The Eating Disorder Therapist

6 Tips to Deal with Relapse in Eating Disorder Recovery

Relapse is an absolutely normal and inevitable part of recovery.

It’s incredibly rare that someone can just stop their eating disorder behaviours, as you have to deal with food every day. Whether this be lapsing back into restrictive eating, binge eating, purging or over-exercising, a relapse can feel pretty stressful and overwhelming. 

But relapses can be incredibly valuable for gaining insight and awareness about your triggers.

Consequently, I like to call relapses – blips or learning experiences.

So it’s helpful to embrace relapses and see them as part of the recovery process.

Over time, as you move along the recovery road, you will relapse less in frequency and you will recover faster. You are never back to square one.

In this episode, I share 6 of my best tips to deal with lapses, and all ones that I have utilised in my own recovery.  I hope that you find this helpful.

 

Autism, Eating Disorders in Men, Stigma and Sport with Thomas Henley

Today, I’m talking to Thomas Henley – passionate autism advocate, public speaker and online content creator. Thomas has his own podcast (the Thoughty Auti podcast- all things autism and mental health) – he is also a YouTuber and Documentary creator. And that’s all in his spare time, as Thomas is also a Business & Event Project manager for a non-profit organisation. Amazingly, Thomas is a former Commonwealth Championship Taekwondo Gold medalist, and owner of the ‘Best Male Fighter’ trophy for his heavyweight bouts.

Diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome at age 10, and then partnering with the charity, Anna Kennedy Online, Thomas became an autism advocate in his early 20’s. He openly shares that he suffers from meltdowns, panic attacks, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Binge Eating Disorder, and Severe Depression. Despite his struggles, he has developed strong social and communication skills, and achieved an honours degree in Biomedical Science (UoM), has taught in SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) teaching, has extensive traveling experience, and developed his video and audio skills independently. Thomas is an incredibly inspiring human!  

In this interview, we talk about a whole range of different topics. Thomas talks through his personal story of struggling with his own mental health issues, including having bulimia as a child, this then morphing into binge eating disorder as an adult. He shares about his diagnosis with Asperger’s Syndrome at aged 10 and more about the role of how autism interplays with eating disorders and interoception. He also addresses stigma around males having eating disorders and the impact of sport and eating disorders, when there is pressure to be a certain weight or size. This is an episode to truly inspire and encourage people on their journey. I hope that you enjoy it.

To find out more about Thomas: -

Website: https://thomashenley.co.uk/

 

An Interview with Me by Ross Dempsey of Progression Health

Another interview with me this week by Ross Dempsey of Progression Health.

Ross is a qualified personal trainer, with a degree in Exercise and Health Studies and a Masters in Exercise Physiology. He's originally from Ireland but now based out in San Francisco. Ross is passionate about fitness training being hugely beneficial for mental and physical health, and for boosting confidence and relieving stress. He promotes an approach of balance, steering away from restrictive diets and encouraging his clients to embrace movement for achieving ultimate wellbeing and enjoyment. 

Ross was a fantastic interviewer, with lots of great questions and humour too. He talks to me about all things eating disorders. Again, there's a lot packed in to this episode and I hope it will offer you a real insight into this area of mental health.

 

Just to reassure you that the podcast will be back to it's original format next week. I have several guests lined up along with some solo episodes too! I hope that you enjoy this conversation.

To find out more about Ross:

https://linktr.ee/progressionHealthCoaching

An Interview with Me by Shane Walsh Fitness!

Something different this week! It's me being interviewed by Shane Walsh on his podcast.

Shane Walsh is the founder of Shane Walsh Fitness. Shane’s route into fitness was driven by ill health - after getting ill in 2017, Shane decided to start fitness training and immediately experienced the physical and mental benefits of this. Shane then developed a huge passion to support others to do the same. He is a fully qualified nutritionist, who specialises in working with women and educating them about how to genuinely fuel their body and move away from toxic 1200kcal diets that are often recommended for weight loss.

There's lots packed into this episode. I talk about different eating disorders; the impact of the pandemic; getting to the root cause of eating disorders; the fitness industry and supporting men with eating disorders; binge triggers and tips on stopping binge eating; improving body image; how to support someone with an eating disorder; helping children develop a healthy relationship with food and more! I can't believe how much we packed in.

I hope that you enjoy this conversation.

If you want to find out more about Shane Walsh Fitness:

https://www.shanewalshfitness.com/

 

Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders

This podcast has some triggering content. Please take care of yourself.

If you have experienced some form of sexual abuse in childhood, it is incredibly common that you may struggle with with the abuse of food and have very negative body image.  This is understandable, with food becoming a coping and survival mechanism at a very difficult time. Unconsciously, your relationship with food can mirror your deeper relationship with yourself, after experiencing this trauma.

In this episode, I talk about how the violating act of sexual abuse can impact the body, body image, and induce overwhelming feelings of shame, guilt and powerlessness. I then explore taking baby steps towards healing and finding hope and recovery.

Further help and resources:

https://www.thesurvivorstrust.org/

https://www.recovery-from-child-sexual-abuse.org.uk/

https://www.supportline.org.uk/problems/child-abuse-survivors/

 

 

Eating Disorder Recovery, Disney Princesses and How We Diet Like We Date, with Toni Marinucci

Today I’m talking to Toni Marinucci, a Registered Dietitian, public speaker, coach and author. Toni has a Master’s Degree in Nutrition, has been an avid lifestyle blogger for over 10 years. Toni’s passion lies in helping people live happier and healthier lives, with her mission to help people heal their relationship with food, gain self-confidence, and find balance in eating habits. As well as being a Registered Dietitian, Toni is also a Business Owner of Tips with Toni. Ironically, she teaches people how NOT to diet through online nutrition coaching.

