‘I left my job as a secondary school teacher to become a weight loss hypnotist’

She discovered the benefits of hypnotism and decided to pursue a career in using it to help people achieve their weight loss and healthier living goals

An Irish woman has shared her journey from school teacher to helping people achieve their goals.

Rosie Callaghan is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and also the owner of the Weight Loss Clinic. The Donegal woman was previously a secondary school teacher before she discovered her passion for using hynotherapy to help people kick their bad habits.

Her journey started when she used the method to give up smoking, and she ended up training in it and beginning the Hypnoslim programme. The programme, which is available from the Weight Loss Clinic, is a six-week course comprising of different hypnotherapy sessions, designed to reprogramme your mind to choose healthy foods.

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The idea is that the hypnotherapy will make you no longer want to overeat unhealthy options, but will gradually make you crave healthier options.

“First of all, people have to be willing to change,” Rosie told RSVP Live as she explained how the process works. “Most people who come to me have done all the diets, been dieting for years. When you’ve tried everything, you just have to be willing to go, ‘OK, hit me’.

“I ask them to give me an hour and a half of their time to allow themselves to relax. If someone isn’t 100% committed or willing to relax the mind, it’s not going to work. You have to quieten down the conscious part of the mind.

“If that conscious part of the mind is alert and working, it’s going to say ‘no, not going to happen’. It decides what suggestions get into the subconscious.

“Physical relaxation takes about five minutes and then there’s a 10 minute mental relaxation to allow them to relax the mind. Once they park everything, they allow me to put suggestions in.”

The suggestions are usually things like eating more nutritious foods, avoiding “junk” food, reducing portion sizes and general healthier lifestyle habits. Despite the fact it’s a six week course, the vast majority of clients maintain their healthy changes afterwards.

“I’ve been doing it six years and many people have never gone back to it [bad habits],” she said. “The vast majority of their habits will have improved. There will be some people who will go back to bad habits if the emotional part isn’t addressed.”

For Rosie, the biggest mistake she sees in people who want to lose weight but are struggling is relying on willpower alone.

“Willpower has only got a short term function,” she said. “That lies in the conscious part of the mind. Relying on willpower is pointless and if you want it to be a long term thing, you’ve got to change your habits.

“Stress is a big one that holds people back. It’s the biggest driver of emotional eating at the moment. Have a look at reducing stress because the body is so smart; if you feel like you’re in fight or flight mode, often you feel like what you need to do to help is eat.”

Often weight gain comes from deeper issues with confidence and self esteem, which Rosie also targets during her course.

“We do an anger release and forgiveness session,” she said. “We also do self forgiveness and getting back on your own team again. Get your self worth back and work on compassion for yourself because without it, you’re stuck in the same circle.”

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