Orosa Weight Loss
The comprehensive approach to improve your health
Thank you for visiting our page and considering OWL to help you with your weight loss goals.
If you are here, it is because you are unhappy and frustrated with your current weight. Perhaps it has always been a problem or your weight has crept up in recent years.
It’s likely that your weight affects your self-esteem and you feel others judge you more negatively. You may also worry about the long-term implications of being overweight or may already be facing secondary health challenges.
It’s extremely likely that you have already tried dieting, following diets in magazines or suggestions from friends. And after many attempts, you may feel fed up and ready to give up.
.
About me
My professional qualifications include a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, MSc in general health psychology and an MSc in clinical research. Member of The British Psychological Society.
Originally from Spain, I moved permanently to England in 2018.
Since moving here, it has quickly become apparent to me that the UK is facing a national problem with its weight. The influence of the American diet and lifestyle is clear. Your health is being quickly eroded away. For me, this is in stark contrast to my experience growing up and living in Spain, where food is a national pride. Even when we’re sat eating with friends, family, or colleagues, we’re often discussing what we plan to eat later that day or tomorrow!
The Mediterranean diet is both about food and the attitude to food. Unfortunately in the UK, quality food and the time to prepare and eat it has been pushed further and further down the list of priorities.
Our Philosophy
I believe that the people of the UK have lost their way with food. Unless there is a move towards a better relationship with food, then the obesity epidemic will continue, and health will continue to suffer. In turn this will put increasing pressure on the NHS, already facing as a direct result of obesity an annual bill of around £100bn.
Food is part of the natural world to which we also belong. Our body evolved over the course of millions of years to be able to regulate its energy balance perfectly – when fed a naturally evolved diet. And unique to humans also lies the social component to eating: enjoying food together.
My hope is to draw on my knowledge and skills as a psychologist and to combine this with the wisdom of traditional Mediterranean eating, alongside my ongoing following of food science literature.
Why choose OWL?
At OWL, psychologist and weight loss expert Rachel Orosa will provide one-to-one, tailored support to help you understand your personal barriers to weight loss and create with you a plan to achieve a healthy and lasting weight.
The OWL method is not a ‘diet’ per se. But rather its overarching focus is to explore your relationship with food.
Most of us know only too well what’s it’s like to be in a relationship with the wrong person. And even when we’re aware of that unsuitability, we’re not able to move on. By the same token, we may even think it is the right person, despite there being growing signs to the contrary. In the same way, being overweight signals that we are in a bad relationship with food – eating the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Or we believe our relationship with food is healthy – that we are eating for the right reasons and making good choices – but feel perplexed by the outward signs that something isn’t right with our physical health.
Unfortunately, while friends may be willing to draw our attention to an unsuitable partner, when it comes to food, their advice may fall very short. Indeed, they may even be facing the same challenge.
That’s why the OWL method begins by exploring your relationship with food and comparing this with what a healthy relationship would actually look like. It then moves beyond the psychological dimension by considering it within a framework that including the biology and sociology of food and diet. It teaches you about how the wrong food disrupts our hormonal system (responsible for controlling energy regulation and storage); because when we are battling our own body’s biology, the task of weight loss becomes extremely difficult. Not to mention how food can require the circuitry in our brain to change how we perceive and respond to food. And beyond this is careful consideration of the influences of our microculture (friends, family, and colleagues) and our microculture (our society’s attitude to food and the conflicting messages we frequently encounter).
In short, the OWL method recognises that sustained weight loss is not achievable with a ‘calories in, calories out’ (simple calorie calorie) approach. And in this vein, OWL also believes weight loss medications, devices, and surgeries represent the result of a grave misunderstanding of what is responsible for weight gain, exposing people to side-effects and serious risks without any guarantee of long-term results.
By choosing OWL you recognise that food is a central part of life that brings daily nourishment and satisfaction, helping to build a body that will remain in good health for many years to come.
About our time together
The first session is at no charge. It is an opportunity to explore your goals and whether I feel I can help you. Occasionally, it may be necessary to refer you to your GP if there are specific physical or mental health issues that may need treatment – which I will screen for. In the first session, I will also ask you take a 7-day food and weight diary to complete.
In a subsequent session, I will take a full history and administer some questionnaires in order to be able to understand you as an individual. We will therefore be positioned to create together a tailored plan to address the underlying causes of your weight.
Depending on the complexity of your situation, we will agree on the likely number and frequency of follow-up sessions.
I will draw on psychological models, including cognitive behavioural therapy (how thoughts, feelings, and behaviours interact to form unhealthy self-sustaining loops) and motivational interviewing (psychological techniques to build and sustain motivation), and provide a warm and supportive approach in every session.
Since I have a MSc in clinical research and experience running clinical trials, I am interested in creating and testing hypotheses, meaning that we should be prepared to see what works and what doesn’t work for you, since there is no one-size-fits-all. While there are components of the plan which are universally applicable, there may be other things we need to experiment with to see what works best.
It's been life-changing for me. Not only I've lost weight, but I've also experienced improved health and learned about new, healthy foods that I wasn't even aware of. Highly educational.
Penny .R. Age 54
Book your consultation
We are excited to offer you the convenience of virtual appointments via Zoom.
Please fill out the form below and will get back to you as soon as possible.