Using discourse analysis and hypnotherapy with a client presenting for weight loss

"I just don't get those fussy, veggie types who eat gourmet style meals"

This was one of the earliest discourses that Joanne used during our initial assessment to getting help with being overweight. For anyone untrained in discourse analysis, this statement may have slipped under the radar as being a throw-away statement or comment. However, for me, this was one of the most crucial aspects of Joanne's language and the most important part of the initial assessment that created a lever for change. However, Joanne wasn't aware yet how important her language was in constructing her identity and preventing her from being the weight she desired to be. In discourse analysis we view all language as functional i.e, it has a purpose.

Here, embedded in just one sentence, are a number of techniques:

Objectifying or 'othering' - creating difference between herself and the 'other' i.e., what/who she was/is not

Labelling - defining a whole person by a behaviour that they do

Making judgments - that being a certain way is not right or is incorrect -according to whom?

Being unempathic - lack of understanding/knowledge from a position of the 'other' typically through ignorance or misinformation

Displaying emotion in her language - frustration with what/who she is not 

Now, another aspect of discourse analysis is that language is political, it's constructing a reality that is typically a sign of the times but also an attempt to define the times. The concept of weight has changed over the centuries, and what is deemed appropriate, acceptable and even something to strive for in one era or culture, is typically in opposition at another time and place depending on the political agenda of that culture. Certainly, weightiness has been on the political agenda in the western and developed world over the last couple of decades and more so in the last few years, particularly the discourse of personal responsibility with regards to health and weight. This popular discourse is that of people not taking ownership of being overweight and the detrimental effect this is having on their health. From this the judgmental discourse appears, discussing people as irresponsible if they're not deemed to be 'taking care of themselves' by being a desirable weight. The discourses around being vegetarian or a 'veggie type' are also multiple and fragmented, but again until recent times, these identities have been viewed as 'alternative' and atypical in many cultures.

Back to Joanne then. With her language, when she is constructing the other i.e., fussy veggie types who eat gourmet style meals, hidden here is a construction of her own identity i.e., what she is. Often the unsaid is in what is said as a binary opposite. By defining what she is not, is she also then constructing a part of herself, currently in opposition, of something she is currently not. So we have to inquire further for more discourses. There may be multiple. fragmented and competing discourses at play here for example,

Is she is threatened in some way by what she is currently not?

Does she have a desire to be what she is currently not?

Is there a sense she resents what she is not because of what it represents in society about being overweight and who she is/is not?

Now when we choose to use discourses, typically handed down from others who are influential around us, we do so because they serve, or have served, a purpose for us in some way. Now if this is a regularly used discourse for Joanne, there may be some resistance to not using it because of the purpose it is currently serving. It could also, however, be one she is willing to drop in favour of more adaptable and flexible discourses that will enable her to make better choices in her life and feel better about herself. She is, after all, attending therapy for her overweight. So we have to look at axes for change i.e., alternative discourses, or an acceptance of an identity she is currently adopting and would prefer to preserve. 

Interventions with Joanne using hypnosis and trance  

For Joanne to explore openly surface structures of discourse and deeper meanings that those discourses serve for her, she was induced into trance by the process of hypnosis. By using trance we can typically bypass her level of 'resistance' i.e., holding onto certain ways of talking/discussing which aren't necessarily helpful for her right now.

During trance, Joanne was introduced to perceptual positions work i.e, a term coined by Gregory Bateson, the great anthropologist and social scientist. To fully understand something we are thought to need to understand from 3 different positions: the view from within i.e., the self; the view of the other; and a view of an observer.  So Joanne was able to explore i.e, be empathic and gain understanding about what it meant to be a 'fussy veggie type who eats gourmet meals' by:

1) 'playing' herself from a position of her current overweight self

2) 'playing' a 'fussy veggie type who eats gourmet meals' as other 

3) 'playing' a family member who was also overweight and uses this discourse who was listening to Joanne making the statement about 'fussy veggie types who eat gourmet meals'

4) 'playing' a favoured colleague who was wasn't overweight but was also listening to Joanne making the statement about 'fussy veggie types who eat gourmet meals'

Joanne was also able to explore perceptual positions by actually putting herself in the position of being what she desired to be i.e, 20 kg lighter and how that might appear from different perceptual positions:

1) 'playing' herself from a position of her ideal weight self

2) 'playing' her partner who is encouraging her to lose the weight

3) 'playing' a family member who was also overweight and who saw no reason for her to lose the weight (possibly tertiary gain to help maintain the status quo)

During trance, using a form of age regression, we were able to explore where the discourse of 'fussy veggie types who eat gourmet meals' originated from, what purpose is might have served for the originator of that discourse who handed it down to her, and what purpose it might be serving for her in the here and now. 

From this exploration, Joanne a) became aware of the discourse and the purpose it could be serving for preventing her from losing the weight, and b) enabled her to construct alternative and more helpful discourses which were more enabling and freeing for her i.e, one's she could choose to use and adopt rather than being spoken by them!

Karen has been a practitioner specialising in mental health and behavioural change for over 20 years and in 2008 co-founded the Academy of Advanced Changework, a hypnotherapy and NLP academy providing training from beginner to advanced practitioner.

Her Academy provides attended Diploma courses in Hypnotherapy & NLP on the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Melbourne & Sydney, Australia, and a range of online & distance CPD courses internationally, including an Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy course for qualified hypnotherapists and 'How to Change a Habit, Phobia or Compulsion'

Are you a qualified hypnotherapist ready to take your hypnotherapy know-how to an advanced level? Find out more about our internationally recognised Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy for qualified hypnotherapists by downloading a Free copy of ‘The Advanced Hypnotherapist’ https://eepurl.com/c-Bqsn written and published by Karen Bartle MSc, and Dr Paul Peace.