Tag: writing

Writing about one’s life is like walking along a gravelled country road, picking up a dusty stone, and giving it a good rub to reveal the gem within. Often all that’s needed is a bit of a dust-off, a sprinkling of self-belief and encouragement, and away we go. Especially when...

Isn‘t a story something with a beginning, a main part and a hopefully happy ending? I am not sure I can structure those past years of my life in such a way. Especially with the focus on my eating disorder. Thinking of its starting point, there are only assumptions to draw...

Writing with the guidance of a writing mentor can assist the healing process by enabling self-discoveries. Tanya Motiani, who has severe anorexia nervosa, shares how writing is helping her to discover ‘potential for contentment’: Since starting to work with a writing mentor two years ago, I have made discoveries about myself,...

By Karyn Braveheart She saw the advertisement in the local paper. It looked genuine at first, but then she started to have a few doubts. “Best I ring,” she said to herself, so she decided it might be a good idea to jot down a few things she needed to...

I recently wrote a short story about a little girl. I wrote about her pain and confusion. I wrote about her loneliness and, also, about glimmers of hope and happiness she carried in her heart. I wrote about her amazing sense of intuition, intelligence, compassion, responsibility and her incredible inner...

Mother’s Day is often a bittersweet holiday for the many of us who struggle with mother loss.  And mother loss wears many hats. Just recently, 36-year-old Lara came into my office in tears. “I went to buy a card for my mother,” Lara said, and proceeded to describe her frustration....

The fairy tale Luna features an interplay of autobiography and fiction. The use of a narrator is paramount in the tale’s ability to act therapeutically for the author and the reader. The main message embedded in this tale is that grief can be dispelled and life can become more readily accepted...

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”  Sigmund Freud A series of events inspired me to write A Dangerous Daughter. Firstly, in 2015, I was invited to take part in an international study on eating disorders, the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative. The results of the study were ground-breaking: scientists...

Too often, our words and behaviours become lost in translation and the eating disorder (ED) wins every time. Our diary provides a place to record our truth when no-one will listen. The Hidden Face of Anorexia  … This illness has cost me so much, for so long And I still...