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ARFID Treatment 

Get ARFID treatment at Mona’s clinic 
in Islington, London or online

Eating Disorders

Selective Eating Disorder (SED)

Mona Hansen is one of the UK’s few ARFID treatment and SED specialist psychologists. She offers a unique integrated therapy approach to treatment for ARFID from her private practice in London. 

ARFID, formerly known as SED (selective eating disorder), is a form of food phobia that can affect people of any age. Mona is a specialist in food phobia therapy and brings relief from selective eating disorder in adults and children alike.

Whether you’re nearby in London, want to travel from elsewhere in the UK, or would prefer ARFID treatment via Skype, Mona Hansen offers the perfect solution. Mona is a private therapist with a proven record of treating SED/ARFID in adults and children.

food

What is ARFID?

ARFID stands for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder and used to be known as SED (selective eating disorder). It’s a form of food phobia that means a person can’t eat, touch or smell certain foods without experiencing distress, anxiety or even physical illness. It is not the same as ‘picky eating’.

While picky eating can be overcome by willpower, ARFID is a food phobia and a form of selective eating disorder. This means the problem has much deeper roots and requires some form of therapy treatment to be resolved.

Food avoidance and food phobia can be based on the texture, smell, taste, appearance or even presentation of food. If you suffer from ARFID, your system has associated certain foods with feelings of being unsafe or in danger. It then designates these foods themselves as unsafe, treating contact with them as if it were a matter of life and death. Your brain has gone into ‘survival mode’ and will try to avoid these foods at all costs – no matter how illogical or frustrating it feels.

Symptoms of ARFID (SED)

You could be suffering from ARFID (formerly known as SED). This is treatable; you don’t have to put up with it anymore.

Suffering from a selective eating disorder is difficult; it can feel frustrating, infuriating and, sometimes, embarrassing. ARFID is not the same as ‘fussy eating’, which friends and family members might find difficult to understand. It can leave you feeling embarrassed when eating with other people, or sometimes avoiding eating in front of people at all.

ARFID and SED is an inability to overcome the mental barriers that prevent you touching, smelling or eating certain foods – no matter how much you might want to overcome them yourself.

ARFID treatment breaks down those barriers and allows you to process your thoughts and feelings. It frees you from the limitations you’ve been stuck in, allowing you to approach food differently. It opens up new experiences and makes food enjoyable again.

  • Intense anxiety or dread at the thought of tasting, touching or smelling certain foods?
  • Fear of gagging or retching if you consume certain foods?
  • Inability to try out new food?

Treatment For ARFID ​

Mona has extensive training and a range of specialist qualifications in eating disorder and ARFID treatment, as well as hypnotherapy and integrative psychology qualifications.

One-on-one sessions allow Mona to get to the root of the problem and bring it into the open through her integrative therapeutic approach and/or hypnotherapy. From here, the brain can ‘recalibrate’ the subconscious emotions associated with certain food using metaphors — the language of the subconscious mind.

This integrative ARFID therapy approach gives results that work, and work fast. No matter the severity of the problem, it usually takes just one two-hour session to treat your selective eating disorder.

As well as work with adults, Mona has years of experience with children not just of a wide age range, but with a wide range of emotional and behavioural requirements. Her caring nature and professional qualifications come together to bring effective and long-lasting ARFID treatment UK wide.

afrid treatment london

Food Phobia Treatment

SED or ‘Selective Eating Disorder’ (also known as Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder or ARFID) is a phobia associated with foods; rather than animals, objects or processes. It should not be confused with ‘fussy eating’, a behaviour commonly observed during a conservative phase of a child’s development. Fussy eaters are often merely picky or play on the preferential treatment or special attention they get; but they are not phobic.

what cause arfid? | girl looking at food in wonder

What Causes ARFID?

ARFID or SED can occur due to an event or phase in one’s past. The ‘pain’ resulting  from the occurrence is often associated with certain foods and, as a result,  psychological mechanisms that are usually invoked to protect us from harm, will  operate to ensure we avoid them. The longer this situation persists, the more the  avoidance behaviour will be established and sometimes a belief that harm will result  from eating these foods becomes strongly justified in the mind. Fortunately, effective  and rapid help is at hand.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) – the main guide for the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders – first recognised ARFID as a specific diagnosis in 2013. According to the DSM-5, food restriction in ARFID may

be due to high sensitivity to sensory aspects of food (such as texture, colour, or  temperature); to a lack of interest in food or eating; or to anxiety around food,  including fear of aversive consequences (i.e., choking or vomiting) associated with  eating. These three presentations are not mutually exclusive, and an individual can  present with one, two, or even all three.

Treatments for Eating Disorders

Your eating disorder treatment will help significantly improve your eating disorder symptoms. From participating in our sessions you will see improvements such as:

  • Developing a healthy relationship with food
  • Feeling in balance and at peace with yourself
  • Higher motivation and improved activity levels
  • Weight stabilisation and its consequent health benefits
treatment for eating disorders | psychologist with eating disorder client
arfid treatment adults | patient on sofa in clinic

ARFID Treatment for Adults

People often think of selective eating disorder being something that largely affects children, but this isn’t true. Traumatic or significant events can happen at any time in our lives which affect our approach to food and eating. Adults can suffer from ARFID just as children can. It is a disorder that often starts from childhood and lingers on into adulthood, unless effective help is sought. Mona Hansen offers effective CBT treatment for ARFID, bringing relief from the oppressive constraints of food phobias while addressing the underlying causes.

Mona Hansen effectively treats selective eating disorder in adults to bring relief from the oppressive constraints of food phobias.

ARFID Treatment for Children

Mona also has experience treating ARFID and selective eating disorders in children of a range of ages. Mona can offer treatment to children from six years old and up. Simply get in touch to discuss your needs or to make a booking today.

ARFID Treatment for Children
arfid eating disorder treatment

What is Involved in ARFID Treatment?

Mona Hansen is a certified practitioner of the 4Rs approach to treating SED/ARFID, usually in a single two-hour session (which includes time for food preparation and tasting).

ARFID Hypnotherapy

Mona’s ARFID treatment adopts an integrated approach. which combines therapy, hypnotherapy and other forms of psychological treatments according to each individual’s needs. Mona’s ARFID treatment adopts an integrated approach which combines therapy, hypnotherapy and other forms of psychological treatments according to each individual’s needs. Mona’s individually customised ARFID treatments have a successful track record for both adults and children.

ARFID Hypnotherapy​

ARFID Treatment in Person or Online

Mona has numerous testimonials from sessions with adults, teenagers and younger children. She can also conduct in English or Norwegian. She also runs a Facebook forum for SED/ARFID in Norway.

Mona Hansen has a private practice clinic in Islington North London in the UK.  If you prefer Mona offers Skype sessions to those who find it more difficult to travel, or simply prefer to have treatment for ARFID treatment at home.

Get In Touch Find out how Mona can help you overcome your eating disorder and book a call today.

Memberships & Accreditations