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The power of suggestion

A Sarasota resident uses hypnotherapy to reprogram unhealthy habits and help dieters in their quest.

By Judy Hill, Special to the Times
Published August 28, 2007

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By Judy Hill

Special to the Times

Darryl Schumacher's weight problems began when he was a kid.

By Christmas 2005, he carried about 310 pounds on his medium frame.

"I had tried all the diets out there," recalls Schumacher, a supervisor at Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend power plant and Plant City resident. "Lost 80 pounds on one.

"They worked as long as I stayed on them, but nothing seemed to be permanent."

Then he attended a seminar by hypnotherapist Rena Greenberg at a local hospital.

"Now I'm half the man I used to be," jokes Schumacher.

Not quite half. But he has shed 123 pounds since Jan. 3, 2006.

"It has been easy and simple," he says.

Before attending the Greenberg session, Schumacher, 54, says his eating and snacking were constant, not sporadic.

"When I ate a meal, seconds were the rule, not the exception, and snack cakes, cookies. . . didn't stand a chance."

For the Greenberg session, "I walked in skeptical," he says.

But he saw results within a few days when he realized he was pushing plates away. Exercise seemed to appeal, too, after a long stint as a couch potato.

He is now competing in local runs.

Greenberg "doesn't give you a plan - she's giving you a kick-start," he says.

This requires reprogramming yourself: taking charge by recognizing and ending the pleasurable associations with the wrong foods, including sugar and simple carbohydrates.

There's nothing revolutionary in that advice.

What makes Greenberg's program more successful for some than simple dieting is the planting of healthy suggestions in the subconscious about food and exercise through hypnosis and self-hypnosis.

Greenberg, a Sarasota resident, became interested in permanent changes to diet and health at age 26. That's when her doctor told her she had the heart of an 80-year-old.

She has been offering seminars in hospitals for about 20 years. Jerry Touchton, marketing director at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs, says he has been booking Greenberg for the seminars "at least since 1990. We've been very satisfied."

Her program does not ban any food group. She recommends the same moderate eating habits and exercise included in most conventional diet plans.

Schumacher's commitment to the program and his weight loss are not typical, Greenberg acknowledged, adding that most in her seminars have less weight to lose than he did.

They come because "they just feel out of control around food or unmotivated to exercise," Greenberg said.

Her initial session includes a form of group hypnosis that teaches relaxation techniques and how to plant "healthy" suggestions in your mind.

The state of hypnosis in her technique has nothing to do with somehow being controlled by others. Rather, the weight loss state is that feeling of calm and relaxation experienced when daydreaming.

It's at those times that the reprogramming is suggested and reinforced.

Success, however, depends on the individual, she says.

"A person has to be ready to change. If they are, the tools I give them make it much, much easier."

Freelance writer Judy Hill lives in St. Petersburg.

 

.On the web

For more information

To see Rena Greenberg's schedule of bay area sessions, go to www.wellnessseminars.com.

 

[Last modified August 27, 2007, 16:11:39]