Hypnoband "surgery" for weight loss

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Permalink Reply by Marc Carlin on September 10, 2010 at 8:55am

Hi Angela,

Your post was a little confusing to me. You mention that your client has had VGB surgery 5 years ago. I think that VGB is short for virtual gastric band. The v part is virtual which means that it's not real. I think you were describing a gastric bypass procedure that your client underwent prior to coming to see you. If this is so, that is unfortunate that she had the type of results that she has had so far.

I am taking a course with UK Clinical Hypnotherapist, Sheila Granger in New York in October for learning how to use her method of virtual gastric band and I can tell you that the course is designed around not only the imagery of installing a virtual lapband, but also using a multi session approach to deal with the emotional issues surrounding the weight gain and teaching the client new responses to their emotions. There is also available to the attendees a guide to implementing their own study of the effectiveness of the program. So over time we will have a large cross section of the U.S. and possibly North American population supplying us with statistics that can be used to monitor the effectiveness of the program.

You can listen to an interview of Sheila talking about the virtual gastric band here: http://virtualgastricbandtraining.com/

Angela White said:

Dear John

It is with regret that I missed your talk on the HypnoSummit. I have only been a member on this site for a few days. I feel greatly relieved from your response that you appear to have all angles covered especially as far as promoting exercise as part of your program. It is a well known fact that crash dieting, and minimal diets do not work in the long term and must be backed up by a healthy exercise plan due to the plateauing effect of long-term reduced dieting on the body.

My client whom has deep regrets making the decision to have VGB surgery has suffered various complications and illnesses as a result of surgery. Her position is that will never be able to undergo a reversal of this surgery as it is deemed a highly dangerous procedure. Lap-band surgery seems to offer far more flexibility than VGB surgery but still carries the normal risks of undergoing any surgery and mild to severe complications following the weeks of surgery. Clearly one of the benefits of Hypno-Band is that those risks are removed.

With this in mind it would be great to see collaboration among all hypnotherapists practising Hypno-Band to monitor long-term effects over a 2 to 5 year period. I can only urge those practising this procedure to come together as a collective and devise a plan to for long-term monitoring. Positive results may save many from making choices to have surgery which that they may later regret, and the associated health risks. (Somehow I suspect you already have this in hand)

If long-term effects do prove successful it would also justify a proposal be put to the NHS to offer Hypno-Band as a first alternative rather than offer lap-band surgery. This would greatly reduce the pressures on the NHS system financially and doctors alike whom are faced with many sufferers of obesity demanding the surgery without fully understanding the implications and risks of their choice. It is one thing to ‘believe’ one can endure a life time on a radically reduced diet, it is indeed another to experience it because one is left with no choice plus the potential health risks. I know my client can vouch for that and I doubt she stands alone on this matter.

I wish you and all whom practise Hypno-Band every success in the long-term. I was unaware that you are the man whom devised this technique until today. Now I am aware so I can only applaud you on your creativity sir.

With Regards
Angela

John Maclean - Hypno-Band said:

Hi Angela,
It was interesting to read about your client. Just to clear up a common misconception, the Hypno-Band process does indeed address the root causes of the clients weight issues by using a combination of CBT and Hypnotherapy. It would be pointless to do otherwise. We also advise on exercise and healthy eating as an all round long term weight loss method. Many people seem to assume that all we do is "fit" the Virtual Gastric Band and leave it at that. Not so, as you would have seen on my presentation at the last HypnoSummit. While many therapists have created their own versions of gastric band hypnotherapy, I can't comment on their methods. I can assure you that the Hypno-Band is designed specifically to deal with the issues you highlight. By the way. Hypno-Band is not a generic term. It is an internationally registered trademark.

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Permalink Reply by Angela White on September 10, 2010 at 11:13am

Dear Marc

Whoops - Your confusion is totally justified. I tend to write mostly from memory so please forgive my error. What I should have written is 'VBG' instead of VGB. VBG as in 'Vertical Banded Gastroplasty'. 'Stomach stapling'. My own mind recalls it as Vertical Gastric Banding, it shall be corrected in my memory forever thats for sure.
For those whom have undergone this procedure it is a difficult and highly dangerous operation to reverse. Thankfully, a procedure less used nowadays, so hopefully my previous post will make more sense to you. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to think I was referring to 'Virtual Gastric Banding' as that is not the case so appolgies to all. .

