ready for a peaceful relationship with food?
intuitive eating counselling & nutrition therapy
Darling, you're in the right place.
Take a seat *waves hand* and let's chat.
I learned about Weight Watchers at thirteen while sitting around my grandmother's dining table with my aunt and her friends, and started dieting shortly thereafter. I went on to struggle with chronic dieting cycles, restrictive eating patterns, over-exercise, food and weight preoccupation, orthorexic tendencies, and binge eating for 15 years. To be honest, I didn't realize anything was wrong until I started to recover -- and I know I'm not alone in that.
While I love the anti-diet movement and Intuitive Eating, I know from first-hand experience how challenging it can be to actually stop dieting or engaging in disordered behaviours. Over the past few years I've dedicated my time to learning about various diet recovery/Intuitive Eating frameworks, body image, trauma, and beyond to understand what keeps so many of us stuck.
Whether Intuitive Eating hasn't "worked" for you or you're still searching for the One (diet to end all diets), food obsession is a losing game.
I specialize in working with folks who have been impacted by sexual violence, but I also work with those who see themselves in the following:
• Chronic/yo-yo dieting cycles
• Food and weight preoccupation
• An obsession with healthy eating
• Binge eating and emotional eating
• Feelings of food addiction
• Negative body image
• A history of abuse around food and body image
• A history of an eating disorder
i also have experience working with:
Folks living with eating disorders seeking to transition to Intuitive Eating.
B.A.H. & M.A. in English Lit & Creative Writing
Registered Holistic Nutritionist + Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor
Professionally mentored by Isabel Foxen Duke: October 2021 - May 2022
ACT for Beginners — March 2021
Digestive Disorders and Eating Disorders: A Complicated Mix (Marci Evans, CEDRD-S & Lauren Dear, RDN)
Nutrition Counselling for Eating Disorders (Marci Evans, CEDRD-S)
Body Image Training: The Missing Piece of Whole Body Healing (Marci Evans, CEDRD-S & Fiona Sutherland, APD)
Group and Individual Supervision: July 2017 — October 2018, The Kyla Fox Centre, Kyla Fox, MSW RSW
Group Supervision and Continuing Education: May 2019 — May 2021, EDRDPro
Non-Diet Counselling Skills - September 2020 (Tracy Brown, RD)
Individual Supervision: May 2020 —Present, Tracy Brown, RD
Advanced Trauma-Informed Counselling Skills / Somatic Counselling Skills — February 2021 (Tracy Brown, RD)
Somatic Experiencing® Student (Beginning 1, 2, 3)
Guest of various podcasts, including Ditch the Diet, Devoured, Going Beyond the Food, and Chronically Healing
Presented for or facilitated workshops for various companies, including RioCan, Starbucks, eOne, Women's College Hospital, BMO, FlightCentre, MaRS, League, and more
CSNN Holistic Nutrition Awards - nominated for the Trailblazer Award
a few of my credentials...
the founder (she/her)
sarah berneche
Based in Toronto, I fuse counselling techniques with anti-diet nutrition to help people find peace with food and feel comfortable in their bodies.
My own 15 year struggle with disordered eating brought me to this work. Learning — discovering — that something was off with the way I interacted with food and body came as a surprise to me. Because restriction/dieting and over-exercise are celebrated in our culture, I told myself I was “just really into health.” I was lauded for my “willpower” and unfailing self-discipline.
For over a decade, my food issues flew under the radar because I didn’t meet clinical criteria for an eating disorder. I understand how confusing it can be to admit you might have a problem, when any concern is (often) abruptly invalidated. I understand how frequently eating difficulties are missed by healthcare professionals. I understand how challenging it can be to access competent and compassionate help. My mission is to increase eating disorder/disordered eating awareness in Canada and improve quality of care.
AT A GLANCE
YOU SHOULD PROBABLY KNOW
Pasta Amatriciana <3
reading & cookbooks
french bistros
the new york times and bubble baths
All about
That new book smell, intersectional feminism, classic rock (on high), mules, spending time outdoors, social justice, Crossword puzzles, bulldogs, restaurants, abstract art, dinner parties, cheese plates, strong coffee, second-hand/vintage shopping, travel, and sequins
agree? we're probably a great fit.
