Someone drew my attention to a write-up published last year in a number one national newspaper. It was exactly about a heavy woman who lost 8 stone by having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. Just what a success story for hypnotherapy! Or could it be?
Individuals are becoming increasingly conscious of the virtual gastric band. Clients increasingly enquire about virtual gastric band treatment as opposed to hypnotherapy for weight loss. They do this in the belief that their problem could 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 secret wand that may 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 begin by saying that I'm quite prepared to believe that the lady in the article did indeed lose a lot of weight surgery. But the article makes it pretty clear that this is not accomplished by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the sort of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which would be adopted by an individual who had an actual gastric band fitted. This article also says that she'd ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the cost of treatment was £270. However I had a go through the website of the practitioner in question. He charges £270 for three sessions, not ten. Quite simply, his fees are £90 per session. If the lady had ten sessions then that would cost her £900. If you look at a number of the readers' comments on the article you will see 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 could be carried out using only hypnosis as anaesthetic. It is quite conceivable that under hypnosis an individual could be made to feel like an operation had been performed and a gastric band had been fitted. But once the hypnosis is terminated the client is not left with a belly that has somehow been shrunk by hypnosis. They could be told that they may feel like a gastric band has been fitted. But how can they understand what which actually feels as though if they've never actually had the operation?
In essence, then, the client is told that their stomach is not as big 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 confronted with a selection between feeling sickness and discomfort on usually the one hand and hunger on the other? But people who are suggestible enough to accept an indication like which are also ideal subjects of conventional hypnotherapy weight loss treatments. For such people the elaborate hoax of a non-existent surgical operation is not really required.
When I first found out about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I could not offer such treatments because nothing that is based upon an overall total lie can ever be effective in the long-term. Reality will always win out.
So far as I'm aware, virtual gastric band treatments have not been scientifically scrutinized or tested. I have discovered no reference to virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as for example Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There may, therefore, be dangers in the procedure which have not yet come to light. Yet I suspect that the main problem is sheer ineffectiveness. A number of my own personal clients have had virtual gastric band treatments and have discovered them to be both highly expensive and totally ineffective.
At the end of the afternoon, there are no magic wands. There's one way, and one way only, to accomplish 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 just gimmicks. The only thing that the virtual gastric band is guaranteed to create lighter can be your purse or your wallet!
