Weight management help without judgment 

[Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Weight management help without judgement]

[Music playing]

[Text on screen: Allison L. Rhodes, MD
Obesity Medicine Specialist
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center]

Allison L. Rhodes, MD: When I first started in practice, I was about two months in and I called my mentor one night and I said, "Stephanie, all my patients are crying at their first visit with me. What am I doing wrong? I'm a kind person, I care so much about my patients. Why is everyone crying?" And she told me, "You're doing it right." And I was completely confused by that. And then, she explained, she said, "The reason they're crying is because they feel like you're listening and they feel like they're heard and they feel safe with you." And I do think that that's something that I can provide my patients, is a safe space where they're not going to be judged.

I myself am typically very candid about certain things that I'll say are my struggles, even ongoing struggles, and I'll tell a lot of patients, there's nothing they're going to share with me either that I haven't heard in some degree before or I might've done myself. And so, there's absolutely no judgment when we're in an exam room together, or even outside the exam room. But there's certainly never a sense for me that my patients are going to tell me something that I either judge or that I feel like is a problem more than something that I want to help my patient conquer, and it becomes, when they share that with me, a mutual challenge that I want to help them navigate.

[Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
For more information, visit: wexnermedical.osu.edu/weight-management]

[Music fades]