Friend, I currently have a few companioning spots open. If you’re interested in working with me, you can begin by scheduling a free zoom session where we can get to know each other. 

When we’re struggling with food often what we most need is emotional support: a place where we can be listened to with warmth, where we can know we make sense, and where we can kindle hope for healing.

This is something different than therapy or coaching, although it’s a wonderful complement to these kinds of support. I call it companioning.

Companioning is for you if you want gentle, grounded support to help you feel less worried, more strengthened and more clear as you heal your relationship with food. I can help orient you to the path of healing and the many doorways you walk through along the way.

Companioning is especially helpful if you long for a place where you can be truly heard. I like the way Focusing founder Eugene Gendlin says this:

Most people have no one who will hear and receive their own inward experience just as it is….Everyone wants to edit it, change it, improve it, put his or her meaning onto it….When people experience being listening to….there is visible relief. What needed to be heard has actually got heard. It was received. There is no need to say it over and over….there is a free space inside.”

As Sarah Peyton reminds us, there’s nothing more calming to the brain than being understood.

This is the work we do together:  fully receiving you, hearing what needs to be heard so the ‘free space’ inside can speak. This ‘free space’ – what you may think of as the body’s wisdom – will help guide you to the needs that live underneath the food and places of inner protest that need support. As these places are heard, and as our fears are calmed, our behaviors with food can soften.

How companioning works

As a companioning client, we meet by zoom where you’ll have lots of time to be heard and to ask questions – to sort through your experience so it makes sense to you, and to be gently encouraged and supported.

We may do some collage or other creative exercises together that help care for the emotional brain. (You can see an example on the right.) We may go over your questions about a course.

We may do a brief meditative exercise together. I may guide you to some tools that can help your particular needs. And I may share some attachment science basics to orient you and bring insight to your experience.

No matter what particular piece you need, our work together will support you in gaining clarity and understanding about how food serves you and ways you can come alongside these protectors with wisdom and compassion, to gently help them let go.

How to work with me

If you’re brand new to me, I invite you to schedule a free orientation call so we can get to know each other and you can see if I’m the right fit for you.

Once you know we’re a good fit, you can buy companioning support calls a la carte, one call at a time. Or you can become an ongoing client where we meet regularly. A la carte companioning calls are $150 and I offer a lower bulk rate if we meet regularly.

• How to purchase a companioning call: If you want a one time check in, or a check in every now and then, you can purchase a one time companioning call. You can see my availability and schedule a companioning call here.
• Becoming an ongoing client: If you find out we’re a good fit and you want to continue working with me, we’ll meet together regularly, usually two to four times a month.

I have a limited number of companioning spots. If I don’t have a current opening I keep a waiting list, and you’ll be notified once a spot opens up for you.

How to learn about me + get a taste of my work

If you want to get to know me better, you can learn about my journey and how Growing Humankindness came to be here. You can also sign up for my substack, When Food is Your Mother, read an archive of past articles, and access several resources in my free ‘welcome room’ here.

My promise to you

Legally and ethically, it’s important that you’re aware of my skills and promises to you as well as the limits of my expertise. I want you to get the right support for you, whether that’s with me or another person. Likewise, if we reach the limits of my expertise, I will tell you so that you can get the help I can’t offer.

Companioning calls are offered to older teens and adults who want emotional support, listening, and practical support in healing their relationship with food. At this time, I only work with adults and older teens (ages 17 and up.) I can offer referrals if you want support for a younger teenager or child.

My training is primarily in attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, developmental psychology, and mindfulness/meditation. I feel particularly rooted in Dr. Gordon Neufeld’s attachment based developmental model. These core areas guide my understanding and my approach.

My training and education have come from the following organizations:

• Abby Seixas, Finding the Deep River Within – facilitator and group facilitator training
• Bonnie Badenoch – The Heart of Trauma training
• Bonnie Badenoch and Jo Hadlock-King – Therapy as Spiritual Practice
• Focusing: Modules 1 and 2, Untangling
• PCPSI – The Heroic Impulse of Addiction with Liam O Mahony
• PCPSI – Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind, a year long intensive in interpersonal neurobiology with Bonnie Badenoch
• The Church of Conscious Harmony – group facilitation and Centering Prayer, a form of meditation
• The Neufeld Institute – attachment theory and developmental psychology (Intensive I, Intensive II, Making Sense of Alarm, Making Sense of Alpha, Making Sense of Adolescence, The Alarm Spectrum, Making Sense of Resilience, Making Sense of Hypersensitivity, Play and Emotion, 5 Steps of Emotional Maturation, Making Sense of Emotion)
• The Orphan Wisdom School – grief, village making, and community
• Various in person and online seminars on addiction, attachment, and relational neuroscience

You’re welcome to ask any questions about my approach and how I work, as I want you to get the right fit. Please reach out to schedule a free orientation call so we can get to know each other better, so you can understand if I’m the right fit for you.

Legally, it’s important that I make it clear that I offer these calls as a psychoeducator, coach, writer, and teacher and not as a licensed therapist. If you’re seeking help from a licensed therapist please seek this support elsewhere.

I’m honored to sit alongside you and to be a part of your journey, to witness and support your healing. I take to heart these words from Bill Plotkin, which were taught to me by my writing friend Rosemerry: “Are you willing to listen with the ears of your heart to the other voices of yourself speaking?”

It is with this reverence that I come to meet you, and to hear your story.

With warmth, Karly