We have exciting news, and we couldn’t be prouder to share it.
BodyByBariatrics is proud to announce the launch of BodyBySupport – a brand-new, exclusive, therapist-led virtual support community created specifically for our post-operative bariatric patients! This is more than a program. It’s a promise: that your journey after surgery will never be one you have to walk alone.
If you’ve followed our practice, you already know we don’t believe in “routine” bariatric care. From the moment you walk through our (VIRTUAL) doors in Winter Garden, Florida, to every follow-up appointment after your procedure, our goal has always been to give patients in Orlando, across Central Florida, and even nationwide a level of comprehensive, whole-person care that simply isn’t the industry standard. BodyBySupport is the next step in that mission.
BodyBySupport is a free, private, virtual peer support group exclusively for BodyByBariatrics post-op patients. It is not a generic online forum, and it is not open to the public. It is a dedicated, safe space reserved only for patients who have had bariatric surgery with our practice, because we believe healing happens best in community with people who truly understand what you’re going through.
This program was built on a simple truth that bariatric surgery changes your body, but the emotional and psychological journey that comes with that change is just as real, and likely more important, as the physical one. Weight loss surgery patients often say the hardest part isn’t the surgery itself but everything that comes after. The identity shifts. The relationship changes. The moments of pride. The setbacks that feel isolating even when you know, logically, that you’re not alone.
BodyBySupport exists to close that gap.
BodyBySupport is led by bariatric therapist Lora Grabow, LCSW and her team of licensed therapists, who bring more than decades of combined specialized experience in the bariatric and weight loss surgery space. This a team whose clinical expertise is built specifically around the psychological, emotional, and behavioral realities of life before and after weight loss surgery.
Having therapists with this level of niche, long-term experience in bariatric-specific mental health is rare. Most bariatric practices (even large, well-known ones…) do not offer anything like it as a standard part of aftercare. At BodyByBariatrics, we believe mental health support isn’t a “nice to have” add-on to surgical weight loss. It’s a core pillar of doing this right.
We designed this program around what actual patients have told us they need: flexibility, privacy, and freedom from a rigid script.
We intentionally built this as a free-form group rather than a rigid, curriculum-based program. There’s no script to follow and no pressure to speak if you’re not ready. Some weeks, you may come simply to listen. Other weeks, you may have something you’re bursting to share. Both are welcome.
BodyBySupport is a place to celebrate the accomplishments that matter to you, whether or not they’re reflected on a scale.
That includes:
Too often, these victories go uncelebrated because the people around us don’t fully grasp their significance. Every person in that Zoom room understands exactly what it took to get there.
Post-op life isn’t only victories and pretending otherwise does patients a disservice. Bariatric surgery can bring real emotional and physical challenges: plateaus, complicated relationships with food, body image struggles, changes in relationships with family or friends, “buyer’s remorse” moments, fear of regain, and grief over parts of your old life or old coping mechanisms that are gone.
BodyBySupport gives patients a private, judgment-free, therapist-guided setting to talk honestly about the harder parts of the journey that are difficult to explain to people who haven’t been through it themselves. Because this group is facilitated by licensed therapists with deep bariatric-specific expertise, patients aren’t just talking into the void. They’re being heard by professionals trained to recognize when support, resources, or additional care might help.
Across the bariatric surgery industry, aftercare often stops at the physical: nutrition check-ins, lab work, follow-up appointments. Those things matter, and we do them thoroughly. But we’ve always believed that comprehensive bariatric care has to include emotional and psychological support as a standard offering, not an optional referral you have to seek out on your own.
This is what it means to us to lead the nation in comprehensive bariatric care.
BodyBySupport is exclusively available to BodyByBariatrics post-operative patients. If you’ve had weight loss surgery with our practice, whether that was gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, revision surgery, or another bariatric procedure, you’re welcome every Monday night.
If you’re a current Body by Bariatrics patient and haven’t yet received information on how to join, check our events calendar for the latest schedule, and watch for the Zoom link shared directly with our patient community ahead of each session.
If you’re exploring weight loss surgery and searching for a bariatric practice, this is exactly the kind of difference that should matter in your decision. Surgery is the beginning of your journey, not the end of it and the quality of the support system around you after surgery can shape your long-term success as much as the procedure itself.
At BodyByBariatrics, our patients don’t just get a surgeon. They get a team, a community, and now, a dedicated therapeutic space built to walk alongside them for the long haul.
Ready to learn more about BodyBySupport, or interested in becoming a BodyByBariatrics patient so you can access programs like this one? Visit our events calendar for upcoming session dates or reach out to our team to learn more about our full continuum of pre-op and post-op care, including nutrition support, surgical follow-up, Project Reset, and now, BodyBySupport.
Because at Body by Bariatrics, your care doesn’t end when your surgery does. It’s just getting started.
We would love to take care of you!
📲 Text us at 407-543-0971
🌐 Or visit BodyByBariatrics.com to explore our Bariatric Surgery and Medical Weight Loss programs and full-circle support.
