Alternative Treatment for Weight Loss: Hypnotherapy As a Treatment for Obesity

Upon hearing the term "hypnosis", one will more than likely think of a comical performance where people are given outrageous suggestions by a hypnotist to do certain humiliating but nevertheless entertaining behaviors, which may include mimicking an animal or playing an imaginary musical instrument. Although the media tends to portray hypnosis as a source of peoples' entertainment, what many people might not know is that it can actually be used for much more practical purposes. In fact, it can be used in the form of hypnotherapy, as a treatment to help people live better lifestyles. Hypnotherapy is defined as the process by which a therapist utilizes hypnosis techniques in order to bring about therapeutic changes for a client, particularly changes in behaviors (Golden, Dowd & Friedburg 1987). It can be used to treat many disorders and problems which have underlying psychological origins, including obesity, phobias, drug addictions, depression, anxiety, and stress disorders (Golden et. al 1987; Lovejoy 2006). Through its calming and motivational effects, hypnotherapy has the potential to reduce the severity of or even eliminate these problems, which if left untreated, may have devastating effects on one's physical, social, and mental health.

Despite the numerous positive effects that hypnotherapy may bring, there is still skepticism and misconceptions about hypnotherapy. For one, people are skeptical about the use of hypnotherapy as a treatment option for psychologically-based problems. One of the main concerns that many people have today regarding hypnotherapy is whether it works at all in treating certain problems. There are also many misconceptions about hypnotherapy. Hypnosis has been widely perceived as a state similar to sleep, when in fact, it is simply a state of deep relaxation that involves highly concentrated attention on one thought or object as opposed to that of multiple thoughts and objects. Because of the media's portrayal of hypnosis, people generally believe that under hypnosis, individuals may behave in ways that differ from their usual demeanor. In fact, under hypnosis, individuals are relaxed, but at the same time, are highly aware of their actions (Golden et. al 1987; Lovejoy 2006). Therefore, hypnotized individuals would not fulfill suggestions by the hypnotherapist (or hypnotist) that they normally would deem inappropriate. Another question that often arises concerns whether hypnotism can work on everyone who tries it. As a matter of fact, anyone can be hypnotized, with the exception of mentally retarded individuals, because hypnosis is "the learning state of mind (Lovejoy 2006)." Thus, if you are able to learn and concentrate, you will be able to be hypnotized. In response to the concerns and misconceptions that people have about hypnotherapy, a number of researchers have conducted studies on the subject in order to examine the effectiveness of hypnotherapy.

Since obesity has become one of the prevalent health problems in today's society, researchers have paid special attention to how hypnotherapy can be used to treat obesity. In the research literature on hypnotherapy as a treatment for obesity, hypnotherapy has been successful as both a treatment for obesity, at the exclusion of other treatments for obesity, as well as an adjunct to other treatments for obesity like diet therapy, behavioral therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy (Bolocofsky, Spinler & Coulthard-Morris 1985; Cochran & Friesen 1986; Greaves, Tidy & Christie 1985; Kirsh 1996). Most of the participants in these studies were able to lose weight and maintain their weight loss, and some even continued to lose more weight after their treatment was over.

Cochran and Friesen (1986) examined the efficacy of hypnotherapy as a treatment for obesity, at the exclusion of other treatments for obesity. The participants in this study included 60 women between the ages of 20 and 65 who were at least 20% overweight and were not in any other treatment program. The participants were assigned to one of three groups: the control group (that received no treatment), the experimental group that received hypnotherapy in addition to reinforcing audiotapes, and the experimental group that received the hypnotherapy with no reinforcing audiotapes. The researchers hypothesized that the experimental groups would lose more weight than the control group and that the experimental group that used the audiotapes would lose more weight than the experimental group which did not use the audiotapes. Consistent with their expectations, the experimental groups significantly lost more weight than the control group; however, there were no significant differences in the amount of weight loss between the two experimental groups. This study shows that hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for helping people lose weight; however, the use of reinforcing audiotapes as part of the hypnotherapy treatment does not contribute significantly to the weight loss process.

Although hypnotherapy can be used as a treatment for obesity without the addition of other treatments, it is much more commonly used as an adjunct to other treatments for obesity. One common method to treat obesity is to combine diet therapy with hypnotherapy. Greaves, Tidy, and Christie (1995) studied the effectiveness of this particular combination of treatments. All the participants in their study were given the same treatment, which consisted of an 1100 calorie diet in addition to hypnotherapy sessions. In order to track the progress of each of the participants, the body mass index (BMI) of each participant was recorded during three different times: before the treatment, during the course of the treatment, and two years after the treatment. The data showed that diet therapy in conjunction with hypnotherapy was effective in helping all the participants lose weight in the short-term, that is, all of the participants were able to lose some amount of weight during the course of the treatment. Compared to the short-term results, the long-term results were slightly less promising. At the 2-year follow-up, 6 of the 8 participants had BMIs that were lower than their initial pretreatment BMIs. The other two participants, however, initially lost weight during the treatment but gained some weight back by the 2-year follow-up, with one participant weighing 1 BMI higher than her initial pretreatment weight, and one participant returning to her initial pretreatment BMI. Overall, this study demonstrates that hypnotherapy is largely successful as an adjunct to diet therapy in both the short- and long-terms, albeit more successful during the short-term.

