Its Time To Stop Oversimplifying Weight Management With Hypnotherapy
You have all seen the titles of websites and tabloid articles, “Think yourself slim with hypnotherapy”. Wouldn’t it me marvellous if you could think yourself thin and it became real, of course it would. However, weight management is not at all that simple for the vast number of people who present for therapy to lose weight. Sure, there will be some people looking to lose a few pounds for a wedding or holiday, I am talking about people who have genuine issues with food.
For most people I have worked with in over 30 years, weight is a metaphor for a greater issue. Food can be used for a multitude of things that it was never meant for. Using it to control stress or to moderate or suppress emotion shows that food is a symptom of a greater issue, rather than the issue. A therapist should be curious enough to investigate what is genuinely behind a client’s issue with food. This investigation will often lead to looking at significant personal issues. If a therapist is going to investigate, then that person needs to have the skillset to work with whatever comes up.
Sure, many people think that putting a person into trance and telling them to eat less or avoid certain foods will make the difference. In reality, this is far less likely than simply listening and looking at what drives the behaviour rather than the behaviour itself.
