ABSTRACT
Since high levels of hypnotizability were found for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in the 1980s, one could reasonably expect a considerable diffusion of studies on eating disorders (ED) conducted with a hypnotic approach. But it is one of the least researched, despite the impressive therapeutic advances in treatment over the last two decades.
We will describe approaches and hypnotic techniques to overcome symptomatic behaviors that cover all the parts of the ED relationship with food. When working with ED, hypnosis is even more useful to succeed in restoring an effective dialogue between mind and body, bypassing the conscious mind and providing a profound contact with the body-self that these disorders generally tend to make unavailable to consciousness.
These patients have suffered severe traumatic experiences and, even more often, high degrees of emotional and physical neglect that has been defined as “the colossus of traumas of patients with eating disorders” by Piacentino et al. To repair these traumatic wounds, and to make the subjects more accessible and responsive, the hypnotist should apply specific integrative techniques and make profound supportive use of the hypnotic rapport.
