Debbie Gratton, PGDip.Couns. Registered MBACP

Training, qualifications & experience

• Advanced Diploma in Counselling
• Post-graduate Diploma in Attachment-Based Therapy
• Certificate in Eating Disorders
• Group Psychoanalysis
• Lecturer in Counselling: Levels 3 & 4
• Numerous hours in Continuing Professional Development, including Eating Disorder Conferences, Masterclasses focusing on Eating Distress and various workshops (ongoing)

Further information

An eating disorder is defined by abnormal eating habits that negatively affect a person's physical or mental way of being. Eating disorders include:

• Anorexia nervosa: Where people eat very little or nothing at all and therefore have a very low body weight.
• Bulimia nervosa: Where people eat a lot and then try to rid themselves of the food.
• Binge eating: Where people eat large amounts of food in a short period of time.
• Night eating syndrome: Excessive nighttime food consumption.
• Pica : Where people eat non-food items.
• Rumination disorder: Where people regurgitate food.
• Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder: Where people have a lack of interest in food.
• Purging: Where people purge without binge eating.
• Food phobias: Where people are afraid of certain foods.
• Selective eating disorder: Associated with food phobia.
• Body dysmorphia: Where people are obsessed by perceived flaws in their appearance.
• Emotional eating: Where people eat large amounts of food in response to negative emotions.
• Prader-Willi syndrome: Where there is a complex genetic disorder and people have an insatiable appetite that results in never feeling full.
• ENDOS: Eating disorders not otherwise specified and do not fit into any category.

Eating disorders are complex, but talking and expressing your thoughts and painful feelings can be a helpful way of dealing with something so difficult to manage. It is unlikely that an eating disorder is a result of one single cause and is much likely to be a combination of events, feelings or pressures which can be overwhelming.

if you think that counselling would help you, please contact me using any of the contact details listed above.