Body Image and Food Relationship Therapy
in Belfast,
Counselling for Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Self-esteem, Trauma, Grief and Loss, Work Stress, Couples and Relationships and more.
Providing Services
over 30+ Years
Introduction
Exploring the Connection Between Food, Body Image, and Life Satisfaction
Body Image and Food Relationship Therapy can help you heal your relationship with food and your body by addressing the underlying emotional and psychological factors that influence your eating habits. This therapy helps break free from harmful dieting cycles, fosters a healthier self-image, and allows you to rediscover trust in your body’s natural cues. By working through these issues in a supportive, non-judgmental space, you can start to feel at ease with your body and make choices that are nourishing both physically and emotionally.
- Postgraduate Diploma in the Psychodynamics
- Certificate in Hakomi Body Centred Psychotherapy
- EMDR Level 1 and 2
- Registered Member of the British (BACP)
- I work to BACP’s code of ethics for good practice
- I hold a M.Sc in Guidance and Counselling (University of Ulster)
Key Information
Building Stronger Connections Through Couples Therapy
I offer individual and group sessions, along with workshops, to help women improve their relationship with food and body image. Together, we’ll challenge negative thinking, explore affirmations, and use imagery to shift your internal attitudes, so you can learn to listen to your body and quiet the critical voice. By rebuilding trust with your body, you’ll begin to enjoy food and feel at ease with yourself again. While weight loss isn't the goal, many women naturally find their bodies adjusting to a healthier weight when they move away from dieting and trust their natural appetite.
- Postgraduate Diploma in the Psychodynamics
- Certificate in Hakomi Body Centred Psychotherapy
- EMDR Level 1 and 2
- Registered Member of the British (BACP)
- I work to BACP’s code of ethics for good practice
- I hold a M.Sc in Guidance and Counselling (University of Ulster)
Body Image and Food Relationship Therapy can help with
Body Image and Food Relationship Therapy can help you heal your relationship with food and your body by addressing the underlying emotional and psychological factors, including the impact of past trauma, that influence your eating habits. This therapy helps break free from harmful dieting cycles, fosters a healthier self-image, and allows you to rediscover trust in your body’s natural cues. By working through these issues in a supportive, non-judgmental space, you can start to feel at ease with your body and make choices that are nourishing both physically and emotionally.
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Overcoming Dieting Mentality
Therapy helps you break free from the cycle of restrictive eating and harmful diet culture, leading to more balanced, sustainable eating habits.
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Body-Centered Therapy
Through Body-Centered Therapy, we use movement, gesture, and awareness of subtle sensations to identify and release blocked emotions, helping you develop a deeper connection with yourself and reduce anxiety and depression.
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Improving Body Image
You’ll work on building a positive relationship with your body, allowing you to appreciate it for what it does, rather than how it looks.
The Process
Body Image and Food Relationship Therapy can help with:
Dieting and food restrictions often lead to unhealthy eating patterns, obsessive thoughts, and negative feelings about your body. Therapy provides a way to break free from this cycle by fostering a healthier, more intuitive relationship with food. It helps you move away from the constant focus on weight loss and instead prioritize nourishment, well-being, and self-compassion. By challenging diet culture and the unrealistic standards it sets, you can rediscover trust in your body’s natural cues for hunger and fullness. This shift enables you to make more empowered and mindful food choices, allowing you to feel at peace with your body and develop a healthier sense of self-worth.
Understanding and Healing through Body-Centered Therapy
Body-Centered Therapy is a powerful method for understanding and healing the emotional and psychological blocks that we hold in our bodies. Our bodies carry the imprint of past experiences, whether they are emotional, physical, or psychological in nature. By becoming more attuned to your body’s sensations, gestures, and movements, we can uncover and release long-held tension, trauma, or unresolved feelings. This therapeutic approach helps you process emotions stored in the body, reducing anxiety, stress, and negative thought patterns. As you connect more deeply with your body, you can learn to trust your instincts, improve self-acceptance, and create healthier boundaries in relationships.
Rebuilding a Positive Body Image
Therapy supports the process of transforming how you see and feel about your body. Often, societal standards, personal experiences, or past trauma can distort our perceptions of ourselves. Through therapy, you’ll begin to challenge negative thoughts and harmful beliefs about your appearance, and start to appreciate your body for its strengths, function, and uniqueness. Rebuilding a positive body image doesn’t happen overnight, but therapy offers the tools and support needed to cultivate self-love, acceptance, and mindfulness. This process helps you develop compassion for yourself and encourages healthier ways of viewing and caring for your body.
Every journey starts with a first step, make yours today.
Would you like to explore your mental health wellbeing? Reach out today to start your journey towards healing and personal growth with a compassionate, professional counsellor by your side.
Other Services
Other areas of Counselling,
see how I can help
Counselling offers support for a wide range of challenges, providing a safe space to explore your thoughts and feelings. Whether you’re dealing with anxiety, depression, or trauma, therapy helps you understand your experiences and work towards positive change.
It can also address issues like workplace stress, relationship challenges, or personal growth. Whatever you’re facing, counselling provides tools and guidance to build resilience and move forward with clarity and confidence.
