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HOW A HEALTH COUNSELOR CAN HELP YOU
Have you ever been told that your condition could be remarkably improved if you just made a few changes to your diet, like give up your favorite food, or stop eating sugar or caffeine? How did you feel?
For most people, the answer would be: awful. Reactions range from the person being totally furious and threatened, to massively depressed, to going "yeah, yeah" and ignoring the advice. Once in a while somebody might comply for some of the time, but generally it's about the most volatile thing that can be suggested.
Why?
The word "diet" can be very challenging. It conjurs up feelings of loss, deprivation, restriction, suffering, and self-loathing. The sheer amount of diet books, foods, shows, and concoctions, makes most of it seem like a scam, with a million stories of failed diets to further discredit the word. Diet is a word that stirs up negative associations for many many people.
Issues around food are extremely deep rooted - in body, mind, and spirit. Food is a necessity. We get uncomfortable, and could eventually die, if we do not get enough. So in every culture there is always an anxiety about food - is there enough or not enough, when do we eat, what do we eat, who is preparing it, who is finding it, growing it, buying it, killing it, when will the next time we eat be, will I / they like it, etc. Call it the dilemma of a self aware species.
Food is also a way to show love and caring of self and others. Here, this is what I made for you. I'm making my favorite dish. I'm going to treat myself. Let's go out to eat. Let me take you out to eat. I love ______. Great food at a party. All pleasant thoughts.
Conversely, we can also use food to hurt ourselves and others. From the momentary discomfort of being too full, to eating something that just doesn't agree, to drowning our sorrows - which are usually still there after the entire box of cookies or pint of ice cream is gone. We consciously eat things that we know detract from our well being, and sometimes we eat ourselves into life threatening situations. Most children know the situation of being forced to eat something - and threatened or punished when they do not comply. They also know the situation of being denied something to eat, or having food used as bait or a reward - if you do this then you can have that. Those children grow up. We as adults remember.
So there we have it: anxiety, love, and hate. All associated with food.
In our modern western culture of abundance, food or images of food are everywhere. Meal times are scheduled into our day by our schools, jobs, and families. We have favorite eating spots where we meet with friends. We have holidays and rituals where the major centerpiece is the meal and items for the season.
Our eating patterns have been established over a lifetime of cultural, biological, and emotional conditioning. When faced with the need to change, all these factors collide, leaving us lost and really not knowing how to resolve these issues, and create new eating patterns.
That's why "diets" do not work, even though the instructions can be very clear. That's why you can't snap to it when you are advised to go off sugar. That's why you have a fondness for this, or a craving for that. That is why it is really helpful to have a plan and a guide when one wishes or needs to make lasting change to their eating patterns.
This need for a guide with a plan is fulfilled by the role of Holistic Health Counselors specifically trained in the techniques of helping you find and implement the eating style that is best for you. If you have been told that you have high blood pressure, that you need to lose weight, or you are in recovery from heart surgery or cancer and need to "watch" your diet, the Holistic Health Counselor gives you the how.
The Certified Holistic Health Counselor, deals with your feelings and knowledge about food. A customized program of small and doable steps taken over a period of 5-6 months, gradually eases you into your new pattern of eating - helping you find new foods, new favorites, and come to terms with the anxiety, love, and hate that is a core part of your relationship to food and yourself. It is this ability to supportively tend to the emotions around food and self care that enables the Holistic Health Counselor to help you achieve your health goals.
HOW A HEALTH COUNSELOR