DIET/WEIGHT LOSS: I was contacted by a doctor doing a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic on preventive cardiology. He asked me what I learned about diets and weight loss efforts. Heres what I told him: As you likely know, weight loss diets are rarely successful (meaning have a relatively sustained impact). Most folks think that they can simply build a better mouse trap; I dont count myself among them. I am really a psychological thinker coming from a Jungian point of view. For me that means that I believe that people do things for deeper reasons and that those reasons are meaningful (as opposed to reasons like, they need comfort or are undisciplined, etc.) Eating and not exercising are almost always expressions of these deeper reasons. In fact, these deeper reasons can always be seen in peoples night time dreams. What does that mean in terms of working with folks who want to lose weight? It means that those deeper reasons must be uncovered and supported so that they can be expressed. Can they be expressed in ways other than eating and not exercising? Sometimes, but how fast people can make that change is not entirely in the persons control. Some patterns have a kind of season that usually plays itself out. Pushing people to try to override that pattern or season usually leads to a sense of failure and shame which amplifies the problem not the solution. Whats the good news? People can make deeper and more sustainable changes not just relative to eating and exercise but in other areas of their lives, including work, relationships, and they way the treat themselves on a regular basis. Focusing on these changes along with more directly related weight-loss changes are more effective and more deeply satisfying. How can you determine the underlying need, reason, or motivation? Its actually straight forward but takes a certain kind of eye- the eye of a naturalist. The question that is worthy of exploration with the analysand is, What is it like to eat that food? The question, Why do you eat that? almost never reveals anything that helps because peoples conscious understanding of themselves is simply inadequate to the task. In fact, people mostly use these reasons as a way of pathologizing themselves - a way of adding more shame and dislike to an already unpleasant circumstance.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:33:15 +0000
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