Get help
ONE-TO-ONE Sessions
I see you, you are full of questions (why you, why now?), you are scared you are never going to get better, you feel a bit ashamed (I shouldn’t need help to eat pasta, it’s ridiculous).
Or are you a parent feeling lost, unsure of where to start (you have never been scared of a potato!)? You are confused about what you need to feed your child and you are exhausted of all the battles over food and exercise.
Questions you might ask yourself:
What if you understood anorexia?
How can you get help?
What if you could go back to eating as a family without all the tension?
And what if you could have your child back?
What if you could just walk into a café and order what you fancy like everyone else?
What if you could eat a bit of everything and be healthy?
What if food was only one part of your life and not the only thing you think about?
ABOUT ME
Hello, I’m Anne Richardson
I’m a registered nutritional therapist exclusively working in the eating disorder field. I have ten years of clinical experience and also a first hand experience of anorexia in my teens #anorexiasurvivor
My one-to-one sessions are for people who are ready to get help and commit to recovery. I work with people for a minimum of three months but it usually takes longer.
An eating disorder takes months (and sometimes years) to develop and bed in, so we need to allow a reasonable amount of time to work on unravelling it all.
I wish I could, but I won’t be able to give you the results you are after in a few sessions.
Results are never guaranteed, it really depends on how much you are going to put into this but, realistically, even if you are committed to recovery, you need to give it some time.
My eight pillar process to recovering for good:
ONE: Weight restoration (if needed).
TWO: What is healthy eating vs. what you think it is.
THREE: Nutrition myths that you hold as truth but which are keeping you stuck.
FOUR: Fear food exposure: no one has ever recovered on carrot sticks and broccoli.
FIVE: Body image: dialling down negative self-talk.
SIX: Exercise: to de-stress not to distress.
SEVEN: Finding your voice.
EIGHT: Rebuilding your identity: who are you without the eating disorder?
What i Offer
Clarity call (20min): free
This is for you to explain your needs and hear how I work, so we can then assess whether I’m the right person for you – if I’m not, that’s absolutely fine and I will hopeful redirect you towards someone else.
Block of four weekly sessions: £397
The first session (60min) is an initial assessment and for us to get to know each other.
The following sessions (45min) are more practical and aimed at helping you move closer to food freedom.
I see people for a minimum of three blocks.
Most of my sessions are conducted online, which makes it easier for everyone! Having said that, if you are local to me (Exeter in Devon), I am more than happy to to meet face to face at first.
What this price includes:
- Regular food monitoring in between sessions
- Moral support in between sessions
- Personalised advice
- Liaising with care providers when required
- Notes sent after each session
- Preparation time before each session
Who I do see:
- Young people and adults. In the case of under twelve years old, it may be more appropriate for me to see the parents only.
- People of any gender.
- People with, or without, an eating disorder diagnosis.
- People whose relationship with food has become fraught and who are confused as to what to eat.
Who I don’t see:
- People who are medically unstable – too low weight to be safely seen in the community, for example.
- People with ARFID – I feel I need more training and it wouldn’t be fair on them.
- People who are looking to lose weight – I am happy to work on your relationship with food but not on weight loss.
Starting on this journey can be daunting, so let me tell you a bit more before you even pick up the phone to enquire.
- First, I’m going to want to know you. I don’t have a cookie cutter approach to my sessions. Each of my clients is different and it is therefore crucial that we get to know each other.
- Where we go next will depend on the person but, often, the focus is going to be on food and how we can re-structure your eating. I will not be giving you a detailed and prescriptive meal plan (unless specifically needed like for a Duke of Edinburgh walk for example). Instead, I will look at adding to what you are already eating.
- I will take your likes and dislikes into consideration, but I will also challenge you at times if I suspect some of your choices are rooted in disordered eating.
- Yes, you need to eat enough and you may need to learn what you need to eat and how food is being utilised by the body. However, I don’t want our sessions to turn into a biology lesson. If recovering from an eating disorder was about learning nutritional facts, I’d just be selling you leaflets and you’d get better – spoiler alert: it doesn’t work like that.
- A very big part of my job is going to be unravelling your beliefs about food and your body and for that I will need you to share your thoughts with me. This is where the bulk of the work will be done and, for this to work, I will need your active participation. I am not magical and I, alone, can’t get you better; we have to be a team.
- I will not replace your psychologist but we will most definitely discuss the psychology of eating. I combine nutrition knowledge with cognitive behavioural techniques, you may call this nutritional counselling.
- As we progress on your journey, we will concentrate less on what and how much but more why and how. We are likely to discuss your relationship with exercise, body image, your use of social media and other topics.
Appointments are conducted online through Practice Better, a GDPR compliant client management portal, which is safe and encrypted to protect your data.
I find that to optimise recovery the best approach is for people to be part of a multidisciplinary team, so that they receive not just nutritional advice but also psychological support and medical supervision. Nutritional therapy on its own isn’t enough to recover.
Please note that I may have to decline people who are severely underweight for safety reasons.
