Having experienced the devastation of binge eating disorder, painkiller and exercise addiction since childhood, I have recovered through a combination of 'top down' Western based clinical evidence based CBT and more holistic, eastern based 'bottom up' somatic techniques including yoga and breathwork.

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Now I help others to do the same.

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My recovery spanned 5 years as I got to grips with the complexity of eating issues and the underlying complex trauma I have experienced. I was formally diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 35, I am self diagnosed with Autism. I struggled with ongoing compulsions, urges and habits of emotion driven over-eating.

 

My current thinking and interests are around the link of neurodiversity, sexuality and pleasure (or the absence of it) in many peoples lives.

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Numbing, soothing, scrolling, dissociating out of difficult emotions and feelings - using food, sex, phone scrolling and work to disconnect ourselves from our bodies.

 

My lived experience of eating issues, anxiety and addiction over 30 years and my 13 year clinical experience as a Mental Health Nurse & CBT Therapist, allow me to have a breadth of knowledge and skills to see the full perspective of emotional and psychological distress, along with developing a 'trauma informed' - and also trauma trained approach to distress. I'm not a fan of unnecessary diagnoses and challenge the psychiatric model of mental illness in it's isolation. We are the product of our environments - that is biological, psychological and social in origin.

 

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