Of Scales and Weight

While most of my hypnotic work is done for medical purposes, I do have a number of clients who see me for weight control. This little sub-specialty results from the well-documented fact that being overweight is a major public health problem.

Overweight people not only have more emotional problems, they are also prone to a long list of medical issues, from diabetes to increased risk for a host of cancers. So as someone with a professional focus on physical well-being, helping people with weight is an obvious adjunct to my practice. 

Because of this, I've always had a "doctor's office" style, double beam scale at my office. I'd kept it tucked away as I only really needed it for those clients who are on medically-supervised diets prior to bariatric surgery, such as gastric bypass surgery. For other clients, their home scales are sufficient.

Recently there has been an uptick in the number of clients who are preparing for bariatric surgery.  It became more efficient to move the scale out into the open so those clients can be easily weighed as they walk into my office. I figured most other clients would just ignore the scale, and perhaps a few would appreciate it if they wanted to weigh themselves on a really accurate scale.

I was wrong about that.

From the general client reaction, you'd think I installed a guillotine.

"Why is that scale here?" "You're not going to weigh me, are you?"

I responded that no, I was not going to weigh my clients. The scale was there for the convenience of those clients preparing for a special kind of surgery, although anyone who wished to weigh themselves was welcome to do so.

Lindsay suggested that perhaps I should go back to hiding the scale in another room, but I've decided to keep it where it is. I do work with weight control issues and the scale is a reminder of that for everyone. Also, any client of mine working a weight control protocol has nothing to fear from the scale. You will almost certainly lose weight. I have a high level of success with such clients using an approach the combines hypnotism with HeartMath Freeze Frame techniques. 

Perhaps because people working on weight issues often have a history of failure and yo-yo dieting, they see the scale as a reminder of past problems. But it really is a marker and promise of a better future at my office. Therefore, it stays where it is.