Category: Hypnosis

A Combined Weight Management Approach: Hypnosis for Weight Loss & Mindful Eating

You can lose weight quickly with hypnosis. In this blog, we talk about how. But the key to hypnosis for weight loss isn’t the “weight” part, but rather the “wait” part. If you want to lose weight, it’s important to change your relationship with food. Our Practice Director at Attune, Dr. Eric Spiegel, who was recently interviewed for a US News & World Report story on hypnosis for weight loss, describes his combined approach integrating mindful eating and hypnotherapy for weight loss.

Make your long-term goals POSITIVE and TANGIBLE

Why do you want to lose weight? Is it to get healthier? Look better? It’s important to focus on the positive. Focus on the wellness part instead of the illness part. Focus on exactly how you want to be and feel healthy. Hypnosis is an effective modality for visualizing scenes clearly and experiencing corresponding positive physiological sensation. Hypnosis makes fantasy feel vivid and accessible. It is important to turn what might be more vague long-term goals into tangible ones. Imagine how healthy you will feel moving your legs and swinging your arms back and forth as you go for a brisk, vigorous walk on a bright sunshine-filled day with a breezy wind gently blowing on your face.

Exercise doesn’t have to feel painful – focus on simple, enjoyable aspects of exercising and prioritize consistency

Dr. Spiegel often encounters patients who tell him that exercise feels too onerous and difficult. Instead of imagining going to the gym or doing an intensive exercise, start with something you are more likely to enjoy doing. Walking is a healthy activity that everyone can do. If you don’t like walking, try doing it in a pleasurable place or listening to your favorite music while you do it. But you can always substitute walking for something else. Maybe it is bopping to the music as you do the dishes or chores around the house. Hypnosis can be helpful here in making the pleasure of exercise more accessible, preparing you for the real thing.

Fast forward to a successful future!

In hypnosis, this technique is called age progression. Imagining success and a successful you in the future is a great way to get started on the present of today. Sometimes, when the current moment feels challenging or too difficult, picturing future success can help you ‘import’ that feeling back from the future.

What healthy foods do you like? Focus on the good foods you will have more of, instead of the bad foods you will have less of.

Now, we start to pivot to how to change your relationship with food. Yes, losing weight and staying healthy involves some discipline and making better food choices – giving up fats, sweets, etc. But first it can be helpful to identify healthy foods that you like to eat and can eat more of. As this becomes easier and easier, people feel more comfortable giving up other harmful foods that they eat too much of.

Slower mindful eating is pleasurable eating… and you will eat less food, too!

You’ve probably heard that when you eat too quickly, your body doesn’t have a chance to catch up and tell your mind that it’s full. This is true! But let’s flip that around – when you eat slowly, your body will tell your mind in real time when it’s full. Here’s the kicker: slow doesn’t have to be negative… slow can be great! Slowed down, mindful eating can also be seductive, joyous, pleasurable eating. Imagine every taste bud registering complex, savory notes from just a tiny bite. It’s an incredible feeling. From the first bite to each slow chew to the final moments of swallowing the morsel. Eating this way is savoring life. To try this out, you might pick out three healthy foods that you like, and cut them into pieces. Lay out one piece of each of the three foods next to each other, blindfold yourself and mix them up. Then, pick up each food and try it with this method, enjoying the surprise of what you discover. Even better is having someone you trust do it for you!

We hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog post on using hypnosis for weight loss and mindful eating towards healing your relationship with food. Interested for a more comprehensive therapeutic process with an expert? ‘Hypnosis for weight loss near me’ and ‘Hypnosis for weight loss Philadelphia’ is truly around the corner – contact Dr. Spiegel or one of our psychologists today!

How to get in the zone with Sports Performance Hypnosis

Sports performance anxiety is an extremely frustrating experience for elite athletes. Athletes generally tend to follow routines and rituals to maintain consistency. As an athlete, when you experience a setback, it can leave you feeling out of sync. Sports performance anxiety often develops during one of these setbacks, particularly when the dominoes start falling in the wrong direction. But the dominoes can also fall in the right direction… big time. This is where sports performance hypnosis, also known as sports hypnosis, can be very helpful. Sports hypnosis is all about “how to get in the zone” – that rhythmic, concentrative focus in which kinesthetic movements become automatic and athletes hit peak performance.

Hypnosis is a state of consciousness that consists of focused attention (also known as ‘absorption’) and dissociation. What surprises many people to learn is that everyone has experiences of going into naturalistic hypnotic trance states. We all have moments where we’re really in sharp focus, whether positive or negative. Even people with so called ‘attention-deficit’ issues are also capable of this, despite the misconceptions to the contrary, because over-focusing can also be prevalent with under-focusing. Even daydreaming is a form of trance state – you’re just lost… or engrossed in your imaginative reverie.

Absorption is the same concept as being engrossed or ‘being in the zone.’ Yes, being in the zone is the same as being in trance. Being in the zone is the same as being self-hypnotized!

So… how to get in the zone?

In sports performance hypnosis, what we do first is work with our clients to learn how to elicit a hypnotic state. We teach you the methods of self-hypnosis necessary to get in this state consistently and easily. Unlike popular myths and misconceptions, a state of hypnosis is NOT being out of it or unalert, or having someone do something to you like “put you under.” It is a state of focused mental attention and flow physical state. The flow physical state is often mistaken for relaxation.

The association most people have to hypnosis is a relaxed, eyes-closed state – but it doesn’t have to be. Alert hypnosis (also known as ‘active alert hypnosis’) involves eyes wide open trance, and often entails physical movement. This is the form of hypnosis that is often used in sports psychology and sports hypnosis for performance enhancement. Remember, because hypnosis involves both heightened focused attention and dissociation, it does not have to occur in an eyes-closed or even relaxed state. Oftentimes, kinesthetic rhythm can have a hypnotic quality to it. So, for this reason, once in a state of hypnosis, we work with our clients on building flow kinesthetic rhythms.

Here is where the listening skill of a psychologist comes in. We tailor our hypnotic suggestions to our clients based on their history, goals, and past positive experiences. Anyone has the ability to get into a hypnotic state, but it is what you are told and tell yourself that really makes the difference. Oftentimes, rather than trying to fix something that feels broken, the key is to accentuate and intensify the memory or belief of something that has gone right, been right, and felt right. Once you can really vividly picture and feel a positive experience, it becomes easier to recreate.

Interested to learn more? Talk with one of our expert therapists in Philadelphia today and get started on a program that works for you.

Eric Spiegel, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and practice director of Attune Philadelphia Therapy Group. He is the President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) for 2018-2019, and has won numerous awards from ASCH, including their Early Career Achievement Award (2012). Dr. Spiegel is the co-author of the book Attachment in Group Psychotherapy, published by the American Psychological Association. He has also published journal articles and book chapters on subjects such as attachment therapy, hypnosis, group therapy, anxiety, trauma, and relationships.

How to Heal Your Relationship with Food…and Lose Weight Too!