ABSTRACT

Written by an experienced psychotherapist, this book provides professionals in the fields of health and wellbeing with a guide to human relationships with food, and their impact on mental health. Acknowledging how food choices profoundly effect a person’s experience in the world, Gerrie Hughes offers knowledge and support around how to understand and negotiate the relationship between food and mind. Chapters offers facts, information and theories on key topics such as self-image, ‘good’ nutrition, sustainability and rituals. Each chapter uses vignettes, case studies and reflective activities to stimulate thought about the reader’s own assumptions and experience and offer approaches to how they might use their expertise with the people with whom they work. Providing an accessible and easy to read guide into the role food plays in our lives, this book will be of interest to a range of healthcare practitioners, including mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, and counsellors.

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|13 pages

Appetizer

A taste of what is coming next

chapter 2|13 pages

What makes ‘good’ nutrition

Food groups and traditional cuisines

chapter 3|21 pages

Roots

Factors underlying relationships with food

chapter 4|24 pages

Wholeness, balance and regulation

Needs and Gestalt

chapter 5|19 pages

A world of food

History and current situation

chapter 6|26 pages

Difference and diversity

chapter 7|22 pages

Vital and virtual

Personal and digital relationships

chapter 8|16 pages

Rituals and feasts

Food, art and spirituality

chapter 9|8 pages

Digestif

Satisfaction and integration