The MB-EAT Program

This page offers a closer look at the MB-EAT program — its focus, what participation involves, how the groups are structured, and what you can expect if you choose to join a future group.

Food still life used to illustrate mindfulness-based eating awareness and the MB-EAT program

What Is MB-EAT?
MB-EAT (Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training) is an evidence-based mindfulness program designed to support a more grounded relationship with food.

What This Program Focuses On

The MB-EAT program focuses on developing awareness and choice around eating.

Rather than targeting food rules or behaviour control, the work centers on understanding internal cues, habitual patterns, and the conditions that shape how and why eating patterns develop.
Over time, participants practice responding to eating experiences with greater clarity and less automatic reactivity.

What you’ll work on

  • Hunger, fullness, and satisfaction cues

  • Patterns that drive overeating or restriction

  • Emotional and stress-based eating

  • Urges, cravings, and reactivity around food

  • Cultivating choice and self-trust over time

What Participation Looks Like

Participation takes place in a small, live online group setting.
Sessions include guided mindfulness practices, guided eating exercises, reflection, and facilitated inquiry. The emphasis is on learning through direct experience, followed by facilitated inquiry and group discussion to support insight and integration.
Between sessions, participants are invited to apply practices in everyday life, at their own pace.
All programs are delivered live and online.

This is an educational and experiential program, not psychotherapy.

What a typical session includes:

  • Opening grounding practice

  • Guided experiential exercise (with food or awareness)

  • Facilitated inquiry

  • Reflection and integration

  • Closing practice

Program Structure

The MB-EAT program follows a clear, time-limited structure designed to support learning and integration over time, delivered across 12 sessions.

The core program consists of 10 weekly group sessions, followed by two additional follow-up sessions held approximately one month apart.

Sessions are held live online and are 2–2.5 hours in length. The follow-up sessions are designed to support reflection and integration after the core program has ended.

  • 12 sessions total: 10 weekly sessions + 2 follow-up sessions

  • Live online group (Zoom)

  • Session length: 2-2.5 hours

  • Group size: 8-15 participants

  • Between session practices: Mindfulness meditations and brief, realistic approaches to integrate awareness into eating and daily life

Coffee and laptop on a table, representing participation in an online mindfulness-based eating program

This program is:

  • Mindfulness-based

  • Group-oriented

  • Focused on awareness and learning

  • Structured and time-limited

What this program is and isn’t

This program is not:

  • A diet or meal plan

  • A weight-loss program

  • Individual or group psychotherapy

What participants often notice

  • Greater awareness of hunger and fullness cues

  • Less urgency and reactivity around food

  • More ability to pause before responding to urges

  • Reduced guilt after eating

  • Increased confidence in personal choices

  • A steadier relationship with cravings over time

People seeking support around food guilt, emotional eating, or overeating often look for approaches that don’t rely on rules or restriction. Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) is one evidence-based, group-based option that focuses on awareness, choice, and understanding eating patterns in context rather than control.

These patterns are consistent with what research on mindful eating and MB-EAT suggests. You can read more about the evidence base here.

Is this a good fit?

This program may be a good fit if:

  • You want a calmer, more grounded relationship with food

  • You’re open to learning through guided practice and reflection

This program may not be a fit if:

  • You need acute mental health support right now

  • You’re looking for a meal plan or a weight loss plan

Not sure?

You can explore this further with the “Is MB-EAT right for me?” quiz.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Each MB-EAT session follows a consistent, structured format grounded in mindfulness-based learning and inquiry.

    Sessions typically include:

    • A brief arrival or grounding practice

    • One or more guided experiential practices (sometimes involving food, sometimes focused on bodily or emotional awareness)

    • Facilitated inquiry, where participants reflect on their direct experience and patterns they notice

    • Integration and discussion of how these observations relate to everyday eating

    • A short closing practice

    Sessions are interactive and include facilitated inquiry, where participants are invited to reflect on and share observations from their direct experience. Sharing supports learning and integration, and participants are encouraged to engage in ways that feel appropriate to them over time.

  • MB-EAT doesn’t require prior mindfulness experience, and it also works well for people who do have experience. The program is designed to teach and deepen mindfulness skills in the specific context of eating, using a mix of guided practice, inquiry, and between-session exercises.

