A Treatment Program
for Chronic Dieters
and Compulsive Overeaters
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About Our Program
How We Can Help:
Individual Assessment
Workshops
Ongoing Group Work
Case Management
Individual Therapy
How to Get Started
in Our Program
How We Can Help
Through our workshops, groups, case management, and individual therapy, we will help people develop the internal strength needed to confront the real psychological issues at hand-and then, step by step, to begin to make changes in their eating. These changes will feel very different from the temporary high of going on a diet. They will be made at the place of taking responsibility for life choices, letting go of food as a source of comfort, and re-establishing food as a source of pleasure and nutrition.
A Description of Our Services
I. Individual Assessment Interview
Upon entering our program, each patient receives a 30-minute intake interview to match our services to your particular needs.
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II. 12-week Workshop for Chronic Dieters and Compulsive Overeaters
This workshop provides in-depth physiological and psychological information to help understand what initiates and maintains disordered eating. Topics include current research on the role of sugars, fats, fiber, and natural foods on blood sugar and insulin levels, the physiological impact of dieting, Insulin Resistance Syndrome (IRS), and the effect of exercise on re-setting fat metabolism and blood insulin levels. We also present an in-depth look at the psychology of compulsive overeating.
III. Ongoing Group Psychotherapy
Group therapy provides the space for individuals to explore how they have used food to cope with life's stressors. Food for many has become an 'object' they can turn to with great reliability. Group participants begin to listen to and tolerate emotional experiences that are often avoided by stuffing the feelings via "stuffing" food. The group becomes a place where individuals track their overeating as it comes up. Members find out what they may have been avoiding via their use of food-feelings of anxiety, loneliness, anger; of feeling out-of-control, helpless, dependent, or needy. The group setting helps participants to identify and to begin to bear these difficult (and often new) feelings.
The work in the group also involves taking a look at the internal "food addict" who incessantly seduces participants into using food as a source of comfort-as a reward for anxiety reduction, and to relieve pain. We will deal with the many voices of the food addict, and help to unveil its mission of self-destruction. For the long-term food user, the destructive process involves a pattern of instant gratification that wears off quite quickly and is followed by shame-and the demand for another "fix."
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IV. Case Management
Each individual in the program may choose to meet with a case manager, with whom issues of eating and exercise may be worked on and tracked. Case managers are trained to adapt your individual eating and exercise program to your particular lifestyle and physiological needs.
V. Individual Therapy
As an adjunct to the above, some participants may want and need the extra support and self-exploration provided by individual psychotherapy. Our trained staff of Psychologists, Marriage and Family Therapists, and interns offers a full array of psychological services to meet the needs of all participants.
Our Staff
Overeating:
Body, Mind,
and
Culture
Signs and Symptoms
Recommended Reading
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