WHOLE-BEING HYPNOTHERAPY:
WEIGHT LOSS

Characters in Search of an Author

Deborah Marshall-Warren's hypnotherapy can be successful with a very wide range of problems and challenges. One of the most common is that of weight control. In order to illustrate the process, the following is taken - with permission, of course - from transcripts of a series of hypnotherapy sessiosn with a woman who was seeking to lose weight. The woman was in her late thirties, and worked professionally as a writer.

When diets do not work for you it is often because you have been programmed to eat for another reason, and it has nothing to do with normal eating satisfaction. To change the behaviour pattern, together we will reach the 'Parts' of the subconscious which are making it almost impossible for you to lose weight. Interactive Hypnotherapy goes beyond suggestion to get in touch with the Parts that diets cannot possibly reach.

By combining the interactive therapy with regression, we can discover when you first started eating for a reason other than to nourish your body. Any kind of eating that over-rides that satisfied feeling, is for extra satisfaction. It is this extra satisfaction that needs dealing with.

In three to five sessions, Interactive Hypnotherapy will change the eating behaviour which no longer serves you, freeing you to be a more positive and productive person. Interactive Hypnotherapy is a way of helping you to help yourself. It is an investment, one of the greatest gifts you'll give to yourself.

The following is a dialogue with the parts of the subconscious which had worked against a woman losing weight. It is intended to give you some insight into how Interactive Hypnotherapy works, and to show you how, by gaining agreement with the parts, we can work together to help you correct the script that is not working for what you want to achieve.

Dramatis Personae

A cast of characters, called Comfort, Limiting, Fear, Persistance and a coat called Patience which hangs in the wardrobe of the subconscious mind, like the size-ten ruby dress which once fitted the woman who was then size-ten, and which now hangs in the wardrobe of the conscious reality, a flat in North London. Those were the days ... and nights ... on a balcony in a state of dress ... in a house of elegance and stature. A woman who forgot what happened to frame the shape of a body to come.

The ruby dress has hung through twenty Summers, waiting for the day to come when the woman decides to remember, what she can then forget, and so ... let go of the weight on her mind, and so allow the weight on her body to let go and move forward towards the size she remembers she once was, and the shape she wants her future to be.

Act I

The Characters Make an Appearance

When I contact the subconscious mind ...

Comfort is the first to come forward. Comfort wants to comfort with carbohydrates - macaroni cheese, pizzas, and cartons of creamy custard. Mother Comfort offers treats - oodles of favourite Chinese cuisine to coax the reclusive and the reluctant forward to perform unsavoury tasks. Instant rewards. Instant gratification. Instant comfort. Limiting her bulging body and her bouyant creative mind. Comfort and Limiting have a close working relationship.
Limiting lowers her expectations. Limiting lowers her standards. Limiting minimalizes, the very least the woman can expect for herself in all aspects of life. Limiting limits the amount of 'real nourishment' the woman gains from food, by limiting the range of available choices. Limiting happily allows Comfort to molly-coddle with large quantities of mushy macaroni, because Comfort paves the path for Limiting to continue to narrow the range of available choices.
Fear. With such low levels of expectation the future is sown with seeds which feed. Fear moves life forward and ploughs the fields of the conscious mind with thoughts which distract... and thoughts which keep the conscious house in domestic order. Thoughts which keep the woman from exploring creative territory. It is as if the blinds are drawn - shutting out the voice of creativity. Fear keeps the woman distracted in laudable pursuits... perhaps, and does not allow for pursuits which honour who the woman truly is and would like to be. The woman who is the writer. The woman in the ruby dress who stood on the balcony some twenty years ago who thought she knew the shape of things to come. Fear finds her so easily distracted. It's a great game! Each time she moves to open the blinds, to sit down... to be still... and write, fear presents something to be done, an urgent and so unnecessary task. Fear has always moved her life forward... in ways she wants to go. Fear goes with the flow... Every fleeting moment focused on the possibility of 'fame' is squashed by Fear and uncertainty. It is too painful to be still, to sit by still waters, and after all she is too lazy to get started.
Laziness. Too lazy to buy all the ingredients to make her life better. Too lazy to mix and combine all the best of life into a recipe that creates her success. Too lazy to cook up anything creative. Too lazy to cook. Laziness is lying in a lair.
Persistance panics, and says: "You've not lazy. How can you be lazy, when you're so persistent. You've persisted at getting the results that you're getting. You've persisisted at acheiving goals which have distracted you from writing. You've persisted at putting on so much weight. You have persisted at learning to eat under all circumstances except hunger. Laziness is lying." Now you need to learn more patience. Patience to care. Patience to choose healthy ingredients. Patience to combine all the best of life into a recipe that creates success. Patience to cook up creative writings. Patience to cook.

Act II

The Characters Pull Together

"Patience part, come forward", I ask.

"I don't have much patience", she says.

"Patience part come forward in the form of a work or a picture", I insist.

Reluctantly Patience comes forward as a vision of a coat.

"Try the coat for size", I suggest.

The woman reports that the coat is made of a rough matted hair. The coat itches and creates aggravating discomfort.

"Change the fabric to that of a soft cashmere wool. How does that feel?"

The woman reports she still does not like the coat: "It's like one my Mother would wear".

So I suggest, "Change it to a style and shape you like".

Reluctantly she re-models the coat. "Patience doesn't fit with me", she says, disgruntled. "I don't have much patience".

"Listen for a moment", I say. "Lack of Patience is causing you to eat fast and furiously. Lack of patience is causing you to feel pain in both your body and your mind. You have found comfort in eating to satisfy needs other than normal nourishment. Comfort eating is like an addictive drug. You are on a short high, having satisfied your craving. Habitually eating carbohydrate for comfort leads to a vicious circle, where you get hooked. This habit seeks out people who are needy of attention and of love and of comfort... rather than sitting down and writing creatively you swallow some food. It is a temporary fix only, because afterwards there are no articles, no short stories, no novellas. You've not written anything new and interesting and you are still hungry for comfort. So when the fix wears off, the urge to be comforted returns... another fix... more food... more fat... more weight." A pause. "Just Stop. Put an end to this sabotage... claim back your life... if you get the urge to eat, drink a glass of water, or a cup of herbal tea ... go out for a walk and comfort yourself with visual things... with beauty... with the scent of flowers instead of the smell and taste of stodge."

"Patience, do you agree to have a bigger part in the woman's life?"

Patience reluctantly replies, "I'll try".

This time I persist: "Patience, in order for the woman to move forward in her life and to let go of the weight of the past, and the weight on her body, it means to say, that you need to allow patience to be an important part in her life".

"I'll follow her round in the pink coat and put out a saucer of milk to remind her to be more patient each day".

"Thank you. That's wonderful. Now - comfort part, having heard what Limiting, Fear, Persistence and Patience have to say, do you agree to allow the woman to make the change?"

"You mean to be more patient?"

"Yes"

"I'll do that if that's what they all want".

"Good. Make the change now, and tell me when you've done it."

Moments of silence pass by.

"I've done it".

"Now will you allow me to bring forward a three-foot high TV screen so that the woman can see herself exactly as she wants to be?"

"I'm on a balcony, and I'm 23 years old, wearing a size 10 ruby red dress. It's a Cacharel dress, one I bought in Amsterdam. And there's a man on the balcony with me...

"Now let's take that image and move forward into the future ... to today. Put yourself as you want to be into that picture. What is that like? What does it feel like to be the size that you want to be? ..."

The dialogue continues in this form. It addresses the issues that underlie the desire to eat, and it makes firm the changes that are being made.