Professor Julia Buckroyd

Julia has been interested in why we eat what we eat for a long time now. Twenty-five years ago she was a newly trained counsellor working in a dance school with students. So many of them had problems with food and everything that goes with it – weight, shape and size – that she felt really motivated to understand why many of us seem unable to eat the way we know we should. She has been working in this same area ever since and have spent the last decade writing and researching.

She has come to the conclusion that very many of us are soothing ourselves with food on a daily basis. Our culture provides us with more food than we know what to do with and we have found out how to use it to comfort ourselves. Unfortunately that ‘comfort’ turns out not to be so comforting after all, if we use it too much. We can put on too much weight, with all the problems that creates, both physical and in terms of self-esteem.

The Understanding your Eating Programme is based on current research and aims to help you think about how you use food, so that you can be better placed to choose whether you want to continue doing it that way.

The Group Leaders

All of the group leaders are qualified and experienced cousellors or health care professionals specialising in this field, who have been trained by Professor Julia Buckroyd, to run the Understanding Your Eating Programme. Many have special interest and experience in working with people with disordered eating.

They all work within the ethical guidelines set out by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy.