There’s a version of this patient you see every week.
They know what to do.
They’ve done it before.
It doesn’t hold.
You’ve had this conversation with them more than once.
What this is
What I Wish I Knew is a one on one coaching program for the patterns, beliefs, and stress responses that shape how someone relates to food and their body.
It isn’t a weight loss program. What we’re after is a workable relationship with food and body, and practices that survive an ordinary bad day. Weight change sits outside what I promise and outside how we measure whether the work is doing anything.
It’s coaching. It isn’t medical care, therapy, nutrition counseling, or eating disorder treatment, and it doesn’t replace any of them. I don’t diagnose, treat, or manage conditions. I don’t advise on medication and I don’t write nutrition plans.
When this is a fit
Someone who understands what healthier behavior looks like and can’t make it hold once real life resumes.
They’ve usually done this before, more than once. They’re tired of the cycle and they’re willing to look at what’s underneath it rather than start another round of rules.
A GLP-1 can change what happens with hunger. What sits around food doesn’t move on its own. If your patient is on a GLP-1, or working with you toward coming off one, this coaching works with the patterns, emotions, beliefs, and self-trust surrounding food and their body while you handle the clinical side.
They also need to be medically and psychologically appropriate for coaching, and willing to keep their clinical care where it belongs.
What we work on
We see the pattern first, then understand why it’s there, and only then build anything on top of it. That order is the whole method.
- Recognizing their own patterns before changing anything
- Steadying the nervous system, which everything else sits on
- Cravings, what they are and what to do with them
- What food has been carrying for them
- Fear, resistance, and the traps that pull people off course
- Their body, from something to fix to something to understand
- Identity, self-trust, and whether change holds
The program overview provides a fuller look at what we work through and how the program works.
How the work runs
The curriculum has a clear sequence, but the coaching cadence is flexible. I recommend moving through no more than one module at a time so there is room to apply it before moving on. We meet more often when support is useful, then space sessions out as the work settles. There is no fixed session count.
Who this isn’t for, and how I screen
This isn’t the right support for someone who needs specialized medical or mental health treatment, including treatment for an active eating disorder. If what someone’s carrying needs clinical care, that care comes first.
Three steps before anyone starts.
An intake questionnaire covering their goals, their current providers, GLP-1 use, mental health treatment, and eating disorder history.
A discovery call, where I’m listening for one thing. Is coaching the right level of support, or does this person need care I’m not qualified to provide?
A coaching agreement that puts the scope in writing, including what I don’t do.
If your patient has a history of an eating disorder, or is currently in treatment for a mental health condition, I ask for your written clearance before we begin. That call belongs with you, not with me.
If coaching isn’t right, I’ll say so and encourage them to work with the appropriate licensed professional first. I’d rather make that call early than halfway in.
Where my role ends
Medical care, medication management, nutrition guidance, and mental health treatment stay with the licensed professionals responsible for them. When those needs come up, I send the client back to the right provider.
Working alongside you is client-directed, and light on you.
I ask clients to share the overview with their prescriber so everyone’s working from the same understanding of scope. After each session they get notes, and they decide whether those go any further. If a client wants me to speak with you, I’ll need that in writing from them first, and what I’ll cover is how the program works.
I don’t discuss session content, send progress updates, or function as part of the clinical care team. You stay responsible for their care. I stay in coaching.
One thing worth knowing up front. If someone you send isn’t a fit, I’ll tell them and point them toward appropriate care, but I won’t be able to tell you unless they ask me to. Nothing comes back to you without their written permission.
If you have questions about the program itself, ask me directly. That part doesn’t need anyone’s permission.
Why you can trust the process
I’ve coached for thirty years and more than 20,000 hours, with another 13,000 in facilitation. For two decades I built development programs inside organizations, work that lives or dies on whether insight actually turns into behavior people keep. I’m a Certified Professional Coach through iPEC, an ICF-accredited training program.
The method here is the same one I’ve used the whole time. Find the pattern, understand what’s driving it, build something the person’s real life can hold.
I know this particular territory personally. I was morbidly obese for most of my life, I lost 160 pounds, and I’ve kept over 135 of it off for years. I could recite the advice. I could follow it for a while. I couldn’t make it hold. What changed things was understanding what sat underneath the behavior. That’s where this program came from, and it’s why I built it the way I did.
The simplest way to refer is to hand your patient the overview. It shows them what the program covers, and they can reach out directly if they want to talk about fit.
You don’t need to send me any patient information.
Questions about the program or about fit in general are welcome.
