2 mins

I am an emotional eater, how can therapy help me?

Video Description

Clinical psychologist Steven Mahan explores when ‘comfort eating’ (as a way of coping with difficult emotions) gets out of hand and becomes a problem – and what you can do about it. https://www.thechelseapsychologyclinic.com Chelsea Psychology Clinic are a group of London psychologists and psychiatrists offering private psychological therapy and psychiatry treatment from their premises across central London and Chelsea. The private therapy sessions cover the following areas: – Acceptance & Commitment Therapy – Cognitive Analytic Therapy – Cognitive-behavioural Therapy – Couples Therapy – Dialectical-behaviour Therapy – Mentalisation Based Treatment – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy – Schema Therapy

Video Transcription

Our relation with food is quite complex. So it can be used as a treat, such as Christmas and birthdays. It can be used as a way of sustaining our lives, such as, you know, just to, basically, survive. But for many people, they use food as a way of coping with difficult emotions. And the most commonly used term for this is “comfort eating.” But comfort eating can become problematic. If you use it as a way of coping with you emotions every time you experience anything negative, such as anxiety or low mood, you turn to food to cope, it can then lead to obesity, or low self-esteem if you do gain weight. And it could also lead to a number of health conditions as well, such as diabetes, heart disease. So, someone who comfort eats although in isolation it might not be too problematic, if you’re using it all the time to cope with your emotions, that’s when it can become quite complex. And you might need a therapy to help you to come up with alternative ways of soothing your emotions than with food, such as relaxation, engaging in other activities that you enjoy, speaking to a friend, and so on.

Dr Steven Mahan

Dr Steven Mahan

19 June 2022

"Dr Steven Mahan is a Clinical Psychologist with many years’ experience in both the NHS and private sector. He specialises in adult mental health and has worked with clients of all ages with a wide range of emotional difficulties including depression, anxiety, personality disorders, trauma, social anxiety, eating disorders, work-related stress, health anxiety, and substance misuse. Throughout his career, Dr Mahan has gained extensive experience working with clients with relationship and interpersonal difficulties. "

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Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced consultant psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector.

Having obtained a first degree in Psychology (BSc) at the American College of Greece, she completed her doctoral training at the University of Surrey. Dr Touroni is highly experienced in the assessment and treatment of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, personality disorder, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, adjustment disorder and relationship difficulties. She works with both individuals and couples and can offer therapy in English and Greek.

She is trained in several specialist therapeutic approaches such as Schema Therapy for individuals and couples, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-based approaches and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT).

Dr Touroni has held a variety of clinical and managerial positions including as Head of Service in the NHS. Further she has held academic positions for the University of Surrey and the Institute of Mental Health lecturing on specialist postgraduate Masters and Doctorate programmes. As well as holding a variety of NHS positions, Dr Touroni is the co-founder of a private practice in Central London that has been a provider of psychological therapy for all common emotional difficulties including personality disorder since 2002.

Dr Touroni has a keen interest in developing preventative approaches for psychological well-being and has been involved in the co-creation of bespoke wellness retreats for transformative change for the past 5 years. She is the founder and one of two directors of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic.