Over the past 22+ years that I have been in practice, I have found those with anorexia and bulimia who committed to ending their eating disorder were able to do so. However, this is not something that most of those who are allopathically trained would believe is even possible. This is because these folks have learned that these illnesses are only able to be managed at best.
Well, I can honestly tell you that this is misguided information because I have several past clients who have been able to end their eating disorders and move on in life. However, it was not an easy process in the sense that they needed to revisit the underlying traumas that had them develop the eating disorders in the first place. The good news was that by using hypnotism and neuro-linguistic programming they were able to do this release work in a hypnotic state, an altered state allowing them to make connections that would be impossible to make while working through the information in the conscious mind.
The issues that make working with these patients more difficult than many others is the fact that many have come to loathe themselves. My anorexic and bulimic clients use the word ‘loathe’ to describe how they feel about themselves. When one loathes one’s self it is very difficult to care enough about the self to do the healing work and make the changes in habits that need to be made. This is why we need to teach them how to fall back in love with themself so they will want to take care of their body which is the temple in which they reside. Once that is accomplished it is just a matter of going through the healing protocol including four sessions of hypnosis for addiction release and then working on creating a compelling future. Because when one has a compelling future that is more alluring than being ill, almost anyone can do whatever it takes to heal. My clients have proven that these steps work and have worked to keep them free of their anorexia and bulimia for two decades now.
I sincerely hope that learning that one can indeed overcome these illnesses when the healing protocol is based on healing instead of pathology, is inspirational enough to help those who suffer from these issues get the help they need so they too can move on with their lives without having their eating disorder control practically everything they think and do any longer.
A person on Quora asked me what the common experiences that people have while they are in the state of hypnosis are. This is how I answered that question:
Having been hypnotized myriads of times both in the clinical setting and on the stage of a few stage hypnotists I can tell you the following:
1. There are symptoms that allow one to know that one is hypnotized. A clinical hypnotist will tell you what those are so that you know that you have been hypnotized. Some of these symptoms are swallowing a lot more than usual, pulse and heart rate slowing down, circular breathing from the diaphragm, eyes will flutter, the hypnotist will be looking for the lines in your lips to be less deep, a slight color change in your face to a bit redder. (Some hypnotists will give their clients convincers like sticking their feet to the floor unable to move them to prove to the client they were indeed hypnotized).
2. The client may feel like they are heavy or lighter, sometimes one feels tingles in their fingers and/or toes, and time feels much quicker than it actually is.
3. It is much easier to gain access to the subconscious material that needs to be found and worked with while one is in the hypnotic state which is why it is used.
4. The work goes a lot quicker than conventional talk therapy because we are working. in the subconscious mind where the transformations need to happen.
5. In stage shows one realizes that the suggestion may not be real, however, the volunteer acts as if that suggestion is real. i.e. A suggestion given that a man is pregnant and giving birth – the man knows that he isn’t pregnant, but will act out the suggestion as if he is a good hypnotic subject.
6. Stage hypnotists have to be very good at discerning the volunteers who are actually hypnotized and those that may be pretending which they can tell by giving suggestions and seeing how the volunteer responds along with the above-given symptoms of hypnosis.
7. Mostly, when one is in treatment with a hypnotist who knows how to use the tools and techniques well, one can go to those hard places in one’s memory and transform it quickly to let go of that which no longer works and create thinking that does work better for the client.
I have been practicing hypnotism for the past 20 years and my clients have reported that this was the one way they found to clear out their issues when everything else they tried failed. It is important to find a hypnotist who has proven that they can help people with the issues that they have so that you receive the results that you are employing them to help you receive. Because the reality of the situation is that no one can heal another – all we as practitioners can do is facilitate another’s healing to the point that they allow us to. This means that we have to know everything that is bothering our clients so we can help free them of the issues.
