If your goal is weight loss, hypnosis may help, especially when combined with exercise and a healthy diet. Since hypnosis is generally safe and relatively inexpensive, it’s an integrative medicine approach that might be worth a try.

Want a more rah-rah pitch for hypnosis? Sorry. I’ve used hypnosis for years in practice for years as a family therapist and can echo the statement by the Mayo Clinic on hypnosis. Hypnosis is helpful. Hypnosis has been been proven as a weight loss treatment. It accelerates the process of learning new behaviors. It isn’t magic. By itself, hypnosis won’t make all your pounds disappear, never to return. It is a powerful tool that can facilitate the healthy lifestyle changes that lead to lasting weight loss.

Hypnosis alone has been shown to help people lose weight. Depending on the study you choose hypnosis alone caused an average weight loss of between 7 to 17 pounds. Not bad. But, hypnosis combined with changes in thinking patterns and behaviors had significantly better results. The very good news is that people who added hypnosis to their programs continued to lose weight. Those who did not use hypnosis didn’t. Follow ups at 8 months and two years documented continued weight loss for hypnosis recipients.

Remember these results when you hear or read claims about spectacular results with hypnosis alone. It’s good but not great. Chances are very good that anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something. Do you trust sales people any more than I do? I hope not. 

Hypnosis uses three main methods:

The first is the use of imagination. Mental imagery is very powerful, especially in a focused state of attention. Your mind is capable of using imagery, even if it is only symbolic, to assist you in bringing about the things you are imagining. Imagine putting a basketball through a hoop and your imagination can actually make you better at it. Imagine yourself participating in healthy behaviors and you will change how you act. Another term for this kind of hypnosis is guided imagery

Another basic hypnotic method is to present ideas or suggestions to your unconscious mind. In a state of concentrated attention, ideas and suggestions that are compatible with what you want have a more powerful impact on the mind than normal suggestions. As scientific studies have shown hypnosis for weight loss can be quite effective. Further, hypnosis can actually change how our brain functions and perceives things. Changing perceptions about food and exercise is a powerful weight loss strategy.

Finally, hypnosis may be used for unconscious exploration, to better understand underlying motivations or identify whether past events or experiences are associated with problem eating. This can be a very useful avenue to follow in uncovering triggers that cause cravings.

We know that hypnosis can help with a good weight loss program. How hypnosis actually works is an interesting question. We know that it works but not exactly what it is. It’s a lot like gravity in that regard. We can describe it but are still looking for exactly how it does what it does.

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