THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF WORKING WITH EMOTIONAL EATING AND BINGE EATING
The Do’s and Don’ts of Working with Emotional Eating and Binge Eating is a practical 60-minute masterclass for health and wellness coaches who want to feel more confident when a client’s relationship with food may be affecting their health and wellbeing.
Emotional and binge eating are often hidden in plain sight. Clients rarely arrive using clinical language or with a diagnosis - instead, they may talk about weight, stress, low mood, gut health, diabetes, energy, “having no willpower,” or not being able to stick to anything.
This class helps coaches recognise what may be sitting underneath the presenting issue, ask the right questions early, and hold disclosures calmly and without judgement.
Drawing on more than 15 years of specialist clinical experience, this masterclass explores:
- the spectrum of emotional and binge eating
- common patterns including shame, all-or-nothing thinking, people pleasing, and the inner critic
- regularising eating and the client’s food environment; triggers and autopilot behaviour
- mindfulness and self-compassion, and
- trauma-informed coaching practice.
It also clearly addresses professional scope, collaboration, and when onward referral is the safest and most appropriate next step.
Program Objectives and Outcomes
By the end of this masterclass, participants will be able to:
- Recognise common signs and client language that may indicate emotional eating, binge eating, restrictive eating, or a distressing relationship with food is affecting a client’s health and wellbeing.
- Use direct, compassionate, and non-judgemental questions in pre-screening and initial coaching conversations to explore a client’s relationship with food, eating patterns, and support needs.
- Respond safely to disclosure by using active listening, validation, psychological safety, and a client-centred approach that allows the client to speak about their experience in their own words.
- Identify common patterns that can maintain emotional and binge eating, including all-or-nothing thinking, shame, self-criticism, stress, food restriction, the food environment, and trigger–autopilot behaviour loops.
- Explain the boundaries of the coaching role and recognise when collaboration, specialist nutrition support, medical input, mental-health care, trauma treatment, or eating-disorder treatment is needed.
- Use a respectful, collaborative referral conversation that protects trust and helps the client access the right support at the right time.
