Pavel Somov – Mindfulness For Emotional Eating: Weight-Neutral Strategies For Managing Triggers, Cravings, And the Diet-Binge Cycle

Many clients recognize the use of unhealthy eating habits to cope with anxiety, depression, and even trauma …

… and as a clinician, you know those habits often exacerbate the very mental health conditions you are aiming to address. But the last thing you want to do is come off as preachy, judgmental, or insensitive.

That’s why psychologist and mindfulness expert Dr. Pavel Somov has used his over 25 years of clinical experience to develop a unique and effective approach to helping clients with emotional eating: Mindful Emotional Eating (MEE). Drawing on the trusted approaches of Effective Emotional Eating and Harm Reduction, MEE could be your key to building mindful eating habits and cultivating a healthier relationship with food!

Dr. Somov will give you:

• Powerful strategies for helping clients (or even yourself) control triggers
• Cutting-edge techniques for improving client’s relationships with weight
• Guided practice for mindfulness, breaking harmful patterns, and being more aware of choices
• Ways to manage stress, fear, boredom, and more for less impact on eating habits

Don’t miss your opportunity to help your clients improve their mental and physical health and give them the power to take back control of their lives.

What You’ll Learn In Mindfulness For Emotional Eating

Objectives

• Analyze the brain-body interplay between food and emotions.
• Determine how to de-pathologize, de-stigmatize, and normalize emotional eating as a form of intuitive emotional self-regulation.
• Examine commonplace objections to the harm reduction approach.
• Examine the principles and protocols of Effective Emotional Eating.
• Identify the principles of the Mindful Emotional Eating protocol.
• Utilize mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention principles to prevent the Abstinence Violation Effect.
• Evaluate perfectionist self-attitudes to enable self-compassionate recovery process.
• Use harm-reduction approaches to manage binge-eating behaviors.
• Develop a self-referenced identity to better cope with societal body-shaming and improve self-image.
• Identify emotional eating triggers in clients.
• Utilize meta-cognitive techniques for craving control to reduce client’s symptoms.
• Utilize neuroplasticity for lasting behavior change in clients.

Outline

Introduction

• Mindful Eating (ME) for Health/Weight Management
• Mindful Emotional Eating (MEE) for Coping with Emotions
• Meaning-Centered Eating (MCE) for Self-Growth

Values-Based Height and Weight Management

• Awareness Building vs. Habit-Modifying
• Change = Freedom to Change + Reasons to Change + Method to Change

Hunger, Cravings, and Triggers

• Cravings as Pseudo-Hunger
• Types of Craving Triggers
• Not All Craving Control Strategies Were Created Equal
• Distraction, Self-Talk, and Relaxation
• Mindfulness-Based & Metacognition-Based Craving Control
• Exposure-Based Craving Control Training
• Stimulus Avoidance
• Stimulus Desensitization
• Exposure/Response Prevention

Fullness Recognition, Appetite Control, and Satiety Extension

• Continuum of Fullness
• Sensory Specific Satiety
• Redefining “Enough”
• Preloading on Smells
• Preloading on Liquids
• Satiety Index
• Cultivate Residual Fullness

Process Focus Training

• Pattern Interruption, Choice Awareness and Mindfulness
• Mindfulness of Food Flavor, Eating Kinesthetics, and Meal Setting

Mindful Emotional Eating (MEE) – Leverage More Coping Per Calorie

• Effective Emotional Eating
• Mindful Emotional Eating
• Harm Reduction Revolution

Short Term Interventions

• Reframe the Problem to Reframe the Solution
• Anapanasati-Style Relaxation Training
• Choice Awareness Training & Pattern Interruption
• Meta-Cognitive Craving Control Training
• Programmatic Notes: Packaging & Humanistic Homework

Long Term Interventions

• Self-Acceptance to Address Perfectionism and Obstacles to Recovery
• Counter Conditional Body-Image/Self-View
• Disapproval Inoculation
• ”Who am I?” Mindfulness Meditations for Unconditional Self-Knowledge
• Serotonin of Impulse Control and Sweetening Willpower
• Sublimate the Binge Eating/Self-Restricting Roller Coaster
• Calorically Sinless Vegging
• Mindful Nighttime Eating
• Build Partnerships
• Weight Management
• Mindless Emotional Eating Prevention
• Eastern Fullness, Eastern Emptiness

Emotion-Specific Strategies

• Mindfulness Techniques for Handling a Range of Emotions Including Boredom, Emptiness, Grief, Anger, Stress and More!

Meaning-Centered Eating (MCE) – Big Picture Eating

• Develop a Personalized Philosophy of Eating that Reflects Life-Values
• Eating as a Meditational/Mind-Management Platform
• Spiritual Eating

Research Limitations and Potential Risks

• Assess for Eating Disorders and Determine Who is a Candidate for this Treatment

About Pavel Somov

Pavel Somov, PhD, co-owner of Existential-Dynamic Associates, is a licensed psychologist in private practice with over 25 years of clinical experience working with self-criticism, crises of meaning, shame, guilt, perfectionism, affair recovery, eating disorders and anger management. Dr. Somov is on the advisory board for The Mindfulness Project (London, UK) and has conducted a variety of trainings for mental health professionals both domestically and internationally on applying mindfulness-based interventions to a variety of psychological issues. His work has been discussed in a number of radio interviews and in print publications including Martha Stewart’s Body + Soul Magazine and Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine.

Dr. Somov is the author of Anger Management Jumpstart: A 4-Session Mindfulness Path to Compassion and Change. (I-Catching Books, 2024) as well as a number of self-help books on perfectionism, overeating, and addiction. His books have been translated into Dutch, Chinese, Vietnamese, Estonian, Portuguese, and Russian.

Dr. Somov has also been published in peer-reviewed journals on the topics of group-based logotherapy, hospice research, group-based psychodrama, and on the interplay of time perception and pain intensity. Dr. Somov grew up in Moscow, Russia and after service in the Soviet military, immigrated to the US in the early 1990s. He lives with his wife and daughter in Pittsburgh, PA and is passionate about downhill skiing, chess, water polo, CrossFit and cold exposure.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Pavel Somov maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Vista Behavioral health Associates. He receives royalties as a published author. Pavel Somov receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Pavel Somov is a member of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the Greater Pittsburgh Psychological Association. He serves on the advisory board for the Mindfulness Project.

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