Finding Healing Through Words

When you decide to have weight loss surgery, you aren’t just changing your body—you’re changing your whole life. It’s not simply about eating and moving your body differently; it’s about grieving old habits, building new ones, and learning how to live inside a body that feels unfamiliar. It’s a journey of courage, loss, hope, and discovery.

As a therapist and a poet, I’ve seen how powerful it can be to have a place to bring all of those emotions, not just the physical steps of recovery. That’s why I love using poetry therapy in bariatric counseling.

Poetry therapy is about using words—whether you read them, write them, or simply speak them out loud—to explore feelings, thoughts, and experiences that are hard to name. Writing gives us a safe way to let grief, anger, joy, and gratitude have a voice. It’s about the process not the product. It is about the person not the poem.

For bariatric clients, it can be a way of honoring all parts of the journey: the excitement of weight loss, the frustrations of new routines, the loss of food as comfort, and the discovery of a self who is capable of growing through the discomfort.

An example of poetry therapy in bariatric counseling can be experienced through the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver (from Dream Work, 1986) to explore themes of self-acceptance, healing, and belonging after significant lifestyle change. This poem invites us to release perfectionism and reconnect with our authentic selves.

Wild Geese

By Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Initial reflection questions may include:

• Which line or image stood out to you most? Why?

• Did anything surprise you or feel uncomfortable?

• What emotions surfaced as you listened?

Exploring core themes of the poem as it relates to the bariatric journey:

Transformation

• The poem speaks of “the soft animal of your body.” How has your relationship with your body shifted since surgery?

• Where do you notice new freedom or possibility?

Discipline & Self-Compassion

• How does the idea “You do not have to be good” resonate with your journey of self-care and nutrition after surgery?

• In what ways can discipline feel supportive rather than punishing?

Hope & Belonging

• Mary Oliver writes, “Meanwhile the world goes on.” How does this line connect with your hopes for the future?

• How do you imagine your life unfolding as you heal and grow?

Grief & Letting Go

• What do you feel you’ve had to leave behind — habits, foods, social rituals, or even parts of your identity?

• How can you honor that loss while embracing what’s ahead?

  Here are a couple of journal prompts for deeper self-exploration:

  • “Write a letter to the ‘soft animal’ of your body, describing how you will care for it now.”

  • “Imagine you are one of the wild geese. What are you flying toward? What are you leaving behind?”

  • “Describe a moment post-surgery when you felt most aligned with your true self.”

Hopefully, this gives you a brief example of a poetry therapy experience in bariatric counseling. Perhaps, in closing we may consider a grounding/visualization of "flying with the geese" as a way of closing the experience and taking away a mantra or affirmation from the poem in which you could hold onto in the coming week.

Sit comfortably and allow your eyes to close if that feels safe. Take a slow, deep breath in… and exhale gently, letting your body soften. Feel your feet rooted to the floor, your body supported, grounded and steady. Imagine a wide, open sky above you at dawn, and notice a V of wild geese gliding gracefully, wings outstretched, moving steadily forward. Picture yourself among them, carried by the rhythm of their flight, leaving behind what no longer serves you and moving toward a life of freedom, hope, and belonging. As you fly, silently repeat your chosen line from the poem — your mantra for the coming week — letting it anchor you like the wind beneath your wings. Feel the warmth of self-compassion and the steadiness of purpose filling your body. When you are ready, bring your awareness back to the room, feel your feet on the floor, and gently open your eyes, carrying the calm and affirmation with you into the days ahead.

Additional creative writing exercises/prompts that may be helpful in general within the bariatric journey:

• A Goodbye Letter: Write a letter to a food you are letting go of. Thank it for what it once gave you, and release it as you step into a new life.

• Your Body Speaks: Imagine your “before” self and your “after” self are having a conversation. What wisdom might they share with each other?

• Mindful Bite: Write about a single mindful bite of food—describe its taste, texture, and what emotions it brings up.

• Future Self: Imagine yourself five years from now. What does that future version of you want to tell you today?

I often suggest a simple evening journaling ritual:

1. Write one feeling you noticed in your body today.

2. Write one thing you’re grateful for in your healing journey.

3. Write one intention for tomorrow that supports your health and healing

It doesn’t have to take more than five minutes. Over time, these little notes create a map of your transformation.

This journey is about learning to live, to love, and to create from a place of wholeness. Poetry therapy gives you a way to honor the complexity of your story. It helps you carry the grief and the gratitude together, and to see yourself as a whole person—body, mind, and spirit.

And perhaps most importantly, it reminds you: you are capable of hard things.