PLATTSBURGH — Like many women, for years Ilene Leshinsky struggled with weight management and the negative body image issues that go with it.
Over time, she found a philosophy that worked for her and helped her not only keep her weight in check but develop a positive self-image.
Being a licensed clinical social worker, the natural next step for Leshinsky was to incorporate the lessons and knowledge she's gained into her practice.
Leshinsky developed a program called Body Sense during the time she lived in Boston in the early and mid-90s. Then she moved to Plattsburgh in 1997 to work at the Clinton County Mental Health Association and focused her energy on building her career there. When she stepped down as CCMHA director in 2008 to open her own private counseling office, she revamped the Body Sense curriculum and incorporated it into her practice.
"In essence, I'm offering women what I have achieved myself, and that is freedom with food," she said.
While the regular program exists as two six-week sessions, for her latest project Leshinsky is organizing a daylong Body Sense retreat at Valcour Conference Center. The event, set for Oct. 30, will provide an introduction to the core of the program: Establishing healthy and mindful eating habits, working movement into each day and feeling good about yourself.
The Body Sense program is guided by four concepts:
▶ Eat what you want (keeping nutrition in mind).
▶ Only eat when hungry.
▶ Stop eating when you are comfortably full.
▶ Exercise/move on a regular basis.
The idea behind all of it, Leshinsky explains, is each individual's body has its own signals and ways of communicating needs. Women, who are often filling multiple roles in careers and as family caretakers, often neglect to pay attention to those cues of what to eat, when to eat and how much, she said, leading to overeating, stress eating and other unhealthy habits.
When we eat when we're not hungry, "we are not using food appropriately," she said.
The goal is to reconnect the mind and body and develop positive attitudes toward food and body image, she said. As a result, Leshinsky emphasizes that Body Sense is not a weight-loss program.
"This is not a diet. It doesn't promote or make any guarantees about weight loss," she said.
While Body Sense is offered as individual counseling sessions, Leshinsky mostly uses it as group therapy, with six to eight women meeting in her Margaret Street office for 90 minutes a week.
The office is designed to feel comfortable, decorated in a warm color palette and outfitted with plush chairs, as if meeting in someone's living room. Each meeting consists of open discussion, a checking in on progress and "homework" for the following session.
The first six-week session, called Body Sense Basics, introduces participants to the foundation of the program, with a new session beginning later this month.
"What we're doing is learning and practicing skills," she said.
The second session, also six weeks, dives into more advanced concepts. Some of these explore the roots of unhealthy habits, whether conscious or subconscious, such as why people turn to food when stressed or anxious. From there, the plan is to look for ways to develop a new relationship with food.
After going through the 12 weeks, many of Leshinsky's clients continue to meet in monthly maintenance groups, which speaks to the bonds made during the program, she said.
"They are their own support group."
With so many people feeling over-worked and over-stretched, it's no wonder that proper diet and exercise fall to the wayside, said Leshinsky. So she emphasizes finding the time to recharge mental batteries.
"Part of the program is to carve out time for you. All of this is simple, it's just not easy (to implement)," she said.
With that in mind, Leshinsky designed the upcoming daylong retreat at Valcour.
"The idea is to offer the philosophy and approach, give concrete tools and, to be honest, to have a lot of fun," she said.
In addition to roundtable discussions on a variety of topics, the retreat will give an opportunity for Leshinsky to do things she can't do during regular Body Sense sessions: such as getting people moving. Retreat participants will spend an hour in the afternoon doing Qigong, which consists of simple and gentle exercises.
Lunch, which is provided in the cost of the retreat, will offer another teachable moment, focusing on mindful eating and positive food choices.
Another benefit: Leshinsky hopes that the daylong workshop will allow women to come from farther away, who might not be able to commit to weekly meetings.
"This approach is important enough that I wanted to expose as many women as possible to (be able to) participate," she said.
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