Emotional eating disorder therapy and counselling
Counselling for emotional eating disorder. Using established therapies such as EMDR, your emotional eating disorder therapist will work with you to help you understand & overcome your disorder
Get started now
Ready to start therapy?
Book Appointment
Speak To Someone
Eating disorders explained
Eating disorders can be explained as a negative attitude towards food, severe enough to change the person’s eating habits. Someone suffering from an eating disorder may develop an obsessive habit to monitor their weight and body shape, gaining an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise which may cause damage to their health.Eating disorders can take the form of emotional eating, binge eating, food addiction, food aversion, and overeating.The most common eating disorders are bulimia and anorexia. Bulimia is diagnosed when a person attempts to control their weight by inducing vomiting after binge eating. Anorexia is when a person attempts to maintain a very low weight. This is achieved through lack of eating or over-exercising.At Pinnacle we take each disorder seriously and our specialist eating disorder therapists will work with you to help you understand and overcome your disorder.
Jump to section:
Emotional eating disorder in more detail
Everyone can have an emotional response to food. Many of us enjoy food as a reward or a pick-me-up from time to time. This is normal and a natural part of life when used as part of a range of strategies to cope and manage emotions.However, when this becomes the main coping strategy it can quickly become out of control. This is where we can help. Our trained emotional eating therapists are here to help you take control and conquer your disorder.Emotional eating is a recognised eating disorder. Many people emotionally overeat as a way to block out negative emotions and distress, they turn to food for comfort and escape during times of low mood. When someone overeats emotionally it is in an attempt to make themselves feel better; they are using eating as a way to feel comforted or soothed.
Our insurance partners
What causes emotional overeating?
There are many reasons as to why someone might start to use food as an emotional crutch, here are some of the most common causes:● Low self-esteem● Unhappy with the way you look● Mental health conditions like depression and anxiety● Following a strict, low calorie or restricting diet● Traumatic events from your past● Feelings of Isolation, boredom, stress or anger● Following strict, low calorie or restricting dietsIf you recognise any of these symptoms or behaviours in yourself or someone you know, you should consider counselling for emotional eating.
What’s the difference between emotional eating and binge eating?
The main difference between emotional eating and binge eating is the amount of food consumed in one episode of emotional overeating – this does not need to be large – as opposed to someone who is binge eating where they will eat until they are uncomfortably full.
Together, our network of therapists have treated thousands of patients
Client success stories
“I just wanted to thank you for all your help. I really feel like I’m getting better and starting to become the person who I really am.”
“I’m so grateful to Pinnacle for giving me the chance to get rid of my fears and for my new found confidence.”
“The best investment I have ever made, how can you put a price on quality of life? Would recommend for anyone suffering from anxiety.”
Therapy and counselling for emotional eating - our approach
We offer help for people with different eating disorders, in particular emotional eating disorders. An eating disorder is a sensitive subject and we take the utmost care with our clients. Our aim is to create a safe environment where you can be yourself. Mostly we use talking therapies in treating emotional eating disorders, the primary therapies are Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).We understand that ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ and that each of our clients is different and has their own set of unique needs and circumstances. Whatever your situation we’ll tailor your sessions to suit your needs, we can work with you on an individual basis or we can offer emotional eating group therapy sessions.Recovery from eating disorders is a slow process, by using EMDR and CBT we can help you come to terms with your situation and set goals and positive outcomes.
Using EMDR for emotional eating disorder - what is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing) therapy was originally developed to treat post-traumatic stress disorders, including experiences of war. It is highly effective for trauma but has since been found to have far reaching applications for many different types of disorders.
How does EMDR therapy help with emotional eating disorders?
Some people don’t want to talk about what is troubling them, particularly those suffering from an emotional eating disorder; it can be difficult to ’open up’ and explore why they are feeling this way. Some people don’t fully know. That’s not a problem with EMDR because it enables us to work blind to the actual issue: sometimes we work with people and treat them without needing to discuss any of the specifics.
EMDR in more detail
Imagine watching a film back in your mind of an incident or trigger which made you anxious, and then pausing it at the worst moment: the part that really encapsulates the trauma or upset you felt. That’s what we get our patients to do, replaying it in their mind. We ask them to notice something in the past, and then notice something in the present. We call it bilateral stimulation.We do this because the part of our brain that processes that event, the reptilian part of our brain, doesn’t know how to handle the incident or trigger and can’t store it as a memory. EMDR helps to change that.
What actually happens in an EMDR therapy session?
The EMDR therapy stimulates both the left and right sides of the brain, using a range of techniques including hand movements, alternating lights or vibrating sensors, while the client recalls the event which is the cause of the anxiety.The effect of EMDR is similar to Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, during which the brain makes sense of the day’s events, reprocessing the memory and releasing negative emotions and associations. Our trained EMDR therapists will guide you through the process helping you to work through your particular experiences.
Using CBT for emotional eating disorders
How does CBT help?
CBT is particularly effective in treating emotional eating disorders. CBT is about looking at the relationship between your thoughts and feelings, and how they make you ‘default’ to certain behaviours. It’s seen as a different kind of ‘talking therapy’ that aims to solve a person’s current problems. In effect it helps you become your own therapist, where you use the skills you have learned.By using CBT, we can help make you aware of what your own defaults are: sometimes they help us, sometimes they don’t – CBT helps you recognise those different responses for what they are.
What can you expect from an emotional eating disorder clinic session?
Our sessions are tailored to suit you, we can offer individual or group therapy services. Whatever your circumstances we take your needs seriously and offer the utmost confidentiality at all times. The sessions last from 30 minutes to an hour; we usually recommend a course of around 6 to 12 sessions.
