More Than a Diagnosis: Eating, Identity, and Therapeutic Support

Course content

This training supports therapists and other mental health professionals in working with adults experiencing eating disorders and eating distress. We’ll cover the most prevalent DSM-5 diagnoses, explore disordered eating patterns, and look at how food and body image can be used to manage emotional pain, trauma, and relational stress.

You’ll learn about the links between eating, self-worth, shame, and identity, and how cultural messages around control, appearance, and safety shape our relationship with food and our bodies. We’ll also explore key statistics, medical risks, and NICE guidelines—highlighting how to recognise when eating distress may pose serious physical health risks and require safeguarding action or medical referral.

The course offers practical therapeutic tools through a relational lens, including Transactional Analysis models that help make sense of how symptoms show up in everyday life. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of how to support clients with compassion, clarity, and cultural awareness.

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The course will be co-created and will include plenty of space for self-reflection, shared experiences, and group discussion throughout.

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Learning Outcomes

This course gives therapists and mental health professionals a clear understanding of eating disorders and eating distress. You’ll learn about key DSM-5 diagnoses how disordered eating patterns develop, and how food and body image can be used to manage emotional pain and relational stress.

We’ll cover medical risks and safeguarding responsibilities, including when to refer to medical professionals. You’ll also explore NICE guidelines and how they apply—or don’t apply—to relational work in private practice.

The training includes practical therapeutic tools, with a focus on relational and TA models. You’ll reflect on how your own relationship with food and body may influence your work, and learn how to support clients with clarity, compassion, and clinical confidence.

Who is this workshop for?

The workshop is for counsellors, psychotherapists or any mental health professional who support adults with food and body related issues.  

As the training will cover therapeutic interventions, participants will need to be qualified to work therapeutically with adults with eating issues.