EATING DISORDER RECOVERY

Having lived with anorexia nervosa for fifteen years of my life I may never know exactly what you are going through but it’s likely I will understand your struggles more than most.

More importantly I also know what it truly takes to recover and create a full life beyond an eating disorder.

I know that change is possible no matter how dire our circumstances and beyond help we feel.

I know that change is not inevitable, I know it is not a given but I do know it is possible. 

I am practical and down to earth in my approach. I am the same person in my day-to-day life as I am in my work life and believe highly in congruency, honesty and at the end of the day being human.

My role is not to tell you what to do or what is best for you but rather meet you where you are and guide you to develop your own strength, empowerment and freedom. My role is to guide you to work with your mind in new and different ways so you can ultimately make your life better by your standards, your definitions and your values.

I am unapologetically recovery focused. Which means that by working with me you are choosing to go for a cure, you are choosing recovery and not just developing more coping mechanisms and techniques to manage within the confines of the eating disorder.  

Likely what is most different about working with me is I have both an in-depth knowledge of nutrition and the physical necessities of eating disorder recovery (which I gained both through lived experience as well as through higher education – biomedical science degree and a double degree in nutrition and dietetics) as well as the psychological insight, understanding and tools to help you not just know the information but to apply it (which I gained both through lived experience as well as through higher education – diploma of modern psychology that includes a master level training in clinical hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming).

If you choose to work with me you choose to do things differently. Hence where the name of my book “Ready, Now: Your Guide to Doing Recovery from Anorexia Different this Time” came from.

I believe what sets clinical hypnotherapy and NLP apart from other treatments is twofold.

1. Clinical hypnotherapy facilitates our brain to go into a state where change is most likely to occur.

When we go into the hypnotic state, we are able to soothe the amygdala and do many things we cannot do utilising only our conscious mind.

Including create one way thinking in the prefrontal cortex that allows us to think about what we want versus what we don’t want.

2. Clinical hypnotherapy and NLP allow us to connect with our deeper mind (or what we call our unconscious mind).

The unconscious mind is the part of us that is ultimately running the show (the vast majority of what we do in any given day is unconscious and an eating disorder is no exception).

It therefore follows that if we are to create lasting and sustainable change, change where we are no longer at war within ourselves to maintain that change, we need to work at the unconscious level.

Working with your unconscious mind means that you are interested in resolving and recovering versus learning more coping tactics and techniques.   

This is the hardest to answer question I am asked.

In general, the evidence behind clinical hypnotherapy is that most issues can be resolved within six to twelve consultations.

However, if I am being really honest with you because of the multifaceted nature of eating disorders including the effects of malnutrition on cognitive function and often accompanying low sense of self-trust and self-worth it is more often more than this.

Hypnosis is a legitimate tool for facilitating, speeding up and often making change possible. However, using hypnosis does not mean you no longer have to put in effort and intention into your healing. It is not a snap of the fingers magic trick.

In my own personal recovery, I worked with a clinical hypnotherapist for over a year.

The thing that I will say was very different for me personally and which my clients frequently reflect is that they feel within this time that they are moving forward and becoming more capable and empowered rather than just talking about their issues and feeling stuck and ashamed without really feeling they’re making change.

Working with me isn’t intended to be lifelong or even years. The goal is to facilitate you to reach your goals as quickly as is possible so you can move on with your life.

Fun fact: I now work with more people online than in person! The amount of time zones I am keeping track of worldwide in any given week is a part time job in itself.

My experience is that there are some real perks to doing consultations online.

The main benefits being the level of comfort, safety and focus that online consultations offer is often much higher due to your remaining in the comfort of your own home. This is true prior to the consult (you don’t have to rush to get to the office or navigate traffic), during the consult (you’re in a familiar and comfortable environment) and after the consult (you don’t have to find your way home or drive which means you can remain in the calm state for much longer). All this assists your mind in continuing building on the changes you’ve worked on during that consultation.

Of course, if you are in the area and would prefer face to face you are always welcome to visit one of the clinics in person.  

An initial consultation looks something like this:

1. Establish what it is you want.

Within the initial consultation we spend some time establishing and becoming very clear on what it is you want (it is ok if you’re not sure or don’t know – I can help you become clearer).

