Today I’d like to share a guest post from The Therapy Lounge about hypnotherapy for weight loss. I have read more about this approach in the media recently so was interested to find out more…
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Think Yourself Thin – Can You Really Lose Weight Using Hypnotherapy?
Living with being overweight or the fear of putting on weight can be an all consuming vicious cycle. You diet, you cheat on the diet, you feel guilty, so why bother stopping at one double choc chip cookie, may as well finish the packet and start the diet again tomorrow…sound familiar? When you’re on a diet food (or the sheer lack of if you’ve followed half the crazy fads out there) becomes your focus, with temptation all around, and hunger pangs almost a reward as it shows you’ve stuck to it. Trouble is it’s simply not maintainable, after the diet is over you return to your old behaviour and relapse into unhealthy eating habits all over again. For weight loss to be long term, calorie counting just doesn’t cut it. You have to change your way of thinking.
What does Weight Loss Hypnotherapy Do?
Without addressing the root cause of your weight issues, you are not in control, your subconscious is. Your subconscious mind controls memory and emotions and it is this that hypnotherapy taps into. When you are in a state of deep relaxation, you can be guided towards a specific goal. For you that could be the ability to stop at just one cookie, or even better to make the subconscious decision that you now prefer a crisp, sweet and juicy pink lady apple for your snack! The aim is self-empowerment to enable you to let go of past habits and move forward with a new positive outlook that will inform your everyday food and lifestyle choices. Therapist at The Therapy Lounge note that most of their clients’ weight issues stem from emotional over eating due to stress, boredom, loneliness or unhappiness. It is believed that you can change your relationship with food by dealing with pent up emotions that have been pushed to the back of your mind but still act as trigger for your over eating. If you think about those inspirational people who have managed to lose weight and keep it off, they’ve essentially practiced a form of self hypnosis. They will undoubtedly have substituted healthy food and exercise for their old life of fast food and comfy couches, and that is what weight loss hypnotherapy promises to help you achieve too.
Is There any Proof Behind the Theory?
The growing body of evidence in favour of hypnotherapy for successful treatment of weight issues is beginning to convince the traditional medical establishment that costly and often ineffective surgery and chucking drugs down the throat of the problem is not the only answer. The NHS are now even funding trials to test the reported 95% success rate of the treatment. The National Library of Medicine reports that hypnosis is one of only three ‘evidence-based’ complimentary therapies for the treatment of obesity. This means there is undisputable, categorical scientific evidence that it works. Many studies have been carried out on this subject and the results back this up. For example, a study carried out on 109 people aged from 17 to 67 reported in The Journal of Clinical Psychology found evidence that those who used hypnosis lost 97% more weight and successfully maintained their personal weight goals long term compared to those who didn’t. Another clinical study investigating the effects of hypnosis as a treatment for weight loss among women found they lost an average of 17 pounds compared with a loss of only 5 pounds for the women who didn’t use it. This empirical data all reaches the same basic conclusion; hypnotherapy is clinically proven to be effective in weight reduction.
Will It Work For You?
For it to work you have to participate with your full attention. It can’t make you do something you don’t want to. You have to want to change. The skills of the therapist are paramount so when searching for one check they are a member of The General Hypnotherapy Register . This is a professional body which serves to protect the public and promote good practice. Rapport with the therapist is also vital and a reputable practice should offer a free consultation to help you make that decision before committing. If you think you are ready to make some permanent lifestyle changes then you can find more information at http://www.thetherapylounge.com/hypnotherapy/weight-loss. Essentially whether it works or not all depends on you, it doesn’t make you lose weight, you do. If you believe you can change, you can. The right therapist can simply help you achieve your goals more quickly and easily.
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What do you think about hypnotherapy? Have you ever tried it, and if so what were the results?
*guest post from The Therapy Lounge
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I find hypnotherapy as a tool for weight loss (and overcoming phobias, though obviously this isn’t the focus of the post) intriguing. Personally I believe the people who it works for are either suggestible, really and truly believe it will work in advance (and also really *want* it to work) or all three. My Uncle had some success with hypnotherapy in treating him for OCD behaviours and both he and my Mum have offered to pay for sessions for me to help me eat less/lose weight. However, I won’t do it because I know I am far too cynical for it to work. I think the high success rate is because skeptics such as myself won’t even try hypnotherapy and as such the placebo effect comes into play. I also take serious issue with the idea that someone else has power over me, some kind of superior state of being of the ability to hypnotise people in the first place. I am just too resistant to the idea and also I don’t want to be ‘cured’ by someone else: I want to be in control of my own destiny and lose weight on my own (yeah, I know that hasn’t exactly worked out so well for me :P).
