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Why The Tools Were Developed

    After having witnessed so many clients in my private practice struggle, mightily and painfully, either with ineffective coping patterns and the negative impact of stress... or the self-defeating traps of anxiety, chronic worry, panic attacks, or depression... or unhealthy eating patterns and weight issues... or the inability to stick with necessary lifestyle changes like exercising regularly, I became committed to developing highly effective skills that would work for them, tools for their own use. All were clients whom I had come to know well, care deeply about, and respect their intelligence, competence, and commitment to personal growth and to emotional/psychological health. All are capable people who knew clearly ‘in their heads’ the “right” things to do to address or resolve their problems with stress, worry, depression, weight, inconsistency or procrastination, etc., yet who kept finding themselves, despite their best efforts and perhaps temporary ‘success,’ back at the same unhealthy place, back at “square one.” I was resolved to give them the tools, their own tools, to initiate and then, importantly, to consistently continue and maintain the changes at the deepest levels in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, that would allow each of them to first achieve, and then to sustain real, “life pattern changes.” These healthy life pattern changes, in turn, accomplished their long-term goals for physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being.

With regard specifically to weight issues, many of my clients had struggled for a lifetime with the up-and-down, physical and emotional roller coaster – and perhaps with subsequent health concerns, such as chronic backache, respiratory problems, lessened stamina and mobility, heart disease, diabetes, etc. Most had “tried everything” – determinedly, yet unsuccessfully in the long-term, trying the myriad of “weight loss & diet” programs out there, only to lose--and then regain--the “same 10-20 or more lbs., over and over again... and, perhaps just as importantly, to experience the frustration, shame, discouragement, pain, and lowered self-esteem... feeling ‘stuck’ and inevitably, powerless to change it.

Although I have been a full-time psychotherapist in private practice for nearly 25 years, I had not focused specifically on the negative impact of weight struggles on self-esteem (worth) and self-image, on confidence, on ‘holding one back’ from other life pursuits. However, I became convinced, at the urging of my clients, that an alternative to the confusing myriad of diet and weight loss programs was desperately needed; that perhaps a fresh approach, bringing together the components of physical, nutritional, mental, emotional, self-image and identity, stress and coping skills - integrating all these aspects--was exactly what was needed, what had been missing in other ‘programs.’ Indeed, my lack of a “canned plan” would actually be a positive benefit!

So, I pulled together the major components above, along with skills/tools I have taught for years (e.g. changing self-defeating thoughts, self motivation, increasing self-esteem, guided imagery and self-hypnosis, positive visualization, effective personal goal setting and accomplishment), to provide a 5-week seminar meeting once weekly. To my surprise, and delight - especially because the participants were people I care about and had seen struggle over the years... deserving more - this newly-minted approach benefited each, where none had to this depth or breadth before, in giving a “new way of living” that was individualized, personalized for each by the way they applied the tools and what goals they chose to focus upon, and most importantly, that each could sustain and “stick with”.

I have distilled this professional knowledge and experience, along with what I have learned from all of my clients about “what really works” when it comes to losing weight as a part of becoming physically, mentally and emotional healthy, into readily useable tools and skills for change. These tools and skills in my personally composed, crafted and recorded audiotapes/CDs now make this resource accessible beyond the scope of my practice and available to others in need of help, guidance, or simply the catalyst for personal growth and improvement.

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