Q&A Vault - Psychology Module 22/ITN-PS… · Copyright Institute of Transformational Nutrition Inc. Disclaimer: This information is not intended to replace a one on

Copyright Institute of Transformational Nutrition Inc. www.instituteoftransformationalnutrition.com Disclaimer: This information is not intended to replace a one on one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Institute of Transformational Nutrition, Inc., its officers, affiliates, employees and Cynthia Pasquella encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The entire contents of this document are based upon the opinions of Cynthia Pasquella, unless otherwise noted.

Q&A Vault - Psychology Module 2

Table of Contents

Advice for Eating Disorders ............................................................................... 1 Identifying Eating Disorders .............................................................................. 5 Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy ............................................................. 7 Activating the Five Senses Under Stress ......................................................... 9 Marketing to Capture Attention ....................................................................... 14 The Sacred Science .......................................................................................... 16 Diet vs. Exercise ............................................................................................... 17 Working With Clients Before Graduation ....................................................... 18 Disordered Eating = Eating Disorders ............................................................ 20

Advice for Eating Disorders Q: If somebody comes to me with an eating disorder, other than giving the client the

information from the National Eating Disorder Association, I’m not really clear on what

my role should be. Could you clarify that for me?

A: Not everyone will be that self-aware that they have an eating disorder. A lot of people

will be in denial about it. As a matter of fact, the majority of people will be in denial. Like

everyone that comes to you if they know I’m not an emotional eater, “I just eat when I’m

tired or stressed or upset.” But nobody is ever an emotional eater and nobody ever has

an eating disorder and everyone eats really healthy and just doesn’t understand why


they can’t lose weight. So those are your clients. And it’s totally fine. That’s why you’re

there to help shine the light on those shadows and help them step out of it. Second of all,

if you feel like there’s something – because people binge eat, overeat and those are

signs and maybe the first stages of eating disorders. What you would do in those

situations is support them in the ways that you can support them. What I mean by that is

you have certain coaching techniques that you’ve learned already. You’re going to learn

many more. You’re going to learn the right questions to ask. You’re going to learn when

to ask those questions to get them to open up a bit more. What you want to be able to do

is support them where they are… which is they don’t have an eating disorder according

to them and then gently guide them into a place where they feel safe, even being open

to the idea that maybe they need a bit more help than what you can provide.

If it’s someone who comes to you and they binge eat sometimes – and quite honestly, I

mean, don't most people binge eat at some point their life? They may not have an

eating disorder, but I’ve done it. In those cases, it’s perfectly fine for you to work with

them given what you know from this material. When you want to refer them to a

professional is when their health is in danger.

I shared the story of the girl eating the pizza and then like running down the street – I

knew – part of me wanted to chase her down the street, as I said, I want to talk to this

poor girl, let me help her. But I knew that I couldn’t help her. I could but I wasn’t

qualified. She really needed to see a therapist. She really needed to see someone in the

medical field for that. What you’ll need to do is just get really clear and feel that out.

What I see some coaches doing from time to time, whether they’re life coaches or

wellness coaches or whatever, is trying to take on that role of being a therapist and not

having the right tools to do it and then obviously that not ending up well for the client.


I see so many people are, “No, I can fix her. I can change her. I can help him.” They

can’t because that’s not where their training lies. That’s not where they’re good. I’ve

actually referred clients to doctors and to therapists and to that National Disorders Eating

– or Eating Disorders hotline and then coach them along with them working with a doctor

or a therapist because they do things differently than we do. It’s like with therapy, they

sort of go back and they look at what happened and they help you process that and then

you process it some more. Not that there’s anything wrong with therapy, I love therapy. I

think everyone should be in therapy.

