disconnect and live from the “neck up”. Which ones ring true for you? 👇🏼

12/10/2025

The holidays can feel loud- full of expectations, pressure, comparison, and a pace that doesn’t always match what our bodies or hearts really want or need…

Which question landed with you most today?👇🏼

✨ Save this for the moments when everything starts to feel “too much.”

12/05/2025

🥗🌮Learning to eat intuitively or in an attuned manner with your body isn’t about perfection - it’s about reconnecting with your body’s signals as best you can and learning how to support yourself better while eating.

📣I created this Somatically-Informed Hunger/Fullness Scale to help clients (and clinicians!) tune into the subtle shifts in hunger/fullness, nervous system states, and emotions, as well as to provide some simple guidance depending on the various levels of hunger/fullness.

📌Important reminders:

  ✅All cues are invitations, not rules.
  Neurodivergence, chronic illness, trauma, or long-term restriction may blunt or distort signals- this is normal.

  ✅Using this scale is about rebuilding interoceptive awareness, not “eating perfectly.”

  ✅If cues are confusing, begin with   structured eating (consistent meals/snacks) while tracking somatic sensations over time.

  ✅Your body’s signals will strengthen with repeated safety, nourishment, and attunement.

🙋‍♀️If you’d like a simple, printable version for you or your clients, DM me “SOMATIC HUNGER SCALE” and I’ll send it your way.

12/03/2025

Paradox is that space where seemingly opposite truths coexist - not canceling each other out, but expanding our capacity for a “bigger picture” in our lives. We don’t have to choose between the “opposites”; we can hold both.

When we allow paradox, we soften perfectionism, ease black-and-white thinking, and create room for compassion - for ourselves and for others.❤️

What’s a paradox you’re embracing this season (or need to embrace)??👇🏼

12/02/2025

🤔Ever wonder why you fall right back into codependent patterns and cycles, seemingly on autopilot? It’s not a personality flaw - it’s your nervous system doing its best to keep you safe. It’s learned attachment patterns and emotion regulation patterning we pick up early on and carry with us into adulthood.

When we map codependence through the lens of the Window of Tolerance model, we can see how different states shape our reactions:
🔥 Hyperarousal can pull us into fixing, pleasing, rescuing.
🌿 When we’re in our Window of Tolerance, we can show up in relationships with clarity, boundaries, and mutuality.
🫥 Hypoarousal can cause us to collapse into “self-erasing”, giving in, or numbing out to avoid conflict.

These patterns were NOT chosen -they were learned in relationship and reinforced by our earliest experiences of safety, belonging, and connection.

But we CAN choose to understand the nervous system states beneath the behaviors better and offer our systems what they truly need: grounding, co-regulation, boundaries, an embodied/felt sense of safety, and plenty of support. (So that we widen our window of tolerance and flexibly/appropriately move among states.)

➡️What symptom, emotion, expression or core driver is most familiar to you?? 👇🏼

11/25/2025

🍗🦃Thanksgiving can stir up a lot when you’re navigating food and body image recovery. If this week feels tender, you’re not alone. These 7 reminders are here to help you stay connected to your values, your body, and your recovery—so you can move through the holiday with more compassion, permission, and support.

Swipe through, take what you need, save this post for later, or pass along to a friend.🤍

Address

6135 Park South Drive Suite 130
Charlotte, NC
28210

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm

Website

http://www.ciepcounseling.com/

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