Long before I became a hypnotherapist, I was heavily involved in sports, first as a professional athlete and later as a coach. Over the years I have watched the decline of health in our youth and the increasing desperation in parents to get help for their obese children.

The obvious culprits are highly processed foods, fast foods and sugar. While “Fast Food Families” are becoming the norm, the problems underlying obesity whether in children or adults are usually deeper than just what they are eating. The bigger question is usually WHY they are eating, and most of the time they are eating to fill an emotional need (comfort food), or to distract from emotional pain, and most of the time they don’t even know it.

For many parents, seeking help for a child with obesity, finding that help is nearly impossible. The most widely-endorsed treatment programs are out of reach cost-wise, and involve at least 26 hours of intensive behavioral training within a year for both the child and the parents. During these sessions, the parents and children are instructed on how to eat healthier and how to exercise. But these programs can be hard to find, and the wait lists can be several months long. They are often not covered by insurance and require a time commitment that is difficult for families to make.

Less than 1% of the nearly 15 million US children who are considered obese can get this type of structured care according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The full cost of these programs can be well in excess of $3500, and recently the AMA/Insurance Companies rejected a request to provide a billing code for these types of programs. Obesity in children has been steadily growing in the US for decades, from 5% in 1980 to over 20% now, according to the CDC. The pressure on kids gets higher every year, the quality of the food supply gets continuously worse and kids spend less and less time in physical activity.

It is unsurprising that the usual response from the medical community, “we have a pill for that”, is the only response parents get. Pharmaceutical companies have been so successful marketing Ozempic and now Wegovy that they can’t keep them in stock and a growing number of families are seeking the drug for their adolescents.

Fortunately, many doctors and parents are wary of using the medication without complete data on how these drugs will affect a child’s development, and what other long-term risks they pose to humans. Of course, the pharmaceutical companies have been less than forthcoming about potential side effects.

Many of my clients report varying degrees of side effects to these drugs including nausea, fatigue, Diarrhea, dizziness and allergic reactions. Most of them report that the drugs make them feel “terrible”. These are only a handful of the side effects and some can cause permanent health issues. While the companies that make these drugs are raking in billions of dollars, people are suffering and failing through no fault of their own at losing and keeping weight off.

Hypnotherapy and Weight Loss

Unfortunately, the truth is that few of these treatments have long term success. We know that diets usually fail, drugs have many unintentional side effects and frequently, side effects that the pharmaceutical companies neglect to report. Most of the time, the person loses weight, only to gain it all back and more. Then, it is on to the next fad and another failure. On average, I would say that most of my weight loss clients have tried at least three different programs before coming to see me.

The reason for their sad success rate is because the majority of obesity comes from high levels of stress and anxiety. In adults, this is usually long buried trauma, financial stress, jobs and relationships. In children, it is frequently abuse of one kind or another, social pressure, and real or perceived rejection from family, friends and romantic interests.

We can add intense isolation due to the pandemic, educational struggles and an acute sense of being lost and what their world is going to look like. Few of these programs and none of the drugs are designed to deal with the underlying causes of obesity. We know that when we create an internal environment that facilitates healing, the body can do amazing things.

Hypnotherapy has a proven record with weight loss, because it does what these traditional programs and drugs aren’t designed to do…deal with the emotional problems that underlie the obesity. Nearly fifteen million US children need help, and drugs are not an option for many parents, for good reasons. The CDC has stated that ensuring equitable access to both obesity medications and lifestyle treatment "is pivotal so that families have access to multiple options to address child obesity and support optimal health."

People are looking for alternatives to a medical system that focuses on drugs, and hypnosis works when everything else has failed. It is becoming increasingly obvious to the general public that what the medical system has to offer is not meeting the need and they are starting to reject the status quo. This is where hypnosis can help when nothing else has. Hypnosis can help resolve the underlying problems that drive poor eating behaviors. If you have a child that need help with their weight, simply sign up for a complimentary consultation and see if hypnosis might be the answer you are looking for.