An Expert Binge Eating and Emotional Eating Psychologist Bondi Junction
Specialised treatment for binge eating disorder, emotional eating, bulimia, and body image struggles
Break Free From Emotional Eating
If you've ever found yourself reaching for comfort food after a stressful day or when you're feeling down, you're not alone. Emotional eating and binge eating are often a way to cope with difficult feelings. As a. very experienced emotional eating psychologist Bondi Junction I have helped 100’s of clients recover from emotional eating and binge eating.
Treatment to Help You Stop Emotional Eating?
At The Self Space Binge Eating Clinic, I offer personalised treatment based on the latest evidence and approaches to treating binge eating disorder. As an experienced binge eating psychologist I am here to listen, offer guidance, and help you build healthier coping strategies.
I am committed to providing a confidential, non-judgmental environment where you will be supported. Regardless of your size, shape, or where you’re at in your recovery, I will work with you to improve your physical and emotional health. from emotional eating isn’t just about stopping the eating, but addressing the emotional causes and learning healthier ways to cope, helping you build a more balanced and positive relationship with food and your body.
“At least 50% of individuals with Bulimia Nervosa or Binge Eating Disorder experience a full recovery with proper treatment.”
Source: Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
Recovery from Binge Eating and Emotional Eating is Possible with a Binge Eating Psychologist
Emotional eating isn’t just about stopping the eating, but addressing the emotional causes and learning healthier ways to cope, helping you build a more balanced and positive relationship with food and your body.
I combine DBT-E and CBT-E which are two powerful, evidence-based therapies that can help you overcome binge eating disorder. CBT-E focuses on changing the negative thoughts and behaviours around food and body image, helping you develop healthier eating habits. DBT-E, on the other hand, helps you manage difficult emotions and build emotional resilience, If you’re ready.
Counselling for emotional eating with a trained and experienced emotional eating psychologist can help uncover the emotional triggers behind the behaviour and provide the tools needed to manage it more effectively.
Reach out today to start your journey toward lasting change.
Why an experienced emotional eating psychologist or binge eating therapist?
Emotional eating is a complex disorder and requires evidence-based treatment. As an experienced binge eating therapist and emotional eating psychologist Bondi Junction and Sydney, I use evidence-based frameworks to give you the tools, skills, support, and emotion regulation strategies needed to break free from the cycle of emotional eating and binge eating to transform your relationship with food, your body, and yourself.
Reach out today to learn more about how an emotional eating psychologist Bondi Junction or Sydney can support your recovery journey.
Start your recovery with Binge Eating Treatment in Sydney or Bondi Junction
How Do I Know if I Have Binge Eating Disorder?
Emotional or binge eating can feel overwhelming and isolating. With the right support and approach from a binge eating psychologist, reclaiming your relationship with food and your body is possible without professional help from a binge eating psychologist or an emotional eating psychologist Bondi Junction.
What is binge eating disorder and how does it differ from emotional eating?
Emotional eating often serves as a coping mechanism for underlying emotional distress, and for many, it evolves into binge eating disorder (BED). When food is used to numb or soothe difficult feelings like stress, anxiety, or past trauma, it can lead to the binge eating patterns characteristic of binge eating disorder (BED). Addressing both emotional triggers and emotional eating behaviours is key to the treatment of emotional eating.
Common Questions about Emotional Eating and Binge Eating Disorder
How do I know if I have Binge Eating Disorder?
BED has a number of symptoms, but the bottom line is feeling out of control in your relationship with food. A person with BED may try to change their eating behavior (typically many times), but will ultimately return to old patterns unless they seek treatment.
People with BED come in all shapes and sizes. You cannot tell by looking if someone has BED. Eating patterns vary as well. Some people binge eat, but others may “graze”, never really finishing eating, or they may eat a relatively small amount of food, but feel tremendous guilt and shame regardless of the amount consumed. Most with BED also have periods of significant food restriction or dieting. For most people, BED involves both bingeing and restriction, often occurring in an endless cycle.
Why can’t I stop bingeing? Isn’t it just a question of willpower?
Binge Eating is often as much about restriction as it is about binge eating. It takes extraordinary willpower to keep trying to go on diets or make changes to eating patterns. If willpower were the only issue, this problem would have been solved long ago.
