'Gastric Band Hypnotherapy' has received quite a lot of media attention given recently. Patients are hypnotized into acting and eating as though they have been fitted with a gastric band. Here's a long feature about it from the Daily Mail.
This form of therapy is often referred to as 'guided visualization', and as guided visualizations go the idea of the hypnotic gastric band is great. I wish I'd thought of it myself.
The article linked above describes 11 hours of therapy in four sessions over four days, with the actual 'gastric band' operation lasting 45 minutes at most.
"Then, Marion talks me through the incision being made, my liver being moved aside, the camera being placed inside me and the gastric band closing off a section of my stomach ... I am informed that the operation is a success."
And if it works, great. But here's the catch.
To have your behaviour changed so profoundly that you act and eat just as if you have been fitted with a gastric band (when you know you haven't) you have to be a great hypnotee.
If you are a great hypnotee you don't need ten hours of regular relaxation and behavioural therapy before the operation. It's unnecessary. And if you aren't a great hypnotee the operation isn't going to work no matter how much relaxation and behavioural therapy you get in advance (though that therapy might work itself).
If you are a great hypnotee, gastric band hypnotherapy will work for you but you only need two sessions. If you are not a great hypnotee it won't work.
One last thing. It is not clear in the article linked above whether the therapists made any enquiries into the possibility of any psychological 'stuff' driving the the patient's previous feeding behaviour. Maybe they did and it just wasn't reported in the article. Eating issues are often coping strategies for other problems. Where that is the case, simply whacking on a gastric band without tending to any underlying issues is probably bad therapy.
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