Someone drew my awareness of an article published a year ago in a number one national newspaper. It was all about an obese woman who lost 8 stone by having a virtual gastric band fitted under hypnosis. What a success story for hypnotherapy! Or could it be?
Individuals are becoming increasingly alert to 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 can be solved by one session of hypnotherapy and that no subsequent effort on their part is required. They believe, or hope, that the virtual gastric band is a magic wand that may simply make their weight problem disappear. If perhaps it were that simple.
They say, don't they, that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I've never thought that to be true. Stories which proclaim the success of hypnotherapy are usually welcome - but only when they're credible.
Let me start by saying that I'm quite prepared to think that the woman in the content did indeed lose plenty of weight. But the content makes it pretty clear that this was not accomplished by virtual gastric band suggestions alone but by adopting the kind of radical liquid-through-to-solids diet which may be adopted by a person who had a genuine gastric band fitted anxiety. The article also says that she'd ten sessions of hypnotherapy and that the cost of treatment was £270. However I had a look at 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 woman had ten sessions then that will cost her £900. If you look at some of the readers' comments on the content you will see that the most recent comment hits the nail on the head. The woman lost weight because she adopted a radical diet, not because of some virtual "magic-wand" ;.And when she returns to a "normal" diet, how long will the weight stay off for? Probably 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's quite conceivable that under hypnosis an individual could be designed to feel like a surgical procedure have been performed and a gastric band have been fitted. But once the hypnosis is terminated the client isn't left with a belly that has somehow been shrunk by hypnosis. They might be told that they will feel like a gastric band has been fitted. But just how do they know what which actually feels as though if they've never actually had the operation?
Basically, then, the client is told that their stomach isn't as big as it used to be. It's 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 choice between feeling sickness and discomfort on the main one hand and hunger on another? But people that are suggestible enough to accept a suggestion like that are also ideal subjects of conventional hypnotherapy fat loss treatments. For such people the elaborate hoax of a non-existent surgical operation is simply not required.
When I first heard about virtual gastric band treatments I knew that I would never offer such treatments because nothing that's based on an overall total lie can ever work in the long-term. Reality will always win out.
So far as I'm aware, virtual gastric band treatments haven't been scientifically scrutinized or tested. I are finding no reference to virtual gastric band treatments in scientific publications such as for instance Contemporary Hypnosis or the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. There might, therefore, be dangers in the procedure which have not even come to light. Yet I suspect that the main problem is sheer ineffectiveness. Many 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 the day, you will find no magic wands. There's one way, and one way only, to achieve permanent and lasting fat loss - by making lasting changes to diet and / or exercise regime.
Shortcuts and magical solutions like the virtual gastric band are just gimmicks. The thing which the virtual gastric band is guaranteed to create lighter is the purse or your wallet!
