Richard Palmer - Eating Disorder Specialist Therapist (Adults)
Living with an eating disorder can feel relentless. The thoughts don’t switch off, the rules never rest, and the impact reaches far beyond food into every part of daily life. It is exhausting, isolating, and often deeply lonely, even when there are people around you who care.
I believe wholeheartedly that recovery is possible for everyone. Not a watered-down version of recovery, and not just learning to manage symptoms, but real change that gives you your life back. That means looking beyond behaviours alone and understanding what the eating disorder is doing for you, what keeps it in place, and what needs to shift so that life can feel safer, more hopeful, and genuinely worth engaging in again – with space for connection, enjoyment, and the things that make you feel alive.
I’m Richard, founder of The Eating Disorder Recovery Clinic. I work with adults experiencing eating disorders and related difficulties with food, body image, and compulsive exercise.
You don’t have to do this alone. My aim is that you feel understood and supported from the very first session. We’ll work at your pace, and my role is to help you move forward with clarity, support, and hope.
If this sounds like you
This might be your first time looking for support, or you may have had treatment before. You might have a clear sense of your eating disorder and what fuels it, or it may feel confusing, tangled, and hard to make sense of.
You don’t need to have a diagnosis, and you don’t need to understand what’s going on for you before starting. We’ll begin wherever you are, and work on it together.
I work with adults experiencing:
Anorexia nervosa, including restrictive and binge–purge presentations
Bulimia nervosa
Binge eating disorder
ARFID and other restrictive eating patterns
Compulsive exercise and movement anxiety
Body image distress, including body checking and avoidance
My approach to recovery
My approach is grounded in the belief that eating disorders are not random or irrational, but often develop as ways of coping with difficult internal or external experiences. Over time, they can become deeply entrenched, taking up more and more space while offering less and less protection.
Rather than trying to fight or force the eating disorder away, the work focuses on understanding what it is doing for you, what keeps it going, and what feels too risky or threatening to let go of. From there, we work towards reducing its grip and building safer, more sustainable ways of coping that don’t rely on restriction, control, or punishment.
The work is informed by evidence-based eating disorder approaches, including CBT-E and MANTRA, alongside trauma-informed and integrative ways of working. These approaches help us make sense of patterns, understand motivation and ambivalence, and support change in a way that feels structured but flexible, rather than rigid or overwhelming.
This is active, collaborative work. Sessions aim to bring clarity to what’s happening, create movement where things feel stuck, and support meaningful change in day-to-day life. The focus is always on recovery, not just symptom management, and on helping life begin to feel bigger, freer, and more liveable again.
Key Information
Sessions offered:
Online and in person in Bridgwater, Somerset (TA6 3LY)
Availability:
Monday to Friday. Morning, afternoon and evening appointments.
Session length:
60 minutes
Fee:
£70
In our work together
Sessions are a space to think clearly, feel understood, and work through what is happening in a way that feels practical and manageable, not overwhelming. Many people arrive feeling conflicted, exhausted, or unsure whether they can do recovery at all.
It is very common to feel ambivalent – to want things to change while also feeling frightened of what recovery might involve, or of losing something the eating disorder has provided. That uncertainty is not a barrier to starting therapy. It is something we can work with, openly and honestly.
Sessions tend to be:
Warm, non-judgemental, and compassionate
Structured enough to feel containing and purposeful
Focused on real-life change between sessions, not just insight
Collaborative, with space for questions, uncertainty, and mixed feelings
Gently challenging when needed, always with care and respect
Between sessions, we will usually agree practical tasks to work on. These are a key part of recovery, because real change happens in everyday life, not just in the therapy room. The aim is to help you build confidence, test things out safely, and begin to experience that change is possible.
Tasks are always agreed together and adapted to where you are. They are not about getting things “right” or being perfect, but about creating momentum and helping recovery move forward in a practical, manageable way.
Experience and professional background
I originally qualified as a therapist in 2015 with a higher diploma in counselling and psychotherapy, and have continued to work with clients alongside ongoing development and supervision ever since.
In 2018, I qualified as a clinical supervisor. This is also when I began working independently as a private practitioner.
Eating disorders have always interested me, and I completed a post-qualifying diploma in eating disorders in 2020. After this, my work focused almost exclusively on working with eating disorders.
In 2023, I completed a postgraduate research diploma focused on best practice in eating disorders. 2023 is also the year I founded The Eating Disorder Recovery Clinic, bringing together a team of specialist clinicians to offer personalised treatment with a clear focus on real recovery.