hi

I'm looking for recommendations for a hypnotherapist that specializes in treating people with anorexia.

I have searched the net and been met with various adverts for cd downloads to regressionists to chakra balancing and emdr etc and a number of other therapies which seem to be based on experimenting with different methods over an unknown number of sessions.

The only person who i have found that seems to specialize is a practitioner in the North East ( thehypnosisworks.co.uk) who seems to have had success with one or two day sessions. Does anyone have any further details or reviews of this company.

Please note that the person i am seeking help for has already been to an NLP practitioner and a Hypnotherapist but stopped after 2 and 3 sessions of what seemed to be an open ended therapy. Therefore the idea of 1/2 intensive days to completion is a very seductive image.

Surely, as anorexia is ultimately a unhealthy model of peoples internal reality then a hypnotist who specializes in producing belief change may well have excellent results very quickly. I feel that sometimes people, like me, who study NLP/Hypnosis can overcomplicate and overexamine problems in order to understand the issues. Such deep analysis may be interesting and show that we care but and are intellectual but some clients just want change without understanding.

Perhaps some members on this board like Anthony Jacquin etc who seem to specialize in belief change for stage/ street hypnosis could help in advising whether this type of method would have long term benefits in cases like anorexia.

And please, any recommendations for therapists experienced in eating disorders would be most appreciated.

There seems, in my view, to be one very important perspective missing from your enquiry - that of the client, the person who is suffering from anorexia.

I make this point because you have discussed in some detail previous therapeutic avenues that this person has initiated, yet rapidly abandoned. You also mention certain individuals who you believe have paradigms and patterns that can effect particularly rapid belief change (which seems to imply that other NLP oriented therapists do not have effective belief change patterns). Also referred to is an impression that the study of hypnosis/NLP encourages over-analysis of the situation rather than "change without understanding".

All of this leads to some confusion and concern in my mind for the following reasons:

1. One thing that I believe is widely recognised by those working therapeutically with anorexics is that they are often a very manipulative and resistant therapy population with a need for a high degree of control that is perceived as being satisfied by their rigid control of bodyweight and eating. When I hear about someone who has abandoned therapy after 2 or 3 sessions I ask myself how committed this person is to therapeutic change (there could, of course, be other reasons for breaking off therapy such as lack of rapport etc, but I think it justified to raise the issue of client motivation).

2. If the client is not genuinely motivated to resolve difficulties and engage in therapy then it doesn't matter who the therapist or what the therapeutic approach is - success is unlikely. The idea that there is someone with special, gee-whizz, ultra-fast therapy approaches that can change the client in spite of herself is, in my opinion, naive. It is easy to give dramatic dcemonstrations of what appear to be lightning-fast belief change patterns etc, and to appear a therapeutic wizard as a result, but how many of these changes are truly lasting and generative and represent authentic evolution of belief systems? And what degree of success would have been experienced if the demonstration subject was not ready to change? It may well be that that is not what you are implying, but when I hear people talking more about the therapy approach or practitioner than the client who is an active participant in therapy, little bells start ringing.

3. In terms of hypnosis/NLP encouraging over-analysis, I am a little surprised by that perspective. I accept that there are many different applications of hypnosis and NLP but I would have thought NLP is very much a therapeutic approach based upon experiential and sensory change, rather than cognitive understanding.

A greater appreciation of where the client is in this situation (i.e. whether he/she is a willing client or is being compelled to seek help) would perhaps help guide us in making recommendations.

Hi Damian

Thanks for your helpful reply. I guess some of my original post was out of frustration. It takes a lot of time and effort to persuade this person to attend therapy and the past has shown that the longer the therapy takes the higher the probability of her quiting, therefore some kind of quick belief change therapy seems more promising. I guess i've seen too many Bandler Vids where 'quick' is better than getting hung up with the clients problems (just give them what they came in for...NOW). Fast changework is after all one of the main advantages of Hypnosis/NLP over other phyco/therapudic methods.

Your point about anorexics being manipulative and resistant to change and controlling is very true in this case, however again this to me implies that once you have approval to seek therapy then it may be better to implement change fast, rather than giving her time between sessions to fear/fight going back for further sessions, especially if it appears as some progress might be made.

If she comes to her own conclusion that change is neccessary then of course this is the best and most successful outcome. She delevoped this illness when she was 15 (now 28), has had to be revived, has limited kidney function and has been through many differing councelling and other therapies. Sometimes waiting for her to want to change is akin to waiting for her to die.

In these circumstances, if she is willing to see a therapist, even if to appease her family, then something quick, which doesn't give her the time to back out would be useful. Suggestions in the lines of ' you used to have an illness but now believe you are recovered and your body and mind are healing everyday, with each breath you take......'

Whether this type of therapy is as good as those that last longer and address the underlying problems is not the debate, its whether a fast one or 2 session therapy could succeed. If so then, then are there any specialist with this type of changework that have had success with anorexics.

Hope i get some recommendations soon.

You might like to check out Professional Hypnotherapy and NLP - Chichester, West Sussex. Andrew Austin started out his career as a psychiatric nurse. If he's not currently taking clients with anorexia, perhaps he can give you some advice.

What about contacting some of the 'bigger names' in NLP to ask if they know of anyone, who has passed through their training, who is specializing in eating disorders?

Wishing you the best with this,

Lucia

I've only treated one person specifically for anorexia and she said the treatment was totally useless because it made her want to eat.. so I obviously didn't get that right! I also met another that spontaneously stopped one day for no apparent reason and I hopefully thought I might be able to work out why but couldn't get to the bottom of that either.

The only person I have spoken to that spent a great deal of time specialising in attempting different treatments for anorexia and so has a broad experience of numbers is Camillo Loriedo, a clinician in Rome which is a bit far but you may be able to contact him to get advice on someone closer.