EATING DISORDERS

Your Relationship with Food Is a Mirror — Not a Flaw

Eating is never just about food. How you feel about your body isn’t simply about size, shape, or appearance. These struggles often carry deeper stories — of unmet needs, early wounds, swallowed anger, and attempts to soothe, protect, or control what feels unbearable inside.

This is not about willpower or discipline. It’s about your story. Parts of you may have learned, often very young, that food is comfort, reward, punishment, rebellion, or protection.

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A Special Area of Focus

Over the past 30 years, I have worked with people struggling with various forms of disordered eating, both in the UK and South Africa. In the UK, I was part of a team that developed an award-winning intervention for individuals struggling with overeating and obesity.

More importantly, I see eating struggles not only through a diagnostic lens but through a deeply relational and human one. Food can express — or suppress — emotions that were never safe to feel or show. I understand the shame, secrecy, and loneliness these patterns often carry.

 

What Lies Beneath the Surface?

Food struggles are symptoms, not causes. Behind overeating or restriction often lies a history of self-denial, blame, and silenced emotions — especially anger. Eating patterns mirror deeper feelings without safe outlets or space to be expressed.

Many who face these challenges may seem outwardly generous and accommodating but feel inwardly furious, drained, and yearning for autonomy and care. With curiosity and compassion, these feelings can uncover unmet needs and parts of yourself that have long been overlooked.

Therapy Is Not About Fixing — It’s About Listening

I offer a space to explore what your relationship with food is saying — not just how to stop it.

In our work, we may explore:

  • The origins of food rules and beliefs — where they come from, whose voice they carry
  • Body image as a reflection of safety, belonging, and worth
  • Unspoken anger, grief, shame, or unmet needs that food may be trying to soothe or express
  • Internal parts of you — the rebel, the perfectionist, the critic, the protector — that drive eating patterns
  • Ways to restore a compassionate, connected relationship with yourself and your body
  • Developing emotional literacy and permission to take up space, both physically and emotionally
My approach is gentle, integrative, and collaborative, drawing on mindfulness, Compassionate Inquiry, psychodynamic thinking, and trauma-informed care.

Recovery Isn’t Linear — But It Is Possible

Recovery is a process of becoming more yourself — less controlled by shame or secrecy, and more rooted in your own emotional truth. It’s about reclaiming choice, joy, connection, and self-trust.

Whether you struggle with binge eating, emotional eating, chronic dieting, body hatred, or deep ambivalence around food, you are not alone — and you don’t need to do this alone.
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And I said to my body. Softly. “I want to be your friend”. It took a long breath. And replied, “I have been waiting for this my whole life”

NAYYIRAH WAHEED