Cat Chappell Counselling in Bristol

28/01/2025

Screening tonight on BBC4 at 10pm and available on Iplayer under the storyville series currently is the film

'Your Fat Friend' by Jeannie Findlay https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027fwg

It's a beautifully shot and told documentary about Aubrey Gordon, a fat person who went from anonymously blogging about the experiences of a fat person through to the public storyteller she is now.

The film explores not just the fat experience but how the relationships with food and bodies play out across the generations too.

It's very funny, often heartbreaking, sometimes upsetting in parts and often a huge hug of a film. I'd recommend it to fat people to be seen, and everyone else to understand how it is to live in the world in a bigger body and our clients too.

Also it's a sensible 1.5 hours which is my optimal film length!

A portrait of anonymous blogger turned best-selling author Aubrey Gordon.

07/11/2024

and I have just opened bookings for Part 2 of our weekly course: UNRAVELLING BODY SHAME.

Part 2 is an experiential day for practitioners to learn and have a chance to practice many interventions and approaches to work with your clients on body insecurities and fatphobia.
More info https://www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk/workshops/day-2-online

It is open to all practitioners (therapists, coaches, counsellors etc) and starts on Friday 31st January 2025.

It is in a weekly format over 6 Friday lunchtime sessions (designed to fit more easily within a working day) which worked really well for Part 1 which we finished recently.

BOOK HERE https://forms.gle/k73QYBKazKuRAURV6

HELP! I haven't done Part 1 yet!!! Fear not, there is an option on the form to buy the video course for Part 1 if you don't want to miss Part 2.]

DATES: 31 Jan, 7 & 28 Feb, 7,14, 21 March (all calls recorded for replay if you can't make them all)

TIME: 12:30-2pm

LOCATION: ONLINE via zoom

Fee: £195 or £140 early bird discount (expires 19th December 2024)

Please get in touch if you have any queries.

07/11/2024

Excited for the new year and getting to host this again

Cat Chappell Counselling in Bristol and I have just opened bookings for Part 2 of our weekly course: UNRAVELLING BODY SHAME.

Part 2 is an experiential day for practitioners to learn and have a chance to practice many interventions and approaches to work with your clients on body insecurities and fatphobia.

It is open to all practitioners (therapists, coaches, counsellors etc) and starts on Friday 31st January 2025.

It is in a weekly format over 6 Friday lunchtime sessions (designed to fit more easily within a working day) which worked really well for Part 1 which we finished recently!

BOOK HERE https://forms.gle/CV3v5A6iumDAprYA9

FEEDBACK
"I found this course really fascinating & thought provoking. It gave me interventions I could use straight away & built on the knowledge around anti-fat bias I had been starting to build."

DATES: 31 Jan, 7 & 28 Feb, 7,14, 21 March (all calls recorded for replay if you can't make them all)
TIME: 12:30-2pm
LOCATION: ONLINE via zoom

BOOK HERE https://forms.gle/CV3v5A6iumDAprYA9

Fee: £195 or £140 early bird discount (expires 19th December 2024)

Please get in touch if you have any queries.

04/09/2024

This starts Friday - we've a couple spaces left if you'd like to join us!

Last day of early bird £150 for 6 sessions (10h CPD) goes up to £195 tomorrow (1 Sept).

You can pay in instalments too.

One, possibly 2 places left!
———-

💛Anti-fat Bias & Body Acceptance

🎉new format: WEEKLY course
(6 x 1.5 hour lunchtime sessions)

💥Starts Sept 2024
from £25 a session

👀Early bird discount ends 1 Sept. Payment plans available.

🗣“ENLIGHTENING, CHALLENGING & THOUGHT PROVOKING - BRILLIANTLY PRESENTED.”

👇More info, FAQs and SIGNUP
www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk/workshops/workshop-day-one-online

🗣️Everyone who has a body should do this!'

04/09/2024

Love the work that Every Body Outdoors are up to! One day I will hike with them too

We’re in the Guardian today 🥳🥳🥳

In the spring, writer Ella Foote came on one of our Intro to Hill Skills courses with Latitude534 as research for a piece in the Guardian . It’s always amazing to hear what an impact these courses have on attendees, and why shows why creating safe and supportive plus size only spaces is so important. We hope this piece can help get the message out to more people.

