As a woman who suffered for years with restrictive eating/dieting, binge and purging as well as a hyper focus on healthy food and exercise I am so grateful to have been a part of the Eating in The Light of the Moon healing circle/course.  Though my eating disordered behaviours had stopped several years ago this invaluable resource helped me to circle back to take a closer look at what was under those behaviours in the first place. In doing so I have experienced my present relationship to food, my body and myself to have been enriched and I have been invited to go deeper into my recovery mind, heart, body and soul. This course also helped me to connect with kindred and courageous women to create a safe tribe of recovery and a healing circle of mutual encouragement and cheering one another on.

As a Clinical Counsellor, Somatic Psychotherapist and Restorative Yoga Teacher I can highly recommend this course as well as the book Eating in the Light of the Moon as important and transformative resources for any woman who wishes to transform her relationship with her body and food. Dr. Anita and team have created a unique offering of psycho-educational material using relevant and informative readings, simple expressive art, self-inquiry journal prompts, relevant and healing music and opportunities to interact with others in a meaningful way on a similar journey. 

Dr. Anita Johnston’s “New Crescent Moon” online class was an innovative and effective learning experience and one unlike any I have ever known. 

What really makes this class so wonderful is the virtual women’s circle that is created with Dr. Johnston and the members of the class. In the cafe, I have communicated with kind, intelligent women from all over the world who were called “too sensitive” as a child when they made their experiences that caused them hurt known to others.  In this circle we have a home to share such hurts as well as our deepest desires without the fear of rejection.  And we are all so much alike!  Many times we have read each other’s shares and have said “You have taken the words right out of my mouth!”

And amazingly - I really don’t know how she does it - Dr. Johnston responds to all of our entries with such insight and clarity and hope…it is truly remarkable.  What results is a great conversation among us.

The bottom line is this:  If you get the chance to embrace the opportunity to join the cafe and the New Crescent Moon class, grab it.  It is life-affirming and life-changing one!

I have an eating disorder. I have had it for a long time. I have seen eating disorder therapists and dietitians. I have gone into treatment out of state. I have attended eating disorder support groups. I have read many books, I have much knowledge about eating disorders. And still I have felt stuck, hopeless – until I took this class.

In the Light of the Crescent Moon class, Anita taught me how to look at things differently – how to look at myself differently. It's impossible to distill all I have learned and transmit it to you in one paragraph. This class has simply been wonderful and unlike anything else I have ever tried to help myself with the eating disorder. And I now have motivation and hope.

All of this said, along with Anita and her team, the most wonderful thing about the class is the community that we women built among all of us who took the class. We have never met, we live in different states and different countries, and we built an amazing circle of connection such that we could discuss what we were learning. We became open, loving and caring of one another with no judgment, no criticism. We shared our progress and disclosed our shame. I experienced being loved, supported, accepted, cared about, listened to, and understood over and over and over again. And it had nothing to do with how I looked.

It is not the first time I take part to the Café!  It is always a precious experience, the chance that we all have to share our inner world in a safe and cozy cycle of healing. I feel that the chance to speak so friendly and frankly on important issue, it has already by its own a transformative power....bringing to light what is often  kept hidden and protected. The feedback of Anita are precious and always full of compassion love and encouragement...but they are also honest and precise so sometimes can be a bit uncomfortable(but this is needed to grow).

I need more time to let all these beautiful imputs sink deeply in myself. ..but I know that we have planted seeds ...I hope to water them and keep them in the Light. ..
It has been so precious to be in this warm and loving nest .....a real family. ...thank you all for that 

I am so thankful for the wonderful wonderful classes.  Learned so much I never knew how I would love to journal and will look forward to the next series.  Its helping me so much!  Thanks  mi Oahu

The Light of the Mood Cafe has been an integral part of my recovery process. Having the daily lessons keeps me reminded and connected to being conscious and focusing on my soul's hungers and my needs. It is so easy to get caught up in life's tumult and forget. This experience kept me grounded in the work and also connected with a circle of supportive woman who are on a similar journey. Looking at food as a metaphor really has shifted my way of relating to my cravings and allowed me to open up a dialogue with myself about what I truly need. Anita's work resonates with my heart and soul.

