Someone drew my awareness of articles published this past year in a leading national newspaper. It absolutely was about an overweight woman who lost 8 stone having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. Just what a success story for hypnotherapy! Or is it?
People are becoming increasingly conscious of the virtual gastric band. Clients increasingly enquire about virtual gastric band treatment rather than hypnotherapy for weight loss. They do this in the belief that their problem could be solved by one session of hypnotherapy and that no subsequent effort on their part is required. They believe, or hope, that the virtual gastric band is a magic wand that will simply make their weight problem disappear. If only it were that simple.
They say, don't they, that there's 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.
Let me start with saying that I'm quite prepared to trust that the woman in the article did indeed lose a lot of weight. But the article helps it be pretty clear that this was not achieved by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the type of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which may be adopted by a person who had an actual gastric band fitted. The content also says that she'd ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the price of treatment was £270. However I had a go through 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 a few of the readers' comments on the article you might find that the most up-to-date comment hits the nail on the head. The woman lost weight because she adopted a radical diet, not because of some virtual "magic-wand" ;.And when she returns to a "normal" diet, just how long will the weight stay off for? Most likely not very long.
How are these treatments supposed to work? Hypnosis may make the human body do some amazing things editor. Operations could be carried out using only hypnosis as anaesthetic. It's quite conceivable that under hypnosis a person may be designed to feel like a surgical procedure have been performed and a gastric band have been fitted. But once the hypnosis is terminated the client is not left with a stomach which includes somehow been shrunk by hypnosis. They could be told that they may feel like a gastric band has been fitted. But just how do they know what which 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's 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 up against an option between feeling sickness and discomfort on the main one hand and hunger on the other? But individuals who are suggestible enough to accept an indication 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 required.
When I first found out about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I would not offer such treatments because nothing that is in relation to an overall total lie can ever work in the long-term. Reality will always win out.
As far as I'm aware, virtual gastric band treatments haven't been scientifically scrutinized or tested. I have discovered no reference to virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as for instance Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There may, therefore, be dangers in the therapy which may have not yet arrive at light. Yet I suspect that the key problem is sheer ineffectiveness. A number of my own personal clients have had virtual gastric band treatments and have discovered them to be both highly expensive and totally ineffective.
By the end of the afternoon, you can find no magic wands. There is one way, and one way 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 make lighter is the purse or your wallet!
