Recovery is found in connection, one moment at a time.

In many 12-step programmes, there’s a line that reads: “We come to know a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps.”
At Imani Treatment Centre in Cape Town, we often see that awakening not as a sudden moment of enlightenment, but as a gradual softening — a quiet reawakening of feeling, connection, and hope that lies at the heart of eating disorder recovery.

Last night, as the sun began to set over the ocean, we took a group of our clients up to Signal Hill for a simple supper together. The city stretched out below us, the sea caught the last light, and a warm stillness settled over the group. It was one of those rare moments when time seemed to pause — a moment of shared peace, reflection, and community.

For many living with an eating disorder, emotions can become dulled or even shut down entirely. The pain, the fear, and the trauma often conspire to silence feeling. Yet as we sat side by side, hands raised in heart shapes against the fading sun, something in the air shifted. Laughter came easily. There were tears too — gentle ones — the kind that remind us that to feel again is to begin to heal.

Moments like these are not therapy in the traditional sense. They are reminders. They show that recovery is as much about the soul as it is about the body — about learning to feel safe in one’s skin, to share a meal, to belong, and to love again.

At Imani, we believe in creating spaces where hearts can open — on mountain tops, in group rooms, around supper tables, and within ourselves. Because healing is not only about letting go of pain; it’s about learning, slowly and tenderly, to feel again.