Very often we can articulate well what it is we don’t want but find it harder to be clear on what it is we do want. One of the laws of hypnosis is “the law of reversed effect” and the easiest way to explain this is the old “don’t think of a purple elephant” trick. Did you notice what you had to do to not think about a purple elephant? You had to think about it first. What this means is we get more of what we focus on, even if we want less of or none of that thing. Our minds apparently don’t comprehend the negation. “I don’t want to do anxiety” or “I don’t want to do an eating disorder” are translated more or less as “do anxiety” and “do an eating disorder” respectively.

Therefore, a key part of heading in the direction we want to go is getting clear on where we want to go.  

2. Establish what it is that’s getting in the way of you having what it is you want.

This is a crucial part of identifying just what areas of your life you need to improve, update or gain entirely new skills and resources in.

You may for example have old and non-useful beliefs holding you back. Examples of common non-useful beliefs include “I’m not worthy” or “I’m not good enough”. You may not know what you want to do with your future or how life outside of an eating disorder will feel for you. You may not know how to give yourself permission to eat or relax. You may have poor boundaries or be trying to please everyone at your own expense. You may have perfectionism as one of your core identity components and therefor find it hard to move forward in the unknown, unpredictable and uncharted territory that is eating disorder recovery. The eating disorder may have at some point in time fulfilled or been an attempt to fulfill a positive intention for you such as allowing you to feel in control or even keep you hidden from danger.

These are just a small snippet of examples of areas people often need to address in order to fully recover from an eating disorder. All of which are very hard if not impossible to achieve through simply consciously knowing you need to change them and wanting to change them…

This is where hypnosis, NLP and the work with the “unconscious mind” comes into the picture.

3. Establish the goal within the larger goal you’d like to work on today.

Often people living with eating disorders feel overwhelmed and not sure where to start.

They can feel their whole life is out of control. I know that by the time I recovered from anorexia nervosa I’d spent more of my life sick than I had well. I was utterly lost on how to be a functioning adult human being. It wasn’t just “how to eat” that I needed and wanted to learn and become capable of.

Therefore, within the first consultation we break your end goal down by not only clarifying the overall long-term goal but also where you’d like to start.

4. Go After What You Want

We begin to go about building your skills and resources to overcome what has been responsible for causing what you want to not happen.

This is done through utilizing a mix of modalities depending on what it is that you need.

Often this is where clinical hypnotherapy or NLP come into the picture as very often the skills or resources, we are lacking are not things that we can obtain consciously (if they were you’d likely already have/be doing them) and we therefore need to involve the unconscious mind.

For a deeper understanding of hypnosis and NLP scroll through my blogs. There is a wealth of information on my webpage.

5. Experiment

Go out into the world and practice.

Our brains need the feedback as proof that we are in control in order to build true confidence and empowerment in ourselves.

One of the most common things I hear from my clients is that they found themselves feeling much calmer in a situation where they once freaked out, that they felt they had choices in their behaviours where they didn’t before. This is because one of the most useful things about utilising the unconscious mind in making changes is that the changes made are then congruent on all levels, meaning you no longer have to fight within yourself to do the thing or not do the thing whether the “thing” is a feeling, belief, thought or behaviour.

Hypnosis opens up options and choices in how you respond to the world. Which funnily enough is the opposite of what most people associate the word “hypnosis” with!  

6. Continue Until You’ve “Got It” then Move on With Your Life

At your next consultation we further improve the same priority area if you feel it’s not fully resolved, or we begin working with your next priority.

You continue until a point where you feel you’ve got it from here.

When you feel you’ve got it from here we end our time working together, high five each other and you go off into the world to continue learning, growing, experimenting and continuously evolving your full and meaningful life as a healthy, healed and entirely imperfect human being. 

Hypnosis is safe. Unlike medications and other treatments there are no side effects.

I am a licenced clinical hypnotherapist and a part of the two major governing bodies in Australia (Australian Hypnotherapist Association or Australian Society for Clinical Hypnotherapy). This means I have been through rigorous study, training, case studies and am involved in ongoing supervision and continuing professional development (as well as having all the other important things such as a police check, blue card and CPR/first aid training to name a few).

