Looking closer at eating: making sense of eating disorders

Building on an introductory understanding of eating disorder and disordered-eating presentations, this workshop looks more closely at the individual meanings, histories and contexts that may sit behind a diagnosis, presenting issue or behaviour.

It invites practitioners to hold body, eating and weight concerns with curiosity and nuance, recognising that no two people’s experiences or recovery pathways are the same.

What we will explore:

• Working with the body, including the therapist’s body experience, and considering body dysmorphia and distorted body image;
• Understandings of eating disorders and their continuing influence in client histories;
• Eating disorders alongside other addictions and related challenges;
• Cultural and social contexts, including differences in how difficulties may be understood, expressed and recognised;
• Family histories and transgenerational meanings around eating, weight and obesity;
• Primary and secondary presentations;                                                          
• Recovery as an individual, non-linear process, with insight into differing possible pathways.