My Life as an Eating Psychology Coach: Samantha Russell

What made you want to become an Eating Psychology Coach?

After completing my Master’s research focused on how people connect food and health, I started to understand just how confused and overwhelmed many of us are about how and what to eat, what we should look like, and how we should feel about it. During this time, I went through my own struggles with “healthy eating” and emotional eating, and it took me about 7 years to really come out the other side.

I found I had a lot to offer others – it doesn’t have to take 7 years of lonely trial and error! I did a lot of research, and because I was already a teacher, had a degree in psychology, and loved the evidence-based approach at IPE, becoming an Eating Psychology Coach was a clear winner.

What do you love about being an Eating Psychology Coach?

I love that I get the opportunity to connect with women from all around the world and help them work towards a better relationship with food and body. I feel like we all have so much power and potential that gets tangled up in eating struggles. Helping ladies to free themselves, and their energy, from that struggle is amazing.

What does your practice look like?

I work with women all over the world via Skype. The Internet lets me work with ladies from the UK, to South Korea, to New Zealand. I specialize in helping women who struggle with unwanted eating habits – such as binge eating, emotional eating, overeating, and comfort eating. I offer an 8 week 1 on 1 program, and a 9 week small group program.

How did your education at the Institute prepare you to work successfully with clients?

The support offered by the Eating Psychology Coach training definitely prepared me to work with clients. I still use a modified version of the intake questions provided by IPE with every client I work with. The program not only gave me a place to start as a beginner coach, but also notes and materials that I can return to. As I grow, I find new and deeper areas to explore. The material in the certification has so many facets that continue to support my work with clients, even long after graduation.

What was your favorite aspect of the Training?

I love the fact that all the Training audios were downloadable. I was able to save them all and study while I traveled. For anyone juggling study with a full-time job, that’s invaluable. I feel like IPE was working hard to make the study and materials really accessible and digestible, which was super supportive.

How has being an Eating Psychology Coach impacted your professional life/financial well-being?

During my first year of business, coaching has provided a steady – and very welcome – partial second income. I love the work so much, and I’m thrilled to be transitioning to coaching full time in 2017. The flexibility and depth of the work is fantastic, and connecting with clients and helping from such a strong and effective mind-body perspective is a dream come true. The Training has changed the direction of my career, and given me a whole new array of professional dreams and goals.

How has being an Eating Psychology Coach impacted you personally?

I’ve ended up learning a lot about myself during the first part of my journey as an Eating Psychology Coach. While I have a degree in psychology, I always treated eating as a purely biological function. Since learning to approach food from a dynamic eating psychology perspective, I have grown into a more positive, relaxed, and happy eater. There is now so much more beauty and depth to my personal relationship with food and body.

What do you see for yourself in your future as an Eating Psychology Coach – where is your work evolving towards?

In the near future I am shifting towards working full-time as an Eating Psychology Coach. I feel so inspired and energized to help women rise up from their struggle with eating and body image, it’s definitely the direction I want to keep working in. I’m working towards evolving my group program, and developing materials for a self-paced course focused on healing emotional eating through self-care.

Why Would You Recommend the Training to Others?

I would recommend the Eating Psychology Coach Training because it broadens your mind in ways you can’t even imagine. Food, eating, body, and self are such complex and deep areas – and our current culture complicates things even further. The EPCC Training gives an awesome framework to both understand and work with these things from a place of respect, positivity, and integrity. There’s also a lot of science and research backing up all the approaches.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Being an Eating Psychology Coach gives me a positive, dynamic, and effective way to help both myself and others heal. It allows me the freedom to know that no one is broken, and gives me the support I need to be there for my clients. The feeling that comes from making the food-body-eating world just a little less confusing and painful is awesome.

NAME: Samantha Russell, Emotional Eating Psychology Coach
BUSINESS: Live the Whole
WEBSITE: livethewhole.com

BIO: I help women who struggle with emotional eating and weight gain. We uncover the needs behind your unwanted eating so you can heal. I know what it’s like to struggle and eat in a way that doesn’t serve you – and there is a better way.