Also, people do eat due to stress, boredom, loneliness or unhappiness but I disagree that simply eating healthily and exercising will alleviate those triggers – mine are due to external factors and even though I exercise as much as I can and eat almost exclusively ‘healthy’ foods the overeating on said foods is still present because I am bored and lonely. I think to an extent it’s the external factors that need addresssing in many cases – I’ve noticed that a lot of people recover from eating disorders when they find a partner; someone who loves them. Personally for me that is what’s missing, rather than changing something such as thought processes.
xxx
I think its interesting as some of it kind of reminds me of NLP which I did a course in and saw first hand some amazing results. My uncle also studied it at one time. I completely see what you mean about the person actually ‘wanting’ it to work, but if you had nothing to lose by giving it a try then would you not consider it? I know what you are saying about the loneliness and boredom, I’m just wondering what impact Hypnotherapy would have on your perception of that in your life? For example help you to think about situations differently? Maybe I’m just clutching a straws, I think that it is such a complex topic, I would be interested to see how people had found it worked for them as a sceptic.
I’m super curious about hypnotherapy! To Jess, the commenter above – I hear you on wanting to be in charge of your own destiny, but eating out of boredom and loneliness is as much (if not more) controlled by your thought process and subconscious as it is by external factors, i.e. having someone else around to entertain you. I would argue that a person who once suffered from disordered eating and found health after coupling up sought out that healthy relationship in the first place because of an altered thought process. I’m a big believer in the idea that your outlook changes everything.
Anwho, if I do try hypnotherapy, I’ll definitely report back, Laura (and Jess!) Happy weekend!
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I think you make an excellent point here Rose, I do think that it is about changing your mind processes and how you feel about those external factors that is at the route of it, however it is easier said than done! Would love to hear what you thought of hypnotherapy if you do try it!
I think you both make some excellent points – I think perhaps my focus on the external is tied up with my tendency to want to find something to blame other than solely myself. I do think I am so…well, blunt and surly that I would self-sabotage to the point of deliberately making hypnotherapy fail (I know how strange that sounds…). It’s also easier to blame being alone on ‘I’m fat and ugly’ rather than anything deeper, I guess…I can see that relationships can go both ways – finding someone and thus having a person to recover ‘for’ other than yourself and/or recovering for yourself and then having a better outlook so relationships can become possible.
xxx
I too am intrigued by hypnotherapy, my friend and cousin have had it to give up smoking and it was successful. I did check out the link but thought £300 (did i get that right ???) was a little excessive. This preventative proactive healthy lifestyle can certainly add up with the gym membership, organic foods and supplements ….
Julia
Yep £300 a session so £900 for the three. I guess it works out £150 an hour and I think if it was me I would have to really weigh up how effective I thought it would be. I do wonder if that’s a London prices thing? Great that your friend and cousin gave up smoking with it, well done to them!
Now, I don’t want to discourage anybody BUT I have tried 3 hypnotherapists (one of them on Harley Street and all three at vast expense) over the last 7 years in order to try and cure me from anorexia and neither of them worked. I know this article was about hypnotherapy working to help weight loss, not healthy weight gain, but I figure it’s the same thing really. I have no idea why it didn’t work for me because the given ‘line’ is that it works for everybody, but trust me, it absolutely doesn’t work for me. I 100% invested in the process and in fact was so desperate to get better, got myself heavily in debt buying sessions…in the end, the Harley Street guy gave me 50% discounts on sessions as he felt so sorry for me…but obviously not sorry enough to say ‘save your money, it’s evidently not working for you’. But anyway, I am living proof it doesn’t work for everybody. When I saw the first guy I was only a few months into the disorder, so it wasn’t because I had been ill for very many years or anything, and I was not in any way at all ‘resistant’ unless very deeply in my subconscious! Please don’t think I am stupid for going to three different guys; the problem is, I have been do desperate and they all promise me categorically it will cure me and i am so grateful and hopeful…then it doesn’t. My only successes have been 100% my own doing through sheer determination and willpower.
Thanks for sharing this! Did the people you worked with not offer any explanation as to why it didn’t help you? I don’t think you are stupid at all, when you desperately want something to be fixed you will do almost anything. Such a shame it did not work, but as you say it sounds like it does for some people and perhaps some different issues but not for every one. Good for you having your own successes!
Thanks Laura :)They never said why it didn’t work because they insisted to the end that it was going to work and refused to accept that it wasn’t doing anything! I believe hypnosis relies on a combination of NLP and convincing the subject completely that it WILL work, so if they had admitted it wasn’t working, it could have made the ‘not working’ even worse, perhaps? In each case I kept going until I was cleaned out financially- I went about 3 times longer than they said I should need to- they said maybe 3-6 sessions would ‘cure’ me and I went maybe 15-20 times in each case, just to be sure I was giving it a fair trial!
I have never met anyone who lost weight or recovered from an ED using hypnosis as it happens and would LOVE TO because it would really make me feel more positive about the whole thing- I have met many, many ED sufferers but so far the only recoverees (as far as anyone ever does recover completely) have done it through sheer willpower- maybe supported by God or by a loved one, but ultimately, they have done it for and by themselves. Which frankly is pretty wonderful in itself- not easy, but wonderful :)
By the way I saw you in Healthy magazine and was super-impressed!