Therapy for Eating Disorders

To move from the sense of being stuck with a painful and distressing relationship with food and your body, an important first step is an assessment with a qualified and experienced practitioner. This will enable both you and your therapist to reach a better shared understanding of the factors that are keeping your eating disorder going.  The assessment will cover your current eating patterns,as well as relevant aspects of your history, including relationships and experiences impacting on your thoughts and feelings about your body and food.

As with any psychological therapy, the relationship between therapist and client is a key ingredient and so it's important to find a good 'fit'.  If we agree to work together, it will be with a spirit of openness.  I approach this work with non-judgemental acceptance that your current difficulties have arisen for reasons that led you to make choices which made sense in the past, but which you now find to be no longer helpful or healthy.

In order to understand your patterns more clearly, we may use food diaries and to move towards positive changes, we will agree homework to enable you to practise more helpful patterns of thinking and behaving between sessions.

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Treatment usually involves monitoring a person’s physical health while helping them to deal with the underlying psychological causes.

In my practice I draw on treatment approaches that research evidence and clinical experience have shown to be helpful.

I blend these in order to suit the individual personality and their specific problems - so you are effectively met 'where you are'.

Some of the treatments I offer would be....

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Therapy that focuses on the links between how someone thinks about a situation, how they act and how they feel.  This can help to understand how someone can remain 'stuck'.  The good news is that by changing how they think, a person can also affect their behaviour and emotional states.

Motivational Interviewing

A therapy approach that supports a person to make positive changes, by increasing their understanding of their current situation and of alternative, more helpful options.  When someone is able to recognise their strengths and skills, they tend to feel both more confident and more motivated.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Therapy that focuses on how a person’s personality and life experiences influence their current thoughts, feelings, relationships and behaviour.

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