Welcome to Freedom from Food
Hi, my name is Bianca. I am a clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor, and the founder of Freedom from Food, and I enjoy supporting people to true freedom and recovery. This might be from a diagnosable eating disorder or disordered eating. Or maybe it is simply from a lifetime of dieting, poor body-image, and preoccupation with food and weight which takes you away from living the life that you deserve to live.
Why am I so passionate about what I do?
We live in a society and culture that is OBSESSED with food, weight, dieting, and obtaining the 'thin ideal'. Believe me, I have not been immune to the pressures of this myself. As a teenager and young adult I experienced both under and over-eating disorders, and my struggles were not unlike many others' in that they were multifaceted. They were driven by individual psychological factors such as anxiety, perfectionism, low self-esteem, and a desire to maintain control. They were also driven by the societal and cultural factors (the water we swim in!) which pressure us all to strive for a certain type of body, keeping us disatisfied from a very young age in these bodies that we have been given. I stayed in these destructive cycles with restriction, rebound bingeing, and weight fluctuations for almost 20 painful years.
Enrolling to study hypnotherapy and counselling quickly opened the door to learning many different therapeutic techniques not commonly found in most mainstream practices. I had always (and still do) love, value, and use traditional talk therapies; yet I found these techniques which use hypnosis to be deeply experiential and effective when it came to getting to the heart and core of some of the emotional pieces of the puzzle.
Next was a series of flukes which finally saw me in contact with the right kinds of practitioners. Practitioners who loudly and proudly shunned the toxic, repetitive, and frankly, boring messaging and rehetoric from diet and wellness culture. This messaging resounded deeply; it felt like coming home. Finally, I had been offered real solutions and a philosophy to recovery (and life!) that was actually sustainable and really worked.
Which leads me to today. A place in my life where I can finally and honestly say that I am at peace in my body and with my relationship with food. A place I doubted many times that I could ever get to. I no longer restrict or keep searching for the next diet or ounce of 'willpower'. Nowadays, I even keep chocolate at home and forget its there! Finally, I am in charge of my relationship with food, rather than the other way around.
My mission now is to arm you with the information that you need. Bust the myths around dieting, food, and weight that keep you stuck, frustrated, and confused. Then help you to reconnect with your body, and create a peaceful relationship with food which helps you to live a life that is rich, full, and meaningful for you.
Hypnotherapy & Counselling Melbourne