S7 Ep 193 - Realistic Expectations After WLS w/Ashlyn Douglass-Barns, LCSW
This episode is packed with helpful information, therapeutic strategies, and personal anecdotes from a bariatric patient turned bariatric therapist. Ashlyn Douglass-Barns, LCSW, had RNY over ten years ago and has been a therapist for 12 years, focusing on bariatrics for the last three years.
Kellie, Mel, and Ashlyn discuss Ashlyn’s personal bariatric journey, her use of GLP1 hormone therapy to assist with weight loss and maintenance, and her transition to becoming a bariatric-focused therapist.
They dive into various topics: eating carbs and changing the mindset around food, the stigma of weight loss surgery, and setting patients up to have realistic expectations after weight loss surgery. They also examine transfer addiction to alcohol, some behavioral patterns that may change due to WLS and past trauma, and changes in familial support after surgery that may impact bariatric patients.
There was so much covered in this episode that Kellie and Mel already have plans to bring Ashlyn back to discuss the effects of alcohol on bariatric patients in more depth.
Ashlyn Douglass-Barnes, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in her private practice at Advance Bariatric Counseling. She works with pre-op bariatric patients to complete the required psychological evaluation and post-op bariatric patients who need continued therapy after weight loss surgery. She also helps therapists pursue a focus on bariatric counseling with her course, Learn Bariatric Psychological Assessments.
You can find Ashlyn on Instagram at
@ashlynchange4life2012 (personal page)
@advancebariatriccounseling (professional page)
@learnbariatricassesments (course)
OSLP strives to educate and inform the bariatric community and those with predetermined ideas about weight loss surgery.
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