But what we do is different. What we do is take them back look at what’s important, to

know where that came from, we teach them they’re not a victim, that nothing happened

to them, that everything happened for them, and we recognize what happened. We

acknowledge it. We’re very much aware of it. But then we use that to empower us to

move forward. We don’t stay back there with them. We don’t kind of roll in the mud and

kick and do that whole thing. It’s like we guide them forward. That’s what we do as

coaches. So you can actually work in tandem. I’ve done that many, many times with

doctors and therapists, because your goal and your job is to really let them make their

own decisions, but support them in doing so because you’re going to have the expert

information that they won’t. You’re going to be able to give them the correct diet that is

nutrient dense. If they’re not eating a ton of food, then you can give them food that’s

packed with nutrients. You can make sure they get the right supplements so that they’re

staying healthy even though they may not be eating a ton of food.


You kind of have to make that call depending on the client and what they’re saying to

you and what you’re seeing and also what you’re sensing. You have to tune in to that

person. If there’s a woman in your office who weighs 90 pounds and says, “No, I don’t

have an eating disorder. I just don’t like to eat food and I’ve had some trauma when I

was little around food so I just don’t like to eat it. It makes me feel bad. But I’m not

anorexic.” And they tell you they eat lettuce for dinner and some coffee for breakfast.

Clearly there’s an issue here.

That would be a case where you would say, “Right. I, at this point, don’t feel comfortable

continuing our work together. I’m happy to support you and coach you, but I really feel

like I need to do that in conjunction with a professional who deals with these types of

things.” You can do that when you feel ready. I’ve actually worked with women for

several sessions because in the first session there was no way they would have gone for

that. But I worked with them for a few sessions, knowing that I could get them to open

up and then they’ve gone to therapy and it’s been a really beautiful transition.

But there have also been women that have come to me and at the first session, I’ve

known have been very much in denial. They’re not open to change and while we like to

think that we can help everybody and change everybody, sometimes we can’t and

sometimes we’re not the right person to do that and sometimes, we’re doing them more

harm by trying. You know, it’s like our ego gets in the way. We have to be really clear

when we’re dealing with people’s health and their life that we don’t do that.


Identifying Eating Disorders Q: If someone has an eating disorder, more than likely they’re not going to be 100

percent upfront about their disorder especially at first. Can you explain a situation that

you were in that you suspected that your client had a potential eating disorder, and how

you were able to get them to be honest with you about it?

A: Yes, I’ve definitely had clients who were totally in denial about having an eating

disorder. But quite honestly, we’re in denial about a lot of things going on in their life.

“Nope, we’re fine. There’s nothing wrong.” So I have had that. What I’ve done in those

situations and I’ve talked about this; if it’s a situation where I can just sense and feel that

this person is locked in and it’s a much bigger thing than I can help them with, then I

refer them on to a professional in the field of eating disorders. Whether or not they go is

not up to me. But that was the right thing for me to do based on how I felt at the time that

they came in.

In terms of people who who’ve come to me and I’ve suspected eating disorders, I really

coach them and work with them using all of the techniques that we’ve talked about plus

the others that we haven’t talked about yet that we’ll get into when it comes time to

coaching, like learning to ask the right questions, learning how you ask those questions,

learning what you follow up with, learning when to stop asking questions, those types of

things. You’ll learn all of that so don’t worry about it quite yet. But really, it’s about

choosing which questions to ask and also allowing them space to open up on their own.

I’ve never said to someone, “I feel like you have an eating disorder. Do you?” It’s all

coaching, “Talk to me about the last time that you felt really guilty for eating.” So they’ll

talk about that. I’ll say, “Okay, great. So how did you feel during that time? Or what was


it that happened that made you feel guilty? What did you do?” That’s when a lot of

things like binge eating and starving and punishing themselves with food, have come up.

You can slowly work into that. “Did you feel like you were out of control? Where do you

feel now in regards to being able to control either this overeating or starving yourself or

this punishment? Tell me how you feel with the ability for you to control that.”

Realize that when these people come to you, they want help. They’re not coming to you

just because they have nothing else to do on their calendar. These people really do want

you to help them and sometimes we have to push them, gently push them just past that

point of their comfort zone because that’s how they grow and that’s how they step into

these bigger things. But really feeling it out. Every client is going to be different so it’s

going to be up to you to ask the right questions but also giving them space to do that.

