P: Losing weight is never easy Alex, even though it seems to be a straightforward matter of eating less and exercising more. There are all kinds of obstacles and hurdles, some of them to do with your mind and how it operates and others to do with your body and how it works.  The effectiveness of hypnopuncture seems to derive from the fact that it works on a patients mind and body together.

A: Yes, I agree, its this synergistic effect on the mind/body complex that seems to be the key factor, especially for weight loss.

P: I have to admit when we first started to help patients with weight loss I didn’t really grasp how complex this problem is.  I was certainly aware of issues like comfort eating, snacking and motivation for exercise etc .through my work as a hypnotherapist.  However when you started to explain to me about the Chinese Medicine concept of dampness and how it slows the metabolism, as well as nutritional ideas about how cold and damp foods in the diet can prevent weight loss, I began to see the bigger picture and started to realise why so many people have real difficulties shedding weight.

A: Well it was the same with myself.  I knew how acupuncture could help shift dampness from a patients system and thus kick start their metabolism, but  when you explained concepts like self sabotage and how psychological stress can cause weight gain, I realised weight loss isn’t as straightforward as many so called health experts tell us.

P: No it certainly isn’t, as we’ve discovered.  What really excites me about hypnopuncture though, is this synergistic effect you mentioned earlier.

A: How would you describe this effect?

P: Well its kind of like the whole effect of hypnopuncture is more than the sum of its parts.

A: How do you mean?

P: It seems that the hypnosis is able to amplify the effects of the acupuncture and vice versa. So you end up with a treatment that is more effective than either acupuncture or hypnosis on its own.

A: I know what you mean.  Although acupuncture is an amazing phenomenon and healing tool on its own, it’s also a very passive process for the patient.

P: In what sense?

A: Well in the simple sense that once the needles are in the patient simply lies there and lets the process occur.  Whereas the way we work in hypnopuncture, whilst the needles are in you are getting the patients subconscious mind to work with the process  in a very creative and healing way.

P: And in the same way, I know that all the work I do in clearing negative mental programming, is being echoed and amplified by your acupuncture as it clears all the dampness from a patients system, allowing them to experience themselves in a “lighter” way and feel more positive and energised.

A: Exactly!  You know there’s lots more we could say on this topic, we’ve only really scratched the surface.

P: Yes, we’ll definitely talk again about this.

For more information on Hypnopuncture and help with Weight Loss, Stopping Smoking or any other issue visit our website:  http://www.hypnopuncture.co.uk

A: Well that’s simple, it’s a unique treatment we’ve developed which combines my acupuncture skills with your hypnotherapy abilities.

P: Hence the name – Hypno (from Hypnosis) and puncture (from acupuncture).  A name which I coined I believe…

A: Did you? I thought it was me.

P: No, you wanted to call it Acunosis, but we decided that it didn’t roll off the tongue quite so well.

A: Ah yes.  Well, it’s been more than two years since we started developing  Acunosis…sorry, Hypnopuncture, and I have to say I think we’ve done jolly well.

P: Yes so do I.  We’ve come a long way since those early days when we were researching and developing the technique at Middlesex University’s School of Health.  We weren’t even sure it was possible to hypnotize someone who looked like a pin cushion.

A: Pin cushion!!  A patient with a few acupuncture needles selectively placed on the arms and hands hardly qualifies being called a pin cushion.  But yes you’re right. Do you remember our surprise when we found out that your hypnosis worked even better when patients had been acupunctured?

P: I do. Well I think you were surprised more than me, I had supreme confidence in my hypnotizing abilities.  But seriously, I don’t think either of us expected it to work as well as it did.  Especially when we started getting so much positive feedback from patients.

A: I know, and when we started to see our weight loss patients lose weight so easily, I knew we were onto a winner.

P: So what would you say is our finest achievement with Hypnopuncture so far?  Is it being featured in the likes of the Daily Mail and Evening Standard?  Or is it the Weight Loss pack we created from the technique?  Or is it the Weight Loss groups that we’ve recently developed?

A: Its none of those actually, although I think they are all fantastic achievements in themselves.  No, I would say our finest achievement is the treatment itself and the way we have developed it and integrated our respective knowledge and expertise.  Its not as if we’ve just bolted hypnosis onto acupuncture and left it at that.  We’ve worked creatively to develop a technique that works on  the mind and body in a unique and integrated way.

P: I know.  I think we can safely call ourselves pioneers in the field of complimentary medicine.  And its exciting to think of the possibilities ahead of us.  Although we’ve focused on helping people with weight loss mostly, the treatment obviously has tremendous potential in other areas as well.

A: Indeed.  There isn’t really any condition or issue that acupuncture or hypnosis can help with, that hypnopuncture could help with as well, possibly even more effectively.  As we know, our weight loss treatment is definitely more effective than acupuncture or hypnosis on its own, and probably more effective and healthier than most other methods out there.

P: Oh I totally agree. But that’s a different conversation for another day.

For more information on Hypnopuncture and help with Weight Loss, Stopping Smoking or any other issue visit our website:  http://www.hypnopuncture.co.uk