Specialists in eating disorder care

Mary worked at Connect Eating disorder service in Leeds as a senior leader in the service over seeing the FREED, MANTRA and the open access pathway. She spends part of her week as a trainer and supervisor on the NHS England MANTRA national training programme delivered at South London and Maudsley ( SLAM) . She co-created MANTR-IG an integrated group for patients with anorexia Nervosa. She trains and supervises the MANTRA practice of teams nationally and internationally. She regularly co-facilities MANTRA/MANTRA-IG training with Doctor Helen Startup to CAMHS teams and services in private practice such as the Priory. As a drama and movement therapist her work is all about building the bridge between mind, body and soul.

Cath brings her own lived experience to her work. She is a specialist CBT and MANTRA therapist who works part of her week as a senior therapist at The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) eating disorders service where she is also the Peer Support Pathway Lead and founded and facilitated the first online Peer Support Group at The Maudsley hospital.

Cath has significant experience using the PEACE Pathway to support those with neurodiversity.

Cath is also a qualified yoga teacher and has previously developed and delivered 'Yoga for eating disorder recovery' workshops and her yoga classes for @freedfromed were featured in Cosmopolitan UK.

Jess is a highly experiences dietitian who spends half her week in the NHS as Advanced specialist dietician with the northern care alliance, supporting the implementation of MEED across acute services in the North West. Previously she was clinical lead dietitian at Connect Eating disorder service in West Yorkshire. Jess offers national training to other dietitians upskilling them in their ability work in trauma informed ways. She leads on the nutrition section of the MANTRA training alongside Mary and Helen. Jess is the co-creator of the Light of Mind CHANGE training and BREATH event. She is an experienced facilitator of somatic informed nutritional change. Jess has a special interest in feeding differences in autism and is experienced in supporting individuals, families and organisations in delivering neuro- affirming care to create positive food environments. Jess draws upon psychological frameworks such as CBT, ACT, MANTRA and DBT and offers dietetic care as an adjunct to guided self help approaches for recovery or as an adjunct to therapy.

As an embodied practitioner and former professional dancer, Natalie plays a unique role in Light of Mind offering for people with eating disorders. At light of Mind we promote a holistic and nervous system guided approach to therapy because we want our clients to experience embodied, not just intellectual change. Being in an industry with problematic pressures around body image, Natalie has first-hand experience of viewing the body as something to be punished, measured, and hated. Both through lived experience and through her psychological practice she understands how this then distorts our view of the world, our future and ourselves. Natalie nurtures her deep love and curiosity about the human body. She has worked hard to build a healthy relationship with herself and her body which allows her to respond to her needs and fully experience the world around her.

Within your Light of Mind programme, Natalie will work alongside your main practitioner to provide embodiment sessions. These sessions will be a chance to reconnect with your body using a unique approach that is nervous system guided and uses embodiment techniques such as meditation, yoga, , intuitive movement and TRE. These sessions provide an opportunity to be guided by a professional to take the first steps to experiencing, moving, using, listening, touching and seeing your body in new and healthier ways. These nonverbal body based sessions are unique and we are super proud to have them as an embedded option at Light of Mind, in our offer to those with eating disorders.

As a specialist eating disorders therapist, Sam utilises elements from a range of different approaches including; Family Based Therapy for Eating Disorders/Family Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa (for children and young people), MANTRA, Guided Self Help, and Creative Arts/ Dramatherapy practices. Sam has an extensive history of working in the NHS with young people and adults, both in inpatient and community settings, and currently spends part of her week delivering therapeutic interventions in a CAMHS community eating disorders team with under 18s. Sam is passionate about supporting people and their families through recovery from eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Sam is also an expert by experience, utilising her own personal knowledge of anorexia recovery to support her clients. Due to this, Sam understands the complexities of eating disorders recovery whilst experiencing neurodiversity, and aims to take a person-centred, dynamic, approach within her work to support everyone’s individual needs.

Amy uses her skills from integrative psychotherapy in the treatment she offers to those with disordered eating/eating disorders. She has worked in both the private sector at the Priory and in both inpatient and community NHS settings. She is able to adapt which ever approach seems the best fit for the client in front of her. She can draw from MANTRA, CBT-E, CFT-E and integrative psychotherapy to help her patients make sense of the function of their eating disorder and their freedom from it. She has run careers support groups in The Priory to enable healthy communication in the families of those people living with eating disorders.