Avignon Therapy & Nutrition 512.306.8060

Gary Avignon, the founder of Avignon Therapy & Nutrition, is a licensed psychotherapist in Texas as well as a nutrition consultant. He has specialized with relational and interpersonal issues, nutrition, health/weight control, food cravings, and compulsive eating related issues since 1989. He doesn't sugar coat this issue and deplores those quick fix programs and products that we all know are too good to be true. He's straight up front with ATN clients, "The solution to this issue lies in precise self-care behaviors. The greater the precision, the less work it is...that's where we come in. We coach you to precision."

Gary was mentored brilliantly in the art of life coaching in the early 1980's. As a result of that experience, he returned to graduate school and achieved an Masters Degree. in counseling. Gary began his career in the field of nutrition, health and weight control in 1989 as a Health Educator in the Weight Management Department of a large multi-specialty medical group in Austin. His wealth of knowledge and experience has its roots in the experience he gained in those early years of responsibility for a caseload of 60 to 100 weight management patients. In 1990, he pioneered a therapeutic group approach to care for those patients who struggled with compulsive eating and the emotional issues surrounding food and body size.

He ultimately served as Director of that weight management program, which carried a total caseload of approximately 300 clients. These responsibilities included oversight of medical staff/patient interaction, responsibility for behavioral staff training, as well as the supervision of all departmental activities.

In 1995, Gary established himself in private practice and continued to specialize with life coaching, nutrition, weight and eating related issues. His passion revolves around unraveling the underlying issues (motivationally, psychologically, physiologically, nutritionally, and/or behaviorally) that give rise to life and weight difficulty.

Avignon Therapy & Nutrition is the culmination of more than 20 years of personal and professional experience regarding psychology, nutrition, overeating, lifestyle, physiology, and psychology, all of which plays a role in life, health and weight difficulties.

Personally, Gary lives on four acres in Kyle on the Blanco River with Mary Ann, his wife of almost 20 years, two young daughters, his 89 year-old mother, a dog, four cats, seven chickens and two hamsters.

The year was 1990, and Gary had been working in the Weight & Health Risk Management Department of a large multi-specialty medical clinic for approximately one year. One evening in class, the topic of compulsive eating came up. He spent an hour or so after class with a couple of patients who were particularly adamant that we provide more support for those patients who struggled with compulsive eating.

As a young professional, he knew what they were saying was important. He already had watched patients lose their weight battle as a result of the clinic's failure to patients gain relief from their compulsive need for food.

As compulsive eater since the age of eight, Gary knew that he, too, was losing the compulsive eating battle. He also knew that he was lucky, he didn't have a significant weight problem attached to his compulsive eating (that would come later). He did, however, feel like his days free from obesity were numbered if he didn't discover a way to control himself.

Being a psychotherapist by profession, he thought, "Who better than me to help these folks with their difficulty?" He understood their struggle. He studied everything he could get his hands on regarding compulsive eating. Since his study consistently pointed him to the "fact" that compulsive eating is emotionally based, he started a psychological support group at the clinic. The reception for the group was fabulous! The patients finally had a place to talk about their overeating difficulty with others who understood.

Years later he began to see something that greatly disturbed him. The individuals with whom he had been working psychotherapeutically were handling their lives more effectively. They were maturing into wise and centered adults. They navigated complex life issues with relative ease. However, they were experiencing no relief from their compulsive drive to overeat! He was still struggling with his own compulsive eating as well.

"I would eat an entire Entenmann's fat free pastry (which was supposed to serve six) in the space of twenty or thirty minutes while driving around Austin. I would be stuffed after a meal, yet unable to stop eating. I was embarrassed by my eating, and had taken some of my struggle into the closet," relates Gary.

"Something was dreadfully wrong in my approach to overeating. Though I had clearly provided psychotherapeutic benefit for my clients, I had failed to generate the intended relief from our drive to overeat. I had worked hard and grown tremendously as a person over the previous 15 years. I was happy in my marriage. I had a young family. My career was on track. I loved where I lived. I had made peace with myself. In the face of what I thought was a great life, my eating was still out of control! I was confused..."

"It wasn't until I discovered the techniques that form the heart of ATN in the late 1990's that I was able to gain relief from my personal food addiction. I am excited to report that food no longer owns me. I now eat small portions multiple times throughout the day. I frequently leave food on my plate. I rarely experience food cravings, and sugary foods almost never tempt me! All of this culminated in the loss of twenty-five excess pounds!" Gary shares with excitement and relief.

"I no longer worry that I am personally fighting a losing battle against obesity and the accompanying health risks. And most important, I am relaxed around food all day long every day, I can underfeed with relative ease, and I understand how to teach all of this to others."

Austin's Weight Control Specialist