Hypnotherapy to Lose Weight

The Medical Research Council Claimed in 2005 that ‘Diets Don’t Work’! In fact some people maintain that diets are simply a crash course in learning to be a failure.

Garry Coles, Hypnotherapy Specialist at the Odiham Clinic claims that there is some good news, in that having researched studies from around the world examining the use of hypnotherapy for weight loss, as well as trialling many different approaches myself, I can report that there are some stunning results indicated when using hypnotherapy as an aid to losing weight.

Behavioural Approaches

An often-effective approach is using hypnosis with clients is to successfully train the subconscious mind to think differently about food, to change their relationship with it and to modify their behaviour. This approach of ‘changing’ the person in a natural way means there is nothing to ‘fall back’ from or revert to.

This is best augmented with a comprehensive approach to find out which ‘parts’ of the subconscious are responsible for any bad food related habits (such as boredom, stress or comfort eating), these parts can then be ‘challenged’ and ‘retrained’ in to behave in a more beneficial way.

Past behavioural or emotional triggers to these habits may also be present which can be investigated and resolved. For example, a common behavioural trigger for comfort eating is often instilled from childhood. How often is a sweet given as comfort when a small child falls over and hurts themselves?

Garry is often asked about the effectiveness of using hypnosis to ‘fool’ a person into thinking they have had a gastric band fitted. This is essentially a basic form of suggestion-based hypnotherapy which could prove effective as part of a more integrated approach. However, he wouldn’t personally recommend it as a standalone treatment.

There also seems to be much confusion on whether hypnotherapy treatment is available on the NHS for the treatment of such problems, such as weight loss? In theory hypnotherapy treatment can be sought on the NHS, however, in reality the majority of GP’s will generally only refer a patient to a hypnotherapist on a private basis rather than funding the treatment from their own practice budget as there is currently no central NHS ‘pool’ for such treatment.