Each client's relationship with food is unique to them, so the hypnotherapy will be very much geared to each individual's specific requirements, rather than a generic, one-size-fits-all approach adopted by many hypnotherapists.
The methods I use have been improved over many years in practice, and are now fine tuned to the smallest detail. This means that clients can be reassured that they will receive experienced and trusted care, and that their needs will be addressed, rather than just being treated with the same weight control module as everyone else.
Unable to control eating habits
Everyone knows that the key to achieving your ideal weight is to eat a healthy, balanced diet and take regular exercise, but for some this elusive task can be a nightmare. Failure to lose weight can lead to despair, causing them to seek comfort from further overeating, leading to more weight gain and more despair. It then becomes a vicious cycle that can be very difficult to break.
Diets only have a short term effect, if any, as it's only a matter of time before the old eating habits creep back in and the weight piles on again. In fact, someone who has a weight problem has programmed their subconscious to eat in a particular way, and it has nothing to do with normal eating satisfaction.
This extra satisfaction is a comfort or protection, either as a coping mechanism for the trials and tribulations of life, or to compensate for something that was missing from their life, or an unhappy experience at the time they first developed their overeating habit. Of course, if the client has been overweight since childhood, it could just be a case of developing unhealthy eating habits at a very young age, possibly from parents, so it becomes a matter of breaking the old ingrained habits.
How does it work?
The approach will vary depending on each individual's specific requirements, but it very loosely involves changing the automatic conditioned response in the subconscious mind that causes you to respond to certain triggers. This is something that many people cannot control through conscious thought processes because, when behaviours are so deeply ingrained in the subconscious, changes often can't be implemented at a conscious level.
Under hypnosis, the learned response within the subconscious can be changed to something more appropriate to the situation, so that in future, you will be calm, relaxed and in control in the situations where you used to succumb to your habit. This leads to a profound increase in motivation to change habitual behaviours that are linked to it. You then learn how to handle trigger situations much more effectively, replacing negative emotions and responses with positive ones and remaining in control.
If factors such as stress, anxiety or tension contribute to your problem, learning suitable relaxation techniques and coping skills help you to respond more appropriately to trigger situations that cause you to . Tension increases reactivity, relaxation lowers it. As negative habits are negative automatic reactions, relaxation gives us greater self-control, rather than be at the mercy of tension induced habitual responses.
Virtual Gastric Band or Hypnoband
Virtual Gastric Band, or Hypnoband as it's sometimes called, is a technique that has had a significant amount of media coverage, and can be extremely helpful to appropriate clients (depending on their individual eating habits), or clients particularly interested in this type of hypnotherapy, but would only be adopted if the client is comfortable with the concept.
It works by convincing the subconscious that a gastric band has been fitted, so that the client can then only eat much smaller amounts of food, in much the same way as a real gastric band works. It's perfectly safe, as no actual surgery takes place, of course. In fact, it's much safer, because having a real gastric band fitted can sometimes lead to complications.
Staying on the right path
Reverting to old behaviours is avoided by making sure that you have the resources, positive habits, new experiences and understanding to stay on your chosen path, and remain free from your old eating habits. The whole programme fosters a deep sense of self-belief that helps strengthen and maintain the desired changes.