Dear friends and colleagues,
As some of you will be aware, in March 2022 I had to make the painful decision to close the doors at London Centre for Intuitive Eating – this has been completely devastating for the whole team and I am absolutely heartbroken over the loss. It has been a very difficult time for all of us and I will be picking up the pieces for many months to come.
Some of you will undoubtedly have questions about what happened; it is difficult to pinpoint one specific cause. Rather it has been a perfect storm of one thing after another, after another. Over the past two years I have exhausted myself trying to keep the business running, working throughout my maternity leave and doing absolutely everything in my power to hold things together. The most heartbreaking part is that we were beginning to see things turnaround, but it was too little too late.
I appreciate your patience and understanding as I transition back into working independently – it will take me some time to update my website and get all my ducks in a row (anyone who knows me knows I am not a ducks-in-a-row kind of person!).
The process of voluntarily winding up a business is long and messy; once the decision is made, the Director of the company (me) no longer controls or owns any part of the business. This essentially meant that all the work that myself and the team had created over the years in the form of the client resources, training courses and factsheets were handed over to an administrator. These assets (i.e. the intellectual property of the company) had to be valued and bought back from the administrator. I am pleased to say that I have now regained the rights to these materials and will be continuing to operate Learn With LCIE – the professional development arm of LCIE. I know these courses and materials have been a valuable source of professional development for those doing nutrition counseling work and I hope they continue to provide I will be hosting monthly live Q+A sessions for participants, answering any questions and facilitating discussions.
In an effort to be transparent and build a practice that is anti-oppressive going forward – I would like to make it clear that the revenue from course sales will initially go towards paying contributors who missed out as a result of LCIE’s folding, and paying back the cost of recovering these materials. After that, a portion of the revenue will be redistributed to organisations that support body liberation, as and when I have more details of that I will post them here. I can also offer equity pricing for folks who might otherwise not be able to access them because of marginalisation. Please contact hello@laurathomasphd.co.uk if you’d like more information on this pricing structure.
Moving forward, I’m going to be working 1-1 with clients around Intuitive Eating, Family Nutrition, and I will have a limited number of spots for Eating Disorder recoveries. If you are interested in learning more, or would like to book a discovery call, then please email hello@laurathomasphd.co.uk
I have also restarted my podcast – Don’t Salt My Game – the focus of this season will be supporting parents, families and carers to support kids to have a positive relationship with food and their bodies. I’ll be having conversations with folks in the anti-diet, Intuitive Eating, fat-positive and body liberation space about how we can prevent eating disorders and protect body esteem, how we can support kids with feeding differences to have a positive relationship with food and their body (without trying to ‘fix’ them), and how we can reparent ourselves and repair our own difficult relationships with food and our body. I will be paying guests with marginalized identities a speaking fee, and will be offering to pay them in advance where possible. New episodes drop every Friday; you can listen here (along with the full transcript), or on your podcast player.
Oh and last thing – I know our guides to different conditions like PCOS, IBS and fertility were super valuable to folks – these are still available – so if you are looking to navigate a specific health concern using an Intuitive Eating, HAES®, and weight-inclusive lens, then check them out here. There is a sliding scale option, but if this isn’t accessible to you then please just drop us an email letting us know which guide you need to hello@laurathomasphd.co.uk and we’ll hook you up, no questions asked.
Thanks for being here and continuing to support my work – I appreciate every kind message I’ve been sent and hope to still be in service to this community through these contributions.
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