Hypnotherapy and The Gastric Band
Of the myriad of subjects which effect the clinical practice of hypnosis, none annoy and even offend me as much as the fetish some people seem to have for the hypnotic gastric band. It would appear that there are few practitioners, who have not in some way jumped on the gastric bandwagon.
The long and the short of this premise is that rather than having the surgery to have a gastric band fitted, hypnosis is used to “convince” your unconscious mind that one has been fitted. By doing this, the unconscious is meant to “act as if” it has one. When doing so, the benefits of the band are experienced without the surgery.
There is absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever. Perhaps there are hypnotists out there who claim anecdotally that they have had success with this procedure. However, there are no peer reviewed journal articles, no university research projects which validate claim one of this process. Additionally, it could be argued, and indeed, I do argue this, that by lying to the unconscious mind that a person has had a gastric band procedure is only a small step from implanting a false memory.
Those of us who have been around long enough can remember the controversy in the 1990’s with regards to false memories. I for one do not want to see it again. I will say again, and for the millionth time, if a client wants to lose weight they must burn off more calories than ingest. Hypnosis can help people be motivated to do this and to help keep them on track. There are no miracle solutions when it comes to weight management, it is time the profession stops peddling miracles.
