Beneath The Binge

When food becomes the mother you needed In this week’s episode, I’m exploring the connection between food and mother, and why food can come to mean so much more than food. When I say mother, I mean the mothering we needed: the warmth, the holding, the soothing, the feeling of being seen and delighted in. For some of us that came from our mum, for some of us from someone else, and for some of us it didn’t come in the way we needed at all. This isn’t about blaming mothers. Most did the very best they could with what they had. I also share my own story, of a mother who loved me dearly but was broken by grief when my dad died, and how food became the one who came for me. My intention is that this episode helps you understand why letting go of binge eating can feel so frightening, and begin to find other ways to be held. You’ll learn: Why our first experience of food was relational, and how the body links food with being cared for What we needed from mothering, and what happens when it was missing or inconsistent…

What is your craving trying to tell you? In this week’s episode, I’m exploring food cravings, one of the most misunderstood parts of our relationship with food. So many of us have been taught to fear our cravings, to control them, and to feel ashamed for having them at all. But cravings are communication, and when you learn how to listen, they can tell you so much about what you need. My intention is that this episode helps you meet your cravings with curiosity instead of shame, and begin to understand what your body has been reaching for all along. You’ll learn: The five reasons we crave food, and why none of them are wrong How your cravings can help regulate your nervous system, and the up-and-down see-saw so many of us get caught in Why pleasure isn’t something to fear, and how suppressing it can drive compulsion Why, when you’re not physically hungry, your body is often looking for the support on the other side of the food A gentle practice for listening to a craving the next time one arrives And lots…

Welcome to Part 3, the final part of my series on people pleasing and binge eating. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing how we can start moving beyond fawning, slowly and gently, in a way your body can hold. If you’ve ever tried to “just set boundaries” and found your whole body bracing against it, this episode will help it make sense. My intention is that you come away with a few small, practical places to begin, and a little more compassion for why this takes time. You’ll learn: What the dual expression is, and how to start feeling the gap between what’s happening inside you and what you show on the outside Why building capacity for someone else’s disappointment is at the heart of fawning less How to practise in low-stakes, safe spaces so your body doesn’t get flooded A somatic practice called pendulation, to help you respond from a place of more space in your body How all of this begins to change your relationship with food And lots more! FREE self assessment to discover what’s driving your binge-restrict…

Welcome to Part 2 of a 3-part series on people pleasing and binge eating. In this week’s episode, I’m exploring the connection between the two, and why the way we are in our relationships so deeply shapes the way we are with food. If you’ve ever been “good” all day and then found yourself binge eating at night, this episode will help it make sense. My intention is that you come away seeing your binge eating as your body doing everything it could to look after you, and that you can meet it with more compassion as a result. You’ll learn: What happens in your body each time you fawn, and why it builds pressure How we first learn to feel safe through other people, and why food steps in when that’s missing The different jobs food does for someone who fawns Why binges so often happen in the evening How shame and restriction keep the cycle turning A gentle practice to start noticing what food has been carrying for you And lots more! FREE self assessment to discover what’s driving your binge-restrict cycle? Access…

Welcome to Part 1 of a 3-part series on people pleasing and binge eating. In this week's episode, I'm exploring the fawn response, a survival response that often shows up as people pleasing, and one of the things I see most often beneath binge eating. So many of us would never call ourselves people pleasers, which is exactly why fawning can be such a blindspot. My intention is that this episode helps you recognise it in your own life and meet it with compassion, as the survival intelligence it is. You'll learn: What the fawn response is, and why it exists The everyday ways fawning shows up, and how it quietly becomes your personality Why fawning is so common in women What fawning feels like in the body A short practice to help you notice it as it happens And lots more! FREE self assessment to discover what's driving your binge-restrict cycle? Access here (takes 2 mins) Ready to go deeper? Book a Root Cause Consultation. In this 60 minute session, we map your binge–restrict cycle and look at what your nervous…

Summer is approaching, holidays are booked, and for many women, the pressure to “get your body ready” can feel overwhelming. If you’ve found yourself thinking: “I need to lose weight before my holiday.” “I have to get my eating under control.” “Maybe I just need to go on one more diet.” “This summer has to be different.” …this episode is for you. In this episode, Alex explores why going on another diet may feel like the solution - but is often the very thing that keeps binge eating going. You’ll learn: Why summer can trigger urgency, shame, and body anxiety • The critical difference between healing binge eating and pursuing weight loss Why diets create the exact biological and emotional conditions that drive binge eating The two-phase approach to achieving both freedom with food and sustainable weight loss The one practice that begins to calm the binge-restrict cycle: consistent, adequate nourishment This episode will help you understand that binge eating is not a willpower problem. It is a nervous system…

In this episode of Beneath the Binge, somatic practitioner Alex Bottomley invites listeners to ground in what physically supports their body, then explore loneliness as a felt sense of disconnection that can show up as collapse, fogginess, or an empty “void” often sensed in the belly. From her personal experience and client work, she describe how early differences, shame, and losses can shape a nervous system “map” of belonging, and how chronic loneliness activates threat circuits similar to physical pain, increasing cortisol and disrupting dopamine, making binge eating more likely especially with low emotional regulation. Food can become a predictable substitute for co-regulation, and recovery involves grief, being emotionally met, and building safe connection. Alex offers practices to notice connection/disconnection, recall supportive beings/places, and hold a soft object to the affected body area. If you are looking for more community and support, Alex is hosting a group retreat to Portugal in July for…

