Food glorious Food
Susan Ritson sheds light to shed pounds Hypnotherapist who also has trained in nutrition. I wanted to interview her because we often see clients for weight loss, and her answers reveal some interesting facts. Q: When you are seeing potential clients at the initial consultation, what do you think is the most important point to emphasise? A: This rather depends on how the client presents themselves. Some clients present with obvious stress symptoms and therefore adding additional ‘homework’ pressures, such as completing food diaries and following rules can be counterproductive in that initial consultation and to further therapy. So I tend to emphasise the importance of the brain/body connection ie when we are stressed the digestive system slows down; repeated patterns of behaviours etc. Really just sticking to the rules as we know them, but in addition reassuring the client that I will be asking them to complete a food diary and at a future date we will be
24 | Metamorphosis
examining that food diary in detail. If the client presents purely to address weight issues then I go through the appropriate elements of the usual initial consultation, placing more emphasis on possible health issues such as diabetes, colitis, IBS etc and the food element, so handing out a food diary for completion at the first session, and setting the ground rules for the therapy. The ground rules are as follows: 1. The client can eat anything they like, BUT; i. Anything that is eaten, and that includes snacks as well as meals is eaten at a table (a desk does not count as a table, nor does a car driving from one location to another count as a suitable location to eat lunch). ii. No distractions whilst eating ie no TV, radio, reading, PC, answering the telephone/mobile, texting etc. iii. Always leave something on the plate (even if it is just 1 pea!). iv. Always put knife/fork/spoon down between mouthfuls.