The 3c System. Psychology of food behaviour:
a multidimensional approach to the treatment of obesity.
Tosarelli
Lorenza Martelli
Caterina Brighenti Alice
Studio Terramare (www.studioterramare.it), Bologna -
Italy
An
experience carried out inside our professional team has been introduced in the
field of the psychology of health. It refers to the treatment of obesity on a
biopsycosocial standard.
The
aim is the development of strategies of coping
in the obese patient in order to make him lose weight. Our approach is
multidimensional and long-term and the interaction amongs different
professional figures is expected.
According
to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2008),
obesity is one of the main problem in public welfare in the world, a “global
epidemy” for the 50% of the adult population in the industrialized world.
Even
if obesity is not placed in DSM-IV-TR
(2000) as a disorder due to food behaviour, it is always to be considered a
food behaviour non-adaptive respect to the welfare of the subject. Obesity is defined a chronic
pathology based on multifactorial etiology and characterized by a high body
weight due to an excessive stock of adipose tissue. Both obesity and excess
weight are important factors in risking an untimely death and numerous chronic
pathologies.
The
act of eating is not only a mechanic routine but a complicated system related
to both biological (hormonal, digestive and metabolic), psychological and
cultural stimulus.
The 3c System is a multidimensional and
multi-professional programme and its aim is to improve an independent running of the body weight without
restrictive diets. It is a gradual loss of weight. In a global approach
involving the subject in his individuality and wholeness the professional
figures involved in the programme are: the psychologist, the doctor, the
dietician and the graduate in physical education.
Reaching
the 3c System means to have a proper knowledge
(trad. it. conoscenza) of
oneself, of the body and food and to discover again the awareness (trad. it. consapevolezza)
of one’s own physical and psychological processes of hunger keeping in mind
the feelings involved. Then it also means to develop one’s own creativity (trad. it. creatività) to find successful and personal strategy of coping.
This
project has been born and grown in “the learning by doing” field (Dewey, 1938), (i.e. an experience on a field that
constantly develops towards a construction of more and more accurate
knoledges). It deals with the problem of obesity offering an effective pattern of intervention that
will be internalized by the patient as a long-term working pattern. Moreover it
will allow room for caring about oneself from the point of view of a thin
lifestyle.
