Is Hypnotherapy A Viable Form of Treatment for Bulimia and Anorexia?

Although eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are characterized by abnormal eating habits, these conditions can ultimately be traced to a number of psychological problems. Additionally, unlike issues such as lack or exercise motivation, bulimia and anorexia often involve some type of PTSD reaction, based on trauma.

Because anorexia and bulimia often involve body image and low confidence, it’s no surprise that hypnosis has emerged as a viable and gentle form of therapy for these issues. Through the power of positive suggestion, hypnotherapy allows you to address the root cause or causes of your eating disorder, which in many cases lies in the subconscious mind.

Perhaps best of all, hypnosis has little to no side effects.

How Does Hypnotherapy Work?

Oftentimes, a holistic approach is a good way to address eating disorders. In other words, it often requires using several therapies, which can include hypnosis. I suggest you speak with your medical doctor before using hypnosis.

The goal of hypnotherapy for eating disorders is to use the power of suggestion to change your thoughts and habits concerning how you view yourself. First, the hypnotherapist puts you in a trance-like state; contrary to popular belief, you are awake and can be aware of what’s happening around you.

In the case of anorexia nervosa, a hypnotherapist can implant positive thoughts to change the negative way you view your body. This process of using positive thoughts is best done when your mind and body are in a relaxed state and receptive to suggestions. With bulimia, hypnotherapy can help you to detach yourself from the damaging impulses motivating you to eat and regret it afterwards.

Essentially, hypnosis allows you to make a change in your thinking when it comes to eating and self-image. Rather than just forcing you to stop thinking a certain way about food and eating, hypnosis allows you to address why you think that way.

Your hypnotherapist can help you trace it back to an event, a comment or a situation that you may have buried in your subconscious because of the pain and negativity you associate with it.

Can Hypnotherapy Work as a Treatment for Eating Disorders?

The Mayo Clinic recognizes the potential health benefits of hypnotherapy, noting that “Hypnosis can be used to help you gain control over undesired behaviors or to help you cope better with anxiety or pain.” ^[1] Although anorexia and bulimia are perfect examples of undesirable cognitive behaviors, further study needs to be done on the benefits of treating these conditions with hypnotherapy.

As noted by a study published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, “Research on the efficacy of hypnosis in the treatment of eating disorders has produced mixed findings. This is due in part to the interplay between the characteristics of people with eating disorders and the phenomena of hypnosis.” ^[2]

Still, it is only a matter of time until hypnotherapy is recognized as a viable form of therapy for treating eating disorders. Perhaps the best reason to give it a try is that it helps you love yourself, which goes a long way toward putting you on the road to recovery.

P.S. If you are still uncertain of the power of hypnosis, I invite you to download a free hypnosis audio as an introduction to this form of help.

Why Professional Care Has to Come First

I want to be clearer about this than the rest of the article has been.

Eating disorders carry genuine medical risk, and that risk is not always visible from the outside or obvious to the person experiencing it. Care needs to involve a physician, and usually a treatment team including a mental health professional and a registered dietitian. That is the foundation. Hypnotherapy is not a foundation and should never be presented as one.

I have had people contact me hoping that hypnosis will let them avoid seeing a doctor. I understand the impulse — these conditions carry a lot of shame, and the prospect of sitting in front of someone and describing them is genuinely hard. But it is the wrong reason to choose hypnotherapy, and I will say so to anyone who asks.

The right reason is that you are already receiving care and want to work on the beliefs sitting underneath the behaviour.

What Hypnotherapy Can Reasonably Contribute

Within a proper treatment plan, hypnotic work has a narrow but real role, and it is worth being specific about where that role begins and ends.

Eating disorders are rarely about food in the way they appear to be. Underneath there is usually a set of beliefs about worth, control, and deserving — often formed young, often traceable to something specific, and almost always held with a conviction that ordinary reasoning does not touch. You can know intellectually that a belief is unfair and still feel its force completely. That gap between knowing and feeling is where hypnotic work is useful.

In practice this means working on self-criticism, which in this population is usually severe and unrelenting. It means work on self-compassion, which most people arriving in my office find genuinely difficult to extend to themselves even when they extend it easily to everyone else. And it can mean gently reducing the charge on a specific memory — a comment, a moment, a period — that a client and their therapist have already identified as significant.

What it does not do is manage the behaviour directly, and it does not address the medical side at all. Those belong to the treatment team.

What a Session Is Like

Nothing about it is confrontational. A session opens with conversation, and I would want to know who else is involved in your care, because I would expect to be working alongside them rather than separately.

The hypnotic portion settles you into a relaxed and focused state. You remain aware, in control, and able to stop at any point. The suggestions used are gentle and framed around self-kindness rather than correction — not instructions about what to do, but a different relationship with yourself while you do it.

I do not use suggestion to try to override behaviour in this area, and I would be cautious of anyone who does. These conditions serve a function for the person experiencing them, and attempting to remove the behaviour without addressing what sits underneath tends to be both ineffective and unkind.

Getting Support

If you recognise yourself in any of this, please talk to your doctor. Recovery from eating disorders is genuinely possible and outcomes are considerably better when support begins earlier, but almost nobody manages it alone.

In the United States, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders operates a helpline staffed by licensed clinicians on 1-866-662-1235. They can help you find treatment near you, and calling them commits you to nothing.

If you are supporting someone else, the most useful thing you can do is stay present without making food or appearance the subject of every conversation. Encourage them toward professional support, and get some for yourself as well — it is a hard thing to carry.

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