After reading Eating in the Light of the Moon, I knew that what was described in the book was exactly what I needed to move on from my disordered eating.  The Under the New Moon course expanded on the information and helped me to understand it in new ways and to incorporate it into my own life.  After 15 years of restricting, dieting, and bingeing, I am finally beginning to break free.  The course has challenged me, opened me up to creativity, helped me to discover all of the needs that lie beneath my eating struggles, and helped me to discover ways to feed those needs.  I am no longer a woman who is timid and afraid and constantly caring for others instead of herself. I am beginning to know myself on a level that I never knew possible.  Thank you Anita for developing this course and allowing me to discover the person I was meant to be.

I really enjoyed moon café. Even though I did not post, I enjoyed reading other people’s comments because I did not realize how many women out there are feeling and thinking the same way as me … It was healing and comforting.

I do recommend this program to people who have any struggles of eating or even any interests of finding out themselves better …

Thank you! I am looking forward to the next course.

My deepest appreciation to you for putting together a gentle, insightful, persistent program with clear themes that have led me into greater clarity. Your guidance has enabled me to put a full stop to my search for the meaning of my eating and weight. I greatly value the clarity of understanding I now have and I feel deep inside that I need to search any further.

I do still have to work at being conscious of my feelings and the metaphors in my own life experience and my foods. You have given me great processes and tools for achieving the clarity I was looking for. Thank you.

Through working through Anita's great work, I have become my authentic self. The feeling that comes from authenticity is INCREDIBLE. It's truly like winning the lottery. It's improved my marriage, some friendships, and made me available to TRUE relationships I enjoy. Thank you.

Recover from disordered eating is possible! for many decades, I have experienced difficulties with disordered eating and body acceptance. I was well-acquainted with the feeling of powerless and hopelessness that accompany these difficulties. Anita's Light of the Moon Café courses launched me into a journey of self-discovery and self-empowerment. 

These courses brought me hope. Each day, Anita guides participants through an exercise intended to support them in self-discovery and recovery. Throughout the courses, participants are supported by their co-participants, who quickly become their sisters. I never before felt as though others understood my struggles as much as I did in these courses. 

If you have ever felt as though you are not enough, that your difficulties with food seem like too much to bear, take courage. Anita's courses can guide you in your journey of healing. Recovery from disordered eating is possible. I urge you to enroll in the Light of the Moon Café courses and begin your healing journey.

The three Light of the Moon Café courses, each a very manageable 8-weeks, was amazing! It really, in all honesty, has been life-changing. when I started this program I was still in the early stages of recovery from my restrictive eating disorder and had realized that the full on medical model, almost forced recovery approach was not working for me anymore. I am pretty sure it never worked for me, actually, but I did not know what other options existed. Then I found the Light of the Moon Café.

The intensity of this program is what I loved the most. Each day was something new that was actually moving me in the direction toward actual recovery rather than a period of limited behaviors mimicking recovery. being asymptomatic, or with few visible behaviors, has always seemed to me the goal of treatment and the recovery process but this course has helped me to learn otherwise. The TRUE recovery process requires going inward... something I never knew how to do and honestly, always feared.

I highly recommend these courses to anyone seeking true and sustained recovery. They have helped move me into this journey and I am so grateful.

Thank you so much for this life-changing journey, Anita. I have gone deeper with these three Light of the Moon Café courses than in several decades of therapy and spiritual practice, which is what I needed to recover from disordered eating. you helped me face and understand what was holding me back and keeping me addicted. In some ways, I feel my life is just beginning now. Thank you for being a wise and compassionate guide through the labyrinth.

For decades I have dealt with disordered eating. I have tried every fad diet, and none fad diets. Read every book I could about why I couldn't lose weight. Finally, I randomly started listening to Anita on Podcasts. This lead me to reading her book. I decided to just take the first session. Wow. It was eye opening. I did a lot of work on myself but felt I needed more. I ended up doing all three sessions. I am now recovered from Disordered Eating. 

These sessions are not easy, as they have you go deep within yourself. But Anita has such a gentle way of guiding you that you feel safe to keep going. The group of sisters I made through this journey I will be attached to forever as I could not have done this without them. I am a different person than how I started and I am forever grateful to Anita and my sisters.