Episodes

Wednesday Apr 09, 2025
5 Emotions that Drive Binge Eating
Wednesday Apr 09, 2025
Wednesday Apr 09, 2025
Binge eating is not simply scoffing an extra biscuit, with your morning coffee break. Instead, it involves eating fast, an extremely large amount of food (more than you would eat for lunch or dinner), and usually in secret. It can feel like a dissociative or ‘out of body’ experience. You are fully present and grounded on earth, but it feels as if demon has swept over you and taken all rational decision making away. Binge eating can fleetingly be euphoric and pleasurable. This is short-lived before guilt, shame and self-loathing descend like a dark cloud. Plus, the physical consequences of feeling over-full are deeply unpleasant and sometimes painful.
Binge eating can happen across the different eating disorders and within disordered eating. You might have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder or OSFED (Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorder). Or you may not fit neatly into a diagnostic box. Fundamentally, if you are bingeing and your symptoms are causing you distress, you are worthy of support and help.
In this episode, I discuss 5 emotions that drive binge eating and how to cope differently.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Saturday Apr 05, 2025
5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Therapy
Saturday Apr 05, 2025
Saturday Apr 05, 2025
Therapy has the potential to transform your life in immeasurable ways. It can offer a wonderful container for much change and personal growth. Your therapist’s competency and skills are a hugely important part in this process. But therapy is not a passive process. You can influence your experience and outcomes greatly. By taking responsibility and being an active participant in the journey, you have much to gain. Here I share some thoughts about how to squeeze the maximum juice and value from your therapy experience.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Wednesday Apr 02, 2025
Wednesday Apr 02, 2025
In this episode, I explore embodying the inspiration of role models in recovery. I hope that you enjoy it.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Saturday Mar 29, 2025
A Therapist's Perspective: Inside an NHS Inpatient Anorexia Nervosa Treatment Centre
Saturday Mar 29, 2025
Saturday Mar 29, 2025
In this episode, I share my experiences of working as a therapist in an NHS adult eating disorder inpatient service for anorexia nervosa. I hope that you find it helpful.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Wednesday Mar 26, 2025
Wednesday Mar 26, 2025
How to actually love yourself?
If you’re on the body image healing road, you’ve probably been told multiple times, by multiple people that you simply need to love yourself.
That your desire for thinness is a marker of not feeling good enough and that you’re seeking scraps of worthiness through conforming towards the ‘body ideal’.
When I was in the dreary depths of bulimia, wise people would often dispense this advice to me with noble intentions.
I would placatingly nod my head, whilst secretly rolling my eyes and having zero understanding of how to do this.
It felt like some ephemeral, nice-to-have fluffy concept.
Self-love is sadly not a quick fix pill, rather a life-long journey that needs regular cultivation and attention.
And it’s an important journey to take. Otherwise, the miserable alternative is neurotic self-preoccupation and judgement.
It can’t be firmly rooted with a luxury bubble bath or spa visit, although these delights might be sprinkles on the top, of a cup filled fully.
A truly self-loving relationship offers an internal fortitude of peace and contentment. It vastly improves your relationships, romantic and otherwise. It allows the possible fulfilment and deep appreciation of work and hobbies. It allows you to form a haven inside of yourself.
In this episode, I explore how to navigate this self-love process with some practical steps for change. If you’re stuck in the dreary depths of self-loathing and compare-and-despair, then this podcast might be just what you need.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Monday Mar 24, 2025
Monday Mar 24, 2025
Compulsive exercise is not joyful.
It has become a weary, punishing ‘should’ to endure despite injury and bone-weary exhaustion.
You cannot stop. Your sanity depends on completing the next workout and achieving your step count.
It’s rigid and time robbing of precious life moments.
You rely on exercise to earn your meals and to give you permission to eat.
It is a distraction from difficult emotions.
It’s intricately linked to weight control and body image.
It’s more than psychological.
When you are restricting your food intake, the brain chemical, leptin is significantly reduced. This drives the urge to be active and move.
It’s a survival mechanism in human beings which would have kept us alive in scarce times gone by.
Activity can be happening in different forms.
You may be openly and deliberately engaging in activities such as gym sessions or swimming.
Or you may have become secretive in increasing your exercise through additional pacing around the house, when no-one is there.
Or standing for long periods rather than comfortably sitting down.
Or you may have joined more than one gym so you can do extra sessions without prompting concern from staff.
You may feel confused about the healthiness of your exercise.
In a world that praises constant movement and screams forcefully about the fear of eating too much, you may well be validated for your extreme regime, viewed as ‘the fit person’, as others do not understand your internal torture and compulsion.
In this episode, I explore signs that your relationship with movement may be unhealthy with practical steps for change. I hope that you find it helpful.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Saturday Mar 22, 2025
Learning to Self-Soothe Without Drugs, Alcohol, Food, Scrolling.....
Saturday Mar 22, 2025
Saturday Mar 22, 2025
An episode all about learning to self-soothe and developing self-compassion. I hope that you find it helpful.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Wednesday Mar 19, 2025
When Your Eating Disorder is Your Identity and it's Keeping You Stuck
Wednesday Mar 19, 2025
Wednesday Mar 19, 2025
An eating disorder can become an integral part of your identity and this can leave you feeling stuck and powerless. In this episode, I share my own experiences of recovery and detachment from the ed identity. I explore how identity can be challenging to shift but how there are practical ways to do this. I hope that you enjoy the episode.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Saturday Mar 15, 2025
ADHD and Eating Disorders: 11 Insights from the Therapy Room
Saturday Mar 15, 2025
Saturday Mar 15, 2025
Today, many of my clients enter the therapy room with a diagnosis or self-diagnosis of ADHD. They have often only recently realised the humungous impact on their lifetime relationship with food.
If you have ADHD, you have increased vulnerability to suffering from an eating disorder, particularly bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder.
This is backed up by research finding that people with ADHD are four times more likely to have an eating disorder than those without.
ADHD adds a layer of complexity in navigating your food relationship, when this is already hugely challenging in a diet obsessed world.
If you have ADHD and an eating disorder, please show yourself deep understanding and compassion for your food struggles.
In this episode, I share 11 insights around ADHD and eating disorders from the therapy room. I hope that you find it helpful.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
5 Pearls of Wisdom That I Would Give to my Younger Self
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
In this episode, I dispense five pearls of wisdom to my younger self. I hope that you find it helpful.
Harriet's Substack: https://substack.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist
Harriet Frew's current offers: -
Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html
Online Breaking Free from Bulimia
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/bulimia-nervosa-online-course.html
Eating Disorders Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html
Body Image Training for Professionals
https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html