Counseling Patients Through Weight Loss and Mental Health with Cassidy Palmisano

In this episode of Everything GLP-1, Dr. Tom Lavin speaks with Cassidy Palmisano, a licensed professional counselor with a master's in clinical mental health counseling and roughly a decade of experience across inpatient and outpatient settings, to examine the relationship between obesity and mental health. Rather than treating weight loss and emotional wellbeing as separate concerns, the conversation frames them as deeply interconnected, with GLP-1 medications acting as a tool that removes long-standing barriers to change.

Together, they discuss how the biology of obesity has historically been misread as a failure of willpower, and how easing that burden opens space for patients to address depression, anxiety, and past trauma that food struggles had long overshadowed. Cassidy explains how reduced compulsive behavior and diminished food noise can restore a sense of agency, allowing patients to reconnect with what is meaningful in their lives.

It is a thoughtful discussion for clinicians, mental health professionals, and anyone interested in how physical and psychological care intersect in the treatment of obesity.

[00:00] Welcome and Meet Cassidy Palmisano

[02:36] Why Healthcare Works in Silos

[06:57] Obesity as Biology, Not Willpower

[11:26] Opening Space for Mental Health Work

[19:51] Self-Acceptance Without Complacency

[24:57] Building the Whole-Person Approach

[35:10] Peptides, Inflammation, and What's Next

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