My background and experience
My background and experience as a eating disorder specialist
Before I started specialising in helping people with bulimia and binge eating to recover, I spent 15 years working in the NHS as an Expert on
Behavioural Change. This means I was the NHS area expert in helping people break unhealthy habits and build healthy habits into their lives.
Why I work in emotional eating, binge eating and bulimia recovery
I have thought long and hard about, of all the areas I could chosen to work in, why, am I instinctively drawn to the area of eating disorders.
I think it is that it’s just the unfairness of the situation.
It’s not fair that we are consistently being bombarded with unrealistic body images, that nobody (including the models in the photographs) can attain.
It’s not fair that they have been told the way to lose weight is to diet. The very method that is almost certainly guaranteed to make them gain weight. Then when the inevitable rebound weight gain occurs – blame themselves and not the method for failure.
It’s not fair that the characteristics of discipline, will power and trying to do the very best you can – are the very characteristics that can spiral into an eating disorder and keep it firmly in place for what can be years. Such people can restrict their diet harder, exercise harder and stick at it for longer. When the inevitable happens – they fall harder and have much deeper feelings of failure. Which inspires them to diet, exercise even harder and so the vicious cycle starts again, spiralling down.
Perfect storm to develop an eating disorder
Having any 2 of the above beliefs can make you vulnerable, but having all 3 creates a ‘perfect storm’ for developing an eating disorder.
The road to complete recovery is not difficult – the difficulty is, getting people with an eating disorder to start along the road, while they hold these beliefs is extremely challenging. But seeing clients bloom visibly, within a few weeks, as they see that recovery is both possible and achievable for them makes it all worth while.
You can fully recover from Bulimia and Binge Eating and Emotional Eating
I know your eating disorder can seem very complex, difficult to understand and the idea of recovery a faraway dream.
But the truth is we:
know what causes eating disorders
know how they continue and can spiral out of control
know how they can become an obsession that totally overtakes your life.
But, most importantly, we know how to help you achieve a complete recovery.
A little more about my experience and background
I have always been fascinated by the subconscious mind, and it’s power to really enhance our lives.
A great deal of what we do is ruled by our subconscious, we routinely do things without thinking as a matter of habit. In most cases such as driving a car or tying your shoe lace our subconsciousness is a faithful servant. The problem occurs when for various reasons we develop habits that are not in our own best interests. When we try to ‘break’ these habits, instead of a faithful servant our subconscious can seem like a demanding master and we can be drawn into a battle of wills with what seems like stronger opponent – and surprise, surprise we lose – again and again.
It doesn’t have to be like this, with the right techniques I can show you how to use your subconscious to HELP you make positive changes in your life.
My PhD at Salford University investigated how experts use their subconscious knowledge to make expert decisions.
I qualified as a clinical hypnotherapist with the British Medical Hypnotherapy Examinations Board, with a specialist interest in depression and anxiety.
I used these skills working in the NHS as a specialist stop smoking adviser. I worked with the most addicted, psychologically dependent smokers, who had very dangerous health conditions and HAD to stop smoking. I developed many skills and techniques which proved very successful with this difficult group of patients. I designed several courses on habit breaking which I delivered to GPs and nurses who were interested in helping their patients make positive life changes.
As a Senior NHS Manager I lead the team which helped over 35,000 people to stop smoking, over a 10 year period.
As a NHS Expert in Behaviour Change and Habit Breaking I later became increasingly concerned about the obesity / diabetes epidemic and studied at the National Centre for Eating Disorders where I gained:
- an advanced diploma in eating disorders
- a diploma in obesity management and
- a diploma in nutritional interventions for eating disorders
I developed the course ‘Down with Diets’ (which I also taught to GPs and nurses) which gives patients the knowledge and skills to enable them to ‘eat their way out of their weight problem’ and maintain a healthy weight for life.
As a NHS Senior Manager I became the Primary Care Trusts Expert in evidenced based Behaviour Change and made recommendations to commissioners in areas such as Diabetes, COPD and Respiratory Disease health services, Shared Decision Making and Self Care.
I have written a book ‘Appetite for Life: create a life free from bulimia and binge eating’. It is based on the recovery programme that I have devised for my clients. The book will be published later this year.
I now use these skills to help private patients recover from bulimia, binge eating and poor body image.
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