I am also a professional member of “Dietitians Australia” the governing body in Australia for Dietitians and as a result you better believe the level of continuing professional development, staying up to date with current research and supervision I do each month let alone each year is off the charts!

You are in safe hands.

Being hypnotised or rather in the state of hypnosis largely feels enjoyable. Most people find hypnosis relaxing and calming.

Hypnosis is a very internally focused state which means that we are often able to become less aware of or less interested in the outside world while we are absorbed in our internal experience.

There are times where it may feel uncomfortable to be working with issues even in hypnosis but an important distinction is that often we are able to bypass the shame, judgement, guilt and blame we feel when we are consciously trying to overcome our challenges. With these judgements removed it is much easier to stay focused on what needs to happen to create change.

Like a child learning to walk they don’t put themselves down when they fail, they don’t give up because they’re embarrassed, they didn’t get it on the third time and they don’t blame themselves or think “what’s wrong with me?”. They keep trying. They keep experimenting until they get it. Then, they never look back.

The most common things my clients report is that they feel the time that’s passed while in trance was very short and they are surprised to find it’s actually been much longer and sometimes vice versa.

Other common experiences include feeling a bit tired or relaxed after coming out of hypnosis because even though we are usually just sitting when we are in hypnosis, hypnosis is mental work and takes a considerable amount of  energy.

An interesting fact you may not be aware of is that you’ve been going into and out of the hypnotic state (aka hypnosis) every day of your life.

Have you ever had the experience of driving somewhere and arriving and not remembering half the journey? Have you ever had the experience of being so involved in a movie that when the dog gets hurt you cry? These are all everyday experiences of hypnosis. It is a normal and natural state. 

Some less positive experiences of every day hypnosis are things like phobias where someone has a negative and emotionally charged experience with a let’s say for example a spider and from then on their mind associates spider with fear. Other examples are learnings we made through conditioning when we are young such as “I’m unlovable” or “the world is a bad place” (of course there are also the positive flip sides to each of these examples). In this sense much of what I help people achieve is somewhat of a correction of naturally occurring but old and non-useful hypnosis!

If you’ve ever learnt anything in your life you’ve been in hypnosis.

It is a learning state and it is largely the state from which we experience the world when we are children – curious, open and explorative because we haven’t had enough experiences to form solid filters or beliefs to judge everything against.

So, yes you can do hypnosis.

Everyone can.

However, you cannot be made to be hypnotised by anyone else if you do not choose to be and do not follow the instructions of your practitioner in how to intentionally enter the state of hypnosis.

No one can hypnotise you against your will or make you do anything you do not wish to do. That is brainwashing or mind control which are within the domain of psychological manipulation and not hypnotherapy.

I understand you may be sceptical, hesitant or have concerns about being hypnotised.

Believe me the first time I went along to see a clinical hypnotherapist I was all of those things plus some (mostly very cynical and feeling defeated that anything could help me).

Looking back now I can see my reservations were truly only because I did not understand what hypnosis was!

Sure, I had my own thoughts around it, but these was based on what I’d seen in the movies or heard about with stage shows. It wasn’t based on reality at all. I soon discovered it was one of if not the most important skill I’ve ever learned in my life (much more useful than the knowledge I’d gained from completing three degrees).

However, should you have any reservations or worries about doing hypnosis you do not have to do hypnosis to work with me.

There are many other ways we can work together. For example, I regularly facilitate my clients and/or their parents/partner/carers with things such as meal planning and support.

There can very well be areas of our lives where we do simply lack the knowledge of what to do and once, we gain that knowledge we can apply it and that is all we need to change things. There’s not really a need add hypnosis on top of this. Where we would think about adding hypnosis is in an area where a lack of knowledge on what to do is not the issue.

We can have a decent and even a surplus of knowledge (I was a nutritionist and dietitian when I lived with anorexia nervosa) on what we want or need to do and fall short on the how to apply it in any way that feels normal and natural let alone good for it to become anything beyond an effort to maintain in our lives.

Often the skills and resources someone is chasing are not available consciously and instead of lamenting this hypnosis offers us a very real means of accessing the unconscious mind and therefore completing the puzzle of our change.