Psychological Interventions Before & After Surgery
PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS BEFORE BARIATRIC SURGERY
Bariatric surgery will transform many areas of your life – eating, weight, work, relationships, social life, body image, self-esteem – so you will need plenty of support and guidance in the time before your procedure.
Weight loss and maintenance is often a prerequisite before bariatric surgery takes place. This can be a sensible time to introduce new eating patterns and behaviours.
Psychological support can prepare you for the physical, psychological and emotional requirements of weight loss surgery.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT PRE-SURGERY
A pre-surgery assessment of your psychological health is required, to ensure you will remain committed to the long term changes needed after your weight loss surgery procedure.
During your psychological assessment, we will address your expectation of what the weight loss surgery process will be like, what you want from the surgery, and assess the presence of any existing mental health conditions that may interfere with your surgery outcomes.
In order for you to experience the best outcomes from your weight loss surgery, it is essential to identify any past or current eating behaviours, and potential emotional triggers, that might interfere with your adherence to the new diet and lifestyle changes needed following surgery.
During the psychological assessment, your therapist will look into the factors mentioned below in more detail:
Socio-cultural factors
You will explore adverse life events, family members with eating disorders, dysfunctional family structure, negative attitudes about body image.
Biological factors
Family health history, previous or current health conditions, explore any genetic predisposition, unexplained health symptoms, sleep patterns, digestive disorders and food allergies.
Psychological factors
Identify any psychological themes such as perfectionism, low self-esteem, mental health experiences such as anxiety or depression, your relationship with food (compulsive eating / eating with others), body image concerns and emotional stress (trauma, abuse, relationships).
Let us Explain how we can help you
Speak with our friendly patient concierge team, and let us answer any questions you have about weight loss surgery
PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS AFTER BARIATRIC SURGERY
Our psychotherapy team is very experienced in working with people who have undergone bariatric surgery, and who previously struggled with their eating patterns and behaviour.
Our therapists are here to support you in adapting to the changes in lifestyle, appearance, body image and self-identity that may occur as a result of the substantial weight loss following surgery.
We will show you how to navigate social situations and equip you with all the necessary tools to manage your emotions effectively without reaching for food to soothe yourself.
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can be very effective in helping you challenge your unhelpful thoughts and behaviours that maintain your unhealthy eating habits.
Interpersonal Therapy works more with managing emotions and feelings in relationships with others, and can help you to calm your eating, improve your mood and give you a sense of feeling more in control.
Your therapist will support you in developing a healthier mindset that can drive a change in eating and exercise behaviour, resulting in healthy and steady weight loss following surgery.
WEIGHT LOSS THERAPY
When psychological factors run much deeper, and have influenced how our personality has been structured, a deeper psychotherapy is needed that disconnects these early patterns.
Weight loss therapy allows a new system to be developed, where you can manage stress well, find balance with your eating and experience being in your body in a healthy way.
We believe psychological treatment is collaborative, so we work together in developing goals for therapy in areas that need focus and attention.
If you are interested in receiving additional psychological support, beyond the individual psychotherapy and group support included in your weight loss surgery package, please book a call with our Patient Concierge Team who can provide you with further details.
Let us support you in achieving the best outcomes from your weight loss surgery.