Intuitive Eating is a non-diet, weight-neutral approach that guides you towards creating a balanced relationship with food, mind, and body.
The Intuitive Eating approach is based on 10 principles, each of which addresses an aspect of the collective philosophy and walks a person through the stages of change using a variety of tools.
Control is not an issue in Intuitive Eating. Instead, you will be relying on your internal signals, rather than on external factors and authority figures. Nobody can be the expert of "you". Only you know your thoughts, feelings and experiences. You will learn to trust your internal wisdom and will learn to listen to and honor your inner cues (both physical and emotional), all of which feels empowering.
- Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch, Intuitive Eating (3rd Edition)
Intuitive Eating recognizes and celebrates the importance of body diversity. I practice with a Health at Every Size (HAES) lens. Read more about HAES.
Why I love Intuitive Eating:
The practice of Intuitive Eating is an expression of self-care and promotes nonjudgmental awareness of one's needs. Learning and implementing the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating has many implications beyond food and body, and often creates space for healing in many other aspects of life.
As a society, many of us have become disconnected from our body's basic survival instincts. This disconnect fuels self-doubt and despair, as we look to health gurus or "wellness" diets to show us how to nourish and take care of ourselves. We spend a lot of energy trying to fix what is perceived to be broken and turning away from our innate wisdom.
Here is a beautiful passage from Alice Rosen’s chapter in the book Wellness, Not Weight:
Food is an essential aspect of the cycle of life, and is part of the miracle of life itself. Its existence is directly dependent upon nature (the sun, air, wind, earth, rain) and we are dependent upon food for survival. Food is an accompaniment for human rites, passages, celebrations, and religious/spiritual practices. Infants experience safety, trust, love and worth in being fed when they are hungry. Providing food is an expression of care and love. Food comforts and brings people together. Food feed the heart and soul as well as the body.
Chronic disordered eating and dieting, along with cultural/media messages, go against the natural order of life, (dis-order), sapping our vitality and keeping us unaware of our interconnectedness… So, to have a fear-based, conflicted or dissociated relationship with that which we are dependent upon is a serious problem. Such a relationship affects our psyches, health, relationships, culture and socio-economic reality. How we relate to food (the quality of our relationship with food) is indicative of how we relate to and live our lives in general.
When appropriate, clients coming to me to find peace with food and with their body through Intuitive Eating may find that some of the root causes of their food and body issues can be addressed with EMDR.