Eating Disorders
My area of expertise is eating disorders. I am an ambassador for Beat, the eating disorders charity, and a BACP media spokesperson on eating disorders. I have made many media appearances, given presentations, published a book called Running on Empty, and written several newspaper and magazine articles about this subject. I am passionate about challenging the stereotypes and stigma that people with eating disorders face, campaign for better services and treatment, and love to provide information, support and encouragement to those seeking treatment and recovery.
You might be curious about how I will work with your eating disorder therapeutically. I am an integrative psychotherapist using humanistic, relational, and behavioural techniques. Fundamentally, I come from a place of empathy, meeting you in a place of total respect and positive regard. I offer an empowering, whole-person approach to treating body image and eating concerns. I will listen to a multitude of elements. We start by exploring how you have felt about yourself and your body since childhood. We work with that and then we look at what the shifts were and what started to change. A lot of the time, it is a result of different types of trauma, or a single trauma. The basis of any work is creating a supportive, empathic and encouraging relationship.
CBT-E
Enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy, better known as CBT-E, is one of the most effective treatments for eating disorders. It is a transdiagnostic treatment for all forms of disordered eating. Using the CBT-E 18 module programme we look at common maintaining factors, establish weekly weighing, and use self-monitoring to understand patterns of eating as well as other disordered thoughts and behaviours. Using behavioural experiments to test out fears, we take steps towards eating regularly, adequately, and including feared foods as part of recovery. I examine the role negative core beliefs play in maintaining disordered eating behaviours and provide strategies to challenge them. I also help with the implementation of a robust relapse prevention action plan.
CFT
If appropriate I may use compassion-focused therapy (CFT), a transdiagnostic treatment approach focused on building self-compassion and reducing shame. It is based on the theory that feelings of shame contribute to the maintenance of disordered eating psychopathology. According to the CFT model, it is only by developing self-compassion that you can break out of these maladaptive cycles, and take steps toward recovery. I might integrate compassionate mind training (CMT), focusing on activating the soothing system via imagery and related practical exercises, and using your compassionate mind to help you address the challenges of recovery and cultivate an attitude of inner kindness toward your shortcomings and distress.
We may see the symptoms of overeating or restrictive eating as opposites, but underneath is the inability to nourish or to receive and the consuming obsession with not consuming. Underneath is doubt, shame and the inner critic, which fuel the overeating or restrictive eating, and also the body hate that drives the behaviour. This is between self and body. When we are able to live in our bodies instead of hiding from them, we are able to have a healthy relationship with ourselves and then with others.
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