Most of the time when I’ve done that, people have opened up and said, “This is what I do

and here’s how I do it.” There have been times where they didn’t even realize it was an

eating disorder. When people say, “Gosh, yes. I binge and then I starve myself and then

I binge and then I starve or sometimes I’ll make myself throw up or sometimes I take

laxatives.” And I’ll say, “Wow, it’s interesting because that’s the clinical definition of

bulimia. That’s the clinical definition of anorexia. Did you know that?” A lot of times they’ll

say, “No, really? I didn’t realize that.” Then I offer some other experts or the hotline that

we can offer or someone in your area.

If I were you, I would find someone in your area that specializes in eating disorders so

that you have that person’s information and you can refer people on, if you’re working

one on one with clients. A lot of times that’s much better than just you know referring

them or sending them off to find a therapist or someone who specializes in eating


disorders because then you make that warm introduction and it makes them feel better

and you can work with them and what their therapist is doing. It actually creates a really

great situation in that case. That’s sort of expanding a bit on what we talked about with

eating disorders.

Mindfulness-‐Based Cognitive Therapy Q: I have a question on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Do you have any

suggestions for a book or another resource that might go more into detail about it?

A: This is actually a new therapy. It’s not as widely accepted or not as widely used as

just CBT, which is sort of an old school therapy or old school way of treating people.

There’s a great book that I read just not too long ago on mindfulness-based cognitive

therapy. I’ll have to remember the name of it and then maybe send that to you.

But one of the things that I would if I were you is just do a Google search and really look

at some of the resources that are out there. I say to do a Google search because the

thing with Google and the things with looking at what’s new and the articles that are

being written is because this is such a new therapy, a lot of times, there are new studies

coming out. There are new resources. There are new blogs. There are new experts

starting blogs, writing books, and doing interviews. So, a lot of times, you’ll find some

really great techniques and some really great information about this therapy just by doing

a Google search.


There’s also a book that is actually almost like a textbook for depression because a lot of

mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is centered around depression. I think it’s just

called the Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression.

Yes, that one is actually a really great book and even though it says for depression,

because that’s typically where that therapy is used, because usually at the root, there’s

some sort of depression with people who deal with these types of issues, whether it’s

anxiety or stress. Even though it says that, don’t let that throw you. It’s actually a really

great resource to look into MBCT and really look at how it’s practiced and how it’s

utilized and the method that people have used to implement this with their clients. It’s

actually really good.

UCSD actually did an amazing program on MBCT at one time and there was a book that

they had. I’ll check and see if they still offer that. I looked for it a couple of months ago,

and they didn’t have it anymore. But I’ll check and see. I’ll revisit and maybe give them a

call to see if they are still offering that. But they actually do a lot of work. They have an

institute. I think it’s called the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.

UCLA actually has one too where they do a lot of MBCT stuff. The administrator at the

UCLA Mindfulness Center is working on writing a book but I don’t think it’s ready yet,

where he teaches other people about mindfulness related topics like self-compassion

and relationships and healing and self-love and those types of things. A lot of times on

their blog, they have really great articles that you can read.

I would recommend checking out UCLA Center for Mindfulness and also UCSD because

they both have a ton of great information and resources.


There’s also a workbook that is good and it’s just called, I think, A Mindfulness-Based

Stress Reduction Workbook or Reducing Stress Workbook. You can Google it or look on

Amazon. Mindful Eating is another. It doesn’t necessarily speak to that therapy or go

into detail about the therapy. It sort of works around it, using MBCT. It’s called Mindful

Eating by Jan Chozen Bays, which is another great resource, as well.

Activating the Five Senses Under Stress Q: You have mentioned, as a part of the care and support methods for eating disorders,

self-soothing. Could you please give me some examples of activating the five senses

when you’re feeling stressed or emotionally vulnerable?

A: When we talk about one of the self-care and support methods of self-soothing and

activating those five senses, what it really does is help to support the act of being

present and being mindful. Here’s an example, let’s say that you’re feeling really

stressed. When we feel stressed and really anxious, and we’re caught up in this

conversation, the story, the false reality, if you will, that’s circulating in our heads, it’s like

“this thing is happening and this is going to cause that to happen, how could I have done

that and this is terrible and the world is going to stop spinning sort of thing.” What’s really

important is to activate those five senses.

