Patience Destiny

My Relationship With Food And Body-Image

My own experience has led me to believe that for our bodies to support us healthily throughout our lives, we need to view food as nourishment and not punishment or reward. Having grown up in East Africa and now living/working in the UK, my views on food/body-image are informed by the varying approaches in the 2 societies. Food as a means of communal enjoyment/community building, rather than something to be weighed, calorie-counted, restricted. And the Body as not something to be measured, cinched, starved, panel-beaten into society’s expectations.

Maybe you too have struggled with your body-image and food through the years. Perhaps you experience binge-eating and the subsequent shame and guilt, or cannot fathom why you struggle to maintain/sustain your weight loss through, and feel stuck in the cycle of different diets or healthy eating habits. You wonder why others seem to be able to like their bodies, not ‘eat their emotions’, or constantly have food on their minds.

The good news is that you are not alone and change is possible.

I am aware how societal beauty norms/yardsticks/values affect our body image. The outside world impacts our inner world which manifests in our feelings of self-worth, how we relate to food and our bodies, and how we might use food as a crutch in difficult periods, as a reward or coping mechanism. My work with you is towards a guilt-free/shame-free relationship with food, to be able to view/relate to our bodies positively/healthily (body functionality & appreciation) and not through the prism of others’ views of us.

How I Work – My Approach

You are the expert on what makes You uniquely ’You’. I work collaboratively with you to empower and reveal to yourself a  clearer, newer, alternative, positive, grounded, manageable understanding of yourself, your relationship to food, your body, exercise and the world around you.

I’m a BACP-Registered Psychotherapist. I’ve done this work since 2008. The goal in our work is to be able to relate to food in entirely new, healthier, positive ways and to work through the ghosts of past food-relationships. My work with you is to collaboratively explore how your unaddressed emotions, stress, societal norms/values and issues in other areas of your life manifest in your current experiences/relationships with food and your body image. My approach to this Therapeutic work is Integrative (Humanistic/Person-Centred, CBT/Cognitive Behaviour, Psychodynamic, Life-Coaching). Using more than one approach to support you helps as you tap into your innate strength, capabilities and resources, for the changes towards your desired mental health, body-image and emotional well-being. My therapeutic work is geared towards You – by offering counselling support in a safe, confidential, nurturing, empathetic, non-judgemental space.

My Areas Of Interest And Specialism

Anxiety, Abuse, Adoption, Bereavement, Binge Eating, Body Image, Depression, Disordered Eating, Chronic Health, Couples/Relationships, Fertility, Loneliness, Mental Health Wellbeing, Pregnancy/Postnatal Depression, PMDD, Race/Racism, Spirituality/Religion/Faith, Self-Sabotage, Sexuality (kink welcoming)

• 2024
• Exercise Psychology – Barriers to Exercise, Dr Paula.Watson
• Exercise Compulsion, Dr Paula.Watson
• Exploring Multi-disciplinary team working
• 2023
• Neurodiversity & Eating Presentations, NEDDE
• Parts Work in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy
• Exploring The World of Weight Loss Medications, HMG
• Exploring Food Addiction
• Creating Healthy Organisations
• Identity in Therapy, BAATN – The Black, African & Asian Therapy Network
• 2022
• Neurobiology of Trauma
• Nutrition in Therapy
• Through the kaleidoscope of Eating & Weight – Shame, Mandy Atkinson
• Internal Family Systems – an Introduction, HMG
• 2021
• Trauma-informed Governance & Therapy in Rwanda
• Polyvagal Theory Applications, HMG
• 2013
• Attachment & Character Strategies, BCCS
• Play for Healing & Growth – the positive power of play, humour, laughter in life & therapeutic environment
• 2012
• Exploration of Dissociation as a self regulatory process & survival mechanism
• Introduction to Mindfulness, Bromley BCCS
• 2011
• Eating Disorders, Bromley BCCS
• Mental Health First Aid, Beckenham Beacon Hospital
• 2010
• Integrative Counselling Degree, University of Greenwich, London
• 2009
• Managing Risk Within Counselling (Bromley Community Counselling Services, BCCS)
• 2007
• BTEC Diploma, Integrative Counselling Skills (Bromley College of Further & Higher Education)

I have also presented & attended Talks for multidisciplinary support for Fertility & Mental Health.