Psychonutritional management of overweight and obesity, Part 2

Cognitive restriction, the mental control that most of your patients exert over their eating, ends up cutting them off from their own sensations and sustains their weight difficulties. This training, which extends Part 1, gives you a concrete approach to pacify the relationship with food, support the patient towards their satiety signals and tame emotional eating, using tools drawn from cognitive and behavioural therapies.

What you will learn

• Identify and assess the degrees of cognitive restriction, mild, moderate and severe, and recognise the emotions it induces, fear of running out, fear of cracking, fear of being hungry, guilt.
• Understand and have the patient experience the notions of satiety, sensory-specific satiety and overall satiety, to help them stop eating at the right moment.
• Conduct supervised exercises, the reintroduction of taboo foods, the comparative menu test and the four-day satiety exercises.
• Distinguish the emotions induced by cognitive restriction from extra-dietary emotions, and work on the thought-emotion pair.
• Use a palette of tools for emotional eating, cognitive restructuring (ABCDE grid), mental modes management, mindfulness meditation, cognitive defusion techniques and a comfort-eating protocol.
• Spot the comfort disorder and the abstinence violation, and know how to stay within your scope of practice by referring when the issue goes beyond eating behaviour.

On the programme

• Cognitive restriction, definition, degrees, consequences, and the main clinical situations encountered in consultation.
• Softening cognitive restriction by reconnecting to sensations, with the reintroduction of taboo foods and the comparative menu test around energy density.
• Satiety and satiation, distinguishing the notions and practical exercises to teach the patient to stop eating.
• Emotional eating, the emotions induced by cognitive restriction and extra-dietary emotions.
• The tools of second-wave cognitive and behavioural therapies, cognitive restructuring with the ABCDE grid and mental modes management.
• The third-wave tools, mindfulness meditation on thoughts and cognitive defusion techniques, as well as a presentation of acceptance and commitment therapy and its matrix.
• The comfort-eating protocol, with a guided tasting exercise linking foods, flavours and emotions.

Who it is for

This training is for healthcare professionals who wish to integrate psychonutrition into their practice, doctors, pharmacists, dietitians and other practitioners supporting patients with overweight or seeking a better relationship with food. Part 1 is a prerequisite.

At the end of the training

You will be able to spot and assess a patient's cognitive restriction, explain its mechanisms to them and support them towards reconnecting with their hunger and satiety sensations. You will be able to offer supervised exercises around taboo foods, sensory-specific satiety and comfort eating. You will finally have a palette of tools to work on emotional eating and choose, according to the patient and context, the most appropriate approach.