Emotional Trauma and Obesity

In my hypnotherapy practice at Skipnotherapy I see many, many people hoping to lose weight. Many (actually most) of them have tried for years, often since childhood, to be successful in losing and keeping off weight. Some of them have lost significant amounts of weight, often over 100 pounds or more, but eventually it crept back on, and they weighed as much or more than their original weight. Almost invariably, they have tried the “standard” fare of diets and weight-loss programs, and yet despite the unbelievable claims by advertisers, they were not able to maintain their ideal weight or size.

Now why is that? USA Today printed an article on Valentine’s Day 2016 chronicling the story of a woman, Kara Richardson Whitely, who weighed 300 pounds and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro – twice! The first time, she has lost 120 pounds and she and her husband successfully made the climb. On a second attempt, she tried, but failed to make the climb, mostly, according to her, because she had not trained properly and had not lost the weight she needed to make the climb. The third time she tried, she summited again. During that climb, she made the decision to “start to work through her lifelong issues with food.”  Kara reported that her struggles with weight started at age 9 when her parents divorced. A few years later she was sexually abused by a friend of her older brother. Food became her emotional crutch, and in college she surpassed 300 pounds. Read the entire article here.

A common theme in the past of many of my weight loss clients is emotional, physical or sexual abuse, often in childhood. Most of these clients have NO idea that the abuse affected them in such a profound way that it resulted in their weight struggles. Our subconscious minds operate as our protection system. In that role, they may manifest a variety of physical or psychological outcomes which are often undesirable to us. These include weight gain, unwanted habits or addictions, bodily pain, fears or phobias, and even diseases or syndromes such as Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain Syndrome, Reflex Sympathetic Disorder, stuttering, and many, many more.

What is even just as surprising to most clients is that hypnosis is often very effective in resolving these issues – even when typical medical or other alternative protocols have failed. How can I make that claim? Because I see it in my practice all the time, as do many well-trained and experienced hypnotherapists. Essentially, these problems all started through an altered state of consciousness (the very definition of hypnosis!) when the sub-conscious mind was imprinted by a significant and often traumatic event. The ‘feelings’ elicited by that event is what anchored its imprint in the sub-conscious mind and it is hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy that can change that imprint, in a process we call “reframing.” Not only is it effective, it is often the only way to make the life-improving changes so many clients desperately seek.

If you have any questions about hypnosis or hypnotherapy, or if you or someone you love is interested in or desperate to make a life-improving change, feel free to check out my website or contact me at www.skipnotherapy.com. So many people have been so happy they finally discovered a way to improve their lives through hypnotherapy!