    If you’re new to mindfulness, you’ll be guided step-by-step. If you’ve practiced before, you’ll likely notice how applying mindfulness to food brings up patterns that don’t always show up in general meditation.

    And if you’re worried you’re “bad at it”: that’s usually just what it feels like to practice. Minds wander. Attention drops. You notice, and you return. That is the training. Over time — through both formal practice and everyday (informal) practice — the skills build in a realistic, cumulative way.

  • MB-EAT is not psychotherapy, and it is also not an informal or self-guided workshop.

    It is a structured, evidence-based, mindfulness-based group program developed specifically to address eating-related patterns such as emotional eating, binge–restrict cycles, and food-related distress. The program is taught internationally and follows a defined curriculum.

    The work is experiential and skills-based. Participants learn through guided practices, facilitated inquiry, and structured reflection on direct experience. The focus is on developing awareness, understanding patterns, and expanding choice around eating, rather than on diagnosis, treatment, or symptom management.

  • Mindful eating and intuitive eating are related approaches, but they are not the same.

    Mindful eating focuses on developing moment-to-moment awareness of eating: noticing hunger, fullness, taste, emotions, thoughts, and situational influences as they arise. In MB-EAT, this awareness is cultivated through structured mindfulness practices and facilitated inquiry over time.

    Intuitive eating is a broader framework centered on rebuilding trust with food and the body, often described through a set of guiding principles. These principles emphasize listening to internal cues, reducing food-related rules, and moving away from diet-driven control.

    People may find that mindful eating supports some of the same outcomes associated with intuitive eating, such as increased attunement to bodily signals and a less reactive relationship with food. Others encounter intuitive eating concepts first and later seek a more practice-based approach. The two can be complementary, but MB-EAT is specifically a mindfulness-based training program, rather than a principles-based model.

  • MB-EAT was developed to address patterns such as emotional eating, binge eating, chronic dieting, and food-related guilt through mindfulness-based training.

    Research and participant experiences suggest that this approach can support:

    • Greater awareness of hunger, fullness, and emotional cues

    • Reduced reactivity around urges and cravings

    • Increased ability to pause and respond rather than react

    • A steadier, less guilt-driven relationship with eating

    The program does not offer guarantees or quick fixes. The emphasis is on changing how you relate to eating over time, rather than controlling behavior or eliminating symptoms.

    For individuals who are in acute distress or need clinical treatment, additional or alternative support may be more appropriate.

  • Many people are familiar with mindful eating concepts but find it difficult to apply them consistently without guidance or structure.

    MB-EAT is a structured, evidence-based program, and research on mindfulness-based eating interventions suggests that learning within a defined program format can support deeper and more sustained changes than self-guided approaches alone.

    A program provides:

    • A clear, time-limited framework for learning and practice

    • Guided experiential exercises that go beyond information or self-study

    • Support for noticing patterns that are difficult to see independently

    • A facilitated group context that helps sustain engagement over time

    For many participants, this structure bridges the gap between understanding mindful eating conceptually and integrating it into daily life in a meaningful way.

    MB-EAT also differs from general mindful eating advice by working directly with the deeper patterns that shape eating — not only behaviors, but the emotional and psychological context around them. The program is designed as a training, not a collection of tips.

  • MB-EAT is not a diet or weight loss program. It does not include meal plans, calorie targets, or rules about what or how much to eat.

    Some participants notice changes in their weight over time, while others do not. Any changes in eating behavior or weight are approached as possible outcomes of increased awareness and self-trust, not as goals or measures of success.

    The primary focus of the program is developing a calmer, more attuned relationship with food and the body.

  • This program may be a good fit if:

    • You’re tired of controlling food and want a more sustainable relationship with eating

    • You experience patterns such as overeating, emotional eating, or binge–restrict cycles, and want to better understand them and develop more choice in how you respond

    • You’re open to learning through guided practice and inquiry

    • You’re interested in understanding patterns around eating rather than trying to “fix” them

    It may not be a good fit if:

    • You’re seeking a meal plan, diet, or weight loss intervention

    • You need acute mental health support at this time

    • You’re looking for individual or group psychotherapy

    If you’re unsure, you can explore this further through the “Is MB-EAT right for me?” quiz or reach out with questions.

Upcoming Groups

Dates for the next MB-EAT group have not yet been announced.

If you’d like to be notified when registration opens, you can leave your details below and you’ll receive updates when new groups become available.