How I work, who I work with and what to expect
The work we do together is collaborative. You know your own mind. I bring clinical training, and a deep curiosity about the eating disorder itself: what it has been doing for you, and how it has been keeping itself in place.
We take time over this. We look at what has been happening, what feels stuck, and what feels frightening to let go of. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is forced.
My Approach
My work draws on person-centred therapy and Schema Therapy for Eating Disorders.
In practice, that means we are looking at two things at once. What is happening day to day. And the deeper patterns underneath. The beliefs, the fears, the unmet needs that tend to sit quietly beneath eating struggles.
I do not treat the eating disorder as something to fight. We get curious about it. The rules, the rituals, the ED voice that sounds exactly like you, the ED logic that feels completely reasonable from the inside, the ways the eating disorder has dressed itself up as discipline, healthiness, or responsibility. All of it is welcome in the room. None of it gets shamed.
Most eating patterns began as ways of coping with something that felt unmanageable. Together, we work out what the strategies have been doing for you, and where they are now limiting you.
Over time, the focus shifts toward strengthening your own voice, and building ways of meeting your needs that don't come at your expense.
What therapy asks of you
I'm careful with the word "expert". You are the expert on your own experience. I'm not here to issue instructions, or hand you a method, or tell you how long any of this should take.
The work takes time. Eating patterns are usually rooted in long-standing emotional experiences and protective strategies, and change comes from understanding and processing those, not from forcing them to disappear.
It also takes commitment, and some trust. There will be moments of progress and moments that feel stuck. Feeling stuck is not a sign the work isn't working. It is more often a sign that you are engaging with something meaningful.
What I offer is steady, honest understanding of the eating disorder and the internal world it creates. I bring professional training and lived knowledge. Not to direct you, but to walk alongside you while we work out what recovery looks like in your life specifically.
For loved ones
If you are the person watching someone you love get quieter, more isolated, more distant, or harder to reach, this work can also be for you.
We can explore how to recognise when you are responding to fear rather than to the person you know.
How to communicate in ways that reduce shame rather than escalate it. How to stay grounded in yourself while staying connected to them.
Safety and Physical Health,
I don't weigh you. I don't keep scales in my room. Your physical health matters, and it matters that it is being looked after, but that part belongs with a medical professional.
This is the one thing I do require of everyone I work with. Your physical health needs to be monitored by a GP or another appropriate health professional. There are a few reasons for that.
- Your safety comes first. Eating disorders can carry hidden physical risks, and regular monitoring means those are being taken seriously by someone qualified to take them seriously.
- It means I can focus fully on you. Not on your weight, not on your bloods, not on the clinical markers that are outside my scope. On your experience. Your thoughts. The ED voice. The stuck places. The parts you have never said out loud.
- It creates a safer space for the eating disorder to relax, even a little. I am not weighing you. I am not policing what you eat. I am not asking you to prove anything to me. That is what lets us actually get close to what the behaviours have been trying to protect.
If arranging the GP piece feels scary, we can work through it together. I can help you think through what to say in the appointment.