Annie has helped me recover, not just from anorexia, but more importantly from the unhealthy part of myself that was fueling my eating disorder. With her coaching, I was gradually able to stand up to the critical inner voice, challenge it, and eventually combat it. I found it extremely useful to be coached by someone who experienced an eating disorder themselves and felt a sense of freedom sharing my feelings, struggles, and emotions with her. She’s extremely thoughtful, nonjudgmental, a great listener, and always a step ahead of whatever curve-ball your unhealthy inner voice throws at you. I felt free to text her during difficult times between sessions and share my struggles with her. I’m truly grateful for everything that Annie has taught me, and I’d recommend her without any hesitation.

Annie and I go back a long way. In all honesty, I cannot speak highly enough about her super caring approach and at the same time straightforward manner to gaining the most positive results from each client she works with. After engaging with several eating disorder coaches throughout my 20-plus years as a therapist with a special interest in eating disorders my collaboration with Annie has turned out to be a professionally rewarding journey. Annie’s real-life experience truly distinguishes her from other coaches as she manages to marry her personal experiences with a high-caliber systematic approach, which is an amazing recipe when dealing with such a hard subject as EDs.

Annie is a gifted person and one of a kind.

She has her unexpected perspective, just the one you need to be able to listen to yourself and investigate the intimate you, with honesty, authenticity, and generosity. She is a gentle and wise being who cares.

Her accountable and unconditional dedication and the deepest love she devotes is the good piece of cake that you relish with closed eyes, re-empowering your being when you get lost along the imperfect but astonishing path to your joy. I am a messed-up mom who reached out to Annie for my daughter S, who was suffering from a long-year battle with an eating disorder (Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa). I did not know how to address it while it was creating a leavening and threatening gap with no return between us two. Annie was the light of will and strength that led us to embrace in first place ourselves and then each other, again, this time as beloved adults, strong in our weaknesses and our struggle for life. S has now a beautiful family with a wonderful baby, making me a grandma…All thanks to Annie. Our shining made of contradictions and insecurities lead now, differently than in the past, to the positive and constructive approach of open-minded questioning for respect, acceptance, and supportive love, carefully handling our fragile and precious beings hungry for happiness.

Annie is a unique person! I had the opportunity to collaborate with her on challenging cases. Her support is very helpful through this challenging therapeutic journey. Working with Annie allows me to have the insight reflective point of view which is extremely helpful to me and additionally helpful to our work during therapy.

Annie is a very thoughtful and caring person. She is a pleasure to work with and communicate with.

Annie has hands down changed my life. I could have never imagined that my eating disorder could have so many faces and would camouflage in so many ways. With the incomparable and consistent help and patience of Annie, I managed to understand and dig deeper through my eating disorder. Instead of judging it, Annie taught me and urged me to learn from it. Annie has always been there for me, anytime, no matter where she was or what she was doing, as an extension of my healthy self. I now see that having an ED is a battle against yourself, but with the right help, you can manage to rise above it. The word thanks, is too small to describe my gratitude towards her.

Working with Annie has been a true blessing; it has changed my life in ways I never thought it would. With her help I’ve worked on allowing myself to truly enjoy food as well as experiences, and on letting feelings in instead of running away from them. Working on full recovery, we worked on understanding all foods are allowed, and the importance of nutrition together with the overall value food adds to my life, happiness, and well-being. We also work on body acceptance together with my place in society how I let my surroundings influence me and to what extent. Not only has Annie helped me find ways to recover from my eating disorder, but she has guided me through looking inwards, unraveling, and getting to know my true self. With her help, I’ve learned how to form strong, loving relationships, and how to communicate with others in a respectful and vulnerable way, whilst always staying true to myself and my needs. I’ve learned how to stand up for myself, always hold my hand, and allow myself to reach my full potential in all aspects of my life. She is lovely to talk to, she is understanding, and always welcomes feedback on her work. I would recommend her to anyone who feels they could benefit from her guidance and knowledge.

It’s not easy to put into words how a person has managed in less than a year to save your life. Not enough words to describe it. Annie was truly the answer to my prayers. From our first session, she was right by my side to provide me with emotional & practical support. She was available literally 24/7 for any questions or advice. I usually didn’t even have to message her for this kind of help. It was like she could predict the exact time I needed her and would message me first. She would always ask me the right questions that put my brain to work. And of course, then follow up with the right advice that has slowly been changing my mind’s chemistry. With our daily chats, weekly goals, family sessions, and audio/messages throughout the day (which have been life-changing), Annie has managed to keep me accountable, thus able to make rapid progress. It’s not easy to break down thoughts, habits & patterns our brains have gotten used to for decades. But our hard work has been paying off. Eating disorder-related issues such as fear or obsessions with specific foods, having trouble eating at restaurants/with friends, food guilt, binging/overeating as well as ritualistic tendencies when it comes to preparing and eating meals have all been dealt with.

