Someone drew my attention to articles published a year ago in a leading national newspaper. It had been about a chubby woman who lost 8 stone by having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. What a success story for hypnotherapy! Or is it?
Individuals 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 their part is required. They believe, or hope, that the virtual gastric band is a secret wand that will simply make their weight problem disappear. If perhaps 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.
I'd like to start with saying that I'm quite prepared to think that the lady in this article did indeed lose a lot of weight. But this article causes it to be pretty clear that this was not accomplished by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the sort of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which may be adopted by an individual who had an actual gastric band fitted. This article also says that she had ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the expense of treatment was £270. However I had a look at the website of the practitioner in question. He charges £270 for three sessions, not ten. Put simply, his fees are £90 per session trainer. If the lady had ten sessions then that would cost her £900. If you appear at a few of the readers' comments on this article you will see that the most up-to-date comment hits the nail on the head. The girl 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? Probably not very long.
How are these treatments supposed to work? Hypnosis may make the human body do some amazing things. Operations can be carried out using only hypnosis as anaesthetic. It is quite conceivable that under hypnosis a person may be made to feel like a surgical procedure had been performed and a gastric band had been fitted. But once the hypnosis is terminated the client isn't left with a belly which includes somehow been shrunk by hypnosis. They might be told that they may feel like a gastric band has been fitted. But just how do they know what that really feels like if they have never actually had the operation?
In essence, then, the client is told that their stomach isn't as huge as it used to be. It is possible 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 a selection between feeling sickness and discomfort on the main one hand and hunger on another? But folks who are suggestible enough to accept an indication like that are also ideal subjects of conventional hypnotherapy weight loss treatments. For such people the elaborate hoax of a non-existent surgical operation is simply not required.
When I first found out about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I could not offer such treatments because nothing that's in relation to a complete lie can ever be effective in the long-term. Reality will always win out.
So far as I'm aware, virtual gastric band treatments haven't been scientifically scrutinized or tested. I have found no reference to virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There could, therefore, be dangers in the procedure which have not yet come to light. Yet I suspect that the main problem is sheer ineffectiveness. Many of my own, personal clients have experienced virtual gastric band treatments and have found them to be both highly expensive and totally ineffective.
At the end of the day, there are no magic wands. There's one of the ways, and one of the ways only, to attain permanent and lasting weight loss - by making lasting changes to diet and / or exercise regime.
Shortcuts and magical solutions such as the virtual gastric band are only gimmicks. The thing that the virtual gastric band is guaranteed to make lighter is the purse or your wallet!
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