Hypnotherapy for shopping addictions
Louise Cormack’s shopping addiction had become so severe she had run up debts of £17,000, it was only when she was told she would have to repay £1,500 each month that she decided to take drastic measures.
After splitting with her boyfriend Louise embarked on a spending spree to make herself feel better but unfortunately like many do got stuck in the cycle of spending money to get a temporary high. Louise would spend around £150 each weekend on new clothes alongside spending out on extravagant and frequent holidays and festivals, all of which she put on her credit card.
After realising her habit was getting out of control and being told by her bank that she would need to repay £1,500 each month to pay of her debts in a year she decided to take drastic measures.
After seeing an advertisement for volunteers to attend hypnotherapy sessions Louise went along to see if her addiction could be addressed.
Louise took part in four hour long sessions during which she was taken into a state of deep relaxation allowing the practitioner to take her through the experience of buying something and then the frustration afterwards of living with mounting debt.
Louise’s therapist used visualisation techniques to help Louise picture saving for something that she really wanted instead of simply impulse buying.
A relaxation CD that Louise could listen to outside of her sessions in the morning and at night helped her to continue these visualisation techniques and also helped to alleviate some of the stress and guilt that was fuelling the habit.
After completing her session Louise reported feeling calm and controlled and believes that hypnotherapy showed her that shopping was a coping mechanism for stress. She has now completely changed the way she shops and now only buys what she needs.
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Tags: addiction