The reasons behind binge eating are always complex, and are about both past and present stressors, biochemistry, and genetics. Often, people have a long history of using food to meet needs other than hunger, including distraction from life, soothing big emotions, and dealing with depression or anxiety. To change eating habits permanently, these needs must be met in new ways. Otherwise, the person will revert back to binge eating as soon as a stressor occurs.
What does "recovered" from binge eating disorder mean?
Recovered means eating and moving in response to body needs most of the time. Your body’s needs will vary day to day.
It means eating to check out will become rarer and rarer, with less and less food, for shorter and shorter episodes.
It means one episode will not, by default, lead to another.
It means an episode will get your attention right away; you will have better skills to address the binge, and be able to learn from the experience.
Recovery is a journey, not a destination. You will recover at the rate that is just right for you!
Who is at risk for developing binge eating or BED?
Many factors are at play in the development of BED, and the combination is unique to each person. A list of common causes includes:
Family history of eating disorders, depression, alcoholism, or OCD
Intense family or personal concern with weight and appearance
Difficulty identifying and/or expressing feelings
Family atmosphere that limited emotional expression in significant ways
Significant emotional trauma or loss
Tendency to be a “people pleaser,” too often putting others’ needs before one’s own
Difficulty setting limits with others
High degree of perfectionism or “black and white” thinking
Genetic predisposition to experiencing feelings particularly intensely
Strong tendency toward self-soothing and dissociation (“checking out”) behaviors
Mood disorders, including anxiety disorders, depression and bipolar disorders
Significantly negative or distorted body image
A diagnosis of ADHD (thirty percent of people with BED also have characteristics of ADHD)
What do people with binge eating disorder use food to do?
There are many uses for bingeing, and everyone uses food to meet needs other than hunger sometimes. But if this becomes a pattern such that your peace of mind is compromised, there may well be an underlying eating disorder. Some common uses of food for people with BED include:
Distraction (from feelings, from others, from feared situations or stressors)
Reward
Escape
Rebellion (from dieting, from other’s needs, from the “rules”)
Slowing time/Avoiding a scary/stressful issue or problem
Cherishing yourself by allowing yourself any food you crave
Setting a my “space” boundary or alone time
Soothing loneliness
Soothing anxiety, fear, shame, grief
Express anger and pain
Start Treatment with an Expert Binge Eating Psychologist in Bondi Junction or Sydney CBD today
Common Signs of Binge Eating Disorder
Eating large amounts of food in short periods: Eating large portions of food in a short span of time, often more than would be considered typical or necessary.
Loss of Control During Eating Episodes: A feeling of being unable to stop eating once an episode has begun, even when the individual is aware they are full or not hungry.
Eating in Secret or Discreetly
Hiding or eating alone to avoid others noticing the excessive consumption of food, often due to embarrassment or shame.
Frequent episodes of eating when not physically hungry Consuming large quantities of food in response to emotions such as boredom, stress, sadness, or loneliness.
Rapid eating or eating without realising Eating quickly or absent-mindedly, often while distracted (e.g., watching TV, working), without truly tasting or enjoying the food.
Feelings of shame, guilt, or disgust : Experiencing intense negative emotions like guilt, self-loathing, or disgust after binge episodes, which can lead to further emotional distress.
Preoccupation with Food and Eating: Obsessing over food, calories, dieting, or weight, often leading to cycles of restriction, bingeing, and feelings of powerlessness around eating.
Emotional eating Turning to food for emotional regulation, such as using eating as a way to numb or cope with feelings of anxiety, sadness, or trauma.
Social withdrawal or avoidance: Avoiding social events or situations where eating or food is involved, due to embarrassment, fear of judgment, or anxiety about food-related behaviours.
Physical Discomfort Following Binge Episodes: Experiencing physical symptoms such as bloating, stomach pain, or fatigue after overeating, which may be ignored or downplayed.
Compulsive exercise or dieting after binge episodes: Engaging in extreme exercise or dieting behaviours to "compensate" for binge episodes, often driven by guilt or a desire to lose the weight gained from overeating.
Preoccupation with body image and weight: Excessive focus on body image, weight, or size, often leading to feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and body dissatisfaction.
History of dieting or weight-related struggles: A background of chronic dieting, weight fluctuations, or prior eating disorders, which may have led to the development of binge eating behaviors.
Significant Weight Fluctuations: Notable, frequent changes in weight.