Body image & Health goals
You may notice I haven’t used the word “weight” here
Dieting and weight loss has been part of our culture for a century now - generations of people have dieted and as a society we are only getting bigger.
Research tells us most restrictive diets work in the short term but we haven’t got reliable evidence to show these work in the long term and in two to five years a person will put that weight back on again, and often more.
Sometimes I think we would have been better off never starting to diet in the first place!
Joining the health at all sizes movement
My Psychology MSc taught me things about eating and diet which surprised me greatly.
Further learning into epigenetics and ancestral patterns created more shock and confusion within me.
Our bodies are so unique and our nutrition needs so individual, it’s almost impossible to suggest an average ideal weight. Some bodies are healthier carrying more fat, some are healthier carrying less. And our bodies are trying to help us reach our healthy range - slowing down or speeding up metabolism in relation to how much exercise we do and how many calories we regularly consume.
I decided, do I want to strive for a goal set by fashion or do I want to teach my body to trust me to do the best for it? And in doing so, am I prepared to love my body whether it is on trend or not?
Can you learn to love your body when you’ve been taught not to?
Imagine living your life without thinking about what you’re eating, or whether what you’re wearing makes you look bigger than you are.
More and more people are living this life, including me.
When you no longer spend so many hours thinking about calories and exercise and clothes labels you find you have so much more space in your mind for other things.
Instead of reinforcing diet culture, hypnotherapy can free you from it. You can use your sessions to learn to trust your body, to find your health set point, and rediscover the ways your body tells you it is hungry or full.
You can use hypnotherapy to explore the messages you’ve inherited about your body and put new beliefs in place, learning to love your body and form a stronger, more compassionate relationship to it.
My hypnotherapy is focused on working with the subconscious
To learn to listen to your instincts and to help your body and mind to keep you safe.
This is why I choose not to work with goals that only target losing a specific amount of weight or fitting into a specific dress size without also exploring the beliefs and patterns around body image.
There is no shortage of hypnotherapists offering these things around, you will always be able to find someone to help you meet these goals.
Instead I offer exploration into body image and a relationship of trust and love with your body.