No prescription needed: Hypnotists use new medicine to fight obesity, depression

By: Megan Hess

Posted: 10/17/08

Mark Briggs played some soft background music before guiding Mike Poirier into his subconscious.

"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."

Still, 95 percent of the American public has never been professionally hypnotized, and 80 percent has never thought about getting it done, Briggs said. In fact, there are more clinical social workers in Chicago than there are hypnotists in the world, he added.

Briggs said this related back to how certain health-care practitioners question the healing powers behind hypnotism. He said a number claim hypnotherapists yield results that are largely based on testimonials and anecdotes, and cannot be supported by scientific evidence.

Like some fellow hypnotherapists, Schwarz will give new patients free half-hour consultations to answer questions and determine whether they can be hypnotized. As a general test, she asks for chins down and eyes up to the ceiling. The more whites show in the eye, the more susceptible a person is to hypnotism.

Schwarz then develops a rapport with her patients and leads them into the unchartered waters of the subliminal by drawing attention to a specific body part.

"I'll tell them to be aware of their toes, or imagine they are leaves floating on a river," Schwarz said. "They focus on their breathing, and then I coach them into closing their eyes whenever they're ready."

After each session, she assembles motivational readings and customizes CD recordings for her patients to use outside the office.

But Schwarz, 49, wasn't always such an advocate of "brainwashing with a positive twist," as she refers to the practice. Once a skeptic herself, she recognized the healing powers of hypnosis only after a midlife crisis in her 30s. She was burned out as an outpatient director of a chemical dependency program.

"I wanted to work with people who wanted to work with me," Schwarz said. She was attracted to the goal-orientated nature of hypnotherapy, which is all about establishing trust and following directions.

A number of hypnotherapy clinics like Alternative Hypnosis and the Wellness Therapy Center also provide psychotherapy services. In New York state, there is no license required for hypnotism. Lay hypnotists can put ads in newspapers without breaking the law, while most professional hypnotherapists are licensed in psychotherapy.

Robert Strickland, a psychotherapist at his private practice in Syracuse, N.Y., said he's the only person in town who uses hypnosis as a form of psychotherapy for issues like depression and marriage counseling. He's been in the same office in the State Tower Building for 28 years, and it shows - the room is teeming with hundreds of books, like "Frogs into Princes" and "The Structure of Magic."

"All hypnosis is self-hypnosis," Strickland said. "I'm just there to help my patients learn how to access their own hypnotic abilities."

Alternative Hypnosis also boasts the effects of self-hypnosis as lifestyle change. When Briggs ran an ad about two weeks ago for Alternative Hypnosis in the magazine In Good Health, he used Mike Poirier's before-and-after pictures.

While normal sessions cost $130, Poirier paid a one-time fee for life to learn an ancient art veering into the mainstream. But he said he thinks insurance companies should cover alternative medicine if it works.

Poirier still goes for monthly check-ins at the clinic. Only now, instead of fueling up on candy bars at work, he brings apples, oranges and grapes from home.

"I remember looking at those very ads before I started hypnosis, and I thought they were bogus," said Poirier. "But hypnosis is about installing willpower. Now, I'm comfortable with my body and more educated than ever about weight loss."

mehess@syr.edu