Body/Mind Connection
The connection between body and mind is a truth that is being recognised more and more, for example through the field of psychoneuroimmunology.
So, what does this mean in terms of finding effective ways of stopping emotional eating?
Talk therapies are great for gaining insight into a problem. However, they are not always effective at actually creating change.
This is because they do not address how memories are stored and created, and how your body responds to triggers that echo experiences you have had in the past. Nor do they directly shift your body chemistry (for example, dropping levels of the stress hormone cortisol), or rewire your brain (as shown in multiple brain scan studies for tapping).
There are now many different therapies and techniques which work through the body and the senses to effect change at the physical and emotional levels. Examples include EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming), EFT (Tapping), Matrix Reimprinting, Somatic Experiencing, Hypnotherapy and Havening Techniques. However, there are other therapies and techniques which also take a broader perspective on bringing your bodily senses and creativity into the therapeutic work, such as various forms of art therapy, music therapy, breathing techniques, mindfulness and more.
All of these can be included in the umbrella terms: somatic and psychosensory therapies.
Knowing what underlies emotional eating, and gaining insight into how you experience this for yourself, are important first steps. However, to create a deep and lasting shift in your relationship with food, somatic and psychosensory techniques work amazingly.
You can use hypnotherapy and hypnorelaxation to shift your body chemistry and calm your autonomic nervous system. Hypnotherapy can affect bodily functions that you would often consider inaccessible to conscious control, such as hormonal levels or your body's set point weight. And of course it can be used to boost calm at both a bodily and mental level, and to reinforce motivation.
You can use tapping to lower your cortisol levels, a major stress hormone in your body. It can also rewire the reward centres in your brain to be less triggered into cravings.
The Havening Techniques stimulate the creative and calm delta waves that help you problem-solve and re-programme old behaviour patterns around specific traumas and limiting beliefs.
And Soul Pictures can help you gain insight into what motivates you, to feel calmer, and to boost your motivation with a tangible reminder.
Breathing techniques can lower your anger, enhance calm through stimulating the polyvagal nerve and balancing the autonomic nervous system, and assist in reaching problem-solving states.
I am trained in all of these, and can guide you to find the best path for yourself to achieve FREEdom: Finally Releasing Emotional Eating.
Diving Deeper
There are two kinds of trauma: Big T traumas such as suicide, serious injury, abuse, war, natural disasters of any kind; and small t traumas, which are less 'life-threatening', but which still overwhelm your ability to cope calmly, such as divorce, belittling talk, bullying, and financial and legal worries. ACE's, or Adverse Childhood Events, can fall in either of these categories, and have been strongly linked to Eating Disorders and emotional eating more generally.
When either kind of trauma happens, your mind stores the memory in your amygdala, rather than the prefrontal cortex. This is done so that your brain can be 'on the look out' for similar situations, to protect you. However, it can lead to you responding to situations which are not really 'dangerous', for example by emotionally eating.
Psychosensory therapies are wonderful at resolving these kinds of problems, because they work on the body, mind and emotions all at once. They are a science-backed route to achieving FREEdom: Finally Releasing Emotional Eating.
