Have you ever been told to 'calm down', 'pull yourself together', 'stop worrying' or (my favourite) 'cheer up'? Did it work? I suspect not! You can't change a feeling because someone has told you to or through 'willpower'. The same goes with food. ‘Stop eating’ just doesn’t work as a strategy. CBT addresses the cognitions (thoughts) and behaviour (habits) associated with eating, giving you a vast amount of insight into why and how you eat. Change the way you think and you will naturally change what you are eating.
Our 12 month programme is designed to support you every step of the way as you embark on your new relationship with food. We have two options – a group programme or an individual programme. Both start with a full one to one mental and physical health assessment. The group programme will then move on to 12 weekly group sessions, the individual programme begins with 12 weeks of 1:1 CBT. After the initial 12 weeks, both programmes follow the same pattern of 15 minute telephone consultations with the therapist for the remainder of the 12 month programme with interim 1:1 and group meetings.
Typically the people I work with have been on diets for years, their weight has fluctuated more times than they care to remember. As a consequence of this there are often emotions attached to the food they eat, seeing food as 'good' or 'bad' leading to an assumption that eating 'bad' food or carrying more weight than they would like to makes them a 'bad' or 'worthless' person. We are here to show you that it doesn't have to be like this, and help you to build a sustainable lifestyle that doesn't involve feeling disgusted with yourself, guilty because you've eaten something yummy or shame because you can't 'control' yourself.
Changing habits of a lifetime is a big challenge. Research shows that a simple habit like drinking a glass of water every morning, takes approximately 21 days to become something you automatically do. A more complex habit such as changing the way you eat, takes around nine months. We also know that making sudden big changes without psychological support is less likely to be sustained and leads to big fluctuations in weight. The new habits you choose have to be sustainable so this is why we do it slowly, mastering one at a time.
Pure Offices, Kestrel Court, Harbour Road, Portishead, BS20 7AN
Monday - Friday: 9am-5pm