Counseling for Managing Weight in Richmond, VA
When the medical assistant called her name, Tammy took a deep breath. She knew that the next step was stepping on the scale, and then, her doctor would tell her that she needed to lose a few pounds. This was not why Tammy came in today, but she knew it was part of the routine. It always had been because she had always struggled with her weight. Tammy, however, had tried hard to lose the weight. She was careful about what she ate, and she lived an active life. However, if she lost weight, she inevitably regained it, and regardless of whatever fad diet she tried, it never addressed the fact that she just did not like her body. Tammy was frustrated, but she was not alone. More and more, people are struggling to maintain a healthy weight. More and more, people are also acknowledging that the struggle is not just physical—it is also emotional. They do not just want to lose weight; they want to like their bodies and sustain the change. To achieve this, they are not just working with a trainer or a nutritionist—they are going to therapy for weight management.
“I keep telling myself that I’m a human being, an imperfect human being who’s not made to look like a doll, and that who I am as a person is more important than whether at that moment I have a nice figure.” —Emma Watson
Weight can be measured in a variety of ways: cholesterol levels, numbers of the scale, waist size, blood pressure, and more. These numbers are important, but they do not tell the whole story. People are whole beings, and both their bodies and the minds contribute to their health. Sometimes, people need to work with a trainer to build up their physical strength so that they can manage their weight. Sometimes, people need to work with a therapist to build up their emotional strength so that they can manage their weight.
The counselors at Thriveworks Richmond offer appointments for weight management because we know that many people are struggling. We are working with clients who do not want to be models—they just want to live a healthy life and feel comfortable in their body.
Body Image and Weight
The Centers for Disease Control outlined the scope of how many Americans—both young and old—are struggling with their weight. They discovered that…
- Nine percent of children ages 2-5 are considered obese.
- Seventeen percent of children ages 6-11 are considered obese.
- Twenty percent of children ages 12-19 are considered obese.
- Twenty percent of adults (ages 20 and over) in American are considered obese.
- Twenty percent of adults in the US are considered overweight.
Beyond each percentage point is a person with unique struggles and a unique story. Therapy for weight management seeks to break past the numbers and treat each person as the individual they are—equipping them to live their unique, healthy life.
Therapy and Body Weight
Skilled counselors can give their clients significant advantages as they seek to achieve or maintain a healthy body weight. They may people…
Find Healing. Not everyone who struggles with their weight and body has an eating disorder, but some do. Eating disorders can develop in people of every weight and shape and size. When they occur, they can introduce a contentious relationship between an individual and their body. If an eating disorder is harming an individual, healing is top priority. The same holds true for anxiety disorders or depressive disorders. These mental illnesses can harm an individual’s body—throwing off their appetite. A foundation of health includes mental health.
Building Coping Skills. A lot of weight management programs focus upon the rules about what to eat or how to exercise, but therapy takes a different approach. Therapy focuses upon the emotional skills it takes to sustain a healthy lifestyle. One of the many skills that people may learn in therapy is how to cope in healthy ways so that they do not turn to food during life’s ups and downs. Coping skills often begin with self-awareness. Negative and untrue thoughts may be directing people toward unhealthy and undermining ways of coping. When these untrue thoughts are recognized through self-awareness, people can often learn to take positive action instead. For example, therapy may teach people…
- How to motivate themselves in a healthy way (often with goals instead of punishments and rewards)
- Self-care resources like asking for help, resting, journaling, and more.
- A reasonable expectation for change and for sustaining that change.
- How to recover from a setback (because it will happen).
- What working with their body looks like (as opposed to working against their body).
Setting Up Appointments at Thriveworks Richmond for Weight Management Therapy
If you are ready for a most holistic approach to weight management, consider making an appointment with Thriveworks Richmond. Our therapists are taking clients for weight management counseling, and we are ready to get started. When you contact our office, you will not reach a voicemail, but a scheduling specialist will answer your call and help you make an appointment. That appointment may be the following day because new clients often meet their therapist within 24 hours of their first call. Weekend and evening sessions are offered, but we do not put our clients on a waitlist. Many different insurance plans are also accepted. Let’s get started. Call today.
