Eating Disorders & Disordered Eating

The Coronavirus Pandemic may create unique challenges for individuals with experiences of eating disorders causing a detrimental impact on their psychological wellbeing and eating disorder recovery, this can lead to a lapse or relapse of their disorder. I specialise with people who suffer from Bulimia Nervosa and Other Specified Feeding & Eating Disorders (OSFED).

Eating Disorders & Disordered Eating come from varying complexities such as psychological issues, nutritional imbalances and medical complications – what is a normal eating pattern for one person may be abnormal for another person. One main aspect of all eating disorders is that the person feels Shame & Guilt for the way in they feel and what they are doing to their bodies, this leads to the disorder becoming a secret something to hide, increasing the Shame and Guilt.

Eating Disorders are characterized by excessive concerns over shape and weight leading to a number of injurious weight control behaviours and/or body image (beliefs about appearance and weight) invariably poor or distorted. Sufferers tend to experience negative emotion as feeling fat.

Eating Disorders/Disordered Eating Patterns do not discriminate anyone at any stage in their lives can start to exhibit or suffer from an eating disorder whether you are 9 or 90, male or female, educational status or even financial status are no guarantee that some will not succumb.

I will work with you to distinguish your individual normal and abnormal eating patterns, through an integrated treatment and recovery plan, through Counselling, Coaching & Mentorship including Eating Disorder Education including Behaviour, and Nutritional Coaching. If required I will work with other agencies if required such as GP’s to assist in your recovery.

Types of Eating Disorders

  • Anorexia Nervosa

    • when a person tries to keep their weight as low as possible by not eating enough food, exercising too much, or both.

  • Bulimia Nervosa

    • when a person sometimes loses control and eats a lot of food in a very short amount of time (this is called binging). Then to try to stop gaining weight, will make themselves deliberately sick, restrict what they eat, or do too much exercise.

  • Binge Eating Disorder

    • when a person regularly loses control of their eating, eat large portions of food all at once until they feel uncomfortably full, and then often have feelings of upset and/or guilty (BED)

  • Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED)

    • is the name given where a person’s symptoms don't exactly match those of anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, described above. However, this does not mean it's a less serious illness. 

Signs of an eating disorder

If someone has an eating disorder, you might notice them doing some of the following:

  • Restrict the amount of food they eat/hide food
  • Eat more than they need or feel out of control when they eat
  • Eat quickly, going to the bathroom after eating
  • Eat-in secret/avoid eating in public so become more isolated
  • Feel very anxious about eating
  • Lacking in energy and low in mood. Reporting feeling cold most of the time, even in warm temperatures
  • Eat-in response to difficult emotions
  • Only eat certain types of food or stick to a rigid set of diet rules
  • Do things to get rid of what they eat to avoid gaining weight such as vomiting or over-exercise
  • Weigh themselves a lot and judge themselves based on what they weigh. Wearing baggy clothes to disguise weight loss
  • Changes to, or loss of, periods in women
  • Think about food and eating a lot, or all the time
  • Compare their body to other people's and think about their shape or size a lot usually in a negative way.

If you are worried about yourself or someone else, why not contact me to arrange a free 30-minute consultation.

Services Provided

In-Person Therapy                   Video Conferencing (online)            Telephone