Hypnotherapy In Weight Loss

Hypnotherapy for weight loss may provide an alternative to more invasive weight management procedures such as gastric band surgery. Hypnotherapy for weight management may encourage strict dietary practices that are similar to gastric band patient regimens. Hypnotism may encourage desirable weight management behavior by convincing you that you have a gastric band.

Trance

Hypnotherapists may help you enter a trance, which is a state of consciousness that may help concentrate your attention on your inner mental world. According to the Trance Research Foundation website, trance analysis is a technique that you can use for personal introspection and observation. A hypnotherapist may help you enter a trance-like state by speaking to you and giving verbal instructions to help you relax and concentrate.

Suggestion

According to the Hypnosis Motivation Institute website, a hypnotherapist may induce a hypnotic state to increase motivation or alter your patterns of behavior through hypnosis. A hypnotherapist may give suggestions that influence what you think and feel. Information published on Vanderbilt University's website indicates that a successful response to a hypnotherapist's suggestions may seem involuntary or effortless. Hypnotherapist's may make suggestions that influence your dietary practices and your perspective on meals and exercise to encourage behavior that promotes weight loss and discourage behavior that does not.

Treatment or Facilitator

Information published on Vanderbilt University's Health Psychology website suggests that hypnotherapy may help promote weight loss, but may not provide an effective primary treatment for losing weight. Health Psychology references a study by Cochrane and Friesen, in which women who listened to weight loss hypnosis audio tapes and women who attended group hypnotherapy lost more weight than control groups and maintained weight loss for at least six months. Health Psychology's data suggests that hypnosis may help facilitate other treatment methods for weight loss.

Hypnosis and Behavioral Management

Hypnosis may increase attention to behavior that promotes weight loss. Hypnosis may provide psychological reinforces for positive eating behavior and long term dietary patterns. Some reinforces may emphasize visualizing or imagining desirable scenarios. The Health Psychology website suggests that hypnosis may provide an ideal addition to behavioral weight management, because meeting long-term weight management results tend to require supplemental programs.

Hypnosis and Behavioral Management Effectiveness

A combination of hypnotherapy and behavioral weight management may significantly affect weight loss and promote long-term weight management. According to a study published in the "Journal of Clinical Psychology," a combination of behavioral treatment and hypnosis may help you achieve and maintain your personal weight management goals. The study evaluates subjects that participated in behavioral weight management treatment either with or without hypnosis, and both groups demonstrated weight loss. However, participants that received hypnotherapy showed additional weight loss after two years.