Mind what you eat: Brighton psychotherapist on beating overeating

Georgina Tasker lives in Brighton with her husband and two children, and has worked as a psychotherapist specialising in overeating for seven years.

She believes in mindful eating, by being more aware of what you put into your body, and savouring food, instead of treating it like a vice.

With Georgia’s courses, there’s no diets, no calorie counting, but she does attempt to get to the root of compulsive overeating through therapy and changing her clients’ relationship with food.

Georgina, who has struggled with her own eating problems in the past, explained how some people use food as an emotional crutch ‘pushing it down’ along with their problems.

“I found when I was in my twenties I went through lots of eating disorders,” Georgina says. “Anorexic, bulimic, then overeating, managing it by exercising a lot.

“I first entered into psychotherapy in my twenties. I thought ‘I am going to change my whole life’. You start to develop an awareness of what feels right in each part of your life. You are more in touch with your true self.”

It’s the combination of psychotherapy and Georgina’s holistic approach that makes the courses different to other weight loss techniques.

“In my courses and one-to-one work we are learning why we overeat and sabotage ourselves time and time again. We work with the parts of ourselves called our ‘subpersonalities’. These often unconscious parts of our psyches can often be running the show and trip us up, even when we rationally know that eating something unhealthy is not good for us.

“By getting to know these parts of ourselves and befriending them, we can begin to understand why they exist in the first place.”

Georgina’s teaching not only looks back to see where the compulsion to overeat may have emerged, but also encourages clients to be more aware of how their bodies feel when they eat certain foods, and in turn make better choices.

“People come to me because they have a problem with food and they are fed up,” Georgina says.

“A lot of people walk around and think if all this would change I would be happy, but it has to start with the self.

“It’s looking at how your body is feeling. Your body can’t lie.”

Georgina argues that by eating mindfully, people start to listen to their bodies and make more nutritious food choices.

“There is absolutely no calorie counting, weighing etc. Instead we look at what sort of foods might support them to wean themselves off sugary and highly processed foods.

“When you eat, savour it taste it. You start to enjoy food for the pleasure of it a bit more.

“I also teach these women mindfulness. This is an essential component as the majority of my clients don't know how to manage their emotional feelings. Slowly they learn how to build resilience to them and how to pay attention to them without suppressing them with food.

“Having been there, and know what it is like to be stuck in the negative cycle of binge eating, I am able to deliver my message from the heart, knowing what my clients are going through, and how with the right approach, lasting change can occur.”

Georgina is running a Friday morning course from September 8 to November 17, and is running further courses in 2018 starting in January, April and September, as well as one-to-one psychotherapy sessions.

To find out more, or to join Georgina’s free online course, visit: www.harmonypractice.comThis article first appeared in September 2017 edition of etc magazine.