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As an intuitive hypnotherapist and healer of eight years, I'm often asked about weight loss and what can be done to help.
I've run groups for weight loss, and have seen many many clients who are struggling with issues around food. Food is a great love in my own life and I've also had a personal interest in weight loss; when I left full time work, I started to put on weight, and this carried on for the next few years, until after I had my son and then started my hypnotherapy training.
In one of our hypnotherapy training weekends, I volunteered to be a subject for the teacher and she did the weight loss hypnosis with me.
That was in 2003, and I gradually lost 4 stone over the next few years, and have remained a size 12 ever since. In that time I've also given up a heavy smoking habit of 20 years. I don't have any judgement around how what size we are, but I do think we all deserve to be the size and weight that we feel really good at, whatever that might be.
But overeating is a big issue in our society, and lots of us are trying to find new ways to deal it.
Actually, we only need to overeat a little bit every day to put on weight, and just this very small amount of calories extra a day is enough for many of us to become much heavier than we want to be. This is because we are consistently taking in those extra calories, and it is the consistency of our (often very small) over eating habits that do the harm rather than that we are consuming excessive amounts of food.
However, in the same way that it is very easy for us to put on weight, for many people, it can also be very easy for us to lose weight (no, really!), through making a very small change and then applying it consistently and this is what the hypnotherapy encourages, and why it works so well.
But in reality, we all know what it is we need to do to lose the weight, but usually what is stopping us is hidden away in our subconscious minds, and when we are at this stage, we usually need some intervention to find out what it is.
Something needs to change!
To make these changes, I've found it very helpful to combine working with clients both spiritually and psychologically.
Before I was a hypnotherapist, I worked for many years as a mental health nurse and did lots of training in counselling and psychotherapy. This taught me understanding about our emotional nature. The hypnotherapy taught me about our mental nature. Then I trained as a reiki healer and my own spiritual nature opened up to me and I realised that all my life I had been empathically picking up information about people. Later on I learnt how to channel and receive wisdom from my spiritual guides. So during this time I've learnt about our spiritual nature (and of course, I still am!)
Now in my life, I see myself and others through a spiritual lens, but I also see through a psychodynamic lens and have found it's the same in my work.
So in sessions, I tune into people psychically and pick up information such as beliefs and emotions which tells me what areas that we need to work on. I confirm this with my clients and then I'm guided as to what needs to happen to help the client throughout the session, and we use the techniques and knowledge that I've learnt over the years (and sometimes through the guidance I receive are given completely new ones!)
At first I found it difficult to have the courage to start working like this, even though I really wanted to (and was being guided to).
I felt worried that people would think I was unprofessional (or mad!).
I was supported to make the change by synchronicities, people and events giving me consistent signs and encouragement, and also reading a book by Judith Orloff, (an american psychiatrist who works with her clients using her intuition) was very helpful.
But the reality has been that when I started working in this way, using my guidance and intuition, I found that we went straight to the heart of the problem and also because I'd connected to it spiritually and energetically, people seemed much more able to work with what they needed to.
Personally, it has made my work much more satisfying, as I love to see my clients making such powerful changes in their lives and this way of working has also saved on time and energy!!
Of course, any issue can be worked with this in this way, it's not restricted to weight loss, but I've been very happy to see that Marianne Williamson (who has wrote 'A return to love' based on the material from 'A course in miracles') has published a new book recently on working with weight loss using spiritual principles.
For many of us who are spiritually inclined, we are realising more and more that we don't need to separate out our spirituality from the rest of our lives, but that it can all co-exist together; that having problems and difficulties doesn't make us 'unspiritual', or that 'spiritual' people should live lives of perfection and ease.
Life is what it is, and we can bring the light of our spirituality into our life, whatever it is that is going on for us!
So during the sessions that I do, we work with our inner selves, which is often about asking the parts of us that believe that over eating is helping us, to see things from a new perspective (although each session is always different, as we are all different and need different things). Then we help ourselves to find new ways!
Often we call in the client's higher self to do this, which brings in an amazingly fresh and light energy.
It's a really wonderful experience to bring our divinity into the centre of things like this, by empowering our divine selves to really help us in this way; this part of us has all the answers, wisdom and qualities we need and is the most incredible resource.
I love connecting people up to this resource in themselves, as it's giving them a tool they can use over and over again, for all sorts of difficulties.
I think it's the answer to pretty much everything, and that learning how to access this part of ourselves, and bring the light into the darkness in this way is how we will manifest the Age of Aquarius on the earth!!
I also find now that much of my work can be done on the phone. I used to do all my sessions in person and would often use deep trance, but now I find that I don't need to work very often in this way.
Again, the tuning in that I do seems to access everything so that it all opens up much more easily and even the changes take place much more easily, so that doing it on the phone has been incredibly effective!
So it seems that combining different techniques and disciplines in this way, can be very fruitful and rewarding, and something I think we will see more and more of.
As the amount of people who are comfortable with spirituality increases, and our approach to life becomes ever more integrated, then combining all that we are, logical and intuitive, scientific and creative, will use all of our resources to make a better life for ourselves!
Rachel Goodwin is a qualified hypnotherapist, mental health nurse, Reiki Seichem master, channel and healer, and offers telephone sessions. You can see more about her work at
http://www.en-tranced.com/ and contact her at
[email protected]
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