In addition to my other offerings, I am an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist. Energy therapies, intuitive counseling, and hypnotherapy go great together! Here are some answers I provided to San Diego Natural Guide’s questions to use in a hypnotherapy article written for the Spring/Summer 2011 issue:
1. In your experience, how have you seen hypnotherapy benefit people the most?
Hypnotherapy has the power to quickly transform many physical illnesses and conditions. It calls upon the power of the mind to positively heal and transform the challenges of the body facilitating a true mind/body healing connection. People can shift the experience of their negative physical conditions and can even eliminate the problem completely through hypnotherapy, often in just one session. The hypnotherapy process helps with the symptoms of physical ailments, pain, fatigue, and getting through the fear and worry that accompanies a physical issue. Hypnotherapy also greatly improves one’s mental and emotional state providing the confidence and positive frame of mind to accomplish and achieve great things. Many recipients of hypnotherapy overcome emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, fears, phobias, stress, addictions, bad habits, learning disabilities, and procrastination. Just releasing stress through hypnosis can prevent mental and physical health issues. By relaxing and letting go of the fears and tension from a stressful situation, we can actually make our immune systems stronger and become healthier. Hypnotherapy is a widely recognized as a major healing force.
2. In your own words, how does hypnotherapy work?
Hypnotherapy uses the technique of hypnosis in a safe therapeutic setting. The Hypnotherapist guides the client into a highly relaxed and highly focused mental state of awareness and suggestibility bypassing many of the negative mental responses he or she has built up over the years. This allows access to the subconscious mind to receive positive suggestions resulting in positive changes and healing. Because hypnotherapy accesses the subconscious mind to make a permanent change, it helps a person to become more whole or sound physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, or free from undesirable habits, behaviors, or negative emotions in a very short time. Ways of being that the client wants to internalize become easy, and skills the client wants to have are more easily learned. Ways of being he or she wants to eliminate are no longer a problem.
Knowing how the brain works can help us understand how hypnosis works. The left part of the brain is the analytical, critical, and conscious mind. The right part of the brain is the creative, emotional, and subconscious mind. In hypnosis, the left brain analytical part of the mind is put aside through the relaxation process and kept busy in order to gain direct access to the right brain, or subconscious. This right side subconscious mind opens up to the positive suggestions in hypnosis in order to make a permanent change. Hypnotherapy is extremely effective because it bypasses the critical mind and reaches the emotionally receptive mind much faster than through usual therapies.
The effectiveness of hypnotherapy has been well known for hundreds of years, but not been well understood. Recent advances in Neuro-Science, along with studies using technologies such as MRI’s and PET scans, show that with the applied use of focused attention achieved in hypnosis, the human mind can literally rewire itself. The mind alters its own very structure in hypnosis, and it is not just “mind over matter.” These scientific studies have proven that the human mind can use this highly focused state to reverse deeply ingrained behaviors, install improved reactions to the level of instinct, and create thousands of new neuro pathways dedicated to a positive emotional, physical, or mental state of being, and even the learning of a new skill or behavior. The level of concentration required to effect significant change can be difficult to do in our normal states of awareness. This is even more so when the behaviors we wish to affect include procrastination, lack of focus, addictions, excess weight, and depressive thoughts. The hypnosis brings a desirable state of focused attention and concentration making way for heightened receptivity to positive input.
3. Is there anything specific that you think people should know about hypnotherapy (clearing up misconceptions, myths, etc.)?
Hypnotherapy is a very safe, pleasant, and relaxing experience. All hypnosis is essentially “self-hypnosis.” The person being hypnotized is always in control and will never be made to say or do anything against their will, consent, morals, or ethics. In hypnotherapy, one is always and master of one’s own will. Hypnotherapy also allows empowerment to be one’s true authentic self.
The word “hypnosis” means “sleep” in Greek, was actually erroneously named by James Braid. By the time it was discovered that sleep had nothing to do with the state in hypnosis, the name had already taken hold and stuck. It may look or feel like sleep, but it is actually a heightened sense of awareness. Ironically, one of the benefits of hypnotherapy is feeling like you have had a great nap or night’s sleep. Fifteen minutes of hypnotherapy is equal to about three hours of sleep because of the deep relaxation and release of stress.
4. Do you have a short specific client story about their success with hypnotherapy that you can share?
I have a client who was training for a 10K run and had some major fears that were getting in the way of her successful training and believing she could finish the run. I did a hypnotherapy that addressed her fears and perceived physical limitations. Her training immediately improved and her resistance and fear decreased significantly. She was able to run the race with no problem and far faster than she had imagined possible. She came back to me for another hypnotherapy session when she was preparing for her first 26 mile marathon run. Again, the hypnosis helped her get out of her own way of what was limiting her physically and mentally, and she succeeded in completing the marathon and several others with impressive results. I was delighted when she came back to see me to receive hypnotherapy to prepare for her first Ironman Triathlon endurance competition (a consecutive and sequential long distance run, bike ride, and swim). The hypnotherapy helped her move to this next level of accomplishment. Today she is a confident tri-athlete, who told me she probably wouldn’t have run that first 10K run without the healing power of hypnotherapy.
I have another client who had severe anxiety and phobic responses in public gatherings, such as entertainment venues and even in crowded traffic. The hypnotherapy allowed him to alleviate the anxiety and fear. He was able to remain calm and relaxed at movies, concerts, plays, and operas and even enjoy those experiences, something he had not been able to do before. He was also able to be free of the anxiety and phobic responses in his freeway driving, making his daily commute to and from work tolerable. He was even able to remain calm and comfortable traveling by plane, something that had been extremely difficult before. These therapeutic results also had a positive effect on his relationships, social life, and overall happiness.
Contact Kathleen Rick to arrange a session: 619-523-4690 or karick@pacbell.net
