Most people who want to lose weight already know what they should be eating. The struggle isn’t usually about information, it’s about the patterns, habits and emotional responses that keep pulling them back. Hypnotherapy works at that level: the part of the mind where automatic behaviours and feelings are organised. Rather than adding another layer of willpower and discipline on top of an already exhausting battle, we work with what’s underneath it.
When most people think of losing weight they think of diets and denial – fighting against your natural impulses. Even if you manage to lose weight this way, the fact is you cannot maintain this indefinitely, and sooner or later (usually sooner!) the weight is back on again. This is especially relevant for people transitioning off GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, where maintaining new habits becomes critical. You will not lose weight permanently by fighting against yourself. Healthy weight loss requires that you go about things a little differently.
These days we understand that having ‘lose weight’ as a primary goal or resolution is little simplistic; when we help people who want to lose weight it’s important to take a more holistic, broader view of things. Sometimes losing weight is exactly what we need to do, but if that occurs at the expense of our physical, mental and emotional well-being then it’s going to be unsustainable, and could even be more harmful than remaining overweight. So what we’re talking about when we refer to “weight loss” is of course about losing weight, but it’s also about gaining health.
Healthy weight loss comes from learning how to listen to your body, being guided by its signals, and by supporting that at a deeper level of the mind where our feelings and responses are being organised. Hypnosis provides us with a tool to access this part of our mind, and make changes at that level. Hypnotherapy is the application of hypnosis techniques towards a therapeutic outcome, such as helping you to change your eating habits and your emotional patterns of behaviour.
The goal is not to see how quickly you can shed a few kilos, your goal is to create balance and harmony. This balance brings to you a guidance system, and as you follow this guidance your eating patterns and emotional habits arrange themselves according to what you want them to be. A sense of enjoyment and satisfaction within this process automatically leads to a continuation of this process. In this way your body gradually lets go of those extra kilos naturally, and allows you to enjoy being at your ideal weight permanently, without the need for constant struggle. This is a much happier and a much more lasting outcome.
Hypnotherapy is a gentle and natural way of working to bring our actions in line with our minds. We take into account things such as:
(If you’ve ever wondered why stress and exhaustion so reliably lead to cravings for exactly the wrong foods, our article on tired brains and food choices explains the neuroscience behind it. )
Weight loss work using hypnosis is designed to give you the motivation to eat and drink in a thoughtful and appropriate way, finding your natural body balance. This is not a denial program, but a good feeling program. By using your inner mind’s assistance through hypnotherapy techniques you can have relaxed, good feelings about yourself, enjoy eating, and secure lasting weight control. A hypnotherapy session with us is an evidence-based, multi-technique approach, and meta-analyses have shown that using hypnosis can double the weight loss achieved through CBT-like approaches alone, and that change can be sustained over time (Kirsch, 1996; Milling, et. al., 2018)
Real change is beyond will-power, and using hypnosis for weight loss does not call upon you to perform heroic feats of self denial; it is beyond daily insecurities so continues to work for you even when you are distracted by other priorities in your world. Hypnosis frees you to live more fully by subconsciously accomplishing all those things which you most desire but have, as yet, been unable to achieve even with your most focused thoughts.
Hypnosis is a wonderfully appropriate modality for making changes to better our health. It creates opportunity to change eating and exercise patterns that promote harmony and well-being. It allows the mind to be more effectively supportive of health and physical wellness, while supporting greater emotional stability. This directly influences habits and patterns that allow the body to move to its naturally perfect weight, and stay there without constant struggle.
Kirsch, I. (1996). Hypnotic enhancement of cognitive-behavioral weight loss treatments: Another meta-reanalysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(3), 517–519. https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000139
Milling, L. S., Gover, M. C., & Moriarty, C. L. (2018). The effectiveness of hypnosis as an intervention for obesity: A meta-analytic review. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 5(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000139
You can find the answers to common questions about hypnosis and weight loss on on the weight loss and eating patterns FAQ page.
If this sounds like the kind of approach that might work for you, we’d love to hear from you. Book a session or get in touch to ask any questions first.