Most importantly, Annie is helping me to this day to deal with my body dysmorphia, which has improved immensely! The first thing she helped me achieve was to find the courage to remove my scales from the house and step by step get over the OCD behind weighing myself and checking my body daily. Now, 16 months later, I have zero need to weigh myself or know my weight and my body-checking is limited. The most thrilling, rejuvenating part was that in just 2 months working with Annie, I got my period back after being gone for 8 years. You see, Annie found me at one of the worst stages of my eating disorder. I was in my 15th year of battling anorexia and my 5th year of bulimia. I was a complete wreck; My family life was a nightmare. Every conversation would end in an argument or an intervention. To the outside world, I would pretend everything was perfect. Nobody knew what was happening behind closed doors. I was giving an Oscar-worthy performance daily. And that was life-draining as if I had enough life to drain from. With Annie’s help, I found out that I have a “healthy self” which co-exists with my “unhealthy self”; the part of me that is feeding my eating disorder.

From my first-ever session with Annie, she made me feel so safe. Her words touched my heart. It was like she could read my mind. Her story was inspiring. She gave me hope at a moment when I had none. She reassured me that I could recover fully. Anyone can as long as they keep trying.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to recover. But I was sure I wanted to have a life! So, I said “Yes!” and I could always change my mind in the process as she mentioned. It’s been a little over a year and in these 16 months, I have managed to accomplish more things than I did the rest 22 years of my life. I have actively been working towards my lifetime goals, chasing after every single dream I had put on pause. I am enjoying every part of my life and with Annie’s support, I am learning to deal with whatever life’s throwing at me, exposing myself to life’s newness and old triggers, dealing with intense feelings (negative or positive) while generally learning how to be emotionally and physically. As for the more technical aspects of recovery, I have managed to eradicate all my ED behaviors, deal with daily struggles by choosing to be my ally and not my enemy, and learned to find pleasure in eating (food for the soul) while approaching it as an experience. Full recovery is possible. I used to exist. Now I am finally living. With Annie’s help, I have achieved all the above and so much more, such as finally being able to have an experience abroad; a goal I was never mentally & physically strong to try or claim in the past! Whoever is reading this, may you give recovery a chance? It will change your life. And don’t worry about the unknown, the changes, the challenges, the process. With Annie as your coach, you can be sure she will be there every step of the way to shed light on the darkness.

First session: I explained to Annie how I find it difficult to have breakfast to the point that it disgusts me. *Annie starts deepening into the matter*

Session after 7 months: After quitting smoking and exercising more, I explained to Annie that I’m thinking that I eat a lot during the morning, and I don’t know if it’s healthy. *Annie laughs*

I ask why, and Annie goes on to explain how she remembers where I was and how much things have changed for me. One of the core qualities that I find to be outstanding in Annie, is her ability to remember and connect different situations. This does not only apply to situations. I believe that the memory that Annie has, allows her to manifest her enormous capacity of connecting attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of an individual to their behavior and feelings, in a meaningful and constructive manner. In my personal experience, the fact that Annie’s mind works in such an abstract and elaborative way so that she sees through stuff and not just the stuff, is one of the fundamental factors to appreciate and trust Annie’s approach and techniques.

Considering Annie’s methods:

• One element that makes Annie’s work unique is the key questions that have the power to open doors that one didn’t even think existed and to explore further an individual in a more profound sense.
• Once the individual’s situation and thoroughly explored, Annie is quick to set up goals by her client’s needs and wants. In that sense, she is very practical and structured in her work, while at the same time able to incorporate her theoretical background in the process, i.e., her enriched knowledge on topics such as psychology, philosophy, and the arts, as far as I’m concerned, enable an individual’s perspective to broaden up and use that perspective to manage their life.
• Having discussed and set the individual’s goals, Annie’s approach is of great value where execution is required. Her practical skills provide clear pathways towards a destination while her confident and dedicated spirit towards her client provides the inner strength that one might lack and search for.

In a bigger picture, Annie’s approach allows for an individual’s optimal potential to be expressed in ways that they wouldn’t have believed in the past that it would express. A crucial part of this outcome to emerge is the individual’s openness for that potential to be expressed. Now, what makes Annie exceptional, is her open-mindedness that acts as an example for the client to open to new experiences, to accept different outcomes from a situation, and to embrace choices that they might otherwise not.

Overall, Annie is a rather complete coach, and I believe that her flexibility allows her to match with a variety of individuals with diverse personalities, backgrounds, problems, and situations.

