Table of Contents

I.  Reframing the History of the Processed Food Addict. Learn the defeated attitude of the processed food addict as they come into your office. Hear their experiences with callous and uneducated professionals. Find out how to immediately show that they can trust you even if it's the first time they've ever trusted a health professional.

II. Affirming through Active Listening. The thing that food addicts crave the most is to be heard, believed, and affirmed. The practitioner's ability to absorb details of the client's struggles and commiserate will earn the practitioner new, possibly life-saving motivation from the client.

III. The Most Important Barrier to Making a Diet-Improvement. Asking clients about the one problem that you could solve together will surface surprising barriers that may never have occurred to you. Be ready with the right responses.

IV.  Give Clients the Science. Being able to explain the battle between the limbic system and the frontal lobe brings tears of relief to food addicts. Give them the easy-to-understand diagrams that show what really happened to them. Let them get that the failures from the past were not their fault.

V.  Going Slow. Explain that there are no more goals, commitments, schedules, or accountability. You and the client will work together to create a bubble of protection from food stimulation that will give them enough room to finally make progress.

VI. Reframe the Future. Give the client a vision of a future full of small steps that can be easily accomplished. Perceived lapses are simple an indication that a new skill is in progress. And, the client has all the time in the world to build that skill.

Sample Lesson Topic:

Hidden Support Technique #1 Praise in Detail.

The way to immediately gain the confidence of a food addict is to praise them. In truth, food addicts have withstood repeated shocks of great variety over a long period of time, perhaps decades or even their entire lives. They have endured the scorn of strangers on the street. They've endured sarcasm from family members. They've endured dreaded advice from co-workers. They've endured one weight-loss scam after another and been blamed for their failure when the scam could never possibly have worked to turn around a severe addiction. They've endured physical pain and mental confusion. They've been denied medical services when practitioners refuse to run tests because of weight status. You as the compassionate practitioner will instantly gain their trust when you praise clients in detail for their stamina, their refusal to quit looking for answers, and their faithfulness to their own well being. You may see tears of relief when you tell them how sorry you are they have endured so much misery at the hands of the processed food industry and the Tobacco Addiction Model.