Cat Chappell Counselling in Bristol

16/01/2026

Did you know you are working with body shame — even if your clients never mention it? This is because:

✨Body hierarchy exists.
✨We all have a body.
✨We were trained inside a biased system.
..which means — without meaning to — we can reinforce shame & stigma, and quietly, unknowingly harm our clients.

This is why we created our training!

And there are still TWO places left for Part 2 starting on 23 Jan!

This means there's still time you to buy Part 1 to complete in your own time before then, if you're keen to snag a place at a price we won't be offering again!

Part 1 £95 and Part 2 £195
Buy both together from £210...

👉🏼 BUY BOTH HERE

More info @ www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk/workshops

As a total bonus of attending these workshops, we have simultaneously created a safe, nourishing ongoing community by encouraging deep, challenging and very validating exploration of how you feel about your own body. The power of being able to talk about this so openly with others about your experiences has repeatedly been mentioned as an unexpected bonus in the feedback!

_____________
What we cover:

Part 1: Body Acceptance & Anti-fat BIas

• The racist and ableist legacy of weight stigma and fatphobia

• Deconstructing what diet and wellness culture is

• Learning the harm that comes from anti-fat bias and discrimination

• Confronting your own beliefs and attitudes about fat

• How to challenge, advocate and care for yourself and others

Part 2: Anti-fat bias in the Therapy Room

• why fat oppression in therapy is important to understand

• how to take a client's history of family messaging and food/body rules

• introduction to Body Neutrality, Joyful Movement and Intuitive Eating

• how to provide more effective and safer therapy space through increased awareness

08/08/2025

Hello! Myself and Jo Reader are running our Body Acceptance and Anti-fat Bias training again this Autumn in 6 x weekly 1.5 hour sessions.

★Starts Sept 2025 - book here:

https://forms.gle/8Pigu9VGMCcLAKE38

More info here:

https://thefatcounsellors.co.uk/workshops/workshop-day-one-online

We're hoping this provides an opportunity for those who cannot do a whole day's CPD as it's designed to fit more easily within a working day for participants and we will record sessions, so if you miss one so you can catch up!

We've run these workshops in a variety of formats for a couple of years and have consistently received good feedback in regards to the content and the holding of the space.

"ENLIGHTENING, CHALLENGING & THOUGHT PROVOKING - BRILLIANTLY PRESENTED."

COME ALONG! As one of our favourite pieces of feedback says:

'Everyone who has a body should do this!'

Any BODY truly will benefit from this enlightening work, so if you're even the slightest bit intrigued, we pretty much guarantee you'll gain a lot. So do share this with colleagues, supervisees, clients or anyone else you feel might benefit from doing some work on their body shame.

RESERVE PLACE HERE

https://forms.gle/8Pigu9VGMCcLAKE38

06/06/2025

Happy Friday! A reminder to give blood if you are able and eligible, takes about 30 mins in all and you get free snacks! (I'm aware so many cannot due to restrictions)

16/05/2025

Posted • RARE opportunity to do our course IN PERSON

This is THE ONLY IN
-PERSON VERSION OF THIS WORKSHOP OF 2025

£45 for students!!!

BRISTOL

💛14 June 2025
💛early bird ends TODAY -16 May - £75 (£45 concessions!)

(Btw you can also do this on-demand or online live in a weekly format. See website👇)

16/05/2025

Happy Friday!

The only in person and CPD event of 2025 and on a Saturday of our 'Weight stigma, anti-fat bias and diet culture in the therapy room' workshop is happening in Bristol at Network on Saturday 14 June.

Early bird discounted tickets available only until today, Friday 16 May. Concessionary rates available for students, and volunteer counsellors/supervisors.

This session will look at "Weight stigma, anti-fat bias and diet culture in the therapy room: how to work respectfully with clients of every size", and is led by The Fat Counsellors, Jo Reader and Cat Chappell.

"This workshop is very enlightening, touching on the iceberg of such a highly stigmatised, sensitive and emotive subject in a very kind, considered and positive way."

"It gave me a huge insight into the inherent fatphobia in Western Society, and how so many of us hold personal trauma related to our bodies." (previous participants' testimonials).

For more information and booking:

Buy tickets – https://thelittleboxoffice.com/network/

Not in Bristol? We'll be hosting out next online course in September. More details on our site at www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk

01/05/2025

Fat bodies aren't the problem.
Fat phobia is.

This week on the Good Enough Counsellors podcast, I’m joined by Cat Chappell and Jo Reader - aka The Fat Counsellors - to talk about fat phobia in therapy, thin privilege, and how bias can show up even when we have the best intentions.

When we think about creating a safe, inclusive therapy space, how often do we stop to examine our assumptions about body size?

How often do we notice the ways diet culture and fat stigma seep into our language, our reactions, or even our silences?

And have we have asked ourselves where these attitudes come from?

I’ll be honest: working with Jo and Cat challenged me in the best way.

I hope the episode challenges and inspires you too

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
📅 Episode live today: Fat Phobia and Creating Inclusive Therapy with The Fact Counsellors
🔗 https://youtu.be/hhH-PL4lMiY?si=X8kdBpTHWIEuA34u

01/05/2025

Excited that today is the release of the Podcast Episode with myself and Jo Reader The Fat Acceptance Therapist recorded with Josephine Hughes last month.

We had the pleasure of having Josephine on our Unraveling Body Shame course last year and were thrilled to have her ask us onto her excellent podcast to talk more about the work that we do - how we came to it, how anti-fat bias shows up in society, life and in the therapy room and much more.

Listen here: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/fbbf2bd7-52d9-46f8-8439-6c1e4acafacf/

Spotify: https://good-enough-counsellors.captivate.fm/spotify

Apple podcasts: https://good-enough-counsellors.captivate.fm/apple

Amazon music: https://good-enough-counsellors.captivate.fm/amazon

Courses upcoming in June and Septemer, see here for more info https://www.thefatcounsellors.co.uk/workshops

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