RETREATS

FAIR and FIRM Therapy Retreat Series  /  Reversing Regain  /  Healing from Food Addiction  /  Gain While You Lose

Each of my FAIR and FIRM Therapy Retreats are residential programs for women who are seeking to heal from a variety of issues they have encountered along their life’s journey. As a therapist who has been through a great deal of personal therapy before and since going back to school to become a psychologist, I understand the enormous positive impact of attending intensive therapy retreats. Immersion in a supportive learning environment with the opportunity to work through the information being presented is a gift that provides recipients a lifetime of day-to-day benefits.

One of the things that is most important to me is that each participant becomes more familiar with, more consistent with, and more supportive of her unique, genuine self. For many of us, living through stressful childhood situations can result in abandoning our authentic self as the need for emotional protection becomes the priority. We stop speaking our truth, stop standing up for ourselves, and learn to cater to the needs of others at the exclusion of ourselves. In the retreats, we will identify ways in which our authentic self was stifled. We will address the issues that separated us from who we were born to be, and give ourselves permission to thrive as our authentic self in our adult lives. This is a core tenet of each FAIR and FIRM Therapy Retreat. 

I can only accommodate 8 women at each retreat. This is an amazing group size as we have time to explore issues, to ask and seek answers to questions and to develop healing relationships that may last a lifetime. I look to host women who are interested in improving their present life circumstances, who are willing to take a look into their past to see what has influenced the trajectory of their lives, and who are ready to do the hard work of sorting through the myriad of situations and people, as well as their own thoughts, feelings and behaviors, that have culminated in their present reality. Each woman will experience a combination of various therapeutic interventions including talk therapy, relaxation/meditation, artistic expression, visualization, goal-setting, mindfulness, and other experiential techniques designed to heal thoughts, feelings and behaviors that do not serve them in healthy, productive ways. We focus on learning healthy coping skills to implement in all areas of life that will assist us on a daily basis as we continue our journey through life.

In addition to the many hours each day of therapeutic group interaction, each participant will benefit from the expertise of other professions to include Registered Dieticians, Exercise Specialists, and Massage Therapists.

Because many of you will opt to attend more than one of the FAIR and FIRM Therapy Retreats, care will be given to provide a variety of options for the different therapeutic modalities. For example, different relaxation techniques will be presented at different retreats, although there will, of course, be some overlap. It wouldn’t hurt any of us to learn the same healthy skills on annual basis anyway! That’s a good idea… come to one of my different retreats each year!

At each and every retreat you will be invited to participate in some or all of the following activities:

• psychoeducation presentations utilizing PowerPoint presentations
• group sessions to process exercises completed as part of the psychoeducational component
• virtual and/or live appearances by other professionals (registered dietician, exercise physiologist, mentors, massage therapist, yoga instructor, etc.)
• physical exercise (outdoor walking on paved roads), swimming, yoga, stretching, resistance bands, etc.
• journals for writing in
• a retreat journal with PowerPoint presentations included
• relaxation exercises
• cooking demonstrations
• films related to topics of retreat
• references for further exploration of topics upon returning home
• relaxation and free time

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Two of my least favorite words when it comes to weight loss programs are “behavior modification.” Don’t get me wrong. I realize that a number of behaviors likely need to be modified in order for a person to lose weight. However, my thought is that if changing behaviors was enough to get one’s weight off and keep it off, then there would be no such thing as regain. Although behavior modifications (think “eat less, move more”) are essential to weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight, for many people, they are not sufficient. And that is why I do what I do.

We all know that being able to lose weight is one thing, but keeping the weight off is quite another! So many people engage in “yo-yo dieting” and, in many cases, do so for years. I have joked about wanting to write a book called Chronic Losers to address this group of people. While that title is humorous (to me), I know it would cause an uproar among the politically correct among us. I also realize that many people who struggle with weight issues actually refer to themselves as “losers,” but are not referring to their weight when doing so. They truly feel that because they have not been able to maintain a healthy weight, they are an overall “loser,” in the 20th and 21st centuries use of the word. I never want to offend anyone and, while my intention in using the title Chronic Losers would be to utilize a bit of humor, I know some people would be hurt or offended by it. I share all of that to let you know a bit about my personality…

Regaining weight after losing some is not at all humorous. In fact, it is so much the opposite. Weight regain is frustrating, discouraging, disheartening, and downright depressing. Weight issues are complicated, like the relationship status of most people! There are so many factors that influence weight and the propensity for weight regain.

Throughout the Reversing Regain Retreat, although we enumerate what the factors are that cause weight gain and regain, we focus on those we can influence. In addition, we look back over time to help identify patterns so that we can develop plans to prevent the same old, same old.

