From Eating Struggles to Food Freedom
Lived Experience Support for Food & Eating Difficulties
Alex van Essche is Eating Free’s Founder & Lead Coach. Her personal journey of recovery from her eating battles and then an eating disorder is the foundation of the Eating Free Coaching Programme.
Alex is dedicated to helping anyone that is struggling with food, eating, body image and/or an eating disorder. She began providing guidance to people who were struggling with food ‘informally’. This evolved into a structured, personalised coaching programme.
The true strength of Eating Free coaching lies in the lived experience support that only someone who has personally faced and overcome eating struggles can provide.
Alex lives with diabetes and has a deep commitment to supporting anyone living with diabetes who is battling to navigate their eating and their diabetes.
Food struggles and eating disorders can lead to serious, even life-threatening health complications. This is why Alex has a Medical Referral Policy.
If you are battling, you deserve understanding, support and hope. Your eating and body image difficulties are not your fault. I will work with you to build a new approach to food and eating and inspire your journey away from your difficulties towards your Eating Free life.
– Alexandra van Essche –
Eating Free’s Founder & Lead Coach
Qualifications & Experience
Alex is a health communications specialist who provides writing and communication services to a wide range of health organisations. She regularly interviews people living with various health conditions, enabling them to share their stories of recovery and hope with others.
Alex is a Diabetes Advocate with SA Diabetes Advocacy and holds a Certificate in Healthy Eating and Nutrition from Harvard Health Publishing, a division of Havard Medical School.
She also holds a Certificate in Diabetes Counselling and Empowerment from Diabetes UK and The Open University.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, History and French and serves on the Board of both the South African Diabetes Alliance and the University of Pretoria’s Diabetes Research Centre.