Interview with Hypnotist & Self Help Guru Paul McKenna

It’s 5.20pm on Thursday afternoon and I’m waiting for a call from Paul McKenna from his home in Los Angeles. 

At 46 Paul McKenna, is the world's most successful self help guru, the UK’s brand leader in hypnotherapy and a top-selling author.  He started out his career as a DJ in Top Shop and then as a radio broadcaster, stints as a DJ at Capital Radio and Radio One followed in London. 

Paul has captured the US market through his books and television work. His TV series on the Discovery Network, I Can Make You Thin proved to be a massive instant hit, achieving record audiences for the channel. Following the success of the show in the US, it was acquired by Living Channel in the UK and broadcast in January 2009.

In the early 1990’s he decided to leave his DJ career behind to focus on building a career in hypnosis and self help.  In 1993 his first TV series, The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna was broadcast on ITV.  The programme was shown in 42 countries and attracted an audience of 200 million.  During this time, Paul continued to study and refine his skills in hypnosis and became intrigued in the techniques of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and in the co-founder of this theory, Richard Bandler. 

The phone rings and I hear a distinct voice down the phone line and Paul introduces himself.

We chat for a few minutes about his lifestyle in LA and he says “I’m very lucky this is a great place to live especially on this lovely sunny day.”

Paul’s easy manner make him a pleasure to talk and I ask Paul to tell me about his programme I Can Make You Thin he says “It is all about changing how you think about food re- training your brain to see food differently.  It is about getting that good feeling without eating food – food just creates them artificially for a short time.”

I think this sounds a sensible way to think about dieting, Paul says “that’s why it works and in fact there is growing support from studies around the world that show it’s the way that we eat rather than what we eat that makes the difference in weight loss.”

“Scientific research shows that more than 90% of people who attempt to lose weight by dieting fail.  We have a growing nation of obese people mainly due to yo yo dieting.  With most diets you find that once you stop dieting you put the weight straight back on again."

“In fact there have been an army of doctors bashing the diet industry and do you know what they are saying McKenna’s right it is about how we think about food not the food we eat.”

He goes on to say “My weight-loss system lets you eat whatever you want, whenever you want, It's nearly impossible to break a habit with will-power alone - you have to re-programme you mind. Over the years I have helped people change life-long compulsions in a matter of minutes and proved that even the most die-hard addiction will succumb to effective re-programming.”

“My programme isn’t about starving yourself or doing the typical yo yo dieting, it’s about being in control and understanding your eating habits.”

“It is all about creating a new way of life eating when you want because forbidden foods only make you want to crave them.  I aim to change associated links with troublesome foods from a compulsion into a revulsion so imagining a plate of our favourite food with cigarette ash and hair as it is about killing those cravings.”

As part of this programme I’ve also heard you use a tapping technique called TFT – what is this?  Paul responds “Your brain is like a computer and it has its own software, and when we tap on various acupuncture points whilst we think about what we are craving we literally overwrite the operating software in our brain by thinking about these cravings and tapping – it’s fantastic so powerful it kills cravings and compulsions.”

Here are Paul’s  4 Golden Rules to Weight Loss 1)     When you are hungry, eat -  Because it is simply a habit.  Many people are so desensitised to their body’s messages that they’ve forgotten how to pay attention.  Real physical hunger is different to emotional hunger (which we will deal with later).  Physical hunger comes on gradually.  Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, when you feel bored or upset.  2)     Eat what you and not what you think you should - As soon as you tell yourself to not eat certain foods, (usually because you’ve been told they’re bad for you), you upset the natural balance of your relationship to them. Rather than wanting it less, that ‘forbidden food’ instantly becomes more attractive to you. 3)     Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful - Overweight people never notice the signal from their stomach that lets them know that they are full. They keep on eating expanding their stomachs and putting on weight. Put the knife and fork down whilst you are chewing you food and really enjoy it - savour the taste, and enjoy the wonderful textures and sensations as you thoroughly chew each mouthful of food at least 20 times! 4)     When you think you are full, stop eating - The natural design of the human body is to eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re satisfied, but many of us are conditioned to eat until we think we’re full - or even worse, until whatever food we put on our plate is gone.

Amongst some of his other successes are Paul’s wide range of self-help cassettes and books which he has produced and written. He is the UK’s most successful non-fiction author and his motivational books Change Your Life in Seven Days and Instant Confidence both went straight into the top ten on publication and continue to be massive bestsellers.  I Can Make You Thin has been the number one weight-loss best seller for five consecutive years. 

Paul McKenna’s seminars only happen a few times of year and one is taking place on 29th May so don’t miss out on your chance to win tickets