Category: Hypnosis

OPENING YOUR MIND TO HYPNOTHERAPY

Usually when I tell people that I am a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I get a kind of jokingly scared response from them, like, “Really, so you can put me in a trance and make me bark like a dog?” I can only conclude from this that there is a lot of ignorance in our society about what hypnotherapy really is and what its benefits are. Let me attempt to correct some of the misunderstanding and dissuade you from having fears about this powerful tool that may be useful in your life.

The first thing to understand is that clinical hypnotherapy is very different from stage hypnosis. Stage hypnosis is what you see at fairs, carnivals, and shows where a hypnotist takes people from the audience and puts them in a trance as a form of entertainment. Clinical hypnotherapy is not a form of entertainment and has a very different intention than stage hypnosis. The intention is to help the client overcome any issue they have going on and improve their life in a confidential setting where they feel safe, comfortable, and aware of the process.

Hypnotherapy works because it is an easy and safe way to bypass the conscious mind and access the unconscious mind. In some schools of psychology, the unconscious mind is called the subconscious. Many hypnotherapists, including myself, prefer the term ‘unconscious’ to ‘subconscious’ because it does not connotate that this part of our mind is ‘less than’ or or ‘inferior to’ the conscious mind.

The conscious mind is the part of the mind we can control – our thinking. It is the thoughts we are aware of and the ideas and decisions we make. The unconscious mind is more mysterious. It is operating all the time, but in a less tangible way. Hypnotherapists use the analogy of the unconscious mind being like a computer because it is easily programmed by whatever information is put into it. Like a computer, it processes the data that it is given and runs on the programs that it has been taught. The data going into your unconscious mind on a daily basis includes the things people say to you, the television you watch, what you see in the world, what you hear on the radio – in other words, everything coming in through the senses. The unconscious mind does not have the ability to discern what information or ‘programs’ would be harmful to us. It does not censor what is coming in. The conscious mind is different in this way because we can choose to be aware of our thinking and therefore make judgments about how we think, feel, and see the world.

Many people are unaware of what their core beliefs are. These are the programs running in the unconscious mind that are like filters that change the interpretation of your experiences to validate the core beliefs that you have. For example, a person may have the negative core belief of “I am unlovable”. It is likely that an early childhood trauma or situation or pattern has shaped this belief. At some point, the unconscious mind has adopted this belief. Again, because the unconscious does not know whether the information it is receiving is good for us or not, it takes in everything as ‘true’; there is no ‘false’. The person who believes on the unconscious level that they are unlovable then creates their life experiences to validate this belief. They get into relationships and sabotage them because deep down they do not feel they are lovable. Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for shifting beliefs like this that exist on the unconscious plane.

Knowing about the unconscious mind is important because it will help you make positive choices for yourself concerning who you surround yourself with and what information you expose yourself to. It can also help you better understand how to talk to yourself and more effectively structure your thoughts. For instance, when you learn that the unconscious mind does not register negatives, such as the word ‘not’, you can learn to change your thoughts into positive affirmations. When we tell ourselves something like, “I am not going to smoke cigarettes”, the unconscious mind only hears “I am going to smoke cigarettes.” We could rephrase this to: “I am letting go of smoking permanently now.”

Hypnotherapy is a way to journey into the unconscious and look at what ‘programs’ are running and what beliefs or traumas may be influencing our daily thinking and routine. Through hypnosis, we are able to reprogram the unconscious mind. Much of this takes place in restructuring how we think and what stories about the world we are telling ourselves.

(A special thank you to my most respected teacher, Dr. Marla Brucker. More information about hypnosis can also be found on her website: www.sandiegohypnosis.com)

“Uplift everybody and uplift yourself.” Words of advice I got from a recent tea bag. At first glance I thought: how trite, how one-dimensional. But then the word ‘uplift’, probably since it was repeated twice, rang out to me. The word implies movement, both physically and emotionally. This was definitely an excuse to visit one of my favorite websites, dictionary.com (yes, I read tea bag sayings and the dictionary), which provided more insight on the verb ‘uplift’: “to exalt emotionally or spiritually.”

In a time when most of the information that comes at us via the media suggests we should be in fear (of terrorism, nuclear weapons, rising gas prices, a recession, global warming, etc.), how do we uplift ourselves and others? How do we do the opposite of what is being done to us; how do we replace fear with positivity?

We have to begin with ourselves. In taking responsibility for our own mentalities and shifting away from fear-based thinking, we can affect change in others and in the world around us. There are many methods of working with the mind to release negative thinking and one of the most powerful tools is Integrative Hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy increases our choices by releasing limited thinking, as well as core beliefs and traumas. New techniques in the field of Energy Psychology allow us to remove the emotional charge from the body and energy system that is attached to a situation or trauma, instantly shifting how we feel. Suddenly we are able to see the situation that was previously disturbing us in a logical way (without being trapped in emotional upheaval) which allows us to take in the lessons and let go easily and effortlessly. This is why at the Motivational Institute of Hypnotherapy, we incorporate various modalities into our training and classes to benefit people on a broader, more holistic level. As you learn to apply the skills we teach to your own life and reprogram your unconscious mind for positivity, you are then able to improve your career, relationships, finances, and health on all levels.

