The Power of Commitment
Recently a young woman came to see me wanting to stop bingeing, something she had been doing for many years and found was becoming more and more frequent. We found that this behaviour was largely tied up with comfort eating and self image. We met for four sessions and pencilled in a 5th for one month later. I told her if she didn't feel she needed it, to cancel it, which she did. The email I received from her doing so was joyous. She felt the sessions had changed her life for the better and she had in the 3 weeks since we had last met lost a further 6lbs, making a total of 12lbs over a period of 2 months.
In my opinion, she probably didn't really need the 4th session. Apart from what we did in the sessions however, I believe one of the most important factors in this client achieving the results (and more) that she wanted is testament to her commitment.
First of all, after the second session she arrived saying she had decided that in order to get the changes she wanted she must make a lifestyle change. Instead of going out every night and accepting every invitation, she was pencilling in evenings to herself so that she could give herself time to devote to herself. After she had this in place for a while, she said she really enjoyed these evenings and looked forward to them. She also planned her week's meals on Sunday evenings and booked her exercise sessions into her diary.
I usually give clients things to do between sessions to move things along and bed down the changes the client is experiencing. In this case this included:
self-hypnosis. Together with the client we worked out post-hypnotic suggestions she could use that would be most helpful at the time
listening daily to the free recording available from my website
as a result of a discussion we had about an upsetting experience she had during the course of the treatment, following up on the incident and turning it to her advantage
carrying out a daily exercise designed to reduce the negativity and self-doubt she was experiencing in relation to her capabilities. This last she was reluctant to do but found that contrary to what she thought would happen, the exercise helped her notice what she does well. This was instrumental in changing her feelings about herself.
There is no doubt in my mind that the sessions and between session work together brought this client what she wanted – and in a relatively short period of time. And in a short period of time she was able to say that her life had changed – for the better.