Specialist area
Eating disorders
Eating disorders are the area I've spent longest in, and the one I'm most immersed in. Most of that has been within NHS eating disorder services, where I still work alongside my independent practice. This page sets out the experience and training that sits behind that work — so you know exactly what you're getting if you come to me with an eating difficulty.
20
years as a Chartered Clinical Psychologist
CBT-E
trained in the first-line evidence-based treatment
ARFID
specialist focus in restrictive eating
NHS eating disorders
Eight years in NHS eating disorders services
For eight years I've worked within specialist NHS eating disorders services, where I assess and treat adults and adolescents across the full range of presentations — anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, atypical and mixed pictures, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).
That work is where I learned that an eating disorder is rarely just about food. It's a way of managing unbearable feelings, of holding a sense of control, of coping when other routes feel closed off. Recovery means finding what the eating disorder is doing for you — and finding safer ways to meet that need.
Weight management
Twelve years in weight management
I spent twelve years working in NHS weight management alongside my eating disorders role, supporting people living with obesity and the complex psychology that sits underneath it — shame, emotional eating, the effects of dieting culture, and the physical-health consequences that shape how someone feels in their own body.
The overlap between disordered eating and weight is significant. Many people I see don't fit a neat diagnostic box, and that's exactly where a specialist understanding matters: weight management isn't willpower, and it isn't separate from how someone eats, thinks and feels.
CBT-E
CBT-E: the first-line, evidence-based treatment
CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is the psychological treatment I'm trained in and the one with the strongest evidence base for eating disorders — it's the approach recommended first-line in UK national guidance.
It works across the eating disorders rather than being built for one diagnosis, which matters because presentations shift and blend. Treatment usually runs to around twenty one-to-one sessions over twenty weeks, with twice-weekly sessions at the start, and longer where someone is underweight.
We target the processes actively keeping the problem going — the rigid rules around food and eating, the checking and avoidance, the way weight and shape have come to govern self-worth — rather than the symptoms alone.
Schema Therapy for eating disorders
Schema Therapy for entrenched eating disorders
Where an eating disorder has become deeply woven into someone's sense of self — or where the same patterns have returned across years and previous treatments — Schema Therapy can be the right frame. It works with the core beliefs and coping modes that formed early and that the eating disorder has come to serve.
I've trained in Schema Therapy specifically for eating disorders, and I often draw on it alongside CBT-E for people whose difficulties are long-standing or tied to early experiences of attachment, shame or invalidation.
Compassion-Focused Therapy
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT)
Compassion-Focused Therapy is particularly valuable in eating and weight work, where self-criticism and shame are often central — sometimes the central feature. CFT builds the emotional regulation and self-soothing systems that harsh inner criticism has worn down.
I use CFT-informed work where the difficulty isn't only what someone does with food, but the punishing voice they live with while doing it.
ARFID
ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)
ARFID isn't fussy eating, and it isn't driven by body image. It's a serious feeding and eating disorder marked by restricted intake based on sensory sensitivity, fear of aversive consequences, or a lack of interest in eating — and it can significantly affect nutrition, weight and quality of life.
I have particular experience with ARFID in adults, including presentations that overlap with autism and neurodivergence. The work is gradual, pressure-free and built around a clear formulation of what's driving the restriction for that person.
I also authored the Beyond Safe Foods course, a self-paced ARFID programme for adults, alongside my one-to-one work.
Eating disorders and neurodivergence
Eating disorders and neurodivergence
Eating disorders are significantly more common in autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people, and ARFID in particular frequently overlaps with autism. Sensory differences, rigid thinking styles, alexithymia and the cumulative weight of masking all shape both the eating difficulty and what helps.
A standard protocol applied without adjustment can fail — or cause harm. I adapt assessment and treatment to neurodivergent experience: making the approach more explicit, respecting sensory reality, and building on strengths rather than pathologising difference.
What I treat
Presentations I work with
- Anorexia nervosa
- Bulimia nervosa
- Binge eating disorder
- ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)
- Atypical and mixed presentations
- Disordered eating
- Body image and weight-related distress
- Emotional eating and weight management
Therapy & courses
One-to-one work and self-paced courses
Alongside individual therapy, I've written two online courses for people who want to work at their own pace: Understanding and Overcoming Binge Eating and Beyond Safe Foods for adults with ARFID. Both are built on the same evidence base I use one-to-one.
If you're not sure whether therapy or a course is the right starting point, get in touch and we can think it through together.
Reaching out about an eating difficulty
Eating disorders thrive in secrecy and shame. Sending a short email — even one line — is enough to begin, and nothing you say will surprise me.