I know emotional eating thrives when it stays hidden.

For more than a decade, I have kept up-to-date on research and spent countless hours with one-on-one clients to create real strategies to tackle emotional eating.

All of this formal background is so important, and my unique approach is strengthened by my own history with emotional eating. That’s right: I have been where you are now. Feeling helpless, hopeless, and scraping the bottom of a chip bag!

Growing up I was not able to leave the table until I had finished what was on my plate, which taught me to ignore my hunger/fullness cues. It was also a lesson that my eating either pleased others or disappointed them. These were complex feelings I carried throughout my teens and only started addressing when I began my own training to be a psychotherapist. I share a lot more about my personal journey every month with my email list (you can sign up using the form at the top of this page).

I know how you’re feeling! Food is comfort, escape, punishment, celebration. But by identifying when I learned certain behaviours and feelings around food allowed me to feel powerful in my own life. And I want you to feel the same! I knew I had to integrate my own experiences into my practice with clients, my online course, and the resources on my blog.

This became my “root cause” approach!

What is the Root Cause?

This will be different for everybody! For me, as I peeled back the layers of my relationship with food. It became clear that I was using food to ‘fill’ many of my emotional needs. You might use food to numb out and others might use it to gain a sense of control when life feels anything but stable. These are all examples of emotional eating.

Getting clear on my own personal experiences, I then started seeking to validate it with research, by consulting experts, and discussing with psychologists who had more practical experience.

When working with the Centre for Emotional Eating, we look at what stories, behaviours, and feelings you’ve been taught and how they are or aren’t serving you.

And this can be super powerful!

I might still emotionally eat—hello, my grandmother’s homemade Oh Henry bars!—but I do so armed with the knowledge that I can show myself kindness instead of beating myself up over it, going on a days-long binge, or starting a restrictive new diet.

I can give you this kindness until you’re ready and able to provide it to yourself.

I promise, you are not a “hopeless cause” or “too broken.”

After more than a decade of working with emotional eaters, here's what I absolutely know to be true:

 #1 Emotional Eating is an emotional issue, not a will power one.

Here’s the cycle: you get upset (triggered), reach for your comfort foods, overeat, then feel even worse afterwards as shame and guilt creep in. Emotional eating is a coping mechanism you’ve developed to make yourself feel safe, comforted, numb, or even in control. Think of it like a shield you’re putting between you and your feelings. Plus, food is reliable, it’s always there when you need it.

The solution isn’t to start counting calories or stop eating carbs. These are food-centered solutions (and honestly, will leave you unsatisfied and lead to a binge). 

Instead, we look at why you reached for the food in the first place. I know this sounds scary and overwhelming, but you are not alone!

We apply Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques which are extremely effective in changing critical thoughts, negative feelings, and eating habits. I have Advanced Training in CBT and I trained at The Beck Institute on how to apply CBT interventions specifically to emotional eating and weight loss. 

#2 Unhealthy relationship with food shows an unhealthy relationship with yourself and others.

The truth is that emotional eating is never about the food.

Food only temporarily distracts you, it doesn’t meet your emotional needs so you’ve probably noticed that even after you eat, you’re still left with feelings of emptiness, unhappiness, shame, and guilt.  

For this piece of the puzzle, we will apply Attachment Therapy techniques to find strategies and tools that meet your emotional needs rather than ‘fill’ them temporarily with food. With my background in Attachment Theory, I will create a safe environment where you can explore your relationship with food and your feelings about yourself and relationships with others.