If your loved one suffers from an eating disorder, I know how difficult and life-changing it can be for you and your family.

Eating disorders are really hard on everyone in the family. Parents face a steep learning curve; high levels of anxiety and other strong emotions that are very difficult to deal with. Eating disorders are not straightforward, they can feel completely irrational, and the causes, behaviours, and challenges faced are different for each family.

My biggest strength is understanding the complexity of each parent's unique situation, and giving parents the confidence and hope that they can help their child recover from an eating disorder, and move on.

One-to-one sessions - my core service

Typically, I work with parents over a 6-12 week timeframe. Your child may or may not be in therapy but the purpose of the sessions is to give you, the parents, the space to share with someone who really understands your perspective and think about what you can do to improve the situation.

We meet for one hour a week either face-to-face, on zoom, or on the phone. Firstly, we discuss what stage you are at, what challenges you are facing. Secondly, we discuss ideas and strategies for specific situations. Thirdly, we monitor how well your approach is working.

I also provide training, presentations, and setting up and facilitation of group sessions for:

Schools and universities

Eating disorder units and hospitals

Children & Adolescent Mental Health units (e.g. NHS CAMHS)

My name is Janet and I am married and a mother of two daughters.

For the past five years, I’ve worked successfully with 100+ parents one-to-one that have daughters or sons with acute eating disorders. Firstly, at BEAT, the UK's largest eating disorder charity, and then at an NHS Eating Disorder Unit in London.

I was the winner of the 2023 NHS CNWL Goodhall Division Carer and Patient Award. I ran one-to-one, weekly sessions with parents and facilitated parent groups.

From my lived experience, I know how important it is to be kind, compassionate and discrete when I'm working with parents who are feeling most vulnerable.

If you are a parent and have a child with an eating disorder, or you work at a school or eating disorder service, please contact me and we can set up a chat about how I might be able to help.

Testimonials from Parents

"Janet's knowledge, suggestions and tips were really helpful. A person to listen and guide when appropriate was quite a differentiator."

Father

"The constructive dialogue I had with Janet opened up new paths of dealing with certain situations. It has been immensely helpful to me."

Mother

“Janet focussed on topics which were directly relevant to us as parents, and proactively shared insights rather than simply asking how things are going. Our sessions helped give us more optimism about our daughter's ability to get to a sustainable, stable place."

Father

"Janet was very understanding and provided me with helpful advice. Janet gave me hope that there is a life after the illness for my daughter that is well worth living."

Mother

“For us, it helped us to feel supported at a time when we were floundering and was a good focus for us as a couple to acknowledge and discuss the tsunami that has hit our lives as well as to learn more about others experiences, and that we can have a positive outlook"

Couple

"What we talked about has given me a new fresh perspective on anorexia.”

Mother

“We talked about different ideas on how to help our daugher, how to understand her and her needs better which have helped us greatly.”

Couple

"Janet was very easy to speak to and such a kind soul. I will always remember the words of wisdom and feel that I was better able to support my daughter through what was a horrendous and what felt like a never-ending journey. I feel that I could understand my daughter better and reach out to her in other ways which in turn made her feel more encouraged to recover."

Mother

"I was totally directionless in how to deal with my daughter's ED. Although I had read many books on the subject, this had made me more obsessive about getting her better so everything she ate(or did not) represented a win or lose situation to me. Not surprisingly, I ended up in quite a bad way. Janet was able to immediately read where I was and understand my motives. Very gently, she refocussed my view of everything. I was also able to present specific problems to Janet and get useful advice on how best to approach them. I now feel much calmer, stronger, and hopeful. Speaking to Janet has not just been a lifesaver for us, but I am sure it will aid my daughter's eventual recovery."

Mother

Testimonials from Clinicians

"The patient's mum said that she feels she would not have got through the early stages of her daughter being unwell if she hadn't had your support and was very grateful for this."

NHS Family Therapist

"You made a big difference to our patients [by talking to the parents] and the feedback that we always got was extremely positive. "

NHS Outpatient Therapist

[Janet] is absolutely central to the 'whole' of the eating disorders team. Janet works across both CYP and adult services and has been invaluable in how the service has been shaped and works collaboratively with carers and patients. She offers training, guidance and support, often when people[parents] are at their most vulnerable point in their journey through services."

Nomination for the winner of the 2023 NHS CNWL Goodhall Division Carer and Patient Award