The Wisdom Beneath Eating Disorders: An Embodied and Psychedelic Approach to Recovery
Eating disorder recovery is often framed as a matter of behaviour change—eat this, stop that, follow the plan. And while structure can be helpful, the deeper layers of recovery have very little to do with forcing the body into compliance.
Real transformation happens when we learn to listen.
Over the years, my work has taught me that eating disorders are not simply maladaptive habits or coping mechanisms gone wrong. They are expressions of the body: signals shaped by a person’s history, nervous system, sensitivity, and capacity for self-protection. They are attempts to communicate something that couldn’t be said in words.
When we approach ED behaviours from this lens, we stop waging war on them and instead ask:
What is the body trying to tell me through this pattern?
What wisdom lives inside this behaviour?
This shift of turning towards rather than away is where recovery begins.
Recovery as a Change in Presence, Not Performance
The more I work with individuals navigating disordered eating, the clearer it becomes that recovery isn’t just about “doing.” It’s about being differently.
Not more disciplined.
Not more motivated.
Not more perfect.
But more attuned.
When we meet ED behaviours with curiosity instead of shame, we create space for their underlying intelligence to be witnessed. Often, beneath a behaviour is something profoundly human—emotional sensitivity, a longing for safety, a capacity for attunement, empathy, creativity, resiliency, or discernment.
When these parts are finally listened to, something shifts.
Wisdom emerges.
Clarity arises.
Aligned action becomes possible.
Listening for the Body’s Whispered Truths
I invite you to pause for a moment.
Feel the ground beneath you.
Notice your breath.
Let your attention settle into your body.
Now ask yourself:
What whispers of wisdom have you been pushing aside or ignoring?
Often, these inner gems stay hidden not because we lack insight or aren’t doing enough of our inner work, but because acknowledging them would require change—letting go of an identity, setting a boundary, asking for support, or being seen differently.
And change is rarely comfortable.
It draws us away from the familiar shoreline and into the liminal waters, where those in-between spaces cause old patterns dissolve and new possibilities to emerge. Whether you’re already swimming in those waters or still standing at the edge, your timing is perfect. Liminality is part of the medicine.
So I ask again:
Is there a truth inside you that can no longer stay buried?
The Fear of Our Own Light
Many of us hesitate not because we doubt our pain, but because we doubt our power that comes from acknowledging our truth.
Marianne Williamson wrote:
“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
Eating disorders often arise in bodies that are bright, sensitive, perceptive, easily attuned to subtlety. That sensitivity is not weakness; it's intelligence. But when the world sends messages that your bigness, your hunger, your desire, your need for support, or your life force is “too much,” it makes sense that hiding becomes a survival strategy.
Recovery asks us to slowly step back into our radiance, one embodied moment at a time.
How Psychedelics Support This Uncovering
In my own healing, psychedelics have often widened the lens enough for me to see patterns I was too close to understand.
Instead of trying to push change, the medicine invited me to relate differently through softening around the hard edges of a pattern I’d spent years fighting.
From that softened place, new possibilities emerged.
From contraction, I moved into curiosity.
From bracing, into embracing.
And in that openness, wisdom surfaced—gems that had been waiting patiently to be acknowledged.
What unfolded became a kind of roadmap for reconnecting with embodied wisdom:
Relearn the language of the body.
Trust what you find.
Allow your full embodiment to come forward.
Rest into the unconditional holding that surrounds you.
Below, I expand each step.
A Roadmap Back to Your Embodied Wisdom
Step One: Relearning Body Literacy
We all enter the world fluent in the language of the body. Hunger, fullness, pleasure, discomfort—these cues once guided us naturally.
But many people with eating disorders learned early on to override, mute, or mistrust these signals in order to survive.
That means the loss of interoceptive clarity was an adaptation for survival.
Relearning body literacy is the first step in re-establishing connection. It begins with noticing small internal cues: thirst, temperature changes, butterflies in the gut, goosebumps, the urge to rest, or the impulse to reach out.
Interoception is a practice. It can be rebuilt. And you can become a skilled interpreter of your inner landscape.
Step Two: Trust Yourself
In psychedelic spaces, we often hear: Trust the medicine.
But true healing asks a deeper question:
Do I trust myself?
Once we perceive our inner cues, we must learn to believe them. Many people with EDs struggle here—not because they lack wisdom, but because they internalized years of messages that their authentic experience was “too much,” “wrong,” or “unacceptable.”
Rebuilding self-trust is slow, relational work. It grows through small, consistent acts of alignment. Moments where you choose your own knowing over external scripts.
This is how sovereignty is restored.
Step Three: Fully Existing in Your Embodiment
As you listen and trust, you naturally move toward nourishment—physical, emotional, relational, energetic.
Your life force begins to expand.
Allowing more of your true self to come forward is vulnerable. Many people fear their brightness, believing that being fully themselves will overwhelm, disappoint, or disrupt others.
But your embodiment is not destructive. It is generative.
When you inhabit your body more fully, you extend yourself into the world in ways that uplift your life and ripple into the lives of others. You become a participant in your own becoming.
Step Four: Resting Into Unconditional Holding
Embodiment is a lifelong journey.
There will be moments of clarity and moments of disorientation, seasons of expansion and seasons of retreat. What makes the journey possible is knowing that you’re held, even when you can’t feel the ground beneath you.
Psychedelics often reveal this truth with stunning clarity: that you belong, that you matter, and that your life is interwoven with the living world.
When you remember this belonging, regardless of where you are in the process, you reconnect with a wellspring of inner wisdom that never left you. For every part of the process, whether it’s a season of summer or winter, holds insight, healing, and wisdom.
And from that place, self-trust becomes natural.
Returning Home to Your Wisdom
Eating disorder recovery is not about fixing what’s wrong. It is about excavating what’s already right within you: your sensitivity, your intuition, your capacity to feel deeply, your resilience, your longing for authenticity, your desire to live.
These are not symptoms to eliminate. They are strengths to uncover, recover, and reclaim.
When you step into right relationship with your embodied wisdom, you become someone new (and who you always remembered yourself to be)—not because you forced change, but because you allowed it.
I hope this roadmap supports you as you move toward what feels truer and more alive.
May it nourish your journey back into yourself—slowly, gently, and with deep respect for the radiant wisdom already within you.
With gratitude,
Francesca xx
