Healing our relationship with food and our body is about looking at all of us - body, mind and soul.
It is about understanding not just what people eat, but the how and why. We all eat for a variety of reasons and many people have a difficult relationship with food, even if it is not diagnosed as an eating disorder.
To heal our relationship with food we need to understand our cognitions (thinking) such as the idea that there is no good and bad food, or even the right way to eat - one size does not fit all!
We also need to understand our feelings around eating and our body - some of these can go back to childhood and be re-enforced by our culture's obsession with health and weight.
Then we can look at how do we care for ourselves in a healthy, loving way, in all areas of our life, including food.
I have been working as a Dietitian for over 35 years and have worked with a variety of clients with all types of eating worries. I have supplemented my training as a Dietitian through additional training in counselling, Motivational Interviewing, Mindfulness, Intuitive Eating and many others. This combined with my recent training as a Spiritual Director (Soul Companion) means I work with the whole individual and all that matters to them.
My goal is to be able to work in a way that honours and validates people on their journey to make peace with food.
My philosophy of working with clients around their food and eating issues is based on two main areas – HAES or Health At Every Size, and Somatic Nutrition Counselling (Trauma Informed Care).
For years, Health Professionals have focused on weight loss - with people getting bigger and feeling disempowered or developing severe life-threatening eating disorders. When we focus on health and de-stigmatise weight then a person's health will improve, both physically and psychologically.
HAES (Health at Every Size) is an approach used by practitioners which aligns with health and wellbeing as being the forefront of care. It is an inclusive approach which does not discriminate or shame bodies; instead, it normalises that we are all different. It honours our body as it is, whilst working on improving our health, working within a weight-shaming and health-obsessed culture. What began as a social justice movement at around the same time that the medical profession started pathologizing our weight, is now a philosophy of health that is being used by more health professionals and has growing research supporting its application. The RACGP (Royal Australian College of General Practitioners) recently recognised that a focus on health and not weight is more beneficial for clients ongoing.
Somatic nutrition counselling looks at our body as the ‘holder’ of all our life experiences, and this can impact our food and eating. This is something I have been interested in for many years, and are continuing to train in. Often trying to change our eating is seen as just changing our thoughts, however we also need to look at how our body has experienced eating, sometimes from childhood.
As a Dietitian I am committed to lifelong professional learning which has directed me to develop my skills in the area of counselling, Non-Diet and Health At Every Size and spiritual holistic care, as well as now exploring Somatic Nutrition Counselling.
If you are interested in exploring your relationship with food, and find some peace in this area, then please contact me for a short chat to make sure we are the right fit.
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