Someone drew my awareness of an article published last year in a leading national newspaper. It absolutely was all about a heavy woman who lost 8 stone having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. Exactly what a success story for hypnotherapy! Or could it be?
People are becoming increasingly alert to the virtual gastric band. Clients increasingly enquire about virtual gastric band treatment as opposed to hypnotherapy for weight loss. They try this in the belief that their problem can be solved by one session of hypnotherapy and that no subsequent effort on the part is required. They believe, or hope, that the virtual gastric band is a magic wand that will simply make their weight problem disappear. Only if it were that simple.
They say, don't they, that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I've never believed that to be true. Stories which proclaim the success of hypnotherapy are usually welcome - but only when they're credible.
Allow me to start with saying that I'm quite prepared to believe that the woman in the content did indeed lose plenty of weight. But the content helps it be pretty clear that this is not achieved by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the kind of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which may be adopted by a person who had a genuine gastric band fitted. The article also says that she had ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the price of treatment was £270. However I'd a look at the website of the practitioner in question. He charges £270 for three sessions, not ten. Quite simply, his fees are £90 per session. If the woman had ten sessions then that would cost her £900. If you look at some of the readers' comments on the content you will dsicover that the newest comment hits the nail on the head. The woman lost weight because she adopted a radical diet, not due to some virtual "magic-wand" ;.And when she returns to a "normal" diet, how long will the weight stay off for? Not likely very long.
How are these treatments designed to work? Hypnosis could make your body do some amazing things. Operations can be carried out using only hypnosis as anaesthetic. It is quite conceivable that under hypnosis a person might be built to feel like an operation had been performed and a gastric band had been fitted. But when the hypnosis is terminated the client is not left with a stomach that has somehow been shrunk by hypnosis. They might be told that they may feel like a gastric band has been fitted. But how can they know what that actually feels as though if they've never actually had the operation?
Basically, then, the client is told that their stomach is not as large as it used to be. It is possible that a highly suggestible client might accept that suggestion and lose weight. But how? By suddenly feeling sick when "too much" food has been eaten? By being confronted with a selection between feeling sickness and discomfort on the main one hand and hunger on another? But folks who are suggestible enough to simply accept an indicator like which can be also ideal subjects of conventional hypnotherapy weight loss treatments. For such people the elaborate hoax of a non-existent surgical operation is not really required.
When I first learned about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I could not offer such treatments because nothing that is based on a total lie can ever succeed in the long-term. Reality will always win out.
So far as I'm aware, virtual gastric band treatments have not been scientifically scrutinized or tested. I are finding no reference to virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as for example Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There might, therefore, be dangers in the procedure which have not even come to light genetics. Yet I suspect that the main problem is sheer ineffectiveness. A number of my own, personal clients have had virtual gastric band treatments and are finding them to be both highly expensive and totally ineffective.
At the conclusion of the afternoon, there are no magic wands. There is one of the ways, and one of the ways only, to accomplish permanent and lasting weight loss - by making lasting changes to diet and / or exercise regime.
Shortcuts and magical solutions like the virtual gastric band are only gimmicks. The thing that your virtual gastric band is guaranteed to create lighter is your purse or your wallet!
No comments:
Post a Comment