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Personal Weight Loss Strategies in Obesity
Published in Emily Crews Splane, Neil E. Rowland, Anaya Mitra, Psychology of Eating, 2019
Emily Crews Splane, Neil E. Rowland, Anaya Mitra
Weight loss is the primary goal of behavioral therapy (BT), but other psychological issues may be addressed with BT (e.g., depression). The goal here is to arm subjects with a new set of eating habits that they use for the rest of their lives (i.e., relearn what and when to eat). Unfortunately, most BT programs are not tremendously effective in the long term. According to Wing and Phelan (2005), participants in behavioral weight loss programs lose an average of 7% to 10% of their body weight within six months of standard treatment but gain back almost 50% of the lost weight after one year. Their research indicates that approximately 20% of dieters are successful at maintaining long-term weight loss (which is defined as losing 10% of one’s initial body weight and keeping it off for one year). They also report six strategies for long-term success:(1) engaging in high levels of physical activity; (2) eating a diet that is low in calories and fat; (3) eating breakfast; (4) self-monitoring weight on a regular basis; (5) maintaining a consistent eating pattern; and (6) catching ‘slips’ before they turn into larger regains.(Wing & Phelan, 2005, p. 225S)Jelalian et al. (2006) compared the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy when paired with either exercise (CBT+EXER) or when paired with an Outward Bound® therapy called “peer-enhanced adventure therapy” (CBT+PEAT). Adventure therapy is designed to increase self-confidence and increase social support while also improving physical abilities. This study was done in adolescents and found that weight loss did not differ at the end of the treatment between the groups; however, after ten months, 35% of the CBP+PEAT group had maintained the weight loss as contrasted with only 12% of the CBT+EXER. This suggests that peer-based components of the intervention in the PEAT treated group might be important for long-term weight management.
Psychological effects of an adventure therapy program in the treatment of substance use disorders. A Greek pilot study
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2021
Fotis Panagiotounis, Yannis Theodorakis, M. Hassandra, Ioannis Morres
AT is the prescriptive use of adventure experiences provided by mental health professionals, often conducted in natural settings that kinesthetically engage clients on cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels (Gass et al., 2012). Adventure therapy (AT) utilizes outdoor adventure activities as a primary therapeutic tool, using real or perceived physical and psychological risk, as an element to activate emotional, behavioral or cognitive patterns or schemes that might not be activated through traditional therapy and it can be applied either as an exclusive, complementary or parallel therapeutic tool to a wide range of mental health disorders (Alvarez & Stauffer, 2001; Fletcher & Hinkle, 2002; Gass et al., 2012). Another key element of AT, is the physical and emotional safety of the participants which is ensured at all times by the AT professionals and safety protocols (Fletcher & Hinkle, 2002; Tucker & Norton, 2013). Furthermore, AT is an experiential and interactive approach, which lies upon specific psychosocial and educational theories. The meta-analysis of Bowen and Neill (2013) shows that adventure therapy programs are effective in facilitating positive short-term change in psychological, behavioral, emotional, and interpersonal domains and that these changes appear to be maintained in the long-term.