Dr Charlotte Ord

Dr Charlotte Ord Charlotte is a Counselling Psychologist and TV mental health expert specialising in issues around food, body image & eating.

She has an extensive background in health and fitness and is passionate about promoting health at every size and body diversity.

30/11/2025

Acknowledging what you didn’t receive growing up is a turning point in healing from mother hunger. Without that awareness, it’s easy to assume the pain you carry, the loneliness, the anxiety, the self-criticism, must mean YOU were the problem. But when you can name the reality, “I had valid emotional needs, and they weren’t met”, the story shifts from one of self-defect to one of compassion. Your struggles become completely understandable rather than evidence of a personal flaw. And that’s where healing begins.

This shift matters deeply for your relationship with food. When emotional needs for comfort, soothing, or attunement weren’t available, it’s completely human to turn to food as a source of nurturance, numbing or escape. Food becomes a way to feel safe, to manage difficult feelings, to fill a hole, or to create a sense of control that was missing elsewhere. When you see this through the lens of unmet attachment needs rather than self-blame, you can approach your eating patterns, and emotional hunger, with far more kindness and curiosity.

For more on this make sure you’re following me 🩷

And for a validating and insightful resource on mother hunger I highly recommend book, ‘Mother Hunger’.

28/11/2025

Mother hunger can feel like a deep yearning; a need you might feel embarrassed to admit, even to yourself.

But that longing isn’t shameful. It’s so human. And it’s a normal response to an attachment need that wasn’t fully met.

You’re not “too much.” You’re not needy. You’re carrying an emotional wound that deserves understanding, care and healing ❤️‍🩹

Follow me for compassionate guidance on healing mother hunger and make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter for deeper tools and support 🩷

25/11/2025

We need to talk about the thinness we’re suddenly applauding.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s recent Wicked promo appearances, and even more so the public reaction to them, reveal something deeply concerning about our culture.

Because when extreme thinness is instantly framed as “goals,” especially at a time when GLP-1 drugs are more accessible than ever, we reinforce a very dangerous idea: that health, worth, and success come in only one size.

This isn’t empowerment.
It’s a massive step backwards into a glorification of an aesthetic that demands disordered behaviour.

We’re drifting further and further away from truly healthy, weight-diverse, self-accepting care… and deeper into a culture that treats shrinking as an achievement.

Our kids are watching.
Our friends are watching.
We ALL absorb these messages.

It’s time for a different narrative; one that honours real wellbeing, diverse bodies, and our shared humanity.

22/11/2025

On last night, I told something I wish every parent, teacher, and policymaker knew: when a child is bullied for their weight, their body isn’t the issue, the bullying is. Kids deserve to feel at home in their bodies, not to see them as battlegrounds.

That’s exactly why I wrote Body Confident You, Body Confident Kid, because supporting children starts with supporting ourselves. Our own body image, and the way we speak about and treat our bodies, becomes the model our kids learn from.

When we help both parents and children trust and respect their bodies, we set them up for a relationship with themselves rooted in care and nurturance, wherever their weight naturally falls on the weight spectrum.

If you want to build this foundation for yourself and the kids in your life, you can grab a copy of my book via the link at the top of my profile.

19/11/2025

As a psychologist specializing in body image and eating disorders, it worries me enormously when rapid weight loss is celebrated as “inspirational.”

It’s not inspirational, it’s dangerous.

Extreme restriction, whether in a thin body or a bigger one, is never healthy.

Yes of course GLP-1 medications can help *some* people under medical guidance, but when extreme restriction and obsession with the scale are normalized or applauded, the risks to both physical and mental health are very real.

Feeling faint, obsessing over the scale, rapidly losing weight.. these aren’t things to admire, they’re red flags.

We need to be encouraging nourishment, not depletion, health, not harm, and support, not shame 🩷

15/11/2025

Something is really worrying me… and I’m not sure we’re talking about it enough.

It’s becoming normal to:

Inject ourselves to lose weight,

Inject ourselves to look younger than we are,

Inject ourselves to reshape our faces,

Inject ourselves to change skin or muscle tone.

And now headlines say Robbie Williams may be going blind from weight-loss injections but plans to continue anyway.

This isn’t about Robbie. It’s about what this reflects about us as a society… we’re trying to medicate away loneliness, shame, self-doubt, and the fear of not being enough.

But no injection can heal those places, or take away existential angst. Injections may change a number on the scale or smooth out some wrinkles, but they can’t resolve the psychological wounds underneath.

My fear is we’re edging toward a Capitol-like culture where perfection trumps wellbeing and yet still leaves us feeling not enough.