In this episode of Beneath the Binge, I reframe binge urges as urgent body-based communications from the survival nervous system rather than a problem to fight. I explain that urges feel overwhelming because they arise as physical sensations and activation that demand immediate resolution — fighting, distracting, analyzing, using willpower, or immediately giving in can intensify urges or reinforce food as the only path to relief, embedding an automatic loop in the nervous system. I suggest creating small pauses to relate to urges with compassionate curiosity by noticing where and how they appear in the body (shape, color, movement), which builds capacity to be present with discomfort and supports regulation. I also note that some feelings may be too big to hold alone and recommend support from a practitioner, my self-study course Foundations of Food Freedom,, and my six-month group program Find Your Freedom — plus I invite your questions and close with a body check-in. For more information, visit…

In this episode of Beneath the Binge, Alex Bottomley explains how binge urges relate to the body and nervous system through somatic psychology by unpacking the all-or-nothing cycle with food, exercise, and life. She reframes the pattern as a nervous system response rather than a willpower problem, introducing the difference between desire (what you want and expect) and capacity (what your nervous system can realistically hold). When expectations exceed capacity, pressure builds and the body seeks relief through bingeing, collapse, or “screw it” moments, followed by guilt and renewed overcontrol. Alex maps the cycle’s bodily cues (bracing vs shutdown), describes protective parts (controller/proactive protector and soother/reactive protector) guarding a vulnerable core, and guides a practice to dial expectations up or down to find a “sweet spot” where the body softens and breath deepens, emphasizing that realistic expectations support regulation. For more information, visit www.thefoodfreedomtherapist.com or…

In this episode of Beneath the Binge, Alex Bottomley explains how binge urges relate to the body and nervous system through somatic psychology. The episode contrasts survival mode (sympathetic activation with racing heart, shallow breath, muscle tension, agitation, anxious thoughts, and urgent cravings used for fast relief) with safety mode (parasympathetic regulation with slower breath, soft muscles, openness, calm, emotional capacity, and more choice around food). Alex emphasizes these reactions are adaptive and automatic, and invites listeners to notice bodily signals that precede binges, name sensations without judgment, orient attention toward areas of softness, and engage “resources” (people, places, memories, or spaces) that bring safety. For more information, visit www.thefoodfreedomtherapist.com or @thefoodfreedomtherapist

In episode two of the Beneath the Binge, somatic practitioner Alex Bottomley explains that binge eating “makes sense” as a nervous-system-based survival strategy learned through repetition and relief, not a lack of willpower. She describes how triggers like overwhelm, loneliness, or stress can lead the body to reflexively seek food for temporary comfort, numbness, or grounding, and how post-binge shame and self-criticism add more activation that can fuel further eating. Alex discusses why diets often fail for binge eating by increasing disconnection from bodily needs and removing foods that function as safety before other resources for comfort are built, reinforcing all-or-nothing cycles. She emphasizes cultivating compassionate presence and guides a brief practice using body support, sensation awareness, a hand on the body, and the phrase “I see you,” inviting listeners to relate to themselves with less shame and more compassion. For more information, visit www.thefoodfreedomtherapist.com or…

In the first episode of Beneath the Binge, somatic practitioner Alex Bottomley introduces a body and nervous-system based approach to understanding and recovering from binge eating, aiming to replace shame with compassion and build internal safety so food is no longer the main comfort. She shares her decade-long, largely hidden struggle marked by all-or-nothing thinking, cycles of control and collapse, and extensive searching for fixes through diets, therapies, and medical visits, including chronic pain that helped lead her toward embodiment work. Alex connects her binge eating to grief and overwhelm after her father’s death at age 15 and to early body-image pressures and dieting from ages 11–12. She explains restriction and bingeing as two protective survival responses and outlines healing as developing capacity to feel emotions and sensations with supportive resources rather than rules. For more information, visit www.thefoodfreedomtherapist.com or @thefoodfreedomtherapist

Welcome to this new podcast! Beneath the Binge is a podcast for those who feel stuck in binge eating and exhausted by the fight with food. This is a space where we explore our relationship with food and what sits beneath binge eating, through the lens of the nervous system, somatic psychology, and self-inquiry. Hosted by Alex Bottomley, a somatic practitioner specialising in binge eating recovery, this podcast helps you understand binge eating not as a personal flaw, but as an intelligent survival response shaped by your body’s need for safety, regulation, and relief. Through honest, compassionate, and embodied conversations, Beneath the Binge explores the all-or-nothing cycle, food noise, urges, shame, and the deeper patterns that keep people stuck while guiding you toward building safety and compassion within yourself, so your relationship with food can begin to transform. If you’ve spent years blaming yourself, trying to be “good,” and wondering why nothing has worked long-term, this podcast will help you…