Sometimes people simply can’t seem to get their eating under control. They feel absolutely helpless, at the mercy of overwhelming compulsions surrounding food. I see them crying, desperate to change, but somehow just unable to do it. It almost feels as if part of them doesn’t want to lose weight.
Actually that is exactly what is going on. In these cases the subconscious mind is determined to hold onto that old eating pattern for some reason. Why? Well the subconscious will be trying to keep the client safe from something and, although it means well, although it has positive intentions, it can end up causing harm and distress.
When this happens, Hypnotherapy enables the therapist to encourage the subconscious to let go of that old behaviour and find a new positive behaviour that will fulfil the same positive intention in a way that isn’t distressing for the client. Jargon-y? Sorry! I’ll give an example -
Imagine a client who simply couldn’t get to the weight she wanted. She could lose a stone and then just not get any lighter although she still had plenty of weight left to lose. She would start ‘cheating’ and ‘treating’ herself, undermining her efforts, sabotaging herself.
Under Hypnosis she realised she didn’t want to be so slim that she drew attention to herself. Her subconscious was trying to keep her safe from the jealousy of her friends, the judgment of her family and the unwanted attention of male colleagues.
She actually got quite cross when the penny dropped, when she realised what was going on. We worked on strengthening her sense of self so that she was not affected by other people to the same extent or in the same way. She decided she would not allow other people to determine how much she weighed, she lost some more weight and she kept it off.
Of course, we don’t always know what is going on. We don’t always know why your subconscious is making things so difficult for you. The good news is that we don’t need to. This sort of work can be done without knowing the details, the reasons or the background.
In fact, a lot of Hypnotherapy can be done without the need to rake over the past at all. If something has happened and you don’t want to discuss it, it can be dealt with entirely ‘content free’ - without you having to tell the therapist any details at all. Some people want to speak it as part of the healing, others simply want a way of processing it internally. But, that’s another post.
