Dr Bryony Bamford

Biography

My interest in eating disorders has spanned the whole of my professional career, now approaching 20 years. I have worked with individuals with eating disorders across a number of different treatment settings, inpatient and outpatient, and within the NHS and privately. I learned relatively early on in my career that, whilst no two people with eating disorders are the same, treatment is only really effective when a deep understanding of what works with eating disorders and what works for the individual is combined. My job as an eating disorder therapist is to be knowledgeable and skilled, but also patient, compassionate and committed to helping my clients in the best way I can.

Early on in my career I worked in international research, developing psychological treatments for severe and enduring anorexia – an area notoriously difficult to work in, but one that I find incredibly rewarding. As a researcher, part of my role was to train, supervise and promote the development of cutting edge treatments for the whole spectrum of eating disorders. Later on in my career I trained in Family Based Treatment, a very different approach enabling me to work with younger sufferers of eating disorders and their families. More recently I have trained in EMDR, a very different approach that has an incredible ability to help people overcome past trauma. These can be both ‘Big T’ traumas such as childhood abuse and neglect, as well as ‘little t’ traumas such as relationship difficulties, distressing events and phobias.

I am passionate about the importance of delivering high quality effective treatment across our service (as well as others) and fighting the stigma and misunderstandings that still exist around eating disorders. Outside of my professional life I am a busy mum of 3, as well as a friend, wife, sister and daughter. Each of these areas are incredibly important to me as a person and I try to balance the many roles I have with a career that I truly enjoy.