Compulsions

I have a client booked in next week who when stressed reaches for chocolate - describes himself as a chocoholic. Despite efforts to exercise and eat a healthy diet the rest of the time this is affecting his self esteem as well as his weight.

Normally when I deal with weight control I take three sessions to do so over a course of six weeks. In this instance I am wondering whether i can just deal with this chocoate problem as a complusion. I am interested to know what you think. Maybe i should just deal with the stress. Probably both.

has anyone here used effectively the complusion blowout. This is a technique where you get the client to imagine the thing they are compulsive about -- they imagine it getting bigger and closer bigger and closer, then they do the same thing again, then again, ratcheting up those feelings each time until they just cannot really do it anymore. Last time I did this with a chocoholic they mentally munched there way through family packs of wagin wheels, biscuits, chocolates for about 10 minutes, I asked them how they were feeling and they said a bit sick - but I didnt really feel like i got anywhere near blowing the compulsion.

Interested to know where you would start with this one and your views on the complusion blowout.

Many thanks

Ant