"Someone has to carry the family’s weight."

A well-to-do mother said her teenage daughter was overweight and wanted hypnosis to help. The mother looked very thin to my eyes, even scrawny, while her daughter looked like a normal teenage girl. It became apparent the the mother had the problem, not the daughter, so I offered a metaphor that in any family someone has to pout our the rubbish. In my family, it’s my job, but if I don’t or can’t then someone else will do this instead.

This was acceptable, but when I added the idea that the daughter was carrying the excess weight of the family, and if she didn’t, someone else would have to, when I offered that the mother was not impressed and thought that I was crazy. The daughter, however, looked relieved.

I had a postcard from the daughter several weeks later from Paris saying that she was enjoying French pastures while the rest of the family were gaining weight.