Food is not only fuel. It can become comfort, reward, stimulation, routine, distraction or a way of regulating difficult feelings. That means simply knowing what you would prefer to eat does not always make changing the pattern easy.
My work in this area focuses on the psychological side of eating: emotional triggers, automatic habits, cravings, self-criticism, all-or-nothing thinking, motivation and the relationship you have developed with food and with yourself.
This is not a diet programme
I do not prescribe diets, calorie targets or exercise plans, and I do not promise a particular amount of weight loss. Weight and health are influenced by many factors, including physical health, medication, sleep, stress, environment, activity, nutrition and individual biology.
Where weight management is one of your goals, psychological work is best understood as one part of a wider picture rather than a replacement for appropriate medical, nutritional or dietetic support.
Patterns we might explore
- Eating in response to stress, loneliness, boredom or difficult emotion
- Automatic snacking or eating without much awareness
- Cravings and cue-driven eating
- Repeated cycles of restriction followed by overeating
- Using food as reward or comfort
- Difficulty stopping when you intended to
- Negative body image or self-critical thinking
- Losing momentum after an initial period of change
How therapy may help
We can identify what tends to happen before, during and after the unwanted eating pattern and look at the function it is serving. That may involve stress regulation, habit change, improving awareness of triggers, planning alternative responses, working with difficult experiences or changing the way you respond to lapses.
Hypnotherapy may sometimes be used as one part of this work, particularly for imagery, rehearsal, motivation and habit-related responses. It is not presented as a mechanism that bypasses nutrition or makes weight loss automatic.
What about the Virtual Gastric Band?
I no longer present “Virtual Gastric Band” imagery as a separate weight-loss treatment. If imagery or hypnotherapy is useful, it can be incorporated transparently into broader work on habits and eating behaviour without asking you to believe that an imaginary surgical procedure has taken place.
Eating disorders
If there are signs of an eating disorder — such as significant restriction, purging, recurrent binge eating, very rapid weight change or serious concern about physical health — specialist assessment may be more appropriate. I can discuss this with you, but this page should not be taken as a substitute for specialist eating-disorder care.