Brian Baumal
Brian Baumal is a Registered Psychotherapist who specializes in supporting clients with weight, eating, and body image challenges through a compassionate, experience-informed approach. He believes meaningful change happens when shame is replaced with understanding, empathy, and honest conversation. Having maintained a 100-pound weight loss for over 13 years and navigated exercise bulimia himself, Brian brings deep personal insight to his work. Clients can expect a human, supportive space where mistakes are met with compassion rather than criticism. He has a special interest in using a modified cognitive behavioral approach for eating disorders to address the psychological barriers behind behavior change. Brian warmly invites you to begin a conversation where you can explore your relationship with food, weight, and self-acceptance without judgment.
- Maintaining a 100-pound weight loss for over 13 years, including the mindset and lifestyle shifts required for long-term change.
- Recovering from Binge Eating Disorder and the emotional patterns that often drive it.
- Healing from Exercise Bulimia and redefining a healthy relationship with movement.
- Working through the lasting impact of bullying about appearance during adolescence and rebuilding self-worth.
- Jewish
- Incisively intellectual.
- Humbly humorous.
- Compassionately curious.
Expertise
Areas of Focus
- Struggling with weight or weight-cycling.
- Struggling with food addiction.
- Struggling with any eating disorder.
- Struggling with trauma.
- Struggling with low self-esteem.
- Struggling with constant food noise.
- You want to stop your inner saboteur.
- You want to stop black & white or perfectionistic thinking.
- You want to stop yo-yo dieting.
- You want resilience - to not give up after one failure.
- You want a stable, normal relationship with food.
Therapeutic Frameworks & Approach
- That another human being is sitting across from you.
- That someone is riding along with you on life's emotional roller coaster.
- That the things that drive you crazy are not things that need to weigh you down.
- That humour is an incredible tool for perspective.
- That a laugh is as good as a cry.
Populations Served
Practice Details
Service Offerings & Rates
- The reasons you contacted me.
- A full assessment of your relationship with food, body, self-esteem and any relevant psychological history.
- My assessment of your relationship with food and how that impacts treatment.
- A full treatment plan based on either CBT or an addiction framework.
- How we will incorporate everything you mentioned in your session.
- An estimated number of sessions to accomplish your goals.
- Laugh and emote with you.
- Challenge you - but based on how you feel. Sometimes, I can be gentle, other times I can be quite direct.
- Always have a sense of curious irreverence and humour.
- Share with you my own experiences with weight and disordered eating, if it is helpful for you to grow.
- Always be professional, so that you feel there is a strong level of support for you.
Insurance & Benefits Coverage
Schedule
In Person Sessions
Virtual Sessions
More Info
Education
Gestalt Institute of Toronto, 2008
University of Toronto, 1992
Certifications
Registered Psychotherapist
Certified Gestalt Therapist
Languages
Booking FAQ
First Session charges each session directly to your credit card. Once each session occurs, and your card is charged, you will receive a PDF receipt to your email with all of the details you will need to get reimbursed (therapist name, license/designation, license number, address, etc). You can then submit the receipt to your insurance company for reimbursement if you have coverage.
We always recommend you check with your insurance provider to confirm what coverage you have.
You are the expert when it comes to knowing who is the right fit. Ensure you’ve watched the therapist video at the top of their profile and see if you get a good feeling from the message and the energy they are putting out. If you feel drawn to speak with them, listen to your gut! Booking a free consultation is a great first step to asses fit.