I know what it's like to grow up feeling like your body is a problem to be solved…
My difficult relationship with food started when I was around 11, when a school nurse told my mum I was overweight and I was put on packed lunches with Marmite and lettuce sandwiches to rectify “the situation”. I still feel the shame and embarrassment as I remember being told I was “getting a bit chubby”. My parents did what the 90s had taught them to do...Rosemary Conley workout videos and Ryvita had a place in our home, just like so many others.
But almost overnight, food for me became something shameful and this led to consequences nobody anticipated.
I was allowed sweets only on Saturdays (unless I was naughty, when taking them from me was the ultimate punishment!) and a snack cupboard that was off limits. So I started to sneak things out and eat them in secret. Combine that with a grandmother who showed her love through food, and I quickly learned to associate eating with comfort, safety, and affection.
This is me at the age my body became a “problem”…
At 12, I was put on a Weight Watchers diet and food quickly became something to be watched, weighed, and won. I “weighed in” every weekend, tracked my progress in a little notebook, and took great pleasure in reporting my wins to friends and family. As a Mum now, my heart breaks for that little girl.
I remember watching my underweight sister battle to eat cake she’d been given to help her gain weight, while I was only allowed a carrot. We laugh about it now, but the impact ran deep.
Looking back, food had already become many things it was never meant to be: reward, punishment, a source of shame, a way of feeling loved. And for decades, that pattern followed me. The yo-yoing of losing weight, feeling amazing, and then immediately returning to old habits, usually even harder and faster as I celebrated my thinness. The restriction and the rebound. The hope and the shame. Over and over again…
If this feels familiar, you're not alone. Get in touch
The shift came when finally, I got honest with myself about what I actually wanted. And what I wanted, more than a small body, was peace.
I chose therapy over yet another diet, and it changed things in a way that nothing else had. Not by giving me another set of rules. But by helping me understand where my patterns had come from, and gently noticing and changing the automatic responses that had been running in the background for most of my life. It doesn’t feel easy every single day, and I won't pretend otherwise. I struggle to believe the hype of so many influencers who claim to be able to cure you in a 30-minute webinar. But it's not punishing anymore. And that has changed everything.
That experience is why I trained in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy. Because I want to offer others with similar experiences what I finally found, regardless of gender (why does this industry have a habit of only speaking to women?) Not another diet. Not another fresh start. Just a quieter, kinder relationship with food, and with themselves.
I also hold an Advanced Clinical Weight Loss Practitioner qualification from the Health Sciences Academy... not because weight loss is the goal of our work, but because understanding the science behind it makes me a more informed practitioner for anyone navigating a complicated relationship with food.
If you're ready to stop the cycle of hope and shame, and just start living, I'm here. You don't have to have it all figured out before you get in touch, that's my job.
Before training as a therapist, I spent 20 years working in a corporate environment. I'm also a single mum. So I know first-hand that life is busy, money doesn't always stretch as far as you'd like, and finding headspace for yourself can feel like yet another thing on an ever-growing list.
I also know that the wellness world isn't always helpful here. "Make yourself the priority." "Put your own oxygen mask on first." It's well-meaning, but it can feel out of touch when you're genuinely stretched and just trying to get through the week. Life isn’t as simple as that.
I work Monday to Friday, with late sessions available on Wednesdays and early sessions on Thursdays. And I'll always talk through the investment honestly before you commit to anything, so there are no surprises.
If you've read this far, something in you is ready. And we can figure out the rest together.