Joanna
Malinowska

Helps with:
Phobias
Confidence
Public Speaking
Quit Smoking
Weight Loss
Eating Disorders
Sleep Disorders
Stress
Learn Self-hypnosis
Pain Control
Study & Exams
Dental Fear

and more...

Does not help with

Eating Disorders

Emotional Eating or Comfort Eating
Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
Bulimia
Anorexia Nervosa
How hypnotherapy can help
How many sessions will you need
Clients Feedback

Emotional Eating or Comfort Eating

Comfort eating or emotional eating is a very common reason for being overweight.  The person is overeating to calm down some other feelings, usually caused by some earlier experiences. The underlying feelings are rarely recognised. They are experienced as illogical  and unconscious urge to eat,  even when not hungry. Sometimes the urge to eat is accompanied by a feeling of emptiness. The emotional eating is usually strengthened by stress or boredom.

Interestingly, emotional eating may be triggered both by some negative feelings, like stress, anxiety, critical remarks, feeling of failure etc. But it can also be triggered by positive feelings, some achievement, felling of love, excitement. So it seems to be used both as the comfort and reward. It may be even triggered by boredom, so it is used to access some good feelings when there are no feelings available. 

Emotional eating becomes habit or addiction,  affected people feel out of control. They feel great distress over these behaviours and about their weight. Yet, they can't seem to stop what they're doing. They have distorted attitudes about eating, shape, and weight. Very often emotional eating comes in pair with yo-yo dieting, and with each cycle it becomes worse.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

The stronger form of emotional eating is called Binge Eating Disorder. The affected person eats rapidly large amounts of food when not physically hungry. Sometimes this is a specific kind of food, like sweets or chocolate, or salty and fatty food. Very often it is just any food, even half cooked pasta or some old bread, anything which can be found (some people even go through the rubbish bin when nothing seems to be available).

The person may be hiding when eating, feeling embarrassed and guilty about how much he or she is eating. The person stops when uncomfortably full, feeling bloated, sometimes even with physical pain from overeating.

Bulimia

People who struggle with bulimia engage in binge eating followed by intentional purging, like vomiting, fasting, laxatives or use of excessive exercise to counteract the effects of the overeating episodes. The purging is used to compensate for the excessive intake of the food and to prevent weight gain. The bulimic person stays usually within the healthy weight range.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia is an eating disorder where people starve themselves. It usually has the emotional background, but it is much more serious then other eating disorders and very often even fatal. This condition needs medical treatment, and I treat it only under medical supervision.

How hypnotherapy can help

Hypnotherapy is the best at solving the underlying emotional cause which leads to eating disorder. Here the hypnoanalytical techniques can help to identify and solve the problem.

Once the underlying feelings are solved, the awareness techniques may be used to understand the eating behaviour and the triggering pattern.

Then the client finds and implements new ways to deal with the triggering situations and emotions.  This is much easier done in highly suggestible hypnotic state than in any other therapy. The client learns the healthy eating habits, he/she is not obsessed by food and weight any more.

The emotional eating is usually accompanied by depression and low confidence, and this is also addressed and solved by hypnotherapy.

How many sessions will you need

People with eating disorders are very responsive to hypnotherapy. Usually there are only 5 to 6 sessions needed. The first session is used to learn hypnosis and relaxation, the emotions are solved in the second session, and the remaining sessions are used for changing eating habits, for the dealing with low self-esteem and confidence.

Sometimes, when the person is very overweight, it is good to have an additional session once a month or two.

In some cases 2 or 3 sessions will be enough, particularly in cases when the person is reasonably confident and not very overweight.