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Observer & Eccentric

Health
Mind Control
Self-hypnosis encourages lifestyle changes

By Linda Ann Chomin
Staff Writer
(Edited & Reprinted)

Geri Green wasn’t expecting magic when she underwent hypnosis to help her lose weight. The Farmington Hills children’s performer was looking to change her eating habits permanently.

Green realizes change doesn’t occur overnight after a lifetime of poor choices. That’s why she chose to sign up for Wellness Seminars unlimited hypnosis sessions with program director Rena Greenberg. Green has returned four times to learn how to use positive affirmations to push away food at the table.

“I decided to come after a neighbor lost 100 pounds,” said Green, a participant in a recent seminar at Mission Health Medical Center-Providence Hospital in Livonia. “The first time I felt enthusiastic but wasn’t losing weight. The second time I sat in front where I could hear better and lost 10 pounds. Every time I come and hear it I remember a different part. It’s reinforcement.”

SELF HYPNOSIS IS SUBTLE

Forget the hocus-pocus portrayed in films. Participants won’t hear Greenberg say, “You are getting very sleepy.” Self-hypnosis is much more subtle than that. Greenberg takes participants through a series of relaxation techniques before asking them to reach for a pendulum next to them to deepen the hypnosis. But first they write down why they’re overweight, and how it’s going to change their life. All it takes is motivation and the belief you can do it, Greenberg tells them. “The only one who fails is the one who stops trying.”

“The whole key to this program is to do everything she tells you,” said Green. “She gives you a complimentary tape. It’s important to listen to it every day for 30 days. It will motivate you if you want to lose weight. So far I’ve lost 30 pounds. My whole style of eating changed. Her suggestions have motivated me to be in control. It gives you willpower. Listening to the tape erases temptation. I have self-control. Food and coping don’t go together anymore. It’s not a diet but a way of life.”

Greenberg urges participants to include exercise in their daily routine. While Green hasn’t been able to do this because of arthritis in her knees, Sherrie Stone’s now doing Pilates, weight training and aerobics on a regular basis. Stone suffered from hyperglycemia and arthritis before attending her first weight-loss session in July 2002 at St. John Macomb Hospital in Warren. Since then the Rochester Hills resident went from a size 18 to10. Her goal is an 8.
PROVIDED MOMENTUM

“I was determined I was going to take it off slowly,” said Stone. “I don’t have a game plan. What hypnosis did is give me the momentum and fire in my gut. At the table I started saying, “Small portions satisfy me.” Then in the middle of last fall I began working out an hour a day, six days a week. I hated working out. Now I feel horrible when I don’t get my exercise.

“Sometimes I eat something I shouldn’t but then go back to eating healthy. I weigh myself only once a month and go by how my clothes fit. When I first started weight training I gained a few pounds because muscles weighs more than fat but my clothes fit better. I just love my new body. My high blood sugar returned to normal and my joints never ache anymore. I used to wear baggy clothes and now wear tight T-shirts.”

Greenberg founded the Wellness Seminars 13 years ago after using hypnosis to help her stop smoking, relieve pain and lose weight. A former biofeedback therapist in New York, Greenberg travels from Florida to Michigan and Ohio giving weight-loss and stop-smoking seminars. She totally eliminated sugar from her diet 16 years ago.

“As a biofeedback therapist we used self-hypnosis to control pain and stress. Patients would watch blood pressure going down, skin getting warmer and realize they do have control,” said Greenberg of Ann Arbor. “I learned to change my eating habits. I was addicted to sugar. There’s diabetes in my family and I was heading down the road to disaster. The mind is so powerful. I started working with groups because you can help so many more people. I liken the sessions to taking a music lesson. If you don’t practice every day, you don’t get any better.

MAKE BETTER CHOICES

“Under hypnosis I tell them to eat healthier foods, make better choices, exercise. Water aerobics is a good place to start. The greatest obstacles are unproductive habits like overeating and emotional eating. We’re encouraged as a child to finish eating everything on your plate. Emotional eating happens when you’re bored, stressed, excited. I like to say, ‘A slender person lives to eat, and overweight person eats to live.’

Greenberg begins the hypnosis session by putting participants into a relaxed state where they’re more susceptible to suggestion. She tells them, ‘Hypnosis is a consent state.’ It’s only natural to have fears that someone else will control their mind. She compares hypnosis to massage – no one can force you to relax those muscles.

Greenberg continues giving participants ideas for positive reinforcement. Find a picture of a time you to used to be thin while repeating reaffirmations. Write down your goals. Be realistic.

Bev Shaffer has lost 70 pounds since first coming to Wellness Seminars in 2002. She also works out at Club Elite in Northville. This is her sixth time. She had a set back and gained 20 pounds because she stopped working out.

“The tape is great,” said Shaffer of Northville. “ Her voice is so melodic. She gives you control.”

Gary Davis Jr. is hoping to gain enough self-restraint to lose 120 of his 340 pounds. This was his first time attending one of the Wellness Seminars after reading an advertisement in the Westland Observer.

“I tried regular dieting but bingeing caused me to go up and down,” said the 34-year old Davis. “I’ve had a weight problem all of my life but since my divorce really packed it on. My dad went to a similar program based on hypnosis and quit smoking after 30 years.

“Everybody needs that little nudge. I’m very strong-willed so I don’t know if it will take.”

Afterward, Davis said he thought the hypnosis worked and at the very least, ‘It was interesting experience.’