Could Hypnosis Help Me?

“Don’t think about a lemon.” Now: are you not thinking about a lemon? Most people are thinking about a lemon when they read or hear this statement. This is why it is so difficult for people to change by simply resolving, to do something differently than they did before, such as losing weight, stopping smoking, overcoming a fear or insomnia, or other things. They focus on what they don’t want, but the subconscious mind takes over, and the attempt to change fails. How frustrating that, try though you may, you cannot make the change you desperately want.  What is HYPNOSIS and how does it work? Hypnosis is a state of mind in which your subconscious mind is dominating over your conscious mind. We all move into and out of light states of hypnosis everyday. For example, have you ever been driving your car down a road, fully awake, yet wondered how you got to where you are driving? This is a common occurrence. Another time when a person is in a light state of hypnosis is right before awakening. Finally when under stress, especially severe stress, our subconscious mind is dominant and we are in a highly suggestible state.  It…

Non-Directive Hypnotherapy and Mind-Body Strategies

Healing after traumatic experiences have become an ever more acknowledged need in the field of mental health.  Trauma underlies many emotional symptoms and adverse behaviors. One does not need to have experienced time on the battlefield or child abuse in order to have scars and ill-adaptive behaviors later in life. Exploring the unconscious mind to search for underlying factors, then installing curative changes in beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, can occur in non-directive approaches to hypnotherapy.  Regression therapy asks the mind to go back to an initial causative event when a maladaptive behavior began. (Examples could be something that would lead to an addiction, or even to inappropriate simple responses to other circumstances.) Sometimes, a pattern cannot be noted to be readily determinable. In “past life regression”, for example, a story emerges from the mind, (whether a true “past life” or not), which brings new, symbolic understandings and solutions to “this life” issues.  Such strategies relate to work done by a highly acclaimed early psychiatrist, Carl Jung. People who have experienced trauma, (sometimes thought to be 70 percent of the adult population) can become “triggered” and return to a stressed, “fight-flight” state of mind;  perhaps the triggering event would seem like nothing…

Lose Weight With Hypnosis

I have decided to try to help more people with weight loss issues.  This is not a new subject to me; I have been using some of these strategies, un-advertised, for nearly twenty years. We have all heard the statistics about Americans and obesity;   about 60% of Americans are now considered to be obese by specific operationalized guidelines about what  constitutes the concept of being overweight.  There are thousands upon thousands of programs, books, diets, articles,  supplements, medications, remedies, and even schemes that are out there to help with weight loss.  Most people diet, lose, then put the pounds back on. Some research also demonstrates that we are genetically pre-programmed to hold onto weight, something that goes along with survival instincts  from the caveman days of our ancestors. I would heartily encourage any person who desires to lose weight and to keep it off to read extensively on this topic.   There are many outstanding, highly educated persons who have taken existing and extensive data about diet and nutrition, and have written comprehensive books and articles about this issue. I personally have reviewed, and continue to review many  of the books and information about these things. I have personal reasons for my…

Hypnosis: Almost Heaven

Eben Alexander, MD, is the author of a number one best seller on the New York Times list.  A highly acclaimed neurosurgeon, he contracted a deadly form of spinal meningitis and lapsed quickly into a deep coma wherein his life was in grave danger.  Miraculously, he recovered to tell the story of his journey to heaven in his book, Proof of Heaven.  He explains how his experience could not be dismissed as just the brain shutting down.  He is now crisscrossing the USA to tell audiences about what is beyond science in the NDE. His website is eterna.org He reminds us we do not have to nearly die to get to the bliss he experienced while in an NDE:  Deep meditative states like hypnosis can take us there too!

Transformational Healing

My clients come from a wide range of backgrounds and have very interesting life stories to tell.  Some have turned life’s lemons into lemonade.  Some seem to have had lives that are relatively easy.  Many carry stories buried deep within, wherein an earlier hurt or trauma affects them today in ways that they do not understand, or brings forth a pattern of behavior which for them is no longer functional. For example, a person may respond by outbursts of seemingly uncontrolled anger with a spouse or a child, wherein the provoking incident was relatively minor.  Or a person may suffer from crippling anxiety or depressive symptoms.  Alternatively, he or she may engage in escapism behaviors which have taken the form of an addiction.  I like to think of an addiction as continuing to do something that is bad for you (and those around you) repeatedly, despite knowing of its harmful effects. In my practice, I have always been on a quest to help a person find the most effective relief from problems, as soon as possible.  I searched out this method of  transformational healing after years of seeking ever more knowledge about the consequences of complex trauma, and how to…