Using a variety of therapies, the goals of the Reversing Regain FAIR and FIRM Retreat include:

• identifying the non-medical issues that can influence behaviors that result in weight regain (self-esteem, self-talk, automatic thoughts/behaviors, the interactions between thoughts/feelings/behaviors, trauma, family of origin issues, addictions)
• moving beyond “behavior modification” to addressing the aforementioned non-medical issues
• learning healthy coping skills to deal with stress, a leading cause of unhealthy, mindless eating
• learning positive self-talk to promote and encourage long-term healthy weight maintenance
• incorporating knowledge of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors impact eating behaviors
• utilizing breathing skills, relaxation tools, mindfulness skills, and visualization as tools to remain on a healthy eating routine every day
• exploring and improving the relationships we have with food and with ourselves as a way of learning to use food as enjoyable fuel for our bodies
• implementing the Gotta Do Em’s for sustaining a healthy weight
• learning to implement Dr. Stapleton’s 4 ACES to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight, and prevent weight regain
• and MORE…

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Addiction is a mind-body-spirit disease, one that I am afflicted with and one that I have been in recovery from since 1989. If you have a food addiction, then no traditional “diet” is ever going to be sufficient for you. Recovery requires abstinence. For most food addicts, that translates to no added sugar and no flour.

At this retreat, you will be served nutritious meals that contain no added sugar and no white or wheat flour. You’ll see that you can continue to enjoy food and not engage in those foods that result in cravings, binges and the resulting guilt and hopelessness.

It’s important to me that people do not equate the word “addict” with any sort of personal shortcoming or character flaw. Addiction is a biological disease, no different from diabetes, cancer, or obesity. We cannot “cure” these diseases, but we can, in the case of addiction, put it into remission through healthy behaviors.

Using a variety of therapies, the goals of the Healing from Food Addiction FAIR and FIRM Retreat include:

• learning about the disease of addiction and identifying your personal (possible) predispositions to addiction and/or circumstances leading you toward addiction
• accepting the fact that dealing with addiction requires daily efforts
• learning coping skills to deal with cravings, which are a part of the disease of addiction
• learning coping skills to deal with stress, a leading cause of unhealthy, mindless eating, as healing our unhealthy habits related to food consumption are essential along with treating our addiction(s)
• learning positive self-talk to promote and encourage a healing relationship with self, the underlying issue (as far as I’m concerned) related to the emotional/spiritual healing from addiction (which leads to physical healing)
• incorporating knowledge of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors impact relapse, recovery, and eating behaviors
• utilizing breathing skills, relaxation tools, mindfulness skills, and visualization as tools to remain active in recovery and healing from addictions
• exploring and improving the relationships we have with ourselves and others to increase our experience of living fully in healing from addictions
• implementing the Gotta Do Em’s for sustaining a healthy program of healing from addictions
• learning to implement Dr. Stapleton’s 4 ACES to maintaining a heathy relationship with self and ongoing healing from addictions
• and MORE…

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Weight loss, the multi-billion-dollar industry that robs millions of people of billions of dollars each year… on purpose! What?! Yes, they do. They literally set you up to lose and regain so that you’ll have to start their entire program over again. And pay for it again.

“Diets” are things people go “on” and then “off.” Typically, most people gain back whatever weight they lost “on” the diet when they go “off” the diet. That is not a surprise! It never ceases to amaze me that we fall for things like this… Honestly, I know we’re smart enough to understand the reality of these gimmicks that go like this, “Eat only this ____________ and you’ll lose weight. Usually whatever _____________ is, works! Until you stop eating _______________. I can’t help but wonder if people actually think they are going to eat nothing but cabbage soup or frozen meals or shakes and nothing else every day for the rest of their lives? If not, surely they must know they will regain every lost pound if they return to their previous eating behaviors.

So why does our society continue to waste their money in this way?

DESPERATION. At least that’s what I think. We become desperate for a quick fix to lose weight and then hope against science that this “fix” will keep weight off forever, regardless of what we do when we go “off” the diet. Magical thinking…  and your rational, adult self knows this ___________________ diet won’t sustain you for the rest of your life.

How many hundreds to thousands of YOUR dollars has the diet industry thief stolen from you? Or, in a more FIRM manner (as is my style), how many of your hard-earned dollars have you willingly given to the diet industry thieves?

In the words of Bob Newhart (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw), “STOP IT!” Very funny video clip, if you’re up for a good laugh!

Seriously, stop spending your money on “diets” only to regain the unwanted pounds. As many people I have worked with say, “I gained those back, and then some.” Others tell me, “The pounds I lost found me again… and they brought friends.”

GAIN While You LOSE is designed to help you:

• gain insights as to the reasons you struggle to lose weight and then put it back on
• gain awareness as to reasons you may subconsciously regain weight on purpose (I know, this sound preposterous)
• learn the connection between your thoughts, feelings and behaviors and gain tools for applying them to your daily life
• discover your “Meaningful Matters” in a variety of areas of your life, primarily focusing on your relationship with food and your relationship with self.
• learn and practice healthy, assertiveness and communication skills that will assist you in making healthy choices in all areas of life
• understand the relationship between your emotions and food while gaining tools to let your emotions help you seek positive ways of meeting needs, other than turning to food
• address body image issues and provide tips for accepting the good, the parts we would rather not focus on, and our whole selves
• implementing the Gotta Do Em’s for sustaining a healthy weight
• learning to implement Dr. Stapleton’s 4 ACES to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight, and prevent weight regain
• and MORE…

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