Is a daily restart, a renewed commitment—for sure this time—the first thing on your mind each morning?

You want the confidence that comes with weight loss, so you’ll feel better socially, romantically and also in your work. Do you compare yourself to others, feel uncomfortable, shrink back, and not show up in the world the way you’d like to? You’re wondering if there’s still hope for you to lose weight. And yes, there is. You just need a more comprehensive strategy. That’s where I come in.

As a therapist, I help men and women lose weight.

What about food and body occupies your thoughts each day? Tired of living like this? You shouldn’t have to.

Therapy for weight loss, really? Shouldn’t I be able to do this on my own?

We’ve been taught to approach weight loss through diet and exercise, but there’s much more to weight loss than following a food plan and workout routine. It’s not that easy, is it? It wasn’t for me either. Well then, what is the answer? I’m glad you asked. An integrated approach to weight loss which incorporates information about the brain, body, emotions, and behaviors is often the missing link to success. Again, if it was just about the right diet, why are we all still dieting? Yes, diet is important, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. My goal is to help you understand how your food choices influence cravings in your brain and how to minimize them. Changing behaviors is hard enough. Reducing the cravings makes it easier. There’s more to fat burning than hours on a treadmill (aka calorie-burn bondage). Weight loss involves understanding how your food choices influence hunger and satiety hormones. We’re designed to get hungry, but fighting excessive hunger? Who wants that? Not you, not me.

Your most powerful weight loss weapon? Figuring out why weight gain occurred to begin with and perhaps more importantly, why weight loss continues to be a problem. I can hear you saying, “It’s because I don’t stick to my diet.” A counseling approach allows us to explore the factors preventing you from sticking to your diet. Surprisingly, these things often have little to do with food at all. Even the most well-formulated diet can be derailed by, well…life! Are you back to thinking you just need to try harder? Don’t get me wrong, I’m an advocate of diet and exercise, but without considering other factors, you will likely repeat the cycle of trying and failing. Weight challenges are frequently accompanied by stress, fatigue, anxiety, depression, negative self-perception, shame, faulty beliefs from childhood, substance use, or trauma. We all suffer from something. Resolving these issues often resolves the eating patterns that contribute to unwanted weight gain.

Life stressors not your challenge? Let’s talk about skills. Dieting requires skills, the skills to actually move from knowing what to do, to consistently doing it. Successful weight loss and weight maintenance require changes in your thinking, so you can change your behavior. Without these skills, it makes complete sense that you haven’t been able to lose weight! That’s what you want, to lose weight, right? Diet alone doesn’t have the power to accomplish this.

What would living at your ideal weight do for you? Let’s close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.