Diets and Our Demons: A Mindful Approach to Treating Overeating, Binge Eating and Weight Concerns

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW Related seminars and products

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Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW, is co-author of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck, The Body Positivity Card Deck, and two books on the topics of eating and weight struggles.  Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating and Emotional Overeating, has been called “the new bible” on this topic for professionals. The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care was a #1 bestseller on Amazon and a favorite resource for therapists to use with clients. She is also the author of Amanda’s Big Dream, a children’s book that helps kids to pursue their dreams – at any size! Judith has a private practice in Skokie, IL where she focuses her work with clients who want to get off the diet/binge rollercoaster and learn to feel at home in their bodies. Through her individual counseling, groups, workshops, presentations and books, Judith has helped thousands of people to develop self-care skills that increase physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing without a focus on the pursuit of weight loss. Through educational programs, she is dedicated to helping people end the preoccupation with food and weight. Judith received her MSW at University of Michigan and earned her post-graduate certificate at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, where she trained in the treatment of eating disorders. Judith is a frequent contributor to the Psychotherapy Networker magazine and a popular speaker at national conferences. Descriptions of her work have appeared in the media including the New York Times, LA Times, Allure, Fitness, Self, Shape, Today’s Dietitian, Diabetes Self-Management, NBC News Chicago, Huffington Post Live, and she appears in the documentary America The Beautiful 2.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Judith Matz is the director of The Chicago Center for Overcoming Overeating, Inc. and maintains a private practice. She receives royalties as a published author. Judith Matz receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Judith Matz is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the National Eating Disorder Association, and the Association for Size Diversity and Health.

Objectives

1. Communicate the 5 common patterns of the diet-binge cycle.
2. Teach the 3 steps of attuned/intuitive eating as the antidote to diet failure.
3. Analyze the connection between overeating and emotional regulation.
4. Implement at least 3 strategies to promote a healthy body image.
5. Debate how the principles of Health At Every Size ® (HAES) help clients build self-care behaviors.
6. Assess how internalized weight stigma affects both professionals and clients.

Outline

“I Want To Lose Weight”

• The difference between Binge Eating Disorder, compulsive eating and emotional overeating
• DSM-5® and Binge Eating Disorder (BED) – why it matters
• The backdrop of diet culture
• Is the relationship between dieting and BED keeping your client stuck?
• How genetics, evolution and adaptation affect your client’s weight

Avoid the Diet-Binge Trap

• 5 predictable patterns clients must understand to break free
• Why food restrictions almost guarantee your client will regain weight
• Shame about food and body size – what every therapist needs to know

6 Steps to Develop A Healthy and Satisfying Relationship With Food

• Why attuned/intuitive eating is the antidote to diet failure
• How to help clients distinguish physical hunger from other hungers
• Decide what to eat: Aka “making the match”
• Challenge the problem of good/bad thinking
• Work with different eating styles (vegetarian, health concerns, etc.)
• Learn to AIM (attunement, intention, mindfulness)
• Overcome 4 common obstacles

Overcome Emotional Overeating

• Why food is a common form of affect regulation
• Understand clients’ translation of feelings into language of food and weight
• How compassion reduces overeating
• Mindfulness practices and visualizations for emotional calming
• Case studies
• Individual vs. group treatment considerations

Cultivate a Healthy Body Image

• End negative body talk
• Challenge internalized weight stigma
• Clothes, scales and mirrors
• Live in the present
• Apply Hanson’s Buddha Brain practice: Taking In The Good
• Neff’s 3 steps of self-compassion

Weight, Health, and Stigma

• 5 principles of the Health At Every Size® (HAES) paradigm
• Why BMI is the wrong way to determine health (and may actually cause harm)
• Debunk myths about weight and health – a look at the evidence
• Discover the obesity paradox
• Exercise: Self-care or punishment?
• The impact of weight stigma for higher weight clients
• Examine attitudes toward thin and fat
• How therapists (inadvertently) may contribute to fat-shaming
• Weight & intersecting identities

Beyond Clinical Practice

• What to teach children to prevent eating problems and promote body confidence
• Become a change agent to dismantle diet culture – it’s easier than you think!
• Connect to non-diet/body positive resources

Target Audience