Everyday we have a choice. We are able to choose how we feel and how we think, no matter what is going on around us. We can choose to uplift ourselves and those around us, or we can choose to bring more negativity into the world. Anne Frank is a perfect example of this. Even while she lived in confinement, a child hiding from the Nazis who eventually murdered her, she wrote in her diary, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death…I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains.”

Take a moment to think about how you feel most of the time and what kind of energy you spread to others. There is no reason why you should not get to wake up excited about your life and your day. If upon this reflection you find that there are things you wish to change and improve within yourself, congratulations! You have just recognized that you are stuck in a pattern of thinking (most likely unconscious) that no longer serves you.

In her book, Heal Your Body A-Z, Louise L. Hay says, “Be willing to change your words and thoughts and watch your life change. The way to control your life is to control your choice of words and thoughts. No one thinks in your mind but you.” Willingness is all that is necessary to begin to improve your life.

With the cutting-edge therapies that are available now, you can quickly and easily implement change and growth. The key is finding the right approach that will work on all levels; addressing the body-mind connection through the mental, emotional, physical, and energetic pathways. At the Motivational Institute of Hypnotherapy, we combine basic Ericksonian and Cognitive Behavioral Hypnotherapy with complimentary modalities that stem from Body Mind Theory to create Integrative Hypnotherapy; a combination of Hypnotherapy, Energy Psychology, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). These techniques are proven to manifest major permanent shifts in the unconscious mind, which re-programs the way we think and see the world.

“Energy psychology is applicable to a wide range of areas including psychotherapy, counseling, education, vocational guidance, physical health, pain management, sports and peak performance.” – Fred P. Gallo, PhD.

While traditional psychotherapy is wonderful for bringing us awareness about our behaviors, emotions, and our thinking, sometimes it falls short in actually releasing us from a pattern we are stuck in. Sometimes becoming aware of our issue and where it originated is enough to shift us out of it, yet with other issues we can become aware but still feel and act the same. This is because there is a connection between the energy systems of the body and our behaviors, emotions, and our thinking.

Our bodies and brains contain complex electrical activities and operate electromagnetically, which can be seen in the study of our hearts, nervous systems, and brains, as well as in the anatomy of the energetic body that consists of meridians, chakras, biofields, and much more. We can become cognizant of why we are acting or feeling a certain way, but unless we actually clear the emotional charge from the energy system of the body, it remains as a blockage, keeping us stuck in the same pattern.

For example: A client is addressing her over-eating issues with her therapist. She comes to discover that she is an emotional eater and comforts herself with food. She digs deeper to discover this is related to a feeling of not getting enough love and not being “seen” in her family. She realizes that as she eats, she becomes larger – and, literally, she is being seen more because there is more of her to see. And on a core level, she even comes to see that it is a feeling of anxiety about not being loved and seen that drives her to this behavior. She has made all these fabulous connections and has even learned some other tools to self-soothe without food. However, the anxiety still surfaces when something triggers her childhood feelings. Is there a way to disconnect her emotional charge around feeling unloved and unseen, thereby eliminating the anxiety?

Yes. With the techniques available to us through the field of Energy Psychology, we can facilitate clients to clear the emotional charge connected with a memory or trauma. There are many modalities within the field of Energy Psychology (also known as Energy Therapies). Many can work well together and certain ones seem to be more effective in specific areas than others. To give you a basic generalized overview of how many of these modalities function, let me break down the basic parts of Energy Psychology. Most modalities begin by an assessment of the issue (many include Applied Kinesiology, or Muscle Testing) to determine either the actual core issue or a measurement of the level of distress the issue is causing, or both. Once that is established, the protocol of that particular modality is followed until the subject has cleared the issue. The subject is then re-assessed and tested to see if the body has completely cleared the issue from the energy system. Sometimes this is followed with the instillation of a new and positive belief into the energy system.

“Quantum physics has found that there is no empty space in the human cell, but it is a teeming, electric-magnetic field of possibility or potential.” – Dr. Deepak Chopra

One of the benefits of working with Energy Psychology is that a practitioner can help clear the emotional charge and suffering that a client is experiencing without having to even know the reason for the client’s issue. In other words, the client does not necessary need to relive their trauma or put it into words. They do not need to spend years processing ‘what happened’, they can instead simply release the energetic block that is keeping them locked in the trauma. Although sometimes many beneficial realizations and self-awareness can be gained through self exploration of our past, it is also in other cases not beneficial and in such cases (like patients who do not have the ego strength to handle it) then Energy Psychology can be the perfect tool.

There are many modalities in the field of Energy Psychology such as: Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT), Seemorg Matrix, etc. The Motivational Institute of Hypnotherapy is the only school nationwide to offer a 60 Hour Certification in The Healing Art of Energy Therapies. This course gives students training in a wide range of these modalities and prepares them to being applying them immediately into their practice and in their own lives.

Upcoming Training in San Diego
The Healing Art of Energy Therapies
60 Hour Certification
at the Motivational Institute of Hypnotherapy
www.SDHypnosisTraining.com

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