Foodchild Workshop Explores How Family Food Traditions Shape Us

BROOKFIELD — A two-session workshop titled “Foodchild: How Family Food Traditions Shape Us” will be offered by marriage and family therapist Irene Sherlock at Brookfield Health and Injury, Suite 109, 304 Federal Road, November 7 and 14 at noon.

Each workshop will allow participants to explore what are often conflicted feelings about eating habits and appetites. The cost is $30 for both workshops.

“Many of us have a love/hate relationship with food,” Ms Sherlock says. “Also, we struggle to have a realistic and nonjudgmental appraisal of our bodies. These are the some of the things we’ll be addressing.”

A graduate of the gestalt therapy program at Southern Connecticut State University, Ms Sherlock is a self-established food coach. The Foodchild program, she says, provides participants with a better understanding of what she defines as their “personal default” response to food.

“Our ingrained eating habits, some developed in childhood, are often at odds with how we see ourselves — or would like to see ourselves — today,” Ms Sherlock said. “At the beginning of the year, we make resolutions to go the gym, or to diet, or to eat healthier. After a few weeks, we fall back into the same eating patterns — our eating ‘default.’ Food offers comfort and nurturing, even sensual pleasure. We use it to celebrate events and to welcome people into our homes. But food can also play a big role in creating addiction and anxiety.”

Her message is that people cannot really change their predispositions, and certainly not their genetic factors, but they can develop an awareness that will allow them to make better choices based on their own needs and desires, and then monitor their own behavior.

Each week, participants will unpack their brownbag lunch and bring their latest, greatest food concern to the table, so to speak.

“We’ll explore the ways in which culture, family, and gender work in concert to shape eating habits and influence the way we feel about our bodies,” Ms Sherlock said. “We’ll examine patterns created by our family of origin –– patterns that shaped our attitudes toward food, our appetite, our emotional connection to eating, and the role food plays in our everyday life.”

During the workshops, participants will complete a food genogram that examines three generations of family eating habits.

 “We’ll talk about who cooked and served meals in your family and what position of power this status earned — or cost — them,” Ms Sherlock said.

Exploring questions such as, “In your family, was there anxiety about finishing everything on your dinner plate?” Ms Sherlock asks. “Or was there concern about not having enough food? Or maybe yours was yours the kind of family who conveyed comfort/love through food –– and plenty of it!”

For more information or to register for the workshops, contact Brookfield Health and Injury at 203-775-5555.