I usually tell my clients two stories to illustrate what hypnosis doesn’t do and what it can do:
- The Ham and Cheese Sandwich story and
- The Chocolate-eating story
The Ham and Cheese Sandwich story
Once upon a time, some years ago when I was starting out as a hypnotherapist, I thought that weight loss would be a good area to help people with. My hypnotherapy diploma training hadn’t specifically covered weight loss, so I bought a ‘Hypnosis for Weight Loss’ CD from the internet (that shows you how long ago it was!) I wanted to find out what kind of things were covered in hypnosis for weight loss.
While I was listening to the CD, I fell asleep and to this day, I don’t know exactly what was on the CD, because I never listened to it again. Instead, I did a proper training course on hypnotherapy for weight loss.
What I do know is that, a few days after I had listened to the CD, I was out and needing to buy something for my lunch. At that time, my sandwich of choice was a ham and cheese sandwich. As I walked into the sandwich shop that day, the thought popped into my head: ‘Where’s the salad?’ ‘Where’s the sandwich with some veg in it?’ These were not usual thoughts for me.
I can only think that the CD must have included something along the lines of: ‘When you are choosing your food, look for the healthy options and eat those. Seek out the fruit and vegetables….’
And I did. I can’t remember exactly what I chose – some kind of salad bowl, I think. Nothing wrong with a ham and cheese sandwich in moderation, but it’s certainly not the healthiest option.
I tell that story to explain what hypnosis doesn’t do:
Hypnosis makes it easier to change habitual thinking and behaviour, but it doesn’t brainwash you
What the hypnosis did was plant a helpful thought in my head. However, it didn’t rob me of my decision-making capacity. At the moment of choosing what to eat, I could have decided: ‘Nah, I’ll go for my default option and have the ham and cheese, thank you very much.’ Or, as I did, I acted on the helpful thought and chose a healthier lunch.
I continued acting on that helpful thought, so much so that I easily changed my eating habits. Now, unless there is no other option, I don’t go for the ham and cheese sandwich. I’d much rather have a salad or the avocado and rocket sandwich.
For hypnosis to work, you have to be willing to take on board the suggestions of how you want to think and behave differently that your hypnotherapist will say to you in hypnosis. When that’s the case, it’s amazing what transformation you can get, as my next story shows.
The Chocolate-Eating Story 
A little bit later in my hypnotherapy career, a client, who wanted to change her chocolate-eating habit, came to see me. This was a serious chocolate-eating habit. She would have chocolate after every meal, including breakfast, and chocolate as snacks throughout the day. It wasn’t just a couple of squares of chocolate each time; it was whole big slabs of Dairy Milk and Galaxy. She was getting through multiple multipacks of Mars bars and Snickers every week. Chocolate was constantly on her mind – when could she eat some next? – and she’d get anxious if she thought she was going to run out of chocolate.
For this client, it wasn’t so much that the amount of chocolate was making her put on weight or that it was affecting her health, although that was beginning to be a problem. It was more that she had started eating in secret, hiding the chocolate and discarded wrappers from her husband and children, and she hated doing that.
As we discussed the habit, some underlying anxiety and other issues that were contributing to it emerged. We had a few sessions to address those issues and then came to the session to target the chocolate-eating behaviour.
The following week, the client came to her next session and said: “Do you know, I haven’t eaten a single crumb of chocolate this week. The thought of chocolate hasn’t crossed my mind. It was only because I looked in my diary and saw that I had my session with you today, that I realised that I hadn’t had any chocolate since my session last week.”
Well, I know how effective hypnotherapy can be for all kinds of things and what great results clients can get, but even I was very pleasantly surprised and absolutely delighted that the client had got such a dramatic transformation.
I tell that story to show what hypnosis can do:
Hypnosis can help people make changes in a very short period of time
Just one session specifically on the chocolate-eating behaviour helped the client to stop the secret bingeing. However, I always say that it wasn’t just one session on its own that did it. The other sessions that we had on dealing with the underlying issues undoubtedly made it easier for the client to change her behaviour in such a radical way after that one session.
Even so, my experience of working with clients, and the experience of so many other hypnotherapists, is that hypnotherapy can help people make positive, lasting changes in a relatively small number of sessions.
Curious about how hypnotherapy could help you?
I’m always happy to explain how hypnotherapy works and discuss how it could help with your particular issues.
I offer a free 30-minute phone or Zoom consultation so you can find out more.
Book a phone or Zoom consultation with this link: https://calendly.com/annewilliams/free-phone-or-zoom-consultation
If the times shown aren’t convenient, please email or phone me on 0208 546 2122 and I’ll see what other times I have available.
