HOLISTIC NUTRITIONAL COUNSELLING

Recovery-focussed nutrition support for eating disorders and disordered eating

Whether you are navigating an eating disorder or complex disordered eating, I offer personalised, recovery-focussed nutrition support tailored and paced to your needs.

 

”Working with Sarah, I felt safe, listened too, understood & I did not feel judged. I was able to be open when speaking about my lived experiences. Being given the opportunity to consider myself as “neutral” rather than always striving for perfection or in the depths of self sabotage has been transformative.”
— Jessica, Surrey

OVERVIEW

Eating disorders and disordered eating can feel exhausting, isolating and all-consuming. If your relationship with food or your body is affecting your health, wellbeing or holding you back from living your life fully, you deserve support - and you don’t have to figure things out alone.

As one of a small number of practitioners in the UK to have completed Advanced Practitioner training in Nutritional Therapy for Eating Disorders, I offer a non-judgemental, compassionate and collaborative space to support your recovery and wellbeing.

WHO I WORK WITH

I work with individuals experiencing a wide range of eating challenges including restrictive, chaotic, compulsive or emotionally driven eating patterns. This includes:

  • Binge eating disorder

  • Orthorexia - an increasingly rigid or anxious relationship with food quality and "eating healthily"

  • Bulimia nervosa

  • OSFED and sub-threshold presentations including compulsive overeating and emotional eating

If you don’t already have a diagnosis or medical support, where appropriate, I encourage clients to seek assessment through their GP. However, you don’t need a formal diagnosis to seek my support.

My approach to eating difficulties is always to meet you where you are at. For example, many people who reach out have been told they don't quite meet the threshold for NHS support. Some have had previous treatments that helped at the time but found the pattern reasserted itself or that certain dimensions weren't addressed.

I also work with individuals seeking support to maintain recovery following more formal treatment - helping them continue to build stability, flexibility and self-trust around food. This includes support for those stepping down from care for anorexia nervosa.

If you are also managing other mental or physical health concerns, we will take these into account with due care and sensitivity, supporting your health and wellbeing as a whole. Many of my clients have challenges with mood, energy and digestive symptoms, for example.

What to expect

Nutritional counselling aims to support you in creating a safe, sustainable foundation of nourishment and, over-time, rebuilding trust around food.

My approach is person-centred and integrative, combining Nutritional Therapy with tools and principles from Intuitive Eating and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), along with mindfulness, self-compassion and body image work informed by the current research. This means I’m trained to carry out nutritional assessments, and to support both the physiological and behavioural aspects of disordered eating and recovery.

You will receive personalised nutritional guidance to help you stabilise your eating and improve your energy and digestive health, alongside support navigating the emotional and practical challenges that come with changing long-held food patterns.

You won’t be given a rigid food plan. Instead, we will take things in manageable steps, effectively co-creating a sustainable way of eating that supports your stability and recovery - with enough structure to foster safety and consistency with food, and enough flexibility to start loosening food rules and moving towards a more trusting, responsive relationship with food.

Our work will go beyond the surface of what you eat - we will explore how you think, feel and relate to food and your body. And, over time, I will help you develop the skills needed to build more trust with food and a greater appreciation of your body.

Together, we will work to:

  • Support physical nourishment and work towards nutritional balance over time

  • Reduce distress around food and eating

  • Soften unhelpful beliefs and behaviours

  • Rebuild a more flexible, trusting relationship with food and your body

Where needed, I am also able to liaise with your GP, therapist or mental health practitioner as part of a collaborative care approach.

What sessions may include

Each weekly one-to-one session is shaped around your needs and may include:

  • Guidance on planning and structuring meals

  • Education about food groups and nutrients

  • Unpicking food fears and challenging food rules

  • Debunking nutrition myths and diet culture messages

  • Personalised food and meal suggestions

  • Psychoeducation around food, body image and eating behaviours

  • Developing approaches to respond to binge eating urges

  • Self-compassion techniques, self-care strategies and nervous system support

  • Exploring appetite, fullness and different types of hunger

  • Mindful eating practices

  • Space to reflect on your experiences and insights between sessions

You will receive a follow-up summary after each session and have access to unlimited weekday messaging support for continuity and reassurance.

Ongoing support

This is a personalised, open-ended service offered on a rolling monthly basis so you can receive consistent support for as long as you need it.

