By Dr. Drew Brazier
Life is not so much about what you can lose. It is about what you can gain! If this is true, how does that fit with weight loss, dieting, and overall nutrition? A healthy lifestyle has nothing to do with dieting or cutting out everything you enjoy. As a human being who lost 160lbs, I learned that obtaining and MAINTAINING a healthy life was about finding what I needed to GAIN. In other words, I had to discover what my body was missing and that is how I lost weight and more importantly created a healthy lifestyle. During my journey I had to overcome barriers and specific traumas related to food and nutrition. These same challenges are what our clients are facing: Trauma related to food, trauma related to weight, and trauma related confidence. Our clients face multiple barriers, including not understanding what their bodies are missing.
Let me share some thoughts on what a psychotherapist can do to help. First, I should say that I am also a Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist; however, specific food recommendations do not really come on to the scene until a client has worked through other dynamics. So, where do we start?
(Though I discuss these ideas in phases, it’s with the clear knowledge that this process is NOT linear. Yet this is a good way to understand how to help a client build a healthy lifestyle. We must remember that each client will be at a different spot, so meet them where they are.)
Phase I
If you are going to pretend to know what your body needs and does not need, do you suspect you might want to learn some about your body? I hope your answer is YES!! In order to accomplish this, we can teach Mindful Eating principles to our clients. Did you know we only have taste buds on our tongues? So why do we take huge bites if we can only taste a small portion of what we manage to squeeze in our mouths? Part of mindful eating practice involves taking small bites, putting the utensil down while eating, sitting down to eat, turning off media, and noticing every little flavor.
The next step is learning not just what your mouth and brain like to consume, but what does your body like? Can you answer what fuel your body truly likes to run on? How do you know if you don’t pay attention to how you feel during the hours after you eat/drink? The first couple of weeks of working together, I encourage clients to write down what they eat, when they eat it, how their body felt, and their mood. Notice that I do not ask them to write calories. Calorie counting is not what we are doing. We are not figuring out what to cut out, as that will happen naturally. We are trying to figure out what to get IN!! The approach is experiential. The goal is to learn what works best for people. Furthermore, I have seen people who have experienced vivid memories related to a big trauma that was connected to certain foods. That can be tricky, but how do you find out about that if you are not paying attention?
As this first phase of treatment progresses clients will already start making adjustments and becoming more aware of what they need to change. The next phase will help amplify this progress.
Phase 2
Eating garbage that does nothing good for you can be brought about because of stress, trauma, or a million other reasons. I argue that there is always some internal or external trigger as to why one would comfort him/herself with bad food. Interestingly, research demonstrates that 80% of dieting fails because of “stress.” But the dieting research never really examines the nature of that stress and what can we do about it. Instead, they simply push dieting recommendations harder. We need to change this.
We encourage clients to take a week or two to take notes about what internal/external triggers lead to eating undesired amounts at undesired times. We also encourage clients to identify trigger foods, which means gaining an understanding of what food leads to more poor choices. Just because a client made one poor choice does not mean they are doomed to continue in a downward spiral. In a healthy lifestyle there is no such thing as a “cheat day” or a “cheat meal.” Instead, we work towards understanding how even traditionally unhealthy food can be a part of the nutrition plan. The first step is becoming aware of triggers and trigger foods.
Phase 3
Again, phase three could actually be addressed in the first session – it all depends on where the client is in their lifestyle change. I will not cover all the different Brainspotting specific techniques that I have discovered to be helpful, but I will offer a few main ideas.
I like to use Convergence Therapy Technique when a client is struggling with a specific trigger food that leads to consuming other unhealthy foods/drinks. I will have the client hold the pointer for 3-5 minutes after bringing awareness to where they feel it in their body, when noticing the idea of the trigger food. Often times, I will repeat this with a client and they will begin to become less activated when shifting awareness to a trigger food. I will then ask the client to do the convergence technique while asking what the body is really wanting/ needing. I will do this technique with any trigger food.
I like to understand when and where someone first experienced trauma related to food and/or weight. This could happen when a friend, bully, or loved one made a comment about their weight or told them that they shouldn’t eat something. Trauma also often happens when someone tells the client they will not be able to achieve their weight-related goals. I have also seen clients dealing with the statement that “this is just how our family is,” which as Dr. Ruby Gibson teaches, could go back several generations. Dr. Gibson teaches that we are impacted nutritionally for several generations. Exploring the client’s ancestors’ dietary patterns and other traumas can help bring to light the trauma related to the client not being able sustain a healthy lifestyle despite having tried so many diets.
Once a client is able to identify a weight-related trauma, Brainspotting techniques can be used. Specifically, I have found that rolling brainspotting is very helpful when processing these traumas. Why that is most effective, I am unaware at this point. I can simply say I have observed this to be the most effective approach.
There are many more techniques that I can share at a later time. Nonetheless, no matter what techniques I use I always make sure that similar to squeezing the lemon part of brainspotting is focused more on identifying what the body does need. It might take time for the client to become aware of this. However, where dieticians and nutritionists get it all wrong is in giving many recommendations when the body is trying to tell a client specifically what it needs. Of course, some psycho-nutritional education can be helpful, but the body will tell us what it needs if we but clear the space and listen.
In subsequent posts I will discuss how I address epigenetics, microwaves, artificial sweeteners and other sugars, cellular vitality, hormones, GMOs, and Adrenal Fatigue. There is so much more to using this model for weight loss. I have seen many of clients, myself included, flourish and SUSTAIN wonderful results. I share these ideas with hope that other Brainspotting therapists will experiment and share what they find successful. I would love to speak more with anyone at great depth about anything discussed in this post!
Wishing you the best health!
Dr Drew Brazier
Optimal Solutions Colorado
