The Program
Is the Healing Your Relationship With Food program for me?
What is the program?
What are the program’s goals?
What does the program consist of?
What is the content of the Primary Program?
What are the times and dates of the program?
How do I get started in the program?
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Is the Healing Your Relationship With Food program for me?
This program is designed for adult men and women who are normal, under, or over weight and are struggling with how they relate to food. Answering yes to any of the following questions may give you the answer.
Do you find yourself with:
- Continued failure and discouragement from dieting
- Shame, guilt, and self-loathing following eating
- Avoidance of social activities due to worry about food and/or body shame
- Eating to manage emotions
- Secretive eating
- Worry and preoccupation about gaining weight
- Sexual, verbal, mental, and/or physical abuse in past or present
- Physical problems due to excess weight or yo-yo dieting
- Poor and/or inconsistent body image
- Caring for others more than yourself
- Eating when you are already full
What is the program?
This is a unique non-restrictive approach to resolving the compulsions underlying the eating disorder. It is designed for people who have had enough of dieting and feeling hopeless and heavier as a result. This is not a weight-loss program. However, group members often find weight-loss does occur slowly over time as a result of resolving underlying issues and working with the program guidelines. This approach works well with use of a nutritionists and exercise programs eventually, when the time is right for the participant.
What are the program goals?
- Provide a safe, supportive, and confidential environment
- Coping skills to deal with emotions and stress without relying on food
- Address the underlying issues to provide lasting change
- Increase self-esteem and acceptance
- Reduce preoccupation and break the compulsive cycle of overeating
- Offer effective ways to expand your life and explore dreams and hopes
- Let go of food as your “significant other”
- Address and treat depression (if needed)
- Ways to utilize ongoing support outside of the program
What does the program consist of?
The Primary program meets once a week for 10 consecutive weeks for a 3-hour session. It will include:
- Interactive lecture
- Written outline and manual for participants with all lecture material
- Small group activities
- Video clips illustrating points from the lecture
- Written homework assignments
- Visualization exercises
- Interactive group activities
- Group support and discussion time
- Resource guide
- Access to support outside of the program time
- Individual sessions on request for additional support
The Aftercare program meets once a week for 1 1/2 hours for as long as you need to stay. It is less intense and less structured than the Primary program. The average stay in aftercare is about 5 months. This phase of the treatment offers on-going support from other group members from the Primary program, and reinforcement of what was learned. Most people use this phase to let the information and new way of relating to food “sink in” and they are able to build enough trust to work on those issues underneath the eating disorder. Aftercare begins immediately following completion of the Primary program.
What is the content of the Primary Program?
- Week 1: Getting started, new guidelines for eating
- Week 2: Discovering the function of your compulsive overeating
- Week 3: Untwisting distorted thinking
- Week 4: Self-care and support system
- Week 5: Anger, boundaries, and spiritual nourishment
- Week 6: Healthy bodies at any size
- Week 7: Acceptance of self and body
- Week 8: Addressing underlying issues from childhood
- Week 9: Breaking the compulsive overeating cycle
- Week 10: Wrapping up, understanding stages of recovery
What are the times and dates of the program?
There are four sessions per year of the Primary program Aftercare is on-going. The Primary program sessions are on Wednesdays, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.
Aftercare sessions are on Thursdays, from 6pm to 7:30pm or 7:30pm to 9pm (depending on your preference).
The Primary program sessions are as follows:
- Fall: Early October
- Winter: Early February
- Spring: Early May
- Summer: End of July and tentative depending on enrollment
How do I get started in the program?
- Contact me by phone (919-815-6500) or send me an email (eve@iamworthy.net) to set up a no-charge assessment
- Clear your schedule for the next ten weeks for the nights of the program
- Prepare yourself for a very different approach for making lasting change!
