In the relationship with food many emotional and relational meanings pass, our body and our mind are united and influence each other.
“In food-related problems, the problem is never food”. When I work with adults with eating problems or with parents who report their children's eating difficulties to me, I always start from this assumption. The work in this area is extensive and moves along a continuum that goes from healthy eating habits and general psychosocial well-being, to eating disorder, in all its forms (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, obesity, etc.), both in adults than in children. Along this continuum, mindful eating is not so much a therapeutic intervention as a new approach to food where safety conditions allow it. These are very specific protocols aimed at adults who have a complicated and conflicting relationship with food and families with children (from 3 to 11 years old) who struggle for various reasons to manage the time of the meal. The protocols are based on mindfulness, which is the ability to bring attention and awareness to the present moment, without judgment and connecting with our inner wisdom. In the case of mindful eating, the goal is to reconnect to the present moment and to the sensations and perceptions of our body while we eat, letting our inner wisdom guide us in choosing the type and quantity of food. Through mindfulness, conscious eating (i.e. attention to what we eat and how we eat it) and homeworks (activities to maintain continuity between one meeting and another), people learn a new way of approaching food. but also to themselves. The protocol for children is based on teamwork that involves adults, children and the parent-child relationship, creating fun and meaningful occasions for the whole family.
