Weight Management
Weight Loss & Weight Management
People who yo-yo diet set a target weight, lose a small or sometimes large amount of weight, maintain it for a short period (it could be days, weeks or months), but then they put the weight back on again – think Oprah Winfrey. Yo-yo dieters don’t want to regain the weight, and they’re often extremely distressed by it, but is seems like a force outside their control is compelling them overeat.
There is consensus in the Psychological literature on weight loss and weight management - not only do diets not work, they contribute to a person being overweight. In fact, research into weight loss consistently finds that of the people who utilise weight loss programs, up to two-thirds will regain their loss within one year, and almost all regain all the lost weight in five years.
Even more frightening, weight re-gain after five years is 115% of the original weight loss. That is, if you lose 20kg on a diet, you will eventually regain that lost weight, plus an extra 3kg. In addition, people who diet are at greater risk of developing eating disorders.
Our Psychologists approach Weight Management from several different directions. But most importantly, we assess our clients in their context. That is, every person has a background, a family history, a life story, current context (career, family, friends, activities etc), a set of values, and their individual hopes and dreams. At PS Weight Management, we view difficulties with weight loss as a symptom of what’s going on for our clients, rather than the problem. In our opinion, over-eating is a way of coping with life’s difficulties. As such, we design an individual treatment plan for each client that addresses their specific needs and issues. Naturally, the treatment plan includes weight loss components (from a Psychological perspective), but it also treats the full spectrum of issues that are distressing our clients and contributing to the difficulties with losing weight and maintaining weight loss.
In a respectful and safe environment, your Psychologist will support you while you explore the influence of past events on your weight, and start to understand the meaning behind your struggle with weight. In our experience, the ability to understand is an enormous relief to clients who can then free themselves from such labels as “greedy”, or “weak”, and recognise that there are reasons for their weight difficulties. With insight, a more accepting perspective can be nurtured, which frees clients to start to make choices about their behaviour.
Once a client has been assessed, our Psychologists may include the following in the treatment plan depending on individual needs:
- Think like a thin person. There has been extensive research into how our thoughts affect our eating. An extremely powerful and effective way of changing your thinking has been adapted by experts in the field to changing how overweight people think about food. Our Weight Management Psychologists will teach you these techniques so you can think like a thin person.
- Develop the eating habits of a thin person. Research into the psychology of human behaviour has shown us how to adopt eating behaviours and habits that come naturally to thin people. Once you know how to think like a thin person, we teach you how to behave like a thin person.
- Understand the emotional reasons why you overeat. With insight into the reasons why we overeat, and why we struggle to be happy with our appearance, acceptance and change are possible. Our Psychologists focus on providing an environment which activates our inherent capacity for positive change while exploring:
- the meaning behind the weight gain
- the effect and influence of past feelings and events
- the development of internal strengths for support
- and the development of a strong sense of self
PS Weight Management Psychologists do not put clients on a diet or exercise plan, but will work with any nutritious eating plan. We know that our clients have dieted for years and sometimes decades and are experts on healthy, nutritious eating and fitness schedules. So for this reason, we don’t bombard you with diet information or fitness programs. Our focus isn’t about what you put in your mouth, it’s about how you think about your eating, how you behave around food, and why you think and behave the way you do.
Your First Appointment: After your intake telephone call with our Practice Manager, Karen Glass, you’ll be sent a confirmation letter for your first appointment, and a comprehensive questionnaire designed to yield a full medical and psychological history regarding your body image and struggles with weight loss.
When you attend your first appointment your history, concerns and a treatment plan will be discussed. Most importantly, your needs and wishes will be respected. At PS Weight Management we approach counselling from a collaborative perspective.
In some cases where a clinical diagnosis is made, you may be eligible for a Medicare Rebate for your individual sessions, and referred to your doctor.
Ongoing Treatment: The number of sessions is purely an individual choice. In collaboration with your therapist, an initial number of sessions will be agreed upon. For example, working together, many clients and therapists decide initially on six or twelve weekly sessions, with a review where a decision is made to either continue regular sessions (on a weekly or fortnightly basis) or finish but schedule a follow up session in a month’s time.
Sometimes it becomes apparent during therapy to both client and therapist that the difficulties are deep seated and longer term therapy is needed. In this case, treatment is fully and clearly discussed and a workable and affordable plan is agreed upon.
Kate Swan regularly speaks on Melbourne Talk Radio (MTR 1377) with Luke Grant. Please click here to hear her podcast on “Yo Yo Dieting”.
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