Finding Peace with Food: Introducing the Binge Eating Recovery Intensive in Burnaby, BC
If you’ve ever felt stuck in a cycle of binge eating — turning to food for comfort, relief, or escape, only to be left with shame, confusion, or regret — you’re not alone. Binge eating isn’t about lack of willpower or discipline. It can be due to many factors, including emotional stress, internal pressure, restrictive dieting, and patterns of deprivation — all of which can trigger urges and reinforce shame.
At Being and Becoming in Burnaby, British Columbia, we created the Binge Eating Recovery Intensive to offer something many people are missing: a focused, compassionate, and clinically grounded space to truly understand their binge eating and learn how to respond differently — with clarity, skill, and support.
This intensive is designed to help you step out of the cycle of self-blame and into a deeper understanding of what’s happening beneath the surface, while also building practical skills you can use in everyday life.
Why a Recovery Intensive?
Many people seeking support for binge eating have already tried a wide range of approaches: diets, meal plans, self-help books, apps, or generalized therapy. While some of these may offer temporary relief, they often fail to address the behavioural, psychological and emotional processes that maintain binge eating over time.
Binge eating is rarely just about food. It is influenced by many factors, including emotional regulation, stress responses, relationship with oneself, past experiences, attitudes toward food, and coping patterns that may have once served a purpose. Sustainable change requires more than advice — it requires careful assessment, personalized understanding, and skillful intervention.
The Binge Eating Recovery Intensive brings these elements together in one structured process, offering depth without requiring long-term commitment upfront.
Who This Intensive Is For
This intensive may be a good fit if:
binge eating feels repetitive or out of control
food is closely tied to emotions, stress, or self-criticism
you feel stuck despite trying to “do the right things”
you want professional insight, not another generic solution
you’re ready to understand your patterns more deeply
You do not need a diagnosis to participate. You do not need to be certain this is “serious enough.” Many people come simply wanting clarity — and that curiosity is more than enough to begin.
A Thoughtful, Step-by-Step Process
1. Info & Screening Call: Starting with Safety and Fit
Your first step is a free Info & Screening Call. This call is designed to assess fit and determine whether the intensive is appropriate for your needs. You can share your experiences, ask questions, and get a clear sense of how the program works.
The call is conducted in a supportive, respectful way, recognizing that binge eating can carry shame, and ensuring that the process prioritizes your comfort, safety, and readiness for this focused work.
2. Take-Home Assessment Package: Laying the Groundwork
After the screening call, you complete a take-home assessment package. This includes questionnaires and guided self-reflection exercises that give the psychologist a detailed understanding of your eating patterns, triggers, emotional responses, and past coping strategies.
This step begins the assessment process, providing critical information that will guide the intensive session and ensure the work is highly personalized and targeted to your needs.
3. The 3-Hour Recovery Intensive: Assessment, Insight, and Skills-Building
The assessment continues during the in-person 3-hour intensive session, where the psychologist gathers further information through conversation, guided reflection, and exploration of your unique patterns. Together, Steps 2 and 3 form a comprehensive assessment, giving a nuanced picture of your binge eating.
During this session, skills building happens alongside assessment, ensuring that insight translates into actionable strategies. Depending on your needs, this may include:
Mapping your binge eating cycle
Identifying triggers, thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and behaviours — including those linked to restriction and deprivation — and recognizing where change is possible.Urge navigation and distress tolerance skills
Learning how to respond to urges without escalating panic or self-criticism.Emotion regulation strategies
Developing alternatives to using food as the primary way to manage stress or overwhelm.Mindful eating practice
Building awareness of hunger, fullness, and body cues, and learning to engage with food in a conscious, non-judgmental way to break automatic binge patterns.Shame reduction and self-compassion work
Addressing the inner critic and the shame that fuels binge eating.Foundational behavioural support
Exploring structure, nourishment, and routine in a way that supports stability rather than restriction or control.
Skills are introduced slowly, explained clearly, and practiced in context. The focus is on leaving the intensive with a small number of tools that feel realistic, relevant, and usable — not a long list of things you “should” be doing.
4. Personalized Written Recovery Roadmap Report
Following the intensive, you receive a comprehensive written report that includes:
a summary of assessment findings
insight into your binge eating patterns
individualized recommendations for next steps
This report serves as a reference point you can return to, helping you maintain clarity and direction after the session. Many people find it especially helpful when deciding on future therapy, additional support, or personal recovery goals.
5. A 30-Minute Follow-Up Session
The process concludes with a 30-minute follow-up session, where you review your recovery roadmap, ask questions, and receive support in implementing the strategies introduced during the intensive. This ensures continuity of care and helps you leave the process with confidence, clarity, and practical tools to continue your recovery journey.
Specialized Training and Experience You Can Trust
This intensive is facilitated by Dr. Margaret Brennan, a registered psychologist with advanced training and clinical experience in:
binge eating and eating disorders
trauma-informed and attachment-based care
psychological assessment and case conceptualization
evidence-based approaches to emotion regulation and behavioral change
Health at Every Size® (HAES) framework, emphasizing body respect, weight inclusivity, and non-diet approaches
This specialized background matters. Binge eating is often misunderstood, minimized, or treated through overly simplistic frameworks. Working with a psychologist trained specifically in this area ensures that your experience is approached with nuance, clinical skill, and respect.
Following a HAES framework means that the focus of recovery is on well-being, skill-building, and self-compassion, rather than weight loss or body change. This approach is important because traditional dieting and weight-focused interventions often perpetuate restriction, deprivation, and shame — all of which can fuel binge eating.
By integrating HAES principles, the intensive ensures that your care is non-judgmental, inclusive, and aligned with research-supported practices for sustainable recovery. Clients learn tools and insights that support health, balance, and peace with food, rather than following restrictive rules or pursuing a specific body ideal.
Your assessment, intensive session, and recommendations are all grounded in this expertise — not diet culture, trends, or one-size-fits-all solutions.
Why This Approach Works
Lasting change often comes from the combination of:
feeling deeply understood
learning practical skills
reducing shame
and having a clear plan forward
By integrating assessment, skills building, and professional insight into one contained process, the Binge Eating Recovery Intensive offers a meaningful starting point for recovery — not by forcing change, but by making change possible.
Getting Started
If you’re curious whether this intensive could be helpful for you, the best next step is to book a free Info & Screening Call.
This conversation gives you space to ask questions, share your experience, and decide — together — whether this is the right fit.
You don’t have to have everything figured out. You just have to be willing to begin with understanding.