So let me tell you how you might do that in that situation. You’re really stressed out.

You’re vulnerable. You’re worried about the future. Everything is ending. So here are the

five senses:


• Sight is the one I like to use first because it’s so easy. I like to find something

that’s really calm and still and peaceful. Some examples of that like sometimes I’ll

look out the window. Where I live, I have these big oak trees. So if I’m at home

and I’m having this situation, I have these huge trees and they’re rooted and

they’re grounded and they’re strong and they’re really still and standing in their

power. That’s a great reminder. Slowing down, witnessing something really

peaceful.

• Another thing is water. I think water is really, really great to again have that

peace, that calm, that stillness because when you’re going crazy in your mind,

you want something really calming. There’s actually a technique that I’ll teach

you guys called the STOP Technique. I’ll teach you that after I answer this five

senses question but observing something still.

• The next sense is hearing. Again, really being present and just stopping and

listening. What do you hear going on around you? Of course, to listen you have

to get very quiet, physically and also on the inside. That helps to still our mind.

We’ve witnessed the still outside. Now, we bring that inside by listening. We get

really still and we just listen start observing the things that we’re hearing around

us. Again, what it does is bring us back to the present moment and it stops our

mind from turning.

• Smell is a great one because your sense of smell has a way of sort of taking us

back to this place and time. It has a way of calming us. Different scents do

different things. In this case, we’re really stressed out. So I might recommend

smelling something like a lavender essential oil or something that’s very calming


to the body. Rose oil would be really beautiful to smell in that case. Some people

like something that comforts them so like warm bread, baking, or something like

that if you have that available. But using your smell, I usually like to use essential

oils because I can break them out really quickly.

• Taste is another thing that you can use. Again, all of this is just bringing us back

to the present. I really like to take something like a fruit because fruits are so

sweet and have all these great beautiful textures and often are full of these really

great juices and nectars. So something like an orange is ideal and what you want

to do is just be really present with the orange. You want to eat the orange. You

want to taste it. You’re feeling the juice sort of drip out into your mouth and you’re

like in this one experience with the orange. You don’t have to use all these, by

the way, at the same time. I would recommend choosing one or two to use

together, maybe even three, but I don’t recommend that you do them all. It

depends on the situation and where you are and what’s around you. But that’s a

really great one because again, what it does is it brings your focus to your mouth

and to the food that you’re eating, the food that you taste as opposed to you

being in your head, freaking out because of whatever it is that you’re stressed out

about.

• And then finally, touch. With touch just, again, something if you’re stressed out, I

recommend touching soft and comfortable, something to comfort you. I often

seek sanctuary in my bed because it’s really comfy and I can wrap up in the

covers and touch them and to feel them. That’s always great. Also human touch;

there’s nothing as powerful as raising your vibrational frequency and really

resetting where you are and bringing you back to the present moment as human


touch. It’s just that energy that’s exchanged between two people. It’s such a

beautiful thing. It’s like when you’re upset and someone hugs you and you’re just

like, “Oh. That felt so good,” It’s just that release that allows you to release that

energy and that person is giving you their energy in return.

Those are some examples of the five senses. Again, you can use some of those

together. You don’t have to use all of them at once. If somebody’s hugging you, don’t

reach for an orange. Just be there.

I mentioned to you a STOP Technique and I want to share with you what this is because

I didn’t explain this in the training yet. Basically there is a technique that you can use

when people are very stressed or very anxious to help them sort of regroup. It’s called

STOP.

The S actually stands for stop. Mind boggling, I know. Stop, you’re just stopping

whatever you’re doing in the present moment. Just stop. You stop your thoughts. You

stop your actions. You just stop.

The T is for take a breath. So take a deep breath, in and out, and calm yourself. You

have stopped, you’re taking that deep breath, you’re bringing your awareness to your

breath.

