Someone drew my awareness of an article published last year in a leading national newspaper. It had been about an obese woman who lost 8 stone having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. Exactly what a success story for hypnotherapy! Or can it be?
Folks 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 may be solved by one session of hypnotherapy and that no subsequent effort on the part is required. They believe, or hope, that the virtual gastric band is a magic wand that may simply make their weight problem disappear. If perhaps it were that simple.
They say, don't they, that there's no such thing as bad publicity. I've never thought that to be true. Stories which proclaim the success of hypnotherapy are usually welcome - but as long as they're credible.
Allow me to start by saying that I'm quite prepared to trust that the girl in the article did indeed lose a lot of weight. But the article helps it be pretty clear that this is not attained by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the type of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which will be adopted by a person who had a genuine gastric band fitted. The content also says that she had ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the price 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. If the girl had ten sessions then that could cost her £900. If you look at a number of the readers' comments on the 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 as a result 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 designed to work? Hypnosis will make the body do some amazing things. Operations may be carried out using only hypnosis as anaesthetic. It's quite conceivable that under hypnosis a person might be built to feel like an operation have been performed and a gastric band have been fitted. But when the hypnosis is terminated the client isn't left with a belly that has somehow been shrunk by hypnosis. They might be told that they will feel like a gastric band has been fitted. But how do they understand what that truly is like if they have never actually had the operation?
Basically, then, the client is told that their stomach isn't as large as it used to be vehicle. It's 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 the other? But folks who are suggestible enough to accept an indicator like which are also ideal subjects of conventional hypnotherapy weight reduction treatments. For such people the elaborate hoax of a non-existent surgical operation is not required.
When I first learned about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I would not offer such treatments because nothing that is in relation to a total lie can ever succeed 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 mention of virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There might, therefore, be dangers in the treatment which have not even arrive at light. Yet I suspect that the main problem is sheer ineffectiveness. Several of my own, personal clients experienced virtual gastric band treatments and have discovered them to be both highly expensive and totally ineffective.
At the conclusion of the afternoon, you can find no magic wands. There's one way, and one way only, to achieve permanent and lasting weight reduction - 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 create lighter is your purse or your wallet!
