1st Edition
The Relational Dimensions of Weight Management A Therapist’s Guide to Helping Patients Resolve Weight Concerns
The Relational Dimensions of Weight Management is a book for nonspecialist psychotherapists of any theoretical orientation to help patients concerned with weight management. Psychotherapy patients use their therapists as sounding boards to help them answer two questions: Do I need to lose weight? And, if I do need to lose weight, how should I go about it? Chapters provide therapists with the tools they need to help patients find personalized solutions to their weight loss concerns, to boost their self-image, and to deal with the judgment that is sometimes imposed by others, regardless of which weight management approach patients eventually embrace.
Introduction Overview Part One: Relational Dimensions of Eating Behavior 1. Internalized Weight Stigma and the Desire to Diet 2. Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention and the Consumer Culture 3. When Food is Love and Food Choice is Autonomy: The Relational Dynamics of Emotional Eating 4. Food Addiction and Divergent Weight Management Stigma 5. The Evolution of Human Food Sharing and Feasting 6. Who to Believe? The Confusing Nature of Dietary Reality and Epistemic Trust Part Two: Patients' Weight Management Journeys and the Therapeutic Relationship 7. Kill the Messenger: Helping Patients Deal with "Bad Numbers" (i.e., weight, BMI, calories, blood glucose, cholesterol) 8. Recommending or Demanding? Helping Patients Choose an Approach to Weight Management 9. Coaching of Policing? Helping Patients Self-Monitor 10. Accepting or Judging? Weight Cycling and Relapse Recovery 11. Empowering or Pressuring? Helping Patients Deal with Prejudice Conclusion
Biography
Lawrence Josephs, PhD, is a professor at the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University. He also offers individual and couples therapy in private practice in New York City.
"Dr Josephs's book illustrates a novel approach to help psychotherapy patients manage their weight by using the power of the therapeutic relationship as a fulcrum of change. In psychotherapy, patients figure out how to manage their weight when one-size-fits-all approaches may not apply and work through their indecision when they are of two minds about how to go about it. Josephs not only recounts the many challenges patients and their therapists are likely to encounter on patients' weight-management journeys but also offers unique pathways to navigate those challenges. Vivid case illustrations bring this approach to life."
Geoff Goodman, PhD, ABPP, FIPA, CST, CSAT-S, CPTT-S, RPT-S, professor, Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine
"Dr Josephs tackles a common clinical concern and does so with a unique and rich consideration. He addresses the relational/cultural dimensions of weight management and examines the ways the patient-therapist relationship can be strained or ruptured when approaching it in psychotherapy. Clinicians across levels and traditions will greatly appreciate this significant contribution with its many insights and illustrations."
J. Christopher Muran, PhD, dean and professor, The Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University' principal investigator, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Psychotherapy Research Program
