Forming Healthy Habits for Lifelong Change
The scientific research is clear that the best way to address weight issues in younger children, and to prevent weight from becoming a serious health and emotional problem, is to foster a healthy lifestyle for all family members. Wellspring Family Camp’s behavioral change program helps families achieve this goal.
The behavioral change program utilizes nutrition education, increased physical activity and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to foster a healthy understanding of long-term weight loss in all family members. Wellspring’s Clinical Director and Behavioral Coaches (BCs) help campers and parents identify and address thinking and behaviors that have contributed to unhealthy eating and activity patterns.
Camper Behavioral Change Program
All campers participate in age and developmentally appropriate programs. Younger children have group sessions with their Behavioral Coaches focused on learning in a playful way. These sessions address emotional health and stress management and help campers understand how to make healthy choices.
Older campers participate in a more extensive behavioral change program. We start with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to train campers intensively on a set of behaviors that have been proven by research to sustain weight loss permanently. CBT sessions utilize methods such as stimulus control, decision counseling, rational emotive therapy, relapse prevention training, positive focusing, stress management and improving frustration tolerance. Sessions also address issues of self-esteem, body image and healthy decision making.
Family Camp Behavioral Change Program for Parents
Parents have Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy group sessions throughout the week, as well. In these sessions, parents develop an understanding of how their thinking and behavior might be impacting their own diet and activity patterns, as well as those of their child.
Parents will also learn parenting and communication skills, with a focus on incorporating all members of the family into their new healthier lifestyle, and guiding and motivating their children without nagging or acting as “food police.” Parents report that the practical skills learned in these sessions improve their family relationships in invaluable ways.
Behavioral Coaches at Family Camp are professional psychologists, therapists and social workers under the direct supervision of licensed professionals, and trained by the Clinical Director of Wellspring Camps, nationally renowned weight control expert Dr. Daniel Kirschenbaum.