- Workplace Anxiety
- Childhood Trauma
- Depression
- Social Anxiety
- Relationship Breakdown
- Grief Support
- Self-Esteem Struggles
- Nature-Based Therapy
- EMDR for Healing
- Body Image & Eating
Every journey starts with a first step, make yours today.
I offer flexible counselling options, including both in-person and remote sessions, allowing you to choose the format that best fits your lifestyle and comfort level.
In-person Sessions
In-person counselling provides a unique opportunity for connection and support in a comfortable environment. Meeting face-to-face allows for deeper emotional exchange and fosters a strong therapeutic relationship. Together, we’ll create a safe space to explore your challenges and work towards healing in a supportive atmosphere.
Remote Options
Remote counselling allows you to connect from home via phone or the video platform Zoom. This flexible option makes it easy to fit sessions into your schedule while ensuring meaningful therapeutic conversations in a convenient setting.
Client reviews
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Depression
"I lost my relationship and my job and was at an all time low, I had gone to see many counsellors, many of whom didn’t help me. Jean did. She was real with me, she listened, she recognised my pain, I felt she was with me in my pain and wasn’t scared of it. Quite simply I wouldn’t have turned my life around without her. She was only one I could trust and who gave me the care and support I needed."
J, 54
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Depression
"I was scared going to my first counselling session but Jean was warm, welcoming and professional. She put me at ease and I was able to say things to her that I had never told anyone before. I was able to understand my behaviour and my pain so much more and to gradually change my life. I was able to put old ghosts to rest and enjoy my life again."
B, 39
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Anxiety
"Going to counselling was so helpful. I was really anxious, couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t settle, was wakening up every night and felt so vulnerable. I felt I had lost everything and didn’t know where to turn. Through being listened to and heard, I came to understand some of why I was behaving the way I was and through Jean’s gentle probing I was able to look at my attitudes and behaviour and see how it was making things worse. I am so grateful that I had the courage to pick up the phone and make an appointment. Money well spent."
A, 41
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Anxiety
"I have had many problems through out my life and seeing Jean has been a lifesaver for me. I never thought I could change my life around in the way I have. Counselling was painful at times, looking at things that had happened in the past, but Jean supported me and was my ally during this process. She allowed me to express my painful emotions, give me hope that I could survive and I did."
L, 60
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Body Centred Psychotherapy
"Jean really helped me to feel my emotions, I had cut off from my body and was living in my head. I was just like an automaton, going through the emotions. My relationship had broken down and I was devastated. Jean sat with me and gradually I was able to come into my body and to feel again and eventually connect with friends again and not feel so alone or separate. Jean allowed me to feel safe enough to feel some of my emotions and to feel my fears. I never felt judged, I felt heard and valued and gradually came to believe again that it was safe enough for me to speak what I was feeling and that I could survive what I had experienced. "
K, 53
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Couple Counselling
"I feel excellent progress has been made in our relationship and wish I had considered the counselling earlier. Although difficult and painful at times, having a neutral and honest assessment of our needs was extremely beneficial "
J, 33
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Couple Counselling
"Jean is such a good counsellor, she gives an excellent service. We had just got civil partnered and thought it would be the happiest days of our lives, but we were struggling in our relationship. Though counselling we learned how to sort out our differences without hurting each other and we have grown closer together. We would go and see Jean if the need arises but we are able to talk things out now and realise how we wind up each other. We are now practicing how to put what we have learned into practice. Thank you"
M, 36 and D, 38
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Couple Counselling
"My husband and I still loved each other but couldn’t find a way through. We had stopped communicating with each other and were living separate lives and were pretty much done. For the sake of the children we thought we would go and see a counsellor. We went to see Jean and it really helped us, we got to understand at a deeper level what the problems were, how we had stopped supporting each other and most importantly how to fix. We are still married and the children are thriving."
E, 39 and W, 43
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Food and Body Image
"I hated my body and went to see Jean to lose weight. I got so much more than that. I was surprised at what I found out. I got to understand why I was eating and how food was an emotional crutch for me and how it was easier to hate my body and myself, rather than deal with some of the hateful and horrible things that had happened to me in my life."
C, 44
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Food and Body Image
"My life looked perfect on the outside but had crumbled on the inside. I was feeling desperate and just couldn’t cope any more. I was binge eating and hating myself. It was a long and tough journey but with Jean’s knowledge, skills and understanding I have stopped striving for the perfect life and the perfect me. Instead I have opened up to friends and family and am much happier."
S, 34
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Nature
"Jean has a real gift to connect with people and to understand them. I had tried talking to other therapists and it hadn’t helped. When I spoke to Jean she understood this and suggested that we see each other outside and and be in nature. I found this so healing and less intimidating. It allowed me to feel my breath, to feel my legs, to feel the earth beneath me, I felt less alone. Jean and nature helped soothe me and allowed me to heal"
T, 53
Jean McMinn Therapy
Counselling & Psychotherapy in Belfast Holywood - Counselling for Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Self-esteem, Trauma, Grief and Loss, Work Stress, Couples and Relationship and more.
Bangor - Cultra - Newtownards - Carrickfergus - Belfast City Centre - Donaghadee - Lisburn - Dundonald - Groomsport - Larne - Cookstown - Omagh - Gortin - Carrickmore - Pomeroy in Co Tyrone - Derry - Monaghan - Holywood - Comber