Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could wave a magic wand and have the figure we have always longed for? Or crave prawn soup and green tea instead of nasi lemak and teh tarik? Or get up at dawn for a run instead of hitting the snooze button again?
While we all know there’s no such thing as a magic wand, many slimmers consider trying hypnotherapy for its claims to assist weight loss, reduce cravings and boost motivation. Too good to be true? Or a fantastic method for rebooting your thinking and changing habits?
What is hypnotherapy?
We tend to associate hypnosis with cabaret shows in which people are made to eat raw onions or cluck like a chicken. These shows are entertaining, but they exploit our underlying fear of mind control and being made to act in ways beyond our control.
Hypnotherapy is nothing like that. Instead it uses guided relaxation, intense concentration and focused attention to achieve a heightened state of awareness. This is sometimes called a trance, which is a naturally occurring, deeply relaxed state in which you can focus your attention on a specific issue – such as your nagging cravings for chocolate ice cream every afternoon.
What to expect from a session with a hypnotherapist
Susannah Paterson is a psychotherapist who uses hypnotherapy with some of her clients who have difficulties with food and body image. She says, “It can be a powerful tool, but it is not a magic fix. People sometimes think that a hypnotherapist will do something for them, but they have to have their own motivation to change.”
Susannah explains that there are 3 trance states:
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neutral trance, such as when you’re daydreaming
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negative trance, such as when you’re frozen with fear and panic
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positive trance, when you are so absorbed that the rest of the world fades away
“Hypnotherapy allows you to bring your full attention to your goal,” Susannah says. “It can bring about a profound change of perspective and allow for more creative thinking about problems.”
She warns, however, that weight loss clients need a specific purpose in mind. “It won’t help if someone’s goal is too vague and general. A client has to be willing to address the issues that drive overeating in the first place. The more individualised the goal, the better it will be for the client.”
Self-hypnosis
While the cost of hypnotherapy sessions can be claimed from some health funds, a cheaper option is to apply its techniques to yourself.
Tom Kersting
is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the US who takes a special interest in health and wellness. He is the co-host of a TV series, Monster In-Laws, and the author of Losing Weight When Diets Fail. He says, “I believe we all have the potential to free ourselves from emotional and psychological pain and to create the life we desire.”
Tom has created a system of self-hypnosis called Power Programming, which he outlines in his book. “It involves the subconscious mind to change habits,” he says.
“All our habits are deeply ingrained. We all know this – we just don’t know how to dig into that deep world. Power programming is much like hypnotherapy, but it aims to help people understand their inner mind and learn why they continue with weight-gaining behaviours, even though they know they are the problem.”
Meditation can bring about the same kind of positive trance as hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis and create a state of intense focus, but many people find meditation difficult. “Power programming is like meditation coupled with powerful suggestion and visualisation,” says Tom. “It makes losing weight seem easy rather than a struggle. This is hugely important because it removes the emotions surrounding feelings of failure.”
In Tom’s view, a habit is a mental program. His self-hypnosis technique helps you to access the deep parts of your mind and hit the reprogram button. “Change the mental program and you change the habit and form new ones.”
A psychologist’s view of hypnotherapy
“The way I approach helping people,” says Cindy Nour, a clinical psychologist who has many weight loss clients, “is to look at the medical literature to see which methods have been proven to be the most efficacious. And, unfortunately, hypnotherapy doesn’t feature in research studies as an effective treatment. The evidence for weight loss is not convincing for several reasons related to the reliability of the studies.”
The problem as Cindy sees it is that hypnotherapy involves a passive approach to a difficult and complex situation. “Sometimes my clients are desperate,” she says. “Their motivation waxes and wanes. Hypnotherapy seems to offer a short-term solution to a problem that realistically could take years to resolve. There are no quick fixes when it comes to weight loss.”
For Cindy, the medical literature demonstrates that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatments for people who find it difficult to manage their weight. “I am sceptical of hypnotherapy because I haven’t seen convincing evidence to support it,” she says. “I don’t like the idea of people paying money in hope for treatment that might not work. On the other hand, many studies over several decades support the use of CBT, which is what I practise. It features tools and strategies that are soundly evidence-based.”
Nevertheless, she stresses that therapy on its own is not enough. She says, “To be successful, CBT has to be combined with healthy eating and hitting the gym regularly.”