Welcome!
Hey and welcome to the blog! This is something I never thought would happen, or if I really wanted it to happen. But here we are! Because I can no longer sit by and let you struggle with eating and body image. Life is too short to not enjoy cake to its fullest.
I’m Sabrina, licensed mental health counselor, intuitive eating and body image expert, and recovering perfectionist.
For years I looked like I had my shit together and got so many compliments for being able to do it all. Inside I was deathly afraid that if anyone saw how I struggled with food and how much I hated my body they would know what a fraud I was.
I’m on the other side now. Most of the time I still look like I have my shit together, only now I feel like I have my shit together.
I’ll be honest, though. I don’t have it all figured out yet. And I probably never will. What I have figured out is how to get off the diet roller coaster and respect my body.
To say I struggled with my body image and relationship with food for most of my life is a bit of an understatement. I was 6 when I realized my body was different from everyone else’s. My booty was too big, my thighs were too large, and my stomach poked out. I remember like it was yesterday walking in front of the school’s large windows and seeing how different my reflection was from my classmates. Looking back at pictures of this time I wasn’t much different than anyone else.
I was 12 when I went on my first diet, thinking this was the solution to feeling better about myself. I desperately wanted to have a body like the ones I saw in magazines and on TV. Growing up in the 90’s it was cool to be VERY thin like Ally McBeel, and I was definitely not that body shape, nor will I ever be.
Sadly I’m not alone in this struggle. 42% of girls in grades 1-3 want to lose weight and 89% of girls have dieted by the age of 17. (www.nationaleatingdisorders.org)
From age 12-35 I rode the diet roller coaster, trying and failing at diet after diet. And feeling worse and worse with each attempt.I knew something had to change but I didn’t know what or how.
I grew up going to The Diet Center with my mom and watching her drink shakes for breakfast, snack on cardboard crisps and take so many supplements I couldn’t count. So it’s only natural that I thought Diets are the way to self love. All over the media we are fed the message that in order to like yourself you need to look or be a certain way.
Along my journey I became a personal trainer, in hopes I could combine my education in psychology and counseling with movement to create something revolutionary. And I tried, I tried so hard, but I was still stuck in diet culture so with each try I landed back in the restrict-binge cycle, not knowing I was fighting my body’s innate programming to keep me alive.
After a long journey of getting off the diet roller coaster and staying off, I’ve made it my mission to help others heal their relationship with food and body. No more hiding pizza boxes at the bottom of the garbage can.
In the last 4 years I’ve shifted my counseling and coaching practice to focus solely on helping people heal their relationship with food and body. And now I’m training other counselors to do the same!
Health Hope Harmony is expanding to include more mental health providers and in 2024 we hope to bring on a massage therapist, yoga classes, and more!