Clarissa Kennedy

Clarissa Kennedy is a Clinical Social Worker and the founder of Reinvent Your Bliss Point. She has a diploma in Professional Addiction Studies and is a Somatically Informed Self Compassion Therapist. She is registered member of the Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals. She has over 14 years of experience working with adolescents, adults and families in a wide range of treatment settings, including residential treatment, outpatient services, and private practice.

Clarissa has a personal history of recovery from eating disorders and food addiction which helps her connect and build trust with clients. She views working with her clients as a privilege and through her compassionate approach to treatment, she guides and supports her clients through the process of change. She prides herself on teaching individuals actionable solutions to problems that occur when they are struggling with food addiction and eating disorders.  

Clarissa provides an integrative approach using interventions that can address a wide range of challenges. She has training and clinical experience in various treatment modalities, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-Based Interventions, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) for Eating Disorders, Befriending Your Body Cerftified,  and Motivational Interviewing.

Hi my name is Clarissa and I'm in recovery from Ultra-Processed Food Addiction.  My problem was that for most of my life I didn't know that Food Addiction existed. I had been working in the Addicitons and Mental Health field for years and no one had ever talked about it. I just always thought that something was wrong with me or that I didn't have enough will power when it came to how much I ate. I fought daily to control my weight and my obsessive compulsive thinking about food. In my early 20’s I struggled with one eating disorder after another and was plagued by the knowledge that no matter what I did, it was likely this problem would never go away. So everyday I ate with little or no idea how the foods I was eating affected my body or my mind and ultimately everyday I felt like a failure. I had accepted that this was just how life would always be.

Then I was introduced to the concept of Food Addiction and it was like someone finally switched on the lights in my mind. I went to Iceland to participate in an intensive sugar detox and it was in this environment that I realized how the processed, low fat "foods" I had been eating were triggering me to over consume and why I always craved MORE. I learned about the dangers of sugar, how negatively affects all aspects of our overall health, and how it is in absolutely everything we consume today.  I had been working in the field of addictions and mental health for years and the concept that certain types of foods (sugar/flour/grains) had the ability to activate the pleasure centre of the brain, exactly like drugs such as cocaine and/or heroin do, was fascinating to me. It was the key to stopping the addictive cycle.

Today I have a SOLUTION and practical strategies to maintain that solution. I have a freedom with real food now that I never thought was possible and I am fortunate enough to get to work with others to help them find this solution too. Food is not your enemy, diets are. When you learn how and what to eat it will merely complement your life not define it.

I have worked alongside the top addiction doctors who practice in the field of Food Addiction to develop this program. Weight loss WILL occur but most importantly my clients report that their biggest achievement from eating this way is the relief they feel when the mind chatter with food STOPS. The goal of this treatment is for you to find peace with food.