Eating Disorder Specialist

Eating Disorders are my specialism and I have more than 15 years experience working with clients in private practice, with clients referred to me by the National Centre for Eating Disorders (NCfED) and at Berkshire NHS Trust Eating Disorders Service, where I spent 2 years working with clients with more chronic and complex issues.

I work with people who are ready to explore and understand the real cause behind their compulsive overeating, self-distructive behaviors, and restrictive food intake. Through our work together, you may begin to identify and become aware of the main triggers and patterns in your life which continue to contribute and maintain your unhealthy, complex and often fearful relationship with food as well as your preoccupation with food and body shape.

Here are some of the ways you can benefit from Counselling for eating disorders:

• Discover the psychological origins of your behaviors
• Explore the emotional aspects of your urge to overeat or restrict your food
• Learn new coping skills that allow you to satisfy your emotional needs without turning to food
• Improve your self-esteem, confidence, and self-image e.g. feel better about yourself and your body
• Take back control of your life in other ways than turning to food
• Reconnect with the natural rhythms of your mind and body
• Reduce stress and anxiety and increase your tolerance to life’s challenges
• Develop self-compassion and other self-soothing practices e.g. mindfulness

What is An Eating Disorder?

An eating disorder is characterized by extreme emotional and behavioral responses to food, weight and body shape, which typically lead to negative and often self-destructive weight control behaviors such as self induced vomiting, laxative and diuretic abuse, diet pills, self-harming, alcohol/drugs/substance abuse, excessive dieting and vigorous exercise, strict dietary rules such as skipping meals, fasting etc.
As a result, these disturbed and often dangerous weight control behaviors can be devastating for the sufferer, as they disrupt their physical, emotional and psychological functioning. Some of the negative effects of eating disorders include dramatic changes in personality, social withdrawal, anxiety, fatigue, apathy, depression, obsessive behavior, distorted body image, and extreme preoccupation with food, weight and body shape.

Eating Disorders are also often related to patterns and behaviors learned and experienced in early family life. These early patterns of eating, meanings and associations attached to food, may still be the maintaining factors which keep the eating disorder alive today, impacting distorted ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.   The eating disorder is also most likely to be linked to identity and determines the degree of connection with others.

If you are ready to explore your thoughts and emotions around your eating habits, to identify how and why your eating disorder developed, change your relationship with food and begin your journey to recovery, then please get in touch by completing the form below or on my contact page.

Binge Eating Disorder or Compulsive Overeating

Binge Eating Disorder or compulsive overeating is a condition that affects millions of people who have periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, or continuous eating beyond the point of feeling comfortably full. It is characterized by eating large amounts of food in a short space of time and often in secret and when not physically hungry (e.g. anything between1000-30,000 calories in one go) which is then followed by feelings of guilt, shame, despair and self-hatred.

Although Binge Eating Disorder shares some of the characteristics of bulimia including eating uncontrollably, unlike bulimia, individuals who suffer from this disorder do not purge, vomit or use laxatives to get rid of the food.  Instead there may be periods of repetitive dieting or sporadic fasts as a way getting rid of calories consumed, but most typically there is no compensatory behavior. Body weight may vary from normal to mild, moderate or severe obesity which can lead to problems with blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and a general lack of fitness or unhealthy lifestyle.

People who suffer from binge eating may struggle with depression, anxiety, loneliness and a sense of hopelessness which  contributes to their compulsive and unhealthy relationship with food.  Typically,  food and eating is used as a coping mechanism, as a way of dealing with difficult emotions or to ease  tension; although binge eating  does temporarily relieve the stress of these overwhelming feelings, unfortunately it quickly spirals down to out of control and chaotic feelings.  Sufferers find themselves trapped in a vicious circle of binge eating, followed by shame, low moods and despair which then lead to further episodes of binge eating.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is a serious psychological eating disorder which is characterized by a secretive ‘binge-purge-cycle’ manifested by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors around food. Like all other eating disorders bulimia is essentially an anxiety disorder that involves an attempt to control  food and eating as a way of coping with emotions and life, and is characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with weight and body shape. It is often linked with low self-esteem, emotional problems and stress.

Bulimia involves eating compulsively in response to some emotional hunger and then purging through self induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills, strict diets, fasts, vigorous exercise, or any other compensatory behavior which prevents the sufferer from gaining weight.

If you are suffering from bulimia you may be feeling trapped in a cycle of binge eating and purging; you may be experiencing a feeling of being stuck in a harmful cycle of eating very large amounts of food (more than most people would eat in one meal) in a short period of time and then doing whatever it takes to get rid of the food and calories you’ve consumed so that you can relieve your  feelings of shame, guilt, self-hatred, or depression. You may be repeating this harmful behavior because you’ve probably convinced yourself that if you don’t get rid of most of the calories or food you’ve consumed, then you will become ‘grotesquely fat’.

Bulimia involves compulsive eating or  binge eating, which means  eating large amounts of food very quickly,  in an attempt to satisfy an emotional hunger.  However, as this hunger is an emotional hunger rather than a physical hunger, food cannot and does not satisfy nor fulfil it.  The  binge, which usually consists of  ‘comfort foods’  with high levels of sugar and calories, is followed by an uncontrollable urge to use any compensatory behavior to avoid weight gain.  Some individuals will also force themselves to get rid of the food or calories consumed even if they haven’t had a binge, but simply feel that they have broken their own strict dietary rules and eaten more than they should have.

Bingeing and purging in secret  creates  feelings of shame and guilt which, in the sufferer’s mind, can only be relieved by purging, fasting, and/or exercising. Starving or fasting for a few days after a binge is a common response and another way of making up for the vast amount of food consumed;  however, voluntary starvation or fasting for even a short period of time contributes to and maintains the harmful and vicious ‘binge-purge cycle’, as the body eventually begins to fight back; the physiological hunger becomes so intense that the sufferer is forced to eat large amounts of food to satisfy the  body’s ‘cry’ for vital nourishment.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa means loss of appetite or restricting food and drink for nervous reasons, often to dangerous levels. Anorexia is a lost ability to satisfy physiological hunger, an inability to cope with emotions, and an intense fear of getting fat. Like all other eating disorders it is essentially an anxiety disorder which involves an attempt to control food and eating as a way of coping with emotions and the stressors of life, and is characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with weight and body shape.

Medical Supervision

Your health may be compromised if you use any extreme weight control behaviors (even if occasionally) as there are many physical complications that can arise from extreme food restriction, fasting or losing weight too quickly, from self-induced vomiting, abusing laxatives/diuretics, as well as from extreme exercise.
If you think you might be suffering from an eating disorder it’s important to talk to your GP.  I will most likely ask you to consult your doctor before we begin working together and to seek regular reviews during our therapeutic work.