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The Daily OrangeNo prescription needed: Hypnotists use new medicine to fight obesity, depression
By Megan Hess
Posted: 10/16/08, 11:38 PM EST Section: Feature
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"Close your eyes," Briggs whispered. "Think slim."
Poirier, then 280 pounds, ate at business dinners at least once a week. He grabbed candy bars several times a day during his high-stress job as a manager for the Carrier Corporation. He had a weakness for carbs.
But it's been more than two years, and Poirier, now 48 and hovering at 192 pounds, hasn't had a bite of pasta, potatoes or rice since. In fact, they taste horrible to him, thanks to the suggestive powers of hypnotherapy.
Briggs works as the senior clinician and director of Alternative Hypnosis, the oldest hypnosis clinic in Onondaga County. The clinic specializes in phobias, weight loss and smoking cessation.
"Sometimes, it's like magic," Briggs said. "We're on the cutting edge of change. Once, a woman came in with a phobia of heights that she'd been getting treatment for four times a week for three years. The phobia got worse. But we cured her with only one session of hypnosis."
But Briggs added that most successful hypnoses can take months or even years.
Bigger problems like alcohol abuse, sexual addiction, erectile dysfunction, even compulsively blowing kisses at women - one of the stranger cases Briggs has encountered - require a number of sessions to change behavioral patterns.
Hypnosis is a rigorous discipline certainly not accessible to everyone, although it is not the remote, esoteric practice some used to make it out to be, reads the Alternative Hypnosis Web site. While still surrounded by a considerable amount of skepticism, hypnotism is now used in a number of health clinics with patients who want to overcome addictions, chronic pain, high blood pressure and insomnia.
"People associate hypnosis with what they see on TV," said Karen Schwarz, a licensed mental health counselor at the Wellness Therapy Center in Syracuse. "You know, the ball-and-chain thing - clucking like a chicken or barking like a dog. But that's entertainment hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is just a trance state; patients have complete control over their actions. Think of it as an extreme focus."
Schwarz said many go in and out of hypnotic trances on a daily basis. "If you're glued to the TV and don't hear your roommate come in, that's hypnosis," she said. "But your trance is broken if, say, there's a fire in the next room."
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