We’ve got two intro to hill skills courses happening this autumn, with spots still available:
20-22nd September, Peak District
26-27th October, Surrey
Bursary places are available for both.

If you have basic route planning and navigation skills already in hand, we have an Improvers Navigation course happening 27-29th September in Snowdonia.

Read the article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/article/2024/sep/03/campaigners-helping-larger-walkers-to-enjoy-great-outdoors-peak-district

04/07/2024

02/07/2024

12/03/2024

Very late to the party on this one but an excellent series reccommended to me by my best pal and dressmaker. The episode on the history of plus sizing was so interesting and infuriating- the inside scoop on why fat people are subjected to the horrors of the cold shoulder top.

Reccommended listening for anyone who wears clothes!

Link to pod;
https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/plus-sizes

Very late to the party on this one but an excellent series reccommended to me by my best pal and dressmaker. The episode on the history of plus sizing was so interesting and infuriating- the inside scoop on why fat people are subjected to the horrors of the cold shoulder top.

Reccommended listening for anyone who wears clothes!

Thanks and for a fascinating listen

Link to pod:
https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/plus-sizes

12/03/2024

Very late to the party on this one but an excellent series reccommended to me by my best pal and dressmaker. The episode on the history of plus sizing was so interesting and infuriating- the inside scoop on why fat people are subjected to the horrors of the cold shoulder top.

Reccommended listening for anyone who wears clothes!

Thanks and for a fascinating listen

Link to pod:
https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/plus-sizes

26/02/2024

Myself and Jo Reader Counsellor Coach Trainer who run our workshops have noticed that over the last 2 years we have had only one man in attendance. It has also come up in our feedback from past participants that they have also noticed and would like more male attendance also.

So we've created an anonymous survey that we'd really appreciate people of any gender filling out - and as a thankyou we will be giving you a £10 off code to use for our upcoming workshops, which if used before 26th February when our early bird discount runs out will give quite a discount (See attached poster and description below)

Here is the survey link: https://forms.gle/UpmWKNnGHnZJVRpo9

Any questions, please do contact me directly or myself and Jo at [email protected]

Your response really helps our work!

19/02/2024

Come join us!

Unlearning Body Shame: Anti-Fat Bias and Body Acceptance

A safe, nourishing, and empowering space to help you reflect on how you feel about bodies and unlearn body shame whilst exploring body acceptance and anti-fat bias.

More info & booking at www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk

"Enlightening, challenging & thought provoking brilliantly presented."
More info & booking in bio links

"Enlightening, challenging & thought provoking brilliantly presented."

"It gave me huge insight into how so many of us hold personal trauma related to our bodies"

DAY 1 Anti-Fat Bias and Body Acceptance - 16th March 2024 ONLINE

Part 2: Anti-fat bias in the therapy room - 22nd May 2024 ONLINE

Tickets: www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk

12/02/2024

The new room is really coming together with a bit more furniture! We really wanted a sofa but couldn't fit it in the old office so very excited we've got one now!

02/02/2024

NEW DATES FOR 2024!

Unlearning Body Shame: Anti-Fat Bias and Body Acceptance

Part 1 - Sat 16th March 2024
Part 2 - Wed 22nd May 2024
10:00am - 4.30pm ONLINE


Price: sliding scale from £65*
*For Part 1 only
Early Bird Discount ends 26 Feb

Part 1: A safe, nourishing and empowering space to help you reflect on how you feel about bodies and unlearn body shame, whilst exploring body acceptance and anti-fat bias.

- Confronting your own beliefs and attitudes about fat and body size
- The racist and ableist legacy of weight stigma and deconstructing what diet and wellness culture is
- Learning the harm that comes from anti-fat bias and discrimination
-How to challenge and advocate for yourself and others when confronted with anti-fat bias
-Introduction to body neutral concepts

Part 2: (for therapists who have completed part 1)

An experiential workshop specifically for therapists to become more curious & anti-oppressive in their work with clients of all sizes

-Fat oppression in therapy and why it’s important to explore
-Guidance and supervision for working with this client group
-How to take a client’s history around family messaging & food/body rules
-Introduction to Joyful Movement, Intuitive Eating and Body Neutrality
-How to provide more effective therapy through increased awareness.