 

In this episode, Toni shares her journey to healing, from growing up in a larger body and being encouraged to diet from such a young age. And how from the depths of despair, how she has healed and then used this experience to grow and support others. Toni also talks about the differences between disordered eating and eating disorders, and how she can define your eating archetype using Disney princesses! She talks about being on the Dr. Oz show (USA daytime TV talk show) and how we diet like we date: - the parallels between our relationship with food and romantic relationships, explained more fully in her new book and Ted Talk. I hope that you enjoy this conversation.

To find out more about Toni, her new book and Ted Talk: -

Instagram: @tipswithtoni_podcast; @tips_with_toni

Website: https://tipswithtoni.com/

 

Dealing with the Root of Eating Disorder Recovery, Healing the Gut and Self-Soothing, with Mindy Gorman-Plutzer

Today, I’m talking to Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, Certified Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner and Eating Psychology Coach.   Mindy’s life experience and training inspired her to create a framework that combines functional nutrition, positive psychology, and mind/body science. Mindy is passionate about helping others recover from eating disorders and create a healthier lifestyle. Her approach tackles the root cause of the issue, and emphasizes that how and why you eat is just as important as what you eat.  In addition, Mindy is the author of The Freedom Promise: 7 Steps To Stop Fearing What Food Will Do TO You and Start Embracing What It Can Do FOR You.

In this episode, Mindy talks about her personal journey recovery, the treatment limitations when seeking help and how she found the right support that enabled true healing. She explores how eating disorders become solutions to different trauma or stressors, and the way they can becomes a means of self-soothing, and with healing, other healthier coping strategies can be explored. Mindy works from a functional medicine perspective, involving healing the gut, and she explains her reasoning for not working with the ‘all foods it’ model in recovery.

This is an inspiring and encouraging episode, as Mindy radiates passion, enthusiasm and deep caring for her clients and people healing from eating disorders. It gives hope for recovery and regaining and taking back what was lost through the illness. I hope that you enjoy the episode.  

To find out more about Mindy:-

Instagram: @thefreedompromise

Website: https://thefreedompromise.com/

 

Trauma, Health at Every Size and Supporting Black Women with Eating Disorders, with Dr. Carolyn Coker-Ross

Today, I’m talking to Dr. Carolyn Coker-Ross, based in the USA and a medical doctor specialising in eating disorders, trauma and addiction.  She presented a TEDxPleasantGrove talk on “The Gifts of Intergenerational Trauma'' in January, 2020.

Dr. Coker-Ross is the author of 3 books, which are recovery workbooks - including: The Food Addiction Recovery Workbook, The Emotional Eating Workbook and The Binge Eating Disorder and Compulsive Overeating Workbook.

She is a contributing author to the recently released book: “Treating Black Women with Eating Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide,” and offers anti-racism consulting work to companies and organisations.

Dr. Coker-Ross came from a family of business entrepreneurs.  When she went into medicine, she founded three women's centres in San Diego offering general medicine and office gynaecology for women. She was named “San Diego Business Woman of the Year."  She later went on to do consulting work at eating disorder treatment facilities where she then founded “The Anchor Program”. This included developing a line of supplements that were used in her consulting work.

The Anchor Program is a 12 week online non-diet approach to treating binge eating, food addiction and emotional eating. The program helps people get to the root cause of food and body image issues, enabling them to make peace with food and their body.

This conversation explores Dr. Coker-Ross’s journey in working with eating disorder patients. She discusses the need for trauma work in healing patients with eating disorders, including intergenerational trauma and race-based trauma, where relevant. Dr Coker-Ross is a strong advocate of HAES (Health at Every Size) and understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences and these are central to her ethos in treatment.

This is an incredibly inspiring conversation, appreciating how much change can be made in the world, from an individual with such passion and dedication to supporting others to heal and to change the world for the better.

To find out more about the Anchor Program, free book, Ted Talk, Podcast and lots more, please go to www.anchorprogram.com and https://carolynrossmd.com/

 

 

Can a Self-Help Book Heal Disordered Eating?

I'm sure that you've experienced the wonderful promise of a new, shiny self-help book, for life transformation. But do self-help books really work and what's the best way to make use of them? Today, I share my thoughts about how to get the best from self-help, and talk about my book recommendations for improving your relationship with food and your body. I hope that you enjoy the episode.

Healing, Recovery Tools and Finding your True Voice, with Emmy Brunner

Today I’m talking to have Emmy Brunner on the podcast. Emmy is a Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist, Personal Empowerment and Transformation Coach, Author and Speaker with over 20 years of experience. She founded The Recover Clinic in 2005, as she wanted to build a community that offered comprehensive treatment packages for the sufferers of trauma, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, anxiety, depression, and personality disorders. She dreamt of a holistic treatment model that considered the ‘whole person’ — body, mind, and spirit — including all elements of lifestyle. The Recover Clinic now offers a program both within the clinic and via an international online service that embodies just this: it emphasises the therapeutic relationship and uses both conventional clinical treatment and alternative therapies.  Emmy also offers a 1:1 coaching service; she has a successful 8-week online program, From Lost to the River and she is author of the wonderful book - Find Your True Voice (available now from all major booksellers). In this episode, Emmy talks about her approach to recovery and holistically treating the whole person, addressing trauma and the unwell voice, whilst also supporting people with a range of skills and tools to support them in healing. I hope that you enjoy the episode. To find out more about Emmy: - https://emmybrunner.com/ https://www.therecoverclinic.co.uk/ Instagram: @emmybrunnerofficial Join the Eating Disorder Therapist Book Club HERE https://patron.podbean.com/eatingdisordertherapist