Lastly, and more importantly, other than her skills and coaching style, Annie is above all, an honorable and respectful person, that one can trust – and one won’t be let down.

Having spoken to Annie for roughly 2.5 years now, she has coached me through many transitions. Through the eyes of food, relationships, and self, she has supported me throughout my eating disorder, telling my parents, moving continents, my relationship with exercise, and becoming more confident and accepting within myself. Initially contacting Annie was a pivotal point in my life, both in self-acceptance of my eating disorder as well as a positive move towards recovery, and our continued relationship has been invaluable. Throughout this time, she has provided flexible and continuous support; check-ins, updates, and flexible call times/mediums come as given. Addressing and confronting ED thoughts and beliefs feels safe, validating, nonjudgmental, and freeing with Annie and I have no doubt that my time spent being coached by her has changed my life for the better. I will forever be grateful for the work she is doing and urge others who feel that these issues are relevant to them to seek her coaching.

If you are ready to make your peace with food and stop fighting with your body, you can do no better than to work with Annie Markitanis. Annie has a wealth of knowledge about eating disorders and how to overcome them. She is extraordinarily perceptive, a deep thinker, with a remarkable ability to hear both what is said and to intuit what needs to be further explored. Moreover, Annie is committed and determined to help her clients live a life that is not governed by food. I cannot recommend her and her highly individualized approach to getting past eating disorders more strongly. Annie helped me overcome decades of disordered eating. If what you want is lasting change, you owe it to yourself to work with this gifted woman.

About 10 years ago our daughter was diagnosed with an eating disorder known as anorexia nervosa later turned to anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

We will not refer to the causes, because there may be many, but to how our dear Annie, gave us hope for true and full recovery for the first time in our lives. For many years we saw our child suffer in all dimensions and expressions that the notion of suffering may have, physically, and mentally. During that time, just before God sent Annie into our lives, our daughter was in a very bad condition, and we were at a point where unless something changed, she would have been hospitalized again. Our psychologist recommended Annie.

At first, we had reservations. Especially if our daughter would this time after so many efforts, including a hospitalization at a private residential treatment center abroad, would accept help and be helped. Truth is, she was the one who was begging for help, and behind her, with a loud voice we were also shouting for help.

So, our daughter and Annie started having daily meetings complemented with text and audio support in between meals and snacks throughout the day, and to our great surprise very soon the scale left the house, which had never happened before. And that was just the beginning. Day by day we started to see a big difference in her thoughts and how she processed them, as well as how she coped with her emotions without resorting to the eating disorder behaviors, as well as in the way she perceived life overall. We witnessed our child within a very short period bloom: She was different, she was present, smiling, participating, living, and nourishing herself with consistency and without compensating mechanisms in place. For the first time in our lives, after decades, we witnessed our daughter starting to live normally. The recovery path is not made of rose petals, there are also difficult days. But always with Annie’s support, we never felt alone. We are in touch with her whenever we need her. Whatever questions we have or whatever happens, and we can’t handle, she is always there, no matter what day or time it is, she is always keen to advise us, explain to us things we don’t know or that we cannot fully grasp, support, guide us and holding our hand day by day. Now we know everything will be fine and we do believe that full recovery is possible. We feel very grateful. Annie, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Sophia

Finding the right person to overcome an eating disorder can be a daunting and scary task. Annie was so much more than a mere Eating Disorder Recovery Coach to me, and she never made me feel looked down on. From the very beginning, she made me feel comfortable and safe in discussing my problems, making me feel heard and understood – this at any hour of the day or night. With her authentic, direct, generous deep, and caring personality, her guidance and support enabled me – for the first time – to gain perspective and to make sense of my complicated emotions and thoughts about my relationship with food, body, and others. I always felt her approach was tailored to my specific needs. Her focus on mindfulness and visualization along with the different coping mechanisms she taught me, have been incredibly effective. They allowed me to be more aware of my thoughts and emotions, learn to separate between my unhealthy/eating disorder self and my true/core/healthy self, challenge my thoughts surf my urges, and finally overcome my eating disorder. She taught me how to embrace and celebrate my femininity, and how to look at life beyond how I look or how others perceive me. What impressed me the most was the genuine care and concern she showed, following up regularly and ensuring my recovery was on track. Her approach was always non-judgmental and encouraging, and I never felt alone or hopeless during the recovery process. Annie has been the reason I got my period back after years of absence and the reason I got to become a mother. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to experience the biggest gift in life. Allowing myself to open and work with Annie was truly one of my biggest gifts and I will always be so grateful to her because she helped me gain back my beautiful and now happy life.