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WEIGHT LOSS POWERED BY THE MIND SEMINAR AT HOSPITAL
by Kate Kramer June 2006 (revised and reprinted)

Marina Bocciarelli of North Tampa doesn’t have trouble finding ways to exercise. As the owner of New Tampa Pet Sitting Services, she walked with dogs 10 to 20 times each day.
Even with all her walking, several months ago Bocciarelli couldn’t lose weight.
“I’m always hungry,” she said. “I cannot be on any diet.”
Bocciarelli found the answer to her problem through hypnosis when she attended Rena Greenberg’s weight-loss seminar in March at University Community Hospital. Since attending the seminar, Brocatelle lost 27 pounds and went down four sizes.
“I just don’t want the food I used to want,” she said.
Rena Greenberg, a hypnotherapist and biofeedback therapist, will lead a weight-loss seminar June 14 at University Community Hospital. Greenberg will also lead a wellness seminar for smoking cessation August 24. Greenberg said hypnosis is a powerful way to change unproductive patterns of thought on a subconscious level. Hypnotherapy sessions, according to Greenberg, help clients deal with the conflict that arises between the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind. While consciously people may want to lose weight, subconsciously they associate pleasure with the wrong foods, leading to habits including overeating, bingeing, snacking and emotional eating.
Greenberg began practicing hypnotherapy and biofeedback more than 15 years ago. In her mid-20’s, she suffered from a high heart rate that required her to use a pacemaker.
“I was determined to find greater health,” she said. “I became fascinated by the deeper power of our mind.”
Through hypnosis, Greenberg lost 20 pounds. Before practicing hypnotherapy, Greenberg exercised compulsively to try to lose weight, but now, because she is eating the right foods, she doesn’t have to exercise as much. Rather than an extreme change, she said the changes developed through hypnosis become natural behaviors leading to weight loss.
“You can live at your ideal weight without going to extremes,” she said. “I teach people they can be free of all that and have what they want.”
During the session, Greenberg explains the process of hypnosis and then talks clients into a very relaxed state where they are in a deep focus and, according to Greenberg, more open to suggestion.
While they are in this state of mind, Greenberg makes suggestions to help in weight control such as choosing smaller portions, eating healthful foods and increasing activity. While hypnosis helps with establishing habits for weight control, Greenberg said results are not instantaneous.
“Hypnosis is not a magic pill, but it does resolve inner conflict and resolving that conflict leads to behaviors that help lose weight,” Greenberg said.
She said being aware of the unconscious level helps clients feel more in control of their bodies and weight.
“I see so many people struggling on their own using only their conscious level,” Greenberg said. “I lead them through hypnotic response, which demonstrates that there is a greater power within their mind.”
After attending the seminar. Bocciarelli said she saw a change in her mindset that night when she craved tomatoes. Long after the session, she found a new taste for healthier foods.
“You taste food differently,” she said. “Carrot sticks taste so good to me now, and they didn’t taste good before.”
After the session, Greenberg gives participants a cassette tape to listen to for thirty days to help maintain the results of the session.
Bocciarelli said since attending the hypnosis session, she started paying more attention to calories and labels and joined Weight Watchers to monitor what and how much she ate.
“The session is a good start, but it’s not magic,” she said. “You need to work yourself and continue to work yourself. It’s a tool.”
Hospital employees also used hypnosis and found results. Jane Zinkhan of Tampa, a registered nurse at UCH, went to a hypnosis seminar several years ago.
“I went in with the attitude that no one is going to hypnotize me, but it did work,” she said. “I don’t eat the bad foods that I once did. It’s not a diet, you don’t feel deprived.”
Zinkhan lost 32 pounds through hypnosis and said it helped her change her mindset about unhealthy food.
“I could walk past a display of candies, cakes or pies, any displays of sweets in a grocery store and would shudder because they were so repulsive to me,” she said.
Greenberg said one session is enough to see the results of the hypnotic experience, but clients can reattend for free.
Greenberg has been offering seminars throughout Tampa since 1990. She comes to University Community Hospital, 3100 E. Fletcher Ave., monthly and said class sizes vary but are usually more than 20 people. The session cost $69 per person, or you can sign online for $59.
For more information on the wellness seminars, call 1-800-848-2822.