Peer Support for Eating Disorders Through Lived Experience

About This Seminar

Across the mental health sector, peer support provided by individuals with lived or living experience contributes to greater empowerment, hope, connection, and identity building for tāngata whaiora. Within the eating disorder sector, this burgeoning field has been largely underutilised, leaving tāngata whaiora with fewer options for support.

JourneyED Eating Disorder Support Aotearoa was founded in 2024, and is on a mission to foster love, compassion, and hope through peer support for people experiencing an eating disorder in Aotearoa New Zealand. This talk will explore what eating disorder peer support can look like, the infrastructure required for sustainable and effective implementation, and how JourneyED aims to fill this gap.

Presenter’s Bio

Dr Meg Vardy

Dr Meg Vardy is an Intentional Peer Supporter (IPS), researcher, and founding chair of JourneyED Eating Disorder Support Aotearoa.

Meg received her PhD in psychology from the University of Auckland, then spent four years leading a world-first study of psilocybin-assisted therapy for anorexia at Imperial College London. She then stepped away from her academic career to focus instead on using her lived experience as a force for change. She now works as Assistant Manager at Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust, a peer support service in the heart of Ōtepoti, Dunedin. In 2024, she founded JourneyED Eating Disorder Support Aotearoa. Alongside this, Meg continues her work as a lived experience researcher with EDANZ, Whāraurau, and, most recently, the eating disorder External Advisory Group (EAG).