Someone drew my focus on an article published this past year in a number one national newspaper. It had been exactly about a chubby woman who lost 8 stone having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. What a success story for hypnotherapy! Or can it be?
Individuals are becoming increasingly aware 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 can 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'll simply make their weight problem disappear. If only it were that simple.
They say, don't they, that there surely 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 if they're credible.
Allow me to start with saying that I'm quite prepared to believe that the lady in the article did indeed lose lots of weight. But the article makes it pretty clear that this was not attained by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the kind of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which would be adopted by a person who had a real gastric band fitted. The content also says that she'd ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the expense of treatment was £270. However I'd a go through the website of the practitioner in question. He charges £270 for three sessions, not ten. In other words, his fees are £90 per session. If the lady had ten sessions then that will cost her £900. If you look at some of the readers' comments on the article you might find that the newest 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 supposed to work? Hypnosis may make your body do some amazing things. Operations can be carried out using only hypnosis as anaesthetic. It is quite conceivable that under hypnosis an individual could be built to feel as if a procedure had been performed and a gastric band had been fitted. But when the hypnosis is terminated the client is not left with a belly that has somehow been shrunk by hypnosis distribution. They could be told that they may feel as if a gastric band has been fitted. But how do they know very well what that really feels as though if they've never actually had the operation?
Essentially, then, the client is told that their stomach is not as huge as it used to be. It is 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 faced with a choice between feeling sickness and discomfort on usually the one hand and hunger on one other? But people 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 simply not required.
When I first learned about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I would not offer such treatments because nothing that is based upon a total lie can ever work in the long-term. Reality will always win out.
In terms of I'm aware, virtual gastric band treatments have not been scientifically scrutinized or tested. I are finding no reference to virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as for example Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There could, therefore, be dangers in the therapy which may have not yet arrived at light. Yet I suspect that the key problem is sheer ineffectiveness. Several of my own personal clients have had virtual gastric band treatments and are finding them to be both highly expensive and totally ineffective.
By the end of your day, you can find no magic wands. There's one of the ways, and one of the ways only, to achieve permanent and lasting weight loss - by making lasting changes to diet and / or exercise regime.
Shortcuts and magical solutions just like the virtual gastric band are simply gimmicks. The only thing which the virtual gastric band is guaranteed to produce lighter is the purse or your wallet!
