Weight Management with EFT, Hypnosis, and NLP

I've been in two minds as to whether to write this article; although weight, for me, is very much linked to my own sense of beauty, I appreciate that this doesn't necessarily apply to everyone. But still, beauty is at least partially to do with increasing confidence, so while this isn't 100% beauty related, it is relevant in my mind.

So, a bit of background - like many women, I'm not happy with my weight. I've been on and off diets since I was quite young, and have always felt rather terrible about being overweight - I have a rather large band of negative emotions which are connected to my size, and my lack of confidence, which don't exactly help me to have a positive attitude to food.

After many years of dieting, I've recently come to the conclusion that changing how I eat for a few weeks or months is not viable to long term management of my weight. I went looking for something that would help me permanently change my attitudes, so that I could go about eating in a healthy way by default. I eventually came to find a therapist using EFT, hypnosis and NLP to help clients manage their weight without dieting.

In total, I have had five sessions - totalling 6 hours - at a cost of £65 per hour. This is undoubtably a lot of money, but when I think about the number of times I've been out to buy a whole new set of foods for a diet, or a new diet book, and indeed thought about how much I would pay to be slim, it didn't seem that much to pay - if it worked.

My first session was a 2 hour long discussion which centred around me, my eating habits, and my feelings. I felt like the therapist got to know me, and tailored the therapy specifically to me.

A large part of the therapy was EFT - emotional freedom technique - which is one of the strangest things I've ever experienced. Basically, you repeat negative statements about yourself while tapping on "energy points", which diminishes your emotional response to those statements. While I felt like a bit of an idiot doing it, I found that after a few repetitions, the phrases, such as "I'm a failure because I'm fat" no longer triggered a rush of negative emotion. While some of them were still true, for example "I'm unhealthy because I'm overweight", I felt detatched from them.

Another key part of the therapy was my choice to stop eating blocks of Dairy Milk (which my husband keeps in the house), chips and crisps. After the therapist had me visualise those foods covered in dog poo, and described the intense nausea I would feel if they came towards my mouth, I have no desire to eat them any more - and haven't, since that session.

Unlike previous years, I lost two pounds over Christmas. I also feel like food is no longer a close friend, a celebration, a treat - it's essential fuel, and while I still really enjoy eating, I don't obsess over it any more. My weight feels less important, I'm less hungry, and if there are Reeces Peanut Butter Cups in the kitchen, I don't feel I need to eat them all immediately to get them out of the way.

Overall, I feel that I've got a much healthier attitude towards food, eating, and myself, and I'm curious to see what happens over the next few months.

I saw Penny Rattle at Breeze of Change in SW London / Surrey, and would thoroughly recommend her. If you find a therapist who practises NLP, hypnotherapy and EFT, make sure you research them carefully and ask plenty of questions before you commit, and if you don't feel comfortable with them, don't take it any further.