Mindful Eating Program

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Eating Disorders, Compulsive Eating Behaviours, and Body Image Issues.

Each year, millions of people seek help to relieve the suffering caused, both to themselves and to others, by their inability to change self-destructive behaviours around food and body image. Many people seek temporary relief through weight loss or exercise programs. However, for those who are actually addicted to food and weight related rituals (i.e. bingeing, night eating, excessive exercise, purging, restrictive foods, compulsive overeating), there is no relief, as diet and exercise do not deal with the core issues that cause these self- destructive behaviours.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Eating Disorders (MBCT-ED) is a step-by-step psychotherapy program that integrates mindfulness and cognitive psychologies to help individuals give up their attachment to self-defeating behaviours and addictions. Based on the 3-S program developed at Yale University, the program uses an approach and language intended to minimize defensiveness and maximize the emergence of the authentic self or spiritual nature by distinguishing it from the self-destructive behaviours of the adaptive (or addicted) self.

Disordered eating and body image problems are a result of a detachment from a person's authentic nature or spiritual self. This adaptive self is a collection of behaviours that served as a psychological survival mechanism to protect the authentic nature during the formative years, but has long since outlived its usefulness, becoming a "habit pattern of the mind,” now mistaken for one’s authentic nature. Mindful practices help our clients’ to develop tools to intervene on their own behalf when they find themselves at risk of acting out of their adaptive self.

Our MBCT-ED program consists of eight weekly, two-hour meetings and a full day of mindfulness practice. It utilizes different learning modalities including presentations, in-session exercises, group discussion, group therapy, review of progress, and homework assignments. Our program provides an enlightened approach to disordered eating and body image issues. Discovering one's true nature, and distinguishing it from the behaviours and qualities of the false self, is the beginning of the path to the alleviation of suffering and the emergence of the real self.

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