Meet Sarah Dresser
Clinical Hypnotherapist
Think Yourself Slim Founder and Creator
The journey to create the Think Yourself Slim Program goes back to 2004. It all began on my birthday. My 30th birthday was a milestone event, but not for the reasons you may think. I realized that I had spent more than half my life dieting and and, over time, this had become an illness, degenerating into anorexia and then bulimia.
On a day that I should have been celebrating, I felt defeat.
My First Diet Was Before the Age of 10 Years Old
I first remember saying I was going on a diet before the age of 10. Even at that age, young children are susceptible to messaging about the "ideal" body, often showing unrealistic images which teach us what is and is not acceptable.
Like many, I spent most of my teens and 20s on diets. We are conditioned early on to associate being slim with deprivation and starvation. Diets are to be endured, not enjoyed. And so the negative associations begin with our idea of what it takes to be slim. And yet this mentality of deprivation is just one of the ways that diets set you up to fail.
Two Decades of Dieting and Eating Disorders By Age 30
I denied my body the basic nutrition it needed and, at my worst, suffered from eating disorders of extreme starvation and bingeing. In my late teens, my body became so weak and malnourished that I did not have a monthly cycle for nearly a year. And after getting out of starvation mode, my body over-compensated by putting on weight as soon as I started eating regularly again.
Advertising has made food an emotional and moral issue, already labelling some as "good" and others as "guilty" or "sinful" foods. So my self-esteem and self-approval depended solely on achieving a certain number on the scales.
Food and weight were the central focus of my life, to the extent that this even affected my social life. I would make excuses to avoid going out to avoid food for fear I could not calculate calories with accuracy. The less I ate, the more my obsession grew. And the more isolated and alone I felt too.
In defeat, after nearly 2 decades of diets and eating disorders, I had to admit to myself that diets simply did not work. I did not want to spend the next decade with food and weight controlling my life. But if diets did not work, what did?
My First Step to Change: No More Counting or Measuring
On my 30th birthday, instead of journaling calories eaten, I wrote down the first commitment to myself: an agreement to stop counting or measuring. My first guideline. Note that I do not use the world "rule" as there are no rules in the Think Yourself Slim Program, just guidelines. That became a central powerful principle of the Think Yourself Slim Program.
Guidelines maintain freedom for the individual to do what they wish. There is no such thing as breaking the rules, no concept of a cheat day. I started the process with a mind still obsessed over certain types of food but, over time, I learned that as there were no rules, all foods were always available and so I could have them now, or later. And so, over time, calm eating replaced a starvation and deprivation mindset.
My 10 Year Journey in a One Month Program
Since I made that first agreement or guideline for myself, it has been quite the journey with trials and errors over time to arrive at the Think Yourself Slim Program that I have created today. It wasn't easy because nothing did and nothing still does exist that can compare with what I discovered and put into this Program. But I now know that no diet, points plan or regime can ever compensate for not having a slim mindset.
Being Slim Starts with Mindset
How often do you hear weight loss is all about eating less and exercising more?
Yes, your weight may change, but doesn't it revert back to what it was as soon as you stop the diet? This is because you have not changed your habits, emotions and thoughts around food, healthy and weight.
Mindset must come first.
Unlearn Before You Relearn
One of the key principles of the Program is to undo the bad habits first. This is where the power of hypnotherapy kicks in faster than just cognitive therapies alone. Because your brain enters re-record mode in a meditative or hypnotic state, you can fast track the process of breaking all those old emotional attachments and responses, then accelerate building up NEW healthy habits and responses.
Listen to Your Body and Learn to Trust Your Mind
I now never count calories, never ever worry about over-eating or emotional eating or gaining weight. I have healthy ways of channelling stress rather than diving into food or taking it out on myself. I also have learned to be a better friend to myself: to respect my body and my mind. Overall, I no longer treat my body like the enemy I used to abuse and starve. If I am not active for a few days or have the occasional indulgent meal, I can trust my body to remind me to get moving, and my mind to guide me to the nutrition I need. Food is just another part of how I enjoy life, not the centre and certainly not the ruler of my life.
Trialling the Program with Private Clients
With my training in clinical hypnotherapy I designed the Program from the 10 years of information I'd gathered. I then trialled the first iteration of the Program with private clients over another 2 years.
Since then I have continuously listened and responded to customers' feedback and the Programs are now in their fourth iteration. I have refined the Program to what it is today and confirmed that this Program works!
My Qualifications: Clinical Hypnotherapist
I am a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and trained at the only hypnotherapy training institute in North America which is accredited under a university: at the Pacific Institute of Advanced Hypnotherapy, accredited under the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. I have qualified as a Hypnotist, Master Hypnotist and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. I continue to further my education in psychology, neuroscience, and hypnotherapy every year since obtaining my initial qualifications.
Willpower taps into 20% or less of your total brain power
Hypnosis and meditation taps into 80% or MORE of your total brain power
The part of the brain that lies below the surface of conscious awareness, the subconscious, is 80% part of the brain that lies below conscious awareness drives up to 95% of our thought patterns, emotional responses and habits
every single day
The Neuroscience of Hypnotherapy
How to Retrain Your Brain
The brain needs a good reason to let go of something it has already learned as the part of the brain that houses our habits and beliefs - the subconscious - is normally in a read-only state. This is why hypnosis and guided meditation is so impactful, as it relaxes the mind to enter "re-record" mode and presents messages through a variety of techniques so that the subconscious is more open to re-learning.
Break the Patterns of the Past to Create a Better Future
For me, hypnotherapy is a powerful solutions-oriented tool. I know first hand that willpower will not get you everywhere, having suffered from insomnia for most of my 15+ corporate years working long hours under long-term stress. Hypnotherapy turned it around for me and resolved that issue too in just 4 sessions.
Meditation and Hypnosis Allow the Mind to Enter Re-Write Mode to Retrain the Brain
Once the brain learns, it resists re-learning about a topic or area of life. Meditation and hypnosis is one of very few ways in which your brain becomes open to change. This allows you to learn healthy habits and release unhelpful thoughts and beliefs.
The Think Yourself Slim Program is
Your Meditation Guide, Hypnotherapist and Coach
All in One Program
I use various techniques including hypnotherapy and meditation sessions, affirmations retain both the subconscious and conscious parts of the brain for a whole brain approach, while coaching helps you develop the habits needed to support your mindset changes.
My Commitment to Program Success
Based on client feedback I continue to evolve and expand the support of the Program. The principles remain the same but I regularly develop new sessions to find what works for each of you. I truly intend for the Think Yourself Slim Program helps every single customer in the way it has helped me: to attain and maintain your ideal healthy weight for life!
There is an alternative that is easier and more effective than relying on simple willpower, counting, measuring and restricting. I invite you now to take the first step to make peace not just with food, but with yourself.
