Changing Lives

The Weight Control Battle

Being overweight can lead to a multitude of health risks and, eventually, problems in almost every area of the body. Some well known examples are metabolic such as diabetes, as well as cardiovascular, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, and respiratory. Losing even 10% of one’s body weight can yield significantly beneficial health effects. Whether Wellspring Hawaii is for you or someone in your family, obesity is a factor to be taken seriously and acted upon now.

Wellspring understands that weight control can be a complicated struggle and that overweight people are up against many discouraging factors. Not only do we live in an “obesogenic” society where a sedentary lifestyle and poor food choices are the norm, we also live in a society that discriminates against those who are overweight. Overweight teens often face social challenges that others don’t face. These experiences typically have significant negative effects on the present happiness and future outlook of an overweight young person.

The Winning Answer: Behavioral Change

Wellspring’s program is based on decades of scientific research, which states that the only way to become a successful long term weight controller is to change behavior and revamp lifestyle. “Weight loss” regiments or diets will not be successful in the long run. Knowledge, awareness, and a new set of trained behaviors will result in long-term success.

Clinical Program

Wellspring’s clinical program utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy, dietary therapy and physical activity to train campers with the skills they will need to be successful, as well as to bolster commitment and improve frustration tolerance and stress management skills.

As the scientific research demonstrates, long-term weight control is a manageable athletic challenge. In other words, if someone is a serious runner, he or she will adhere to a fairly rigorous lifestyle and regimen. A serious runner probably keeps a log of progress, thinks about the foods he or she is ingesting, sets goals, discusses progress and advice with others, and adjusts daily routines accordingly; he or she is probably very focused on success. We know that successful weight control requires the same focus. If weight control were easy, nearly 1/3 of our children would not be overweight or obese. So Wellspring treats weight control as an athletic challenge; we are transforming our bodies in a way that our bodies don’t necessarily want to be transformed. This requires a very strong commitment, but one that can be fostered and solidified at Wellspring Hawaii.

Wellspring Hawaii campers are trained on a specific set of behaviors that have been proven to sustain lasting weight loss. Self-monitoring, journaling, goal-setting, and contracting become second nature to campers and are integrated with Wellspring’s nutrition and culinary training. The work is conducted by each camper’s Behavioral Coach (Masters or Doctoral level psychologists or social workers). The Behavioral Coach encourages the camper along the journey from novice to successful long-term weight control while working closely with them to overcome any barriers to mastering the behaviors.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) sessions in individual and group settings reinforce this training. CBT employs goal-setting, stimulus control decision counseling, relapse prevention training, rational emotive therapy, positive focusing, improving frustration tolerance, and stress management. Campers learn to apply their knowledge to challenges in life. Wellspring Behavioral Coaches are trained in applying learning, memory, emotions, and physiology to weight control, and the CBT sessions strengthen campers both mentally and emotionally.

CBT helps overweight teens effectively manage their weight and the barriers that to long-term weight control. CBT teaches campers to become self-regulators who can set attainable goals, be mindful of their actions, and stay committed to health and long term weight control while managing the stress that we all face in day to day life.

A group CBT session at Wellspring generally goes as follows:

Overview of each student’s accomplishments since the last meeting

  • Integration of a CBT/weight control topic such as coping mechanisms
  • Discussion of how students are doing in the program
  • Quiz on reading assigned in previous section
  • Assignment of new reading
  • Goal setting and behavioral contracts

Individual sessions are similar in that they review progress, but also provide an extended opportunity to focus on the details of each student’s progress.

Wellspring Hawaii Behavioral Coaches are Masters- or Doctoral-level clinicians under the direct supervision of Dr. Daniel Kirschenbaum. Dr. Kirschenbaum is a Professor at Northwestern University Medical School and a leading expert on weight control. To read more about his work, click here.