Recovery isn’t linear and there is no fixed timeframe or expectation for how long things should take. My aim is to provide a steady, responsive space to help you move at your own pace towards nourishment, resilience and peace with food and your body.

“Still amazed at how my habits have changed but now with very little conscious thought around it all. I haven’t binged or emotionally eaten for a very long time”
— - Kerry, Balsall Common

Taking a first step

Many people who get in touch aren't sure whether what they're experiencing is serious enough or whether support can really help.

A free, confidential enquiry call is a good place to find out - with no obligation and no pressure to commit to anything.

FAQ’s

  • If you have any degree of distress with your relationship with food or your body image, you deserve support - and I can help.

    Many people hold back from seeking support through fear that they are not ‘sick enough’, when in fact no concern is too small. Early intervention is always preferable to waiting until things feel more serious.

    In cases where a person’s health is at acute risk or body weight is below a certain threshold that I can safely support within my practice, a registered dietitian within a medical team would be required to take the lead on intensive refeeding and inpatient protocols to support medical stabilisation and nutritional rehabilitation. Once you are home and stable, I can step in to help you build lasting changes and confidence with food as part of your ongoing recovery.

    In summary, whether you are stepping down from inpatient care, seeking early intervention or navigating recovery privately, nutritional counselling can be a transformational part of your healing.

    If you have any questions or would find it helpful to speak first, please do get in touch for a no-obligation enquiry call.

  • My professional background includes:

    • Diploma in Nutritional Therapy (mBANT, rCNHC)

    • Nutritional Therapy for Eating Disorders: Advanced Practitioner Programme (BANT)

    • Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor (CIEC)

    • Extensive training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - including ACT for Dieticians, ACT for Body Image Concerns, ACT for Self-Esteem and ACT for Mindfulness and Acceptance

    • Psychological Approaches to Obesity (National Centre for Eating Disorders)

    • Health coaching drawing on NLP, CBT and mindfulness

      You can find full details here

  • Nutritional counselling sits in a distinct space from both.

    A therapist or psychologist will work primarily with the psychological and emotional dimensions of an eating difficulty - the underlying beliefs, trauma history and mental health. This is important work and for some presentations it is essential. It is not, however, within the scope of nutritional therapy.

    A dietitian will typically focus on nutritional adequacy, meal structure and dietary guidance, often working within an NHS or clinical framework.

    The Nutritional counselling for eating disorders and disordered eating I provide combines personalised nutritional guidance with behaviour change support, drawing on Intuitive Eating, ACT-informed tools and body image work.

    The focus is on restoring a stable, nourishing relationship with food - addressing both the physiological and behavioural dimensions of disordered eating.

    For many people, nutritional counselling works best alongside psychological therapy rather than instead of it. I am happy to work collaboratively as part of a wider care team where that is in place.

  • Yes and I consider this an important part of providing good care.

    Where a client has an existing GP, therapist or other health professional involved in their support, I am happy to liaise with them directly, with the client's consent.

    For clients who haven't yet spoken to their GP about what they're experiencing, I will actively encourage them to do so where this feels clinically appropriate.

    I work within clearly defined scope of practice and under ongoing clinical supervision.

    If a client's needs exceed what I can safely support, I will say so clearly and help facilitate referral to more specialist services.

  • Absolutely. My approach is flexible and both tailored and paced to individual needs, making it well-suited for those who experience sensory sensitivities, executive function challenges or a different way of processing information around food and eating.

    I understand that traditional advice often doesn’t work for everyone and I create a non-judgmental space where we can explore strategies that feel manageable and empowering for you.

  • Online nutritional counselling is every bit as effective as in-person support, and for many clients working on their relationship with food, it has a distinct additional benefit - the privacy and comfort of your own home can make it easier to open up, particularly when exploring a subject that carries shame or vulnerability.

    There is no travelling, no waiting room, and no need to be seen entering a clinic.

    Many clients find this makes the work feel safer and more accessible from the start.

  • Nutritional Counselling typically includes weekly one-to-one online sessions (45-minutes) plus unlimited weekday messaging support between sessions.

    This is £425/month, offered on a monthly rolling basis - which means you can pause or stop whenever you're ready, or we can adjust the frequency of sessions as we progress.

    Your initial session is up to 2-hours, allowing space to explore your current situation and history before we begin working together.