O is for observe. Observe something still and calm. Again, this is to be used in those

moments where there’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of stress, you’re freaking out about

something, or your client is maybe freaking out about something. I’ve used this with

clients in the middle of sessions so many times. But observe something still. Again just


like I talked about with sight, it really helps to calm you. You might want to look out at

some trees or some water if that’s around you. You can even close your eyes and

visualize something still. Just observe something still. It could be something simple like a

table or a chair that’s just sitting, but something that’s still and firm and standing in its

power. From there, stay in that moment where you stopped. Take in this really deep

cleansing breath. You’re observing something still. That brings you back to just being

really mindful and really present. Stay there for just a minute until you feel like you’re

calm and that you kind of have it together, and that you’re not going to like act out or let

your thoughts run wild with you, or anything like that.

The P is proceed, to take an action that leads you closer to your goal. So it could be

something like, if you’re stressed out about not being ready for your client who’s coming

in 10 minutes and you have to hurry and get all of these things done, maybe proceed to

calmly look at what needs to be done before the person arrives and then do that. But

you’re no longer stressed. You’re no longer in the sort of crazy place.

For emotional eating, for example, this is a great technique because you can stop,

observe the stillness, look at where you are, assess kind of what’s going on and the way

you proceed is to do something different. Maybe if you’re really truly hungry, eating a

healthier food. It could be calling a friend. It could be getting a massage. It could be

having a hot cup of tea. Basically, any of those self-care methods that we’ve talked

about in the Psychology Module you can use any of those to proceed forward.

So that’s the STOP Technique. It’s actually really powerful and one that you can use with

yourself or with clients as needed if they’re in a session or give it to them, empower them


with it so that they can take it with them after they leave and then use whenever they

might need to use that.

Marketing to Capture Attention Q: Usually in advertising and marketing, you only have a few seconds to capture

someone’s attention. What do you try to get across in your messaging in those first few

seconds? Humor, authenticity, a free offer, a special deal, etc.?

A: It really does depend on a few things. When you’re using advertising or marketing or

you’re putting yourself out there to get someone’s attention, it really depends on where

you’re doing that. Are you doing that in a physical medium? Are you doing it online, like

on Facebook? Also, what is your goal; like why are you doing it?

Let me give you an example. We’re getting ready to do our launch for ITN, like this next

round of enrollment, which we’re super excited about, and one of the things that we’ll be

doing is running ads on Facebook because it’s a really great medium and a very

responsive medium. A lot of people are on there who are interested in this field so it

works out really well for us. What we’re going to be doing with that ad, after getting their

attention, is taking them to our website and getting them on our list to view our free

videos.

So for any sort of launch or building your list, of course, the goal is to get them on the

list. You always want to make sure that you give people a call to action. Give them one

thing to do, never two things, never three things because if you give them more than one

thing, the chances are that they won’t do anything. As a matter of fact, studies have


shown that the more things that you give them to do or ask them to do, the less chance

of them doing anything at all. So always give them just one thing and make sure that one

thing supports your bigger initiative.

For us, we’re really trying to do with The Institute is to grow our list so that we have more

and more people interested in the program and interested in learning these techniques

so we get more and more exposure for it. Whatever we do, our goal is to get them on our

list so that we can communicate with them and give them great information.

But it really depends on what you’re doing and what you want them to do. If you’re

sending people to your self-page, then what you want them to do is buy your product.

I’m assuming they’re already on your list and you’re running a sale. You send them

there. You want them to buy. So that should be the call to action. What you want to get

across in those first few seconds, you always want to have a great headline. We’re going

to talk about that in the next business module, by the way. You always want to have a

great headline. As soon as they go there, your messaging should capture what that

entire web page is about. You have to get really creative about how you write headlines

and I’ll teach you how to do that.

What tone you use and how you come across really depends on what you’re offering. If

you’re offering something like a Hungry Hottie Cookbook, that’s really fun and it teaches

them to cook and its light and a fun name, then you want to have humor and you want to

be fun with it and you want to be maybe a little sassy. That’s just that brand. However,

that would be very different than if you’re offering a service where you are helping people

who have been newly diagnosed with cancer and you’re trying to support them

nutritionally…a very, very different tone.


In this case, it really just depends on what message you’re trying to get across. So you

have to look at, first of all, where you’re sending people, what your bigger goal is, what

you want them to do and then your messaging is just going to depend on what it is that

you’re putting out there. Is it a program? Is it a fun cookbook? Is it a program for cancer

patients? Is it a business program where you want to teach people to sort of do what

you’ve done? Looking at your goals and what you’re teaching and what you want the

end outcome to be, will form the basis for your messaging and how you come across

and whether or not you use humor or something different.

The Sacred Science Q: Thank you sharing the movie The Sacred Science. it was amazing and so powerful. I

noticed that one of the Shaman said that his grandfather never had enough time to teach

him everything he knew but he reassured the Shaman that he should go into the jungle

and he’d be led the correct plant to match illnesses. He would be led because of his

passion for healing and clear goals. I believe that in life we will also be drawn toward the

correct people and solutions if we also have a strong passion for what we do and have a

clear goal.

A: You know, here’s the thing that I love about that movie, it’s such an intuitive way of

living and there’s this ultimate, like the Shaman talks about, there’s this ultimate trust,

just inherent belief that if we open ourselves up and we are destined to do something

and we believe that it’s our birth right and it’s definitely our passion that we’ll be led to

the right places and the right people to do that. I fully believe that. So whether it’s the

plant that we’re trying to find or a teacher or a resource, I believe that that’s what


happens and I too love that part of the film, so I love that you brought that up here and

pointed it out.

This is the kind of a thought and feeling that I really want to invoke in everything, in all of

our clients. We are experts in this field and we learn from these experts but ultimately

you’re the expert on you. And your client is the expert on them. And so we have to all

sort of get to this place where we inherently know and we trust and we feel that this is

what’s right for us in this moment. And I believe that we have that. I believe just like the

Shamans that we just know, that we know what our body needs, that we know what we

need in our lives and so the more we can empower our clients and get them to buy into

that because right now they don’t get that, right? Because they keep going to the experts

and they keep going to the diet books and they keep going to all of these resources

when ultimately they have everything they need inside of them.

They may not know that and that’s why they have you, right? They may need additional

tools or not have the education and that’s why they have you but I believe that we are on

the edge of what can be a phenomenal breakthrough as getting back to that reconnected

if you will, to that intuition that we all have.

Diet vs. Exercise Q: Should I advise for more exercise with the same diet? Or should I advise for even

better food choices just staying with the same exercises, which will work better?”

A: So here’s the thing with weight loss, it sounds like they’re looking for weight loss

because they’ve reached a plateau. With weight loss it is 85 percent plus diet. The way


to have the biggest impact with someone who’s trying to lose weight is through their diet.

Obviously exercise is important and using the two together is phenomenal, especially if

you can do something like burst training, it’s so powerful but the diet is always going to

be the thing that makes the biggest difference.

So I would advice in that particular situation for just even better food choices, cleaner

food choices, looking at portioned sized, looking at the foods that are being eaten

because even healthy food like nuts still have a lot of fat and if we’re eating a ton of

those and you’re trying to lose weight obviously that’s not going to work. So looking at

the foods in particular and then also portion sizes, the quality of the food, all of those

things, exactly what you said, that’s what I would advice and that’s a really great

question.

Working With Clients Before Graduation Q: Many of you have emailed asking if it’s okay to start working with clients before you

completely finish the program.

A: It depends. For most of you I feel like because I’m reading your tests and I’m looking

over everything that you’re submitting and I really feel like we’re at the point where you

guys have a really great grasp everything that we’ve been covering so far. You’re

definitely in a place to, I feel if you feel good about it and you feel like you have this

information and you have this knowledge that you’ve accumulated over the past few

months to start working with clients, it’s something that you know, here’s the thing with

working with clients that the biggest I guess hurdle is that, people never quite feel ready

and they don’t feel like they have enough information and they’re afraid to work with


people because they think they’ll ask a question and they’re not going to know the

answer.

