Joseph Wieliczko

I am a licensed clinical psychologist (Psy.D.) with over 22 years of clinical experience. Personally, I have been involved in a daily meditation practice for over 15 years. After years of conducting psychotherapy, I transitioned to providing psychological assessments including evaluations for preoperative bariatric patients and other types of evaluation services. As I listened and learned from patients talk about their struggles with weight management and their relationship to food, I began to investigate how my passion for meditation and mindfulness could be utilized to help individuals in their relationship to food and eating. In my work with preoperative bariatric patients and others, I have seen a strong need for mindful eating and mindfulness practices in order to help patients manage their hunger, stress level, impulsive eating, mood instability, self- esteem issues, etc. I explored the growing field of mindful eating. Eventually I created my own 8 session program (Mindful Eating & Stress Management Program) which is a combination of mindful eating techniques and practices, and mindfulness meditation and related practices to manage one’s stress level more effectively. By incorporating the practices of mindful eating and mindfulness, it can help one to learn how to eat more appropriately, enjoy food more, reduce daily stress and cope with the challenges of daily life more effectively.

This program is for individuals who struggle with weight control and/or maintaining dietary changes for various health conditions such as after bariatric weight loss, diabetes, heart conditions etc. This program is unique in that it is about learning ways to cultivate awareness to eat more appropriately, enjoy eating, reduce impulsive (and emotional eating), cope with cravings, reduce stress in one's life and cope with the challenges of daily life. This program is not a diet.

Mindful eating enables one to cultivate awareness in order to attend to body signals to decide what, when and how much to eat and drink. As you learn the skills, you will empower yourself without the need to struggle, feel deprived or exercise will-power. Emphasis is also placed on learning mindfulness meditation and other forms of stress management.

To learn more go to: Mindful4life.com