About
The person behind the work.
I'm Zeynep Demirelli Sağ, a psychologist who works with eating disorders and disordered eating, and someone who has lived through one. Here's how I got here, how I work, and what it costs to begin.
About
I'm Zeynep Demirelli Sağ, a psychologist who works with eating disorders and disordered eating, and someone who has lived through one. Here's how I got here, how I work, and what it costs to begin.
My story
For years, I lived inside the cycle: the rules, the restriction, the secrecy, convinced it was simply who I was. I tried the plans and the willpower and the endless fresh starts. What finally helped wasn't another rule. It was understanding why I'd been reaching for food to carry everything I couldn't otherwise say.
That understanding led me to study psychology at Leiden University, and then into the consulting room. Today I work the way I once needed someone to work with me: gently, without judgment, and at the level where change actually holds.
How I work
Disordered eating is rarely about food. It's a way of coping with feelings and needs that haven't had anywhere safe to go. Schema Therapy gives us a map for that, a way to understand the patterns you formed long ago, and to tend to what they were protecting.
Every child needs safety, connection, room to feel, and space to play. When some of those needs go unmet, we adapt around the gap, often in ways that later show up at the table. Naming the needs that were missed is where the work begins.
Schemas are the deep beliefs we take on early, “I'm too much,” “I have to be perfect to be loved,” “my needs don't matter.” They once helped you make sense of things. Now they may be quietly running the show. We learn to recognise them, and to loosen their grip.
In any given moment, different parts of you can step forward, and they don't always agree. We get to know these modes with curiosity instead of shame, and help the calm, adult part of you stay at the wheel.
None of this happens all at once. We follow it down only as fast as feels safe, together.
Working together
Before you reach out
No. You don't need a label, a referral, or a reason that sounds “serious enough.” If something around food or your body is taking up space in your life, that's reason enough to come.
This is one of the most common things I hear, and one of the most painful. You don't have to be at any particular weight, stage, or level of struggle to deserve support. If you're wondering whether you qualify, you're exactly who this is for.
No. I also work with disordered eating, body image, and the anxiety and perfectionism that so often travel alongside them. We work with the whole picture, not a single symptom.
It depends on you and what you're carrying. Some people come for a focused stretch around something specific; others stay for deeper, longer-term work. We'll talk about it openly, and revisit it as we go.
Both. Sessions are online by default, so we can work wherever you are. In-person sessions in London can be arranged when that's what you'd prefer.
Turkish or English, whichever lets you feel most yourself.
Yes, I work with adults, 18 and older. If you're younger than that, I'm glad to help point you toward someone who specialises in supporting teens.
With a free 15-minute call. There's no pressure and nothing to prepare, it's simply a chance to see how it feels to talk, and to ask anything you're wondering.
Sessions run 50 minutes: the first intro call is free and online. We can meet online, or in person by arrangement, in Turkish or English. Sessions are €100, with a sliding scale available on request.