the consultation

For as long as I can remember, I've had cravings for all things sweet. Although I've always preferred savoury foods, I suddenly found myself nibbling chocolate all day long, having a slice of cake at tea time and stocking the freezer with ice cream so there was always something sweet in the house, just in case. In no time at all, I had put on a stone in weight and my self-esteem hit rock bottom. My weight has always fluctuated a bit but I've usually found it easy to lose those extra pounds in just a few weeks. This time I felt completely out of control and seemed to have lost my willpower. So instead of eating one or two jelly sweets, I'd devour the whole pack.

I felt sure the cravings for cigarettes were now being channelled elsewhere and I wanted to get to the root of why I was feeling them in the first place. To find out why I seemed to be sabotaging all my efforts to look good and feel healthier, I decided to try hypnotherapy. I booked an appointment with Georgia Foster, a clinical hypnotherapist who specialises in eating problems, having struggled with her own weight for many years.

Assessing the situation

Georgia sat me down and asked what had been happening in my life recently. There had been a big change three years ago, when I'd moved to Brazil with a view to starting a fresh life. I lived there for a year but found no real sense of belonging, so I came back home and, frustratingly, landed back in my old job again.

We talked about the comfort I was receiving from sweet foods and Georgia explained that while feelings of anxiety, anger or boredom give rise to cravings, it's because your unconscious mind has trained itself to say that's how you deal with those emotions. No matter how strong your willpower is, if your unconscious mind has a different opinion, it always wins the day — and this can make you feel out of control.

On the couch

So what was the treatment itself like? Well she didn't whip out a pendulum and chant 'you are feeling sleepy' ... Instead, I lay on the couch while Georgia talked to me in low, hushed tones, guiding me into a state of deep relaxation.

Then she began talking me through my different issues. 'When the eyes are closed and we are really relaxed, we enter a hypnotic state that's halfway between being awake and asleep,' Georgia later pointed out. 'This is a highly creative state in which the mind is incredibly receptive and quickly learns new ways of thinking. So during this time it's possible to store information more appropriate to our sense of wellbeing. It's all about re-educating the unconscious mind,' she adds.

Georgia also does quite a lot of rehearsal for real life with her clients. 'During hypnosis we practise what it feels like to be in a stressful situation and not want that Mars bar. So it's no longer a question of "will I, won't I?" Your unconscious mind is reprogrammed to think, "this is how we do it now". It's incredibly liberating and the results can be instantaneous.'

To bring me round from the hypnosis, Georgia counted slowly to 10, at which point I'd returned to a state of full, normal consciousness.

And the result?

At the end of the session, which lasted about an hour, I felt as if I was floating. And I noticed a change in my cravings almost instantly. I was no longer bingeing on chocolate and wasn't struggling to overcome those compulsive urges — all within a couple of days of treatment. Ten days on and I haven't had the urge to splurge on sweet foods at all. I already feel slimmer and much better about myself, although to get my weight fully under control I'll obviously need to follow a healthy diet and take more exercise.

I now realise my cravings were all about comfort and coping with stress. I would definitely recommend hypnotherapy to anyone who needs to get to the heart of their eating problems. I will go back for a few more sessions to keep up the good work. Georgia suggests three to five for me to notice a weight loss.