21/10/2025
Golden Grove
Emotional Eating Isn’t About Food
A Trauma-Informed Look at Why We Snack, Soothe, and Self-Sabotage
By Lynda Watson ….Hypnotherapist, Supervisor Training Analyst , Diploma Trainer
What Emotional Eating Really Is
Emotional eating isn’t about hunger. It’s about comfort. It’s about safety. It’s about the mouthful that never satisfies — because what we’re really hungry for is relief, connection, or permission to feel.
Clients often say:
“I just snack when I’m bored.”
“I know it’s bad, but I can’t stop.”
“I don’t think I have shame — I just feel flat.”
But beneath the habit is often something deeper:
A moment of unmet need
A pattern of emotional suppression
A nervous system that never learned how to rest
Why Insight Isn’t Enough
Traditional approaches ask:
“Why do you eat when you’re not hungry?” “What emotion are you avoiding?” But many clients don’t know.They don’t feel shame. They don’t remember the moment. They just feel stuck.
That’s why I use a somatic-symbolic flow — a gentle, metaphor-rich process that bypasses the need for naming, remembering, or performing healing.
What We Do Instead
We anchor safety. We enter the “room of the subconscious.” We notice what’s alive in the body — tension, heaviness, or a quiet ache. We let go through breath, metaphor, and emotional permission.
Sometimes, we meet the inner child — not through regression, but through felt sense and symbolic repair:
“You don’t have to carry this anymore. I’m here now. You’re safe.”
What Shifts
Clients often say:
“I feel lighter — but I didn’t cry.”
“I didn’t realise I was holding that.”
“I don’t need the snack anymore — I just needed space.”
The habit loses its grip when the emotion beneath it is witnessed, released, and replaced with safety.
Going Forward
You don’t need to fight the habit. You don’t need to name the emotion. You just need to feel safe enough to let go.
And if something stays behind in the room… It can rest there until it’s ready. You don’t need to carry it anymore.
Want to explore this further?
I offer gentle, trauma-informed mentoring and practitioner training in somatic-symbolic hypnotherapy — including support for emotional eating, chronic patterns, and shame-free habit change.
Let’s create healing that doesn’t need to be dramatic — just deeply felt.