Another method to treat obesity is by combining behavioral therapy with hypnotherapy. Bolocofsky, Spinler, and Coulthard-Morris (1985) found that hypnotherapy is an effective adjunctive therapy to behavioral therapy in treating obesity. The participants in their study were assigned into one of two groups: the behavioral group, which received behavioral therapy, or the hypnosis group, which received behavioral therapy in addition to hypnotherapy. The primary goals of the behavioral therapy were to slow down food consumption, recognize and alter responses to stimuli that preceded poor eating behaviors, monitor weight changes, and develop reinforcements for continuous and successful weight loss. During the behavioral therapy, the participants, recognized their poor eating habits and consequently, with the help of therapists, devised a personalized plan for improving these habits. The hypnotherapy treatment, on the other hand, was administered in the form of self-hypnosis (which was done by the participants him/herself) and standard hypnotherapy (which was conducted by a certified therapist). At the 2-year follow-up, the hypnosis group reportedly followed their personalized plans more often than the behavioral group. Furthermore, although both experimental groups experienced weight loss by the 2 year-follow-up, the hypnosis group lost significantly more weight than the behavioral group. Compared to the behavioral group, the hypnosis group also reported higher levels of satisfaction with their body weight and were more likely to achieve their goal weight. This study demonstrates that behavioral therapy is effective in helping people lose weight; however, when paired with hypnotherapy, the potential for maximum weight loss becomes increased. In this way, hypnotherapy may have helped motivate the participants in the hypnosis group to adhere to their personalized plans, thus allowing them to maintain and even perpetuate their weight loss long after the treatment was terminated.

Like diet therapy and behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy can also be combined with hypnotherapy in order to treat obesity. In a meta-analysis of six different studies, Kirsh (1996) evaluated the overall effectiveness of hypnotherapy as a treatment for obesity when paired with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Across all follow-up assessments, the average weight loss resulting from cognitive-behavioral therapy alone was 6 lbs. and the average weight loss resulting from combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy was 11.83 lbs. From this data, Kirsh concluded that cognitive behavioral therapy helps people lose weight, but when it is supplemented with hypnotherapy, its weight loss results become significantly enhanced.

Overall, hypnotherapy have been shown to be effective in helping obese people lose weight, both as a treatment in itself (without other additional treatments) and as an adjunctive treatment. As a treatment, it motivates its patients to improve their eating habits and adopt eating practices that are more appropriate. On the other hand, as an adjunctive treatment, hypnotherapy provides clients with the extra motivation they need to succeed in their primary weight loss treatments, whether the primary weight loss treatment is in the form of diet therapy, behavioral therapy, or cognitive-behavioral therapy. At the same time, hypnotherapy enhances the effects of primary weight loss treatments, influencing patients to lose more weight than they would with the primary weight loss treatment alone. Although hypnotherapy is effective in treating obesity, it is important to note that in all of the studies that have been done on the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in treating obesity, some of the participants using hypnotherapy, as either a treatment or an adjunct, are still obese after the treatment is terminated. Although hypnotherapy aids in weight loss, the weight loss that results from it tends to be insufficient in shifting an obese individual from the category of obese to normal weight. With that said, having a healthy, balanced diet in addition to regular physical activity is probably much more promising than hypnotherapy, in terms of maximizing weight loss and the maintenance of that weight loss overtime.

Works Cited

Bolocofsky, David N., Dwayne Spinler, and Linda Coulthard-Morris. "Effectiveness of Hypnosis as an Adjunct to Behavioral Weight Management."

Journal of Consulting Psychology 41.1 (1985), 35-41.

Cochran, Gordon, and John Friesen. "Hypnotherapy in Weight Loss Treatment." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 54.4 (1986): 489-492.

Golden, William L., Thomas Dowd, and Fred Friedburg. Hypnotherapy: A Modern Approach. New York: Pergamon Press, 1987.

Greaves, Evelyn, G. Tidy, and R.A.S. Christie. "Hypnotherapy as an Adjunct to the Dietetic Management of Obese Patients." Nutrition and Food Science 6 (1985): 15-18.

Kirsh, Irving. "Hypnotic Enhancement of Cognitive-Behavioral Weight Loss Treatments - Another Meta-Reanalysis." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64.3 (1996), 517-519.

Lovejoy, Gretchen M. "Community Ed Offers Hypnosis Session to Help with Weight Loss and to Aid in Quitting Smoking." The Chatfield News 11 October 2006. Lexis Nexis. U of Massachusetts Lib., Lowell, MA. 20 February 2007 < http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/printdoc>.