It takes a brain to try
By addressing the causes of weight gain, hypnotherapy inspires assertiveness and self-confidence as well as new slimness
Any diet veteran can vouch for the inadequacy of most regimes: you lose the weight, then put it all back on, plus a pound or two, when you return to normal eating.
'The trouble with diets', agrees Georgia Foster, co-founder of the Slim by Suggestion programme, 'is that they treat the symptoms, not the cause of excess weight.'
She struggled with her own fluctuating weight for a decade, until she trained as a hypnotist and used hypnotherapy to help herself lose weight. Now elegantly slim, she claims to have no problems maintaining her ideal weight.
'Dieting without changing your mental self-image is pointless,' she says, 'because your unconscious will be trying to sabotage your efforts. You have to train the unconscious to think in a different way first.'
The result is a rather intellectual approach to slimming. Slim by Suggestion runs regular eight-week courses of one-and-a-half hour group-therapy sessions; participants commit to a healthy eating plan, as well as listening to hypnotherapy tapes each night, and keeping an emotional journal.
Each session starts with a group discussion of a particular issue, such as our ingrained belief systems about weight, with question-and-answer forms to establish exactly where our problems lie. Long-held beliefs are exposed to ruthless examination. 'I have to make my husband a proper meal every night, and he likes to see me eating,' one woman confided.
'Most people who are overweight fall into three groups,' says Georgia. 'They tend to be over-emotional, highly-stressed, or simply don't know how to behave around food.' Over-emotional types eat to alter their mood. Highly-stressed people may not have time to worry about eating healthily; they may also be perfectionists who regard any dietary lapse as complete failure and give up early. You belong to the third group if you eat out of the fridge or pick off others' plates. The idea is to work out to which group one belongs.
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On my first consultation, I completed a 'mental weight' evaluation (eg, 'Do you eat when you are disappointed?') and an eating pattern evaluation (eg, 'I will/will not stop short of cleaning my plate if it means I will feel too full'). It was most illuminating. To my horror, I saw I had agreed with the statements 'I plan in the morning what I will eat in the evening,' (I am a busy woman); 'I eat just because other people are eating' (otherwise it is rude); and 'I eat if I feel let down by someone or something' (doesn't everyone?). In short, I was highly emotional about food.
After that, it was time for a half-hour hypnotherapy session. It felt rather odd to take off one's shoes and lie on the floor in an office along with five strangers, listening to a voice intoning: 'Drifting deeper and deeper, drifting away...' We were told there was no need to listen to what was being said: our unconscious would be doing all the work. Afterwards, I felt extraordinarily tired and went to bed without any supper.
'Dieting without changing your self-image is pointless. You have to train the unconscious to think in a different way'
It proved remarkably easy to stick to the low-carbohydrate, no-alcohol diet recommended, though I found that, if I missed a night of the tapes, it was much harder to stick to the diet the following day. I came to look forward to the sessions, too. Some of the suggestions have proved very useful outside the dieting context: all the participants agreed that we felt more assertive and less self-critical than before.
'It's really interesting watching the clients changing,' says Georgia. 'By the fourth week, they start sitting up straighter and wearing brighter clothes. It's very rewarding to see.'
Overall, I lost six pounds and my stress levels decreased, as did my 'mental weight' — by almost half. If I choose to indulge, I no longer feel guilty, but I seem to be remaining slimmer without really trying.
'I found the counselling extremely valuable,' agrees Alison, 33, who works in a merchant bank and completed the course with me. 'I've tried millions of diets and nothing has really worked before.' Over the course of the two months, she lost half a stone. 'I'd like to lose more, but I know I'm never going to be the seven-stone Slimcea girl.'
But she says the real change has been to her lifestyle. 'I used to have issues about the way other people, such as my husband, perceived me, and I was always comparing myself with other people. Now, my weight doesn't seem to be an issue any more. I go to the gym regularly now — before, I was too embarrassed to go. It seems obvious to me now, but it took me years to realise that if you aren't right on the inside, you won't be right on the outside either.'
Slim by Suggestion programmes run at regular intervals in London, Reading, and Manchester; with other locations on request. An eight-week course of eight one-and-a-half hour group sessions, including 30 minutes' hypnotherapy and relaxation tapes costs £225. Ring 020 8563 8006 or visit www.slimbysuggestion.com.