Lucy Aphramor – Radical Dietitian and Poet

I’m sorry to disappoint if you’re here looking for counselling but I’m not accepting new clients at the moment.

Existing clients, here’s your link to book: Schedule Online Counselling Appointment

Counselling

A lot of my work is training and writing, and I also see a small number of people in 1:1 sessions. Maybe you’ll be one of them. I live in Shropshire, England, and am available online from wherever you are.

A cornerstone belief of my practice is that however troubled someone’s relationship with food and their body is, compassion, respect and curiosity – and nutrition science where needed – is a recipe that offers something powerful. And also that, within this, it’s important to always recognise how we are each shaped by our unique life histories, identities, and personal, local and global circumstances.

This is different from what I was taught at university about ‘individual choice’, where eating well and being active was as simple as saying yes to this and no to that. As if! I was taught about ‘personal responsibility’ in models that ignored oppression, mental health problems, bad luck, trauma, poverty, identity struggles, lineage and much more.

What I offer instead is an approach, Well Now, that recognises how our histories and identities interact to shape our lives*.  This meaning meeting you where you are, with your needs, confusions, desires, goals, unknowns, and ambivalences. My goal is to help you to explore whatever seems relevant to your eating and body story. Safety is often a key area.

*Some of my histories and identities are that I am white, thin, able bodied, middle-class, genderqueer, with a history of trauma including eating disorders and gut issues.

I typically meet with people twice a month.

I use a Fair Pay system. This means people on low incomes/in difficult circumstances, pay me less than people with a higher income and stability. You decide!

Sometimes, what someone can afford to pay doesn’t feel fair – you might want to pay me more than your income allows.  Perhaps there’s a skill you can offer?  I would happy to discuss ideas for part-payment in kind, just get in touch.

 

More On Me and My Philosophy 

Interconnection and respect are at heart of Well now, including respecting ourselves. Learning to respect and then accept ourselves can get us out of patterns of shame and self-blame that keep us stuck. This releases us to experiment with new ideas about ourselves, and the world, that help us grow in understanding, self-worth, respect for all Beings, and inter-connection. This sort of change can deepen satisfaction in many areas of our lives and relationships.

My practice, Well Now, draws on wisdom about healing and transformation that comes from many different sources, such as sciences, sociology, civil rights, arts. A big chunk of learning comes from my own personal and professional experiences. Professionally I’ve worked in community dietetics and as a specialist dietitian in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, and director of two social enterprises, as writer, educator, researcher, consultant. I’ve got a PhD in Critical Dietetics examining ‘body weight management’. Oh, I’m also a poetitian (poet-dietitian).

Personal experiences on the receiving end of ‘care’ have taught me lots about living with mental health problems and managing trauma and stigma, what works in a therapeutic relationship and what is downright harmful and disrespectful. Rejecting this, I was able to leave behind eating disorders and figure out how to reduce gut problems. I know what it is to navigate trauma’s legacy and I know something about occupying and not occupying the body from exploring my own queer identities.