So maybe the real antidote isn’t another injection… but compassion, connection, and learning to feel at home in ourselves again. And that’s what my account is here for 🩷

Follow me if that sounds like what you need, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

12/11/2025

Caroline Flack’s story reflects something we all need to remember: there is a storyteller behind every story, and, as a culture, we’ve blurred the line between accountability and humiliation.

When someone is in survival mode, their brain isn’t thinking clearly; it’s just trying to keep them alive.

And that’s when they need compassion the most.

Because when we meet pain with punishment, we deepen the trauma instead of helping it heal.
I am a firm believer in ‘counsel don’t cancel.’

Real kindness is remembering that even in anger or disappointment, empathy is what makes healing possible 🩷💫

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

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07/11/2025

One of the reasons I create these reels is because I know what it feels like to have so much of your time consumed by worries about your body or what you eat. It’s exhausting, it’s isolating, and it can really affect your health, happiness, and relationships.

The week I’ve just spent at reminded me that healing your relationship with food and your body isn’t about finding the perfect weight or following the perfect food or exercise plan. It’s about giving yourself true nourishment; physically, yes, but especially emotionally.

The turning point in my own recovery wasn’t about challenging thoughts or following a specific eating protocol (or even traditional talk therapy). It was about putting myself in spaces where I could feel peace in my body; where I felt seen, connected, and accepted by others. That kind of embodied healing changed everything for me.

That’s why I continue to invest in self-care experiences like Onsite (and no, I’m not on their marketing team!). I deeply believe in the power of healing, hospitality, love and connection, and sometimes, we have to intentionally invest in that for ourselves.

If you’ve been struggling with your relationship with your body or food for a long time, please know that healing is possible.

For more support and guidance, join my newsletter, the link’s at the top of my profile 🩷💫

04/11/2025

I’m currently away on a creative retreat in a place that has come to feel like my spiritual home, a place called in Tennessee 🩷💫

But unfortunately whilst I’ve been away, I received a very early wake up call by the wonderful staff here to say that my dream car had been stolen from home overnight back in the UK 😕

It’s not the news anybody wants to hear but after the initial shock I took a breath and thought not, “Why is this happening to me?”, but rather, “Why is this happening for me?”

That shift gave me an opportunity to practice nurturing and parenting myself as I made space for the feelings, opened the door to deeper connection with many of the amazing friends I’ve made here, invited unexpected support, and a conversation with my guide here, Stacey, who said something that my soul really needed to hear. None of this would have happened had my car not been stolen.

And so those thieves may have taken my car, but they didn’t take my peace. Or the joy of being surrounded by people and purpose that light me up, in one of the most magical places I’ve ever been.

Because, as the Serenity Prayer reminds us:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference 🙏🏽

And if you need more healing community in your life, do follow and sign up for my newsletter (link on my profile) 🩷💫



30/10/2025

Why don’t celebrities see how toxic their eating disorders can be for younger fans?

Following my reel on Victoria Beckham’s documentary, I received a question asking why celebrities with eating disorders can’t see the negative impact they’re having on fans, especially younger ones. This post isn’t about any one person; it’s about a system that rewards disordered behaviour and packages it as “discipline”, “health” or “wellness.”

Public figures often face enormous pressure to maintain an image that fits unrealistic beauty ideals. Many are struggling deeply themselves, often without full awareness of how their own pain and means of coping impacts others. And of course eating disorders thrive in denial and secrecy.

The real issue isn’t people in the public eye though. It’s the industries, platforms, and advertisers that profit from keeping all of us, famous or not, feeling like we’re never enough. Encouraging us to try to reclaim our peace with ourselves for the price of a product, including weight loss jabs.

It’s time to hold those systems accountable, show compassion for the people caught inside them, including ourselves, be mindful about the narratives and behaviours we ourselves promote, and start redefining what “healthy” really means.

Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter if you want to be part of that change, for yourself and those you care about 🩷 Link is at the top of my profile.

30/10/2025

When I first heard the term “mother hunger”, it resonated so deeply. I was like, “That’s me!” Because for as long as I could remember, I’d felt a powerful yearning, and sometimes anxiety, for love, warmth, and care from nurturing maternal figures. Looking back, I can see how that longing became entwined with my own eating disorder; how I tried to fill an emotional emptiness with food, while at the same time fearing what that might mean for my body and appearance in a culture obsessed with thinness, especially back when I was working in the fitness industry. It was a painful bind, and one that carried a lot of shame for me.

Over time, I’ve come to understand that longing for love, attention, and care isn’t weakness or neediness; it’s a fundamental human attachment need.

If you recognise that same ache within yourself, please know it’s an act of self-care to seek the nurturing you deserve in safe, healthy ways, whether that’s through friendships, mentors, therapy, or coaching. 🩷💫

For more on this, and on eating disorder recovery and body image healing, sign up for my newsletter (link at the top of my profile).

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