Exploring Hypnosis

This article was first published on November 27. 2007

One of the most memorable answers to this question is “What the mind can conceive, hypnosis can achieve”. Naturally, there are some things that people probably will not achieve. I don’t think any of us are going to be able to fly without some type of aid. The book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy says that unaided flying is easy. You just throw yourself into the air and try not to hit the ground. I don’t think we will be able to do that. But I do believe that any reasonable goal can be achieved with hypnosis and some goals that many people do not consider reasonable.

Things my clients have accomplished with Hypnosis

I have worked with people for an lot of different issues. The ones that come to mind are weight loss, smoking cessation, test anxiety, pain management, sports performance enhancement, fear of heights, fear of snakes, other phobias, depression and anxiety. I am sure there are others but I would have to go through many files just to ferret out the answer.

There is lots more

There is an almost infinite number of things that hypnosis can aid from hypnobirthing to dental and medical hypnosis to almost anything you can imagine. If you have a question about anything please feel free to email me or leave your question in my comment section.

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This article was first posted November 18, 2007

If any of us who have been hypnotized can look back to the time before that happened we would see that we had a lot of misconceptions about how hypnosis might feel or what we might do under hypnosis.

New clients are courageous

They come into our offices not knowing what is going to happen to them. They are probably under the impression that they are turning some amount of control over to the Hypnotist.

It is my opinion that the one thing people fear the most is the unknown. When a person who has never done hypnosis comes to my office they are entering unknown territory.

Once person has done hypnosis, they understand that all fear is unfounded.

A couple of stories

Actually, I guess there is a story to be told with each new client that walks in the door but

here are a couple that stand out in my memory.

A man came to me for smoking cessation. We did the pre-talk and everything seemed to be going normally. He agreed to do hypnosis but after several efforts and several different inductions he did not do hypnsois with me. We discussed the problem and he claimed to not know why it wasn’t working. We made an appointment for the following week but on the way out the door he said “You didn’t use a watch”. He then explained to me that you couldn’t be hypnotized unless the Hypnotist swung a pocket watch in front of your eyes.

I explained to him that that wasn’t true but he didn’t return for the next session.

Now that wasn’t fear but it does show how misconceptions get in the way.

Another example is that I bought a block of radio advertising time. When I found out which of the radio announcers was going to make my commercial, I offered to give him a free session of hypnosis so that he could experience the process and have a better idea of how to work the ad copy. He refused and later told the ad salesperson that he was afraid that I would hypnotize him and have him write a check for all of the money he had in the bank.

Every new client that walks in the front door has their individual fears about hypnosis. It is my job to discover the fear and explain the process. Hypnosis is about communication between the client and the Hypnotist. That starts with the pre-talk.

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This article was first published January 28,2008

t’s been while since I posted. I have been settling down with a new job and considering where I might want to go with this blog that would interest others. I have decided to post some reviews of the books I have found most helpful in my career as a Hypnotist. I will also talk about other subjects. I intend to post a review at least once a week with other articles that the reader might find helpful. Again, this blog is intended for the general public as well as the practicing