Working with Neuro-divergent Individuals and Eating Disorders, with Cara Byrne

Today I have a returning guest to the podcast and I’m talking with Cara Byrne – an integrative humanistic psychotherapist based in Ireland. She is the founder of Hike Psych – offering walking and talking therapy in nature for her clients, combining her love of nature and psychotherapy. Cara has always been fascinated by other human beings and the experiences that shape them. As a child, she was the person that people confided in with their problems if they needed support. Cara’s interest and enthusiasm to support others, led her to train in psychotherapy. Cara also has her own food healing journey.  Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 3; this understandably led to a focus and preoccupation with food, with carbohydrates needing to be counted and portions weighed to balance blood sugar levels and to manage insulin doses. Growing up, Cara also experienced being in a larger body in a naturally slim family. Cara’s family relationships were warm and accepting however she did experience some judgement and weight stigma outside of the family. In her late teens, Cara struggled with restrictive eating and inevitable binge eating, which then worsened following the birth of her first child. In the last few years, she has been on a healing journey in her own relationship with food and her body, leaning towards intuitive eating principles and finding a greater level of body neutrality and acceptance, all whilst navigating this around type 1 diabetes management. Since she began her therapeutic work in 2011, Cara has worked with a vast number of clients dealing with many different issues across the mental health spectrum however has a specialist interest in food, body image, type 1 diabetes, Health At Every Size and neurodiversity. In Cara’s previous conversation on the podcast, she talked about her healing journey with food, navigating type 1 diabetes and about the walking and talking therapy that she practices with her clients at Hike Psych. Do go back and listen to that episode if you would like to. The link is in the show notes. Today, Cara is going to talk all about neurodiversity and eating disorders. She is going to explain how neurodivergent individuals can be more vulnerable to developing eating disorders and the reasons for this. Cara will talk about different neurodivergent diagnoses and vulnerabilities to eating disorders. In her practice, Cara works regularly with people who have been diagnosed as neurodivergent late and she is going to share her experiences of supporting people in navigating this, around their relationship with food. Cara’s huge compassion and enthusiasm for her work shines through in this conversation. I hope that you enjoy it.   To find out more about Cara: - Website: https://www.hikepsych.ie/ Instagram: @hikepsych.ie Previous episode: https://harrietfrew.podbean.com/e/type-1-diabetes-binge-eating-body-image-and-hiking-therapy-with-cara-byrne/   This week's sponsor - Mindy Gorman-Plutzer: https://thefreedompromise.com Schedule your complimentary call with Mindy - https://p.bttr.to/36nzVUu     Harriet Frew's current offers: - Online 10 Steps to Intuitive Eating Course https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html Online Breaking Free from Bulimia  https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/online-courses.html  Eating Disorders Training for Professionals https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html Body Image Training for Professionals https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html