Previous attendes said:

“I love your courses and how they leave me feeling.” “Anyone who has a body should attend this!”
“I only wish I’d done this workshop years earlier”

Links in bio to book or more info at www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk

29/01/2024

I've moved office!

In early March of 2020 I leased my first private office. I thought at first 'oh well, there might be a month or so lockdown but then I can use my new office after that '

Well things turned out differently and I felt a fool - but instead having a space outside of the home to hold my video and phone therapy sessions in was a blessing.

The lockdowns ended and I finally got clients my very own office - something I'd wanted since graduation.

But December of 2023 brought news that the building's lease was being discontinued and so we had to look for somewhere new. I was gutted, I don't like sudden and enforced change.

But now.... I'm so happy. I found a great new offics just up the road on Unity Street. What a space! What a beautiful fireplace.

Spent the weekend shifting everything down 4 flights of stairs and up the road , who knew my tiny office held so much!

We're still bedding in, but the essentials are sorted and I'm ready to go!

16/01/2024

Saw the beautiful, epic, sweet and hilarious last night. It was so good to see the film again with friends and a room full of mainly fat people, gasping, laughing, crying and collectively sighing and awwing at this great film. was a genius to decide to make this feature with the amazing , it's a delicate love letter being kinder to fat people's bodies and how important it is to be heard by family. Hard reccomend for any person who has a body, regardless of it's size.

I also got to meet my hero Aubrey Gordon who was SO generous with her time to meet those who stayed after for chat, photos and autographs and was just the excellent human I anticipated her being. What a night!

15/01/2024

🤩 CALLING THERAPISTS!

Have you attended any of my and Jo Reader Counsellor Coach Trainer's CPD workshops before? You’ll discover how you can work in a more curious and anti-oppressive way to create a safe therapeutic space for clients of all sizes, but especially to those in bigger bodies.

⭐️“I only wish I’d done this workshop years earlier.”⭐️

Diet culture is often a blind spot of unconscious weight bias for therapists. Challenging internalised fat oppression is a ‘uniquely difficult and painful task…because it calls into question things that have governed our whole life.’ (Brown, 1989).

We help therapists uncover their unconscious bias.

———-
Anti-fat Bias in the Therapy Room PART 2
Monday 22nd Jan 2024 (10:00-4.30)
ONLINE
£85 - £125

BOOK HERE: https://forms.gle/EwmDpkaSYJPz4J346
———-

More info athttps://ugc.production.linktr.ee/0ec7cb6a-8c4d-4951-b3c1-1e94bef53f79_DAY-2-POSTER-22-Jan-2024-1.pdf

FEEDBACK
“It gave me huge insight into how so many of us hold personal trauma related to our bodies.”

“Enlightening, challenging & thought provoking - brilliantly presented.”

12/01/2024

Hello this Friday to my new followers!

I‘m Cat and I live in Bristol. I moved here in the early 2000’s for a temporary job contract and never left! I used to work in television and then moved on to the charity sector. I retrained to be a counsellor in 2013 whilst working on the national domestic violence helpline and worked in charities as a counsellor for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

I love cycling around the city, swimming (outdoors if I can – I’m lucky enough to access the swimming lake in Bristol) and enjoying all the amazing foods Bristol has to offer.

I really love being a counsellor – people and their stories are so amazing and interesting and it’s an honor to hear them and be part of the discovery and recovery process with clients. I am now also a supervisor and trainer and love educating and supporting therapists and clinical staff in their work.

I started my journey of discovery in my early 40’s of anti-fat bias and diet culture whilst unknowingly in recovery for a life long eating disorder. Now I work to help others with body acceptance in my client work and with my excellent colleague Jo Reader Counsellor Coach Trainer we hold training to help others do the same (I’m still learning – always!).

excellent photo taken by the talented

Image: Cat, a fat white cis woman with curly blonde hair is wearing a bright blue and orange dress, sat outside whilst leaning her arms on a table and laughing at what a person out of shot has told her.