What is Weight Management Counselling?
Have you tried and failed to lose weight?
Maybe a diet worked for you at first, but then you just put all that weight back on again?
Perhaps you blame it all on a “bad metabolism”?
Losing weight isn’t easy – otherwise, why would overweight people continue to put up with prejudice, disapproval and feelings of guilt and shame?
In fact, almost one in four adults in England is classified as obese.
There is no genetic explanation why some people are unable to regulate their food intake. Research indicates that the answer may lie in our emotional relationship with food.
It may not be real hunger that pushes us to reach for second helpings, but actually a response to an emotional need elsewhere, which is nothing to do with food.
Well known weight loss companies have for many years successfully used group counselling techniques to help people lose weight.
However, if you want a confidential and personal approach and have had enough of crash dieting, then Weight Management Counselling could be for you. Please fill in this form and I will come back to you to discuss your particular needs.
How do the sessions work?
We will meet for an Assessment session, where we will discuss your history of weight loss, clarify your goals and agree a Personal Plan. The Assessment will also allow us to decide if Weight Management Counselling is for you and if you are ready to change. If we agree to work together, we will then meet every other week and I will give you homework to do after each session. I recommend 4 or 5 fortnightly sessions.
During our sessions we will find out what your relationship with food really is. What do you feel just before reaching for food? How do you feel afterwards? What do you say to yourself when you overeat?
Next, we will discover what your weight means to you. How do you see yourself? Can you imagine yourself being thin? How do you think people would treat you, if you were?
We will discuss the role food played in your family– what messages did you get from your parents about eating or not eating? What cultural attitudes to food were predominant? How were overweight people regarded?
As a result, you will learn to start listening to your body, to recognise your emotional needs and find other ways of dealing with them, rather than overeating. You will learn about Transactional Analysis techniques, which help you to untangle your internal conflicts and find out what you really need.
Instead of fighting your body, you will begin to live in harmony with it, and to enjoy your newfound energy and drive.