Cindy Lou's original question was around long-term results. What I was trying to offer was an account on someone whom actually had undergone a physical stomach reduction and how stomach reduction would not necessarily bring success on its own. John certainly enlightened me and indeed appears to have a very brilliant procedure to incorporate both diet and an exercise regime in the long term.

Sheila Grangers course sounds really interesting. Since I joined just a few days ago its been a great experience and really opened my eyes to to what is going on out there. I have been led to both John and Sheila's websites as a result which are both sources of inspiration. It has certainly made me consider the possibilities of where this relatively new career could take me.

I think many will agree that the medical world as a whole (well certainly in the UK) have been slow to recognise and implement alternative practises such as hypnotherapy, accupuncture etc etc but it is slowly happening. It is great news that thought has been put into monitoring and statistsics. Nobody can deny recorded results and statistics thats for sure.

Best of Luck on the course.
Thanks Marc
Angela.

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Permalink Reply by John Maclean on September 10, 2010 at 1:25pm

I'm pleased to say our Hypno-Band practitioners have already helped many hundreds of clients world-wide (including across the USA and Canada). The problem is not acertaining the effectiveness of the method (we have demonstrated this hundreds of times) but rather proving the method under clinical conditions using NHS clinical trial protocols. I have been in discussion with the NHS about trials for 18 months and that is just to establish trial parameters. It takes years to implement trials to the NHS satisfaction, not to mention funding. Please don't get confused between working out of a GP's surgery and having the method approved by the NHS. GP's may "refer" clients but having the method approved by NICE and funding the therapy through Primary Care Trusts is a long way away. To imply otherwise would be disingenuous. While as therapists, we may realise that the NHS could save millions by using these methods, it is a very different thing to have an intervention approved by NICE. Tragic but true!

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Permalink Reply by Marc Carlin on September 11, 2010 at 3:20am

Hi Angela,

I agree, the medical world has been slow, and I think it's even slower here in the USA than in the UK. Here in the USA there is plenty of money to lobby medical procedures where people have a large financial stake that subsidizes the lobbying efforts and that have huge monetary payoffs to a small segment of the population for implementation. This is the realities of the medical/business free enterprise system.

John's system seems to be a good system. Here in the US, I haven't seen the kind of publicity surrounding the process that has been generated in the UK and Europe. I don't know why that is. I think it's quite exceptional that he donates so much of the proceeds from the licensing to charity.

I am really excited about learning Sheila's program for the virtual gastric band and implementing a testing procedure among the attendees here in the states. I like the fact that I will get a hands on training and be a part of a group effort to improve the image of hypnosis and hypnotic techniques here in the States.

Thanks for the good wishes,

Marc Carlin

Angela White said:

Dear Marc

Whoops - Your confusion is totally justified. I tend to write mostly from memory so please forgive my error. What I should have written is 'VBG' instead of VGB. VBG as in 'Vertical Banded Gastroplasty'. 'Stomach stapling'. My own mind recalls it as Vertical Gastric Banding, it shall be corrected in my memory forever thats for sure.
For those whom have undergone this procedure it is a difficult and highly dangerous operation to reverse. Thankfully, a procedure less used nowadays, so hopefully my previous post will make more sense to you. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to think I was referring to 'Virtual Gastric Banding' as that is not the case so appolgies to all. .

Cindy Lou's original question was around long-term results. What I was trying to offer was an account on someone whom actually had undergone a physical stomach reduction and how stomach reduction would not necessarily bring success on its own. John certainly enlightened me and indeed appears to have a very brilliant procedure to incorporate both diet and an exercise regime in the long term.

Sheila Grangers course sounds really interesting. Since I joined just a few days ago its been a great experience and really opened my eyes to to what is going on out there. I have been led to both John and Sheila's websites as a result which are both sources of inspiration. It has certainly made me consider the possibilities of where this relatively new career could take me.

I think many will agree that the medical world as a whole (well certainly in the UK) have been slow to recognise and implement alternative practises such as hypnotherapy, accupuncture etc etc but it is slowly happening. It is great news that thought has been put into monitoring and statistsics. Nobody can deny recorded results and statistics thats for sure.

Best of Luck on the course.
Thanks Marc
Angela.

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