Why you need more than just therapy
I sat at my friend’s counter listening to him expressing concern about his body. How sluggish he has been feeling and how often he has bursts of irritation. My first question: What do you eat?
I remember an agitated client sitting in front of me. He left his family amid a confrontation and couldn’t understand his own behaviour. My first question was: what did you eat?
I will never forget the 16-year-old helplessly asking me, why suicide is all she can think about. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. There is no reason for her to be this exhausted. My first question was: what do you eat?
Since brave clients sat on the LIO couch, I had these burning questions about their eating habits.
What do you eat?
How often do you eat?
What’s your relationship with food?
How do you eat?
How often do you hydrate?
I even have a rule with clients – Do not come to a counselling session if you haven’t eaten something before.
In the past, the first question in my practice wasn’t how are you doing? It was did you have something to eat? For those who forgot to eat, I fed something small just to get the blood sugar going. Or that’s the narrative I told myself. (Now, I actually know why I did it.)
I struggled to keep food and eating habits out of my counselling sessions and therapy plans. Of course, I had little to offer clients regarding this, but something just kept urging me to figure out what was at the end of everyone’s fork.
Somehow, nutrition felt extremely relevant to clients suffering from depression, clients going through a divorce, clients having a hard time adapting to their lives. All of it felt connected to the food they ate.
But how could it?
Small juice events with LIO only lit the fire more. I knew juicing vegetables were great, but somehow people only saw it as a weight-loss gimmick.
I knew there was so much more to juicing.
A little bit about my story:
During my early 20s, I was in and out of the doctor’s rooms. I was constantly sick. It was then that I realised that even though a doctor is there to help, they cannot carry the responsibility for my health.
Late 20 I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Shortly after, I had my first cancer scare.
Every day this question kept on popping up in my heart – what am I eating?
Although my research started in my early 20s it was only in 2019 that I committed to equipping myself to find the answer to the gut-mind connection. That mind-mood-food connection we easily miss.
Intuitively, I knew that what goes on in the gut affects the mind, affects the mood, affects relationships, affects communication, affects creativity, affects the immune, affects everything!
Now after studying and being certified as a Food Matters Nutrition Coach, I KNOW how food affects our functioning. It’s not about weight loss, it’s about the health and wellness of life!
There is a profound connection between what’s happening in your gut and what’s manifesting in your mind.
Counselling at LIO truly is more than just talk therapy. We believe in traditional talk therapy. We also know that there is more to what’s going on in your life, and that talk therapy is simply not enough on its own.
We can’t go without talk therapy, but if we seek healing, we must go deeper and connect all of the dots.
These dots are different for everyone, and no model, program, or plan fits everyone.
Your healing will be as unique as you are.
Your meal plan must be as unique as you are.
Your therapy journey must be as unique as you are.
LIO now offers extensive trauma care, with the nurturing hand guiding the gut to heal.
We offer guidance through depression and anxiety, with a warm hug filled with nutritious tips and tricks to heal the mind through healing the gut.
None of our therapy sessions will go without the gut check-in. We also love collaborating with a professional team to ensure you are cared for on all levels. (read more about that here.)
Your gut is directly connected to your brain and lined with more than 100 million nerve cells.
I think it’s time we give it the care it deserves.
Be good to yourself ;
Did you hear us on the radio?
We were live on two of our local radio stations and we loved it. It was a first for LIO and hopefully not the last.
We were excited to share a little bit more detail about our upcoming silent retreat in September.
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