It’s a very common thing, it’s something that I suffered with forever, I just kept studying

and studying and getting more information because I was terrified that somebody would

say, “What about this diet or whatever about that?” And I wouldn’t have a clue as to what

they were talking about. So I know that happens. At this point in the training you

definitely have a ton of information, you guys have more information, more knowledge

already at this point in the program and we’re only half way through than most people

get in an entire nutrition certification program. I know because I’ve taken almost all of

them. So you guys have a lot and not only that, we’re covering so many different facets,

we have the science, we have the psychology, we’ve touched on spirituality even though

we haven’t studied the spiritual concepts in depth yet so you guys have a lot of

information and you’re armed with so much, powerful knowledge now that you could

benefit and help some people in such a big way.

Just take this week for example, so we talked about obesity for example in module 3 and

I gave you a whole little bag of tools that you could use from the positive food messages,

to affirmations, to looking at how you see yourself, to shifting your attitude, meditating,

confidence.

There are so many things there that you have now to use and to share with people that

there’s absolutely people that you could impact in such a big way just with those tools

alone. Not to mention all of the other weeks’ worth of information that we’ve covered. So

my response to that is, “if you feel comfortable and when you feel comfortable, you can

absolutely start working with clients in this capacity.”


Now as you get more knowledge, you are going to have more tools to offer them and

that will be amazing and fantastic and also the more experience you get working with

clients the better coach you become. So it kind of goes hand in hand, the more

knowledge obviously the more confident you’ll be and the more tools you have to offer

them, but also the more time you spend with clients the more comfortably you get with

them, you start to refine your techniques and then you can put the tools that you’re using

from this program into effect more easily. If and when you feel comfortable you guys are

more than okay to start acting as a coach and helping people with their own

transformations.

Disordered Eating = Eating Disorders Q: I just wanted to clarify the nutritional counseling section under education you

mentioned diet, calories, and exercise also relationships between food, mood and body

size and disordered eating. Could you clarify the last two for me? Our examples of

disordered eating, anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder, I just haven’t come

across the term disordered eating, I just wanted to make sure I was on the right track.

A: In this module when we’re talking about nutritional counseling, I remember this slide

we talk about education. So one of the tools that you can use, obviously when working

with people who are obese or one of the tools that they can use is nutritional counseling

which is what you guys are doing, so with the education portion what we’re talking about

there is educating them on diets, on calories, on exercise, one the relationship between

food, mood and body size and disordered eating.


I know that term disordered eating might have thrown you a little bit, so sorry about that,

but all that means is essentially eating disorders and we’ve talked about those already in

a previous module and you listed them here. So you’re very aware of what they are you

know, over eating, under eating, doing that to the extreme, all of those are examples of

disordered eating and those are things that you as a counselor, as a coach, can help

them on.

So that was just an example that was listed on that slide and some of the things that you

now know and are aware of and then also the relationship between food, mood and body

size, coaching them through that which we just talked about again in previous modules

and we’ll continue to talk about, but is essentially looking at emotional eating and why do

we eat and what is the relationship between say eating sugar when we’re depressed?

Well, you guys know now that it releases those feel good chemicals in our brain that

makes us happy. We get that serotonin boost and that oxytocin boost so that obviously

is a direct relationship between food and mood. So those are some of the things that

we’re talking about. And then of course, body size, body image, the relationship between

the size of your body and your mood and food that you’re eating and essentially how all

of that works together which we’ve been exploring now for a few weeks.

So, yes you’re perfectly clear on that and you’re totally on the right track and sorry that

that term disordered eating was confusing, but you are 100 percent clear on that. And

again, these are all of the things that in terms of education that benefit someone who is

obese. Just really educating them on what these things are and what they mean and the

second half of nutritional counseling is as you know from this week is coaching. Really

being that motivator, that cheerleader if you will, that encourager, really supporting the

choices that they’re making and how they’re making them and really putting the other


plan and coaching them through to becoming their best self and supporting them in all of

the missteps and challenges that no doubt will happen.

Documents

Q&A Vault - Psychology Module 22/ITN-PS… · Copyright Institute of Transformational Nutrition Inc. Disclaimer: This information is not intended to replace a one on