Private Coaching

It's almost impossible to learn Normal Eating without feedback from others. People overeat in order to distract themselves and not think about the real problems in their lives, so there is built-in resistance to the insights that make the difference. You can benefit just by reading the Normal Eating book and doing the exercises on your own, but you will get much more benefit with feedback.

The Normal Eating Support Group provides group-level coaching plus the powerful benefit of peer feedback and interaction. Seeing others move through the Normal Eating stages and achieve success is a potent motivator and model for success. Reading about others struggling with the same situation you are also is powerfully healing - you know you're not alone. Posts from others can yield unexpected insights that wouldn't have occurred to you on your own. Also, people make friends in the forum, and that can mean a lot to someone who feels isolated due to a weight problem.

But sometimes you may want help with issues that you're not comfortable posting about in the forum, or you may want more personal attention than I can provide in the forum. Private coaching can be a useful supplement to the forum experience. However, it can't take the place of the Support Group, so private coaching is available only to Normal Eating Support Group members.

Coaching Fees and Services

Normal Eating coaching is $124 per one hour session, payable in advance. You can choose whether to communicate through phone or email. With phone coaching we spend the hour talking on the phone. With email coaching I spend the hour writing a detailed response to messages you've sent me.

Phone coaching calls are to a New York City number supplied by the StanaPhone VoIP service (www.stanaphone.com). This allows people with StanaPhone accounts to make the call for free from anywhere in the world. Of course you can also use a standard POTS line if you're calling from a New York number or don't mind the long distance charges.

There is a four session minimum for email coaching because of the slower pace of communication. The advantage is that you have a written record to refer back to - in essense, your own personalized Normal Eating book. You can email me as often as you like. You don't have to (and shouldn't) wait for me to respond before sending more email. When I respond, I'll answer all the messages you've sent me. I usually respond once a week - unless, of course, I haven't heard back from you yet and have no messages to respond to.

What To Expect with Coaching

The four stages of Normal Eating and the exercises that accompany each stage are the starting point for private coaching. When you do the exercises with a coach, you'll tend to go deeper and get more out of them. I'll help you to write and interpret your weight history, gain insights from your eating experience log, explore the issues that trigger non-hunger eating, and help you to find coping strategies that work better.

It's important to note that coaching isn't the same as psychotherapy. Normal Eating coaching has the limited focus of helping you learn Normal Eating. If the issues that come up don't run too deep I can help you work through them, but if they do run deep, I'll suggest you see a therapist to work through the issues. Coaching and therapy complement each other and work well together. The Normal Eating work can identify hot button areas that you then work through with a therapist.

If you are interested in private coaching, click here to send me email. As mentioned previously, private coaching is only available to Normal Eating Support Group members because it works best as an adjunct to forum participation.