Eating Disorders

£80 a session
Use the Contact form below to book in an initial call

Eating disorders are severely life limiting for the individual experiencing them but also their family and friends who are trying to support too. Eating disorders are unfortunately difficult to overcome without specialist support in place. Whether you have been diagnosed or not psychotherapy focussing around aspects such as disordered eating, body image concerns and any negative eating behaviours can be extremely beneficial. Eating disorders can become a large part of the human experience and negatively influence our identity and self-esteem. Through working integratively we can work on your current thoughts, emotions and behaviours whilst also looking into your past attachments and experiences to understand the origins of where your difficulties began. I will provide you a compassionate, safe and non-judgemental space to work together to develop a personalised treatment plan with healthy coping strategies to support you on your path to recovery.

"In any give moment , we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety"
- Abraham Maslow

Working with Eating Disorders
Block bookings can be discussed for a discount on a case by case basis

On the face of it eating disorders are a combination of negative behaviours, thoughts and emotions. Some will find themselves in a situation where negative body image cause feelings of anxiety and behaviours such as restriction and over exercise become compulsive. Alternatively, for other individuals life's stressors cause them to get caught in a cycle of overeating to cope, leading to feelings of guilt and shame. Many therapists won't work with eating disorders because they only see this surface level struggle and they don't understand why the cycle cannot be broken with CBT style interventions.

The reality is much more complex, because eating disorders invade almost every aspect of a person's identity. Its difficult to break these cycles when our inner story is something like "I need to lose weight because I'm not good enough" or "I am not a good person", leading to a poor relationship with food and binging behaviours as a way to cope with this. The eating disorder then becomes a focus for our values, and often outweighs what's actually important in our lives such as family, hobbies and work because its something we can turn to when life feels chaotic. This can lead to bigger existential questions too, and cause us to lose meaning in our lives. The fight and flight response we may find ourselves in due to this, becomes focussed around maladaptive short-term fixes which only serve to make us feel more trapped and caught in the web of an eating disorder. With this knowledge we can understand that eating disorders are about control, not food itself and the more we turn to it, the harder it gets to break.

Eating disorders are often rooted in family dynamics, trauma and learned behaviours that we can work to understand together in a safe way. Also, we can build positive coping strategies that help unravel this cycle but importantly, at the same time work on your identity, values and inner story to ensure you are choosing recovery over an eating disorder that no longer serves you.