How Weight Loss Hypnotherapy Works

Celebrities on TV and in glossy magazines look slim and fit but, for many, keeping weight to a healthy level can be tricky. According to Medline Plus, 66 percent of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. The formula for weight loss is simple: eat or drink less and exercise more and you will lose weight. Yet, it can be hard to stick to this plan, especially for the long term. Hypnotherapy may help you keep to your diet beyond your initial burst of enthusiasm.

Identification

Stage and street hypnosis performers can make it seem that hypnosis happens to you against your will. In fact, hypnotherapy uses the normal changes in your state of consciousness that you experience constantly every day to bring about changes in your life. You enter into a state of highly focused attention, explains the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, where you can sidestep your critical faculties to overcome ideas and beliefs that may be unhelpful to you.

Mechanism

A competent hypnotherapist will teach you how to develop a hypnotic state, where you usually remain awake but deeply relaxed. She may help you to build mental images; for example, seeing yourself at the size you want to be, or eating slowly and stopping as soon as you feel full. She may make suggestions designed for your brain to use outside of hypnosis sessions. These will propose actions to take you towards your goal, such as choosing vegetables for a snack rather than chocolate. She may help you explore some of the reasons for your difficulty with food.

Progress

Successful hypnotherapy, according to Vanderbilt University, takes time. In addition to individual sessions with your clinician, perhaps for eight weeks or so, you need to undertake practice, or self-hypnosis. Your clinician may offer you a tape or CD to help you practice regularly. Suggestibility varies between individuals, according to Hypnosis and Suggestion.org, and so people differ in their response to hypnosis. A strongly motivated client working with an experienced therapist is more likely to find hypnotherapy enjoyable and useful.

Expert Insight

Many experts agree that hypnotherapy is most beneficial when used alongside other treatment, such as cognitive behavior therapy. I. Kirsch, in his article entitled "Hypnotic Enhancement of Cognitive-Behavioural Weight-Loss," describes hypnosis as having a "significant and substantial effect," more than doubling the amount of weight lost achieved through cognitive behavioral treatment alone. This effect may be due to hypnotherapy extending the short-term gains made through cognitive behavior treatment into longer term change.

Warning

Advertisements can exaggerate claims for the effectiveness of hypnotherapy, suggesting that one session, or even a single group session, of hypnosis can lead to rapid and extreme weight loss in the absence of additional treatment. Vanderbilt University suggests that you treat such claims with skepticism, pointing out that very few studies show real benefits of hypnosis by itself in achieving weight loss. The University does, however, uphold hypnotherapy as an effective addition to other treatments.