Specialist, evidence-based therapy that understands difficulties in the context of the person experiencing them
People come to therapy for many different reasons. Some already have a diagnosis and are looking for specialist psychological therapy. Others recognise patterns in their thoughts, emotions, relationships or behaviour but aren’t quite sure how to describe them. Sometimes people simply know that something is taking up too much space in their life and they would like things to be different.
At Food For Thought Therapy, I work with a range of psychological difficulties, with particular specialist experience in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), eating disorders, trauma and PTSD, alongside anxiety, self-esteem, emotional and relational difficulties.
Diagnoses can be incredibly valuable. They can give people language for experiences that have previously felt confusing, help identify evidence-based treatment and create a sense that there is an understandable pattern to what is happening. But a diagnosis can only ever tell us part of the story. Two people with the same diagnosis may experience it very differently. History, relationships, identity, culture, neurodivergence, environment and previous experiences can all shape how difficulties develop, what they mean to someone and what continues to keep them going.
This is why effective therapy begins with the person rather than the label. We develop a shared understanding, or formulation, of what is happening and use that to guide which evidence-based approaches are most likely to be helpful.
Areas of Specialist Support
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD can involve intrusive thoughts, images, sensations, urges or doubts alongside attempts to gain certainty, prevent feared outcomes or work out what those experiences mean. My approach includes specialist OCD therapies such as CBT, ERP and Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT), alongside other approaches where appropriate.
Eating Disorders & Difficulties With Eating
Eating difficulties can affect our relationship with food, our bodies and ourselves in many different ways. I work with presentations including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other difficulties with eating using specialist evidence-based approaches including CBT-E.
ARFID
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is different from eating disorders primarily driven by weight and shape concerns. Difficulties may relate to sensory sensitivity, fear of aversive consequences, low interest in eating, or a combination of these experiences.
Trauma & PTSD
Trauma isn’t defined only by what happened, but by the impact an experience continues to have. I work with PTSD, Complex PTSD and a range of trauma-related experiences, including childhood, attachment, birth and medical trauma, traumatic loss and emotional flashbacks.
Anxiety & Fear
Anxiety can become organised around many different fears, from panic and health to social situations, specific experiences or uncertainty itself. Understanding what your anxiety is responding to and what keeps it going helps us determine the most appropriate way forward.
Self & Relationships
How we relate to ourselves and other people can be shaped by attachment, learning, culture, identity and the relationships we’ve experienced throughout our lives. This hub explores difficulties including low self-esteem, people-pleasing and boundaries, rejection sensitivity, emotional regulation, shame and self-criticism, burnout, impostor syndrome and sense of self.
More Than One Thing Can Be True
People don’t always fit neatly within a single diagnosis or area of difficulty. OCD can coexist with trauma, neurodivergence can shape experiences of anxiety, eating or burnout, and shame, self-criticism or relationship patterns can cut across many different difficulties. Sometimes experiences that look similar on the surface are also being maintained by very different processes underneath.
A diagnosis can be valuable and meaningful without needing to explain everything. Therapy involves developing a shared understanding, or map, of how someone’s experiences connect, what may have shaped them and what is keeping the difficulties going now. This helps us decide which therapeutic approaches are most relevant rather than trying to make the person fit a predetermined treatment.
People also don’t need to know exactly which diagnosis or category describes their experience before seeking therapy. We can begin with what is happening, how it is affecting life and what someone would like to change.
How Do We Start?
If you recognise some of your own experiences within these pages, or you’re unsure which area best reflects what you’re experiencing, you’re welcome to book a free 15-minute discovery call.
We can briefly discuss what has brought you to therapy, what you’re hoping for and whether my experience and the approaches I offer are likely to be a good fit. If we decide to work together, the first sessions give us more space to understand the difficulties in context and begin developing a shared formulation to guide therapy.
You don’t need to arrive with the right diagnosis, terminology or therapy already worked out. We can start with your experience and build our understanding from there.