I have two brilliant clients at the moment, both so committed to change, which is, of course, why they have come to Mind to Change!
They each have a weight issue: one is clinically obese and literally eating herself into an early grave, whilst the other is bulimic. Body image is a difficult problem for both of them in different ways. One has a no concept of her body, has always seen herself as overweight and has now eaten herself to the size she believed was predicted for her by her father. The second woman, and they are both women, is slim and attractive but has a completely distorted view of physical self. Two sides of the same coin, you might say.
As always with weight problems, there are deep, underlying issues stemming from way back - casual remarks, cruel words, lack of parental love - can all mean that people will either feed or starve themselves, causing actual physical harm and danger to their mental well being and happiness, filling, starving or harming themselves as a result of what happened in the past.
Today I used a regression technique which for one particular client was very powerful indeed.
She also told me that, while she thought our second session had not been as effective as the first, the learning from it has been developing and increasing over the intervening time between our sessions.
The important thing is that both clients are completely committed to overcoming their problems and my aim is to help them both to find a new, healthy relationship with food that no longer means using it as a punishment, reward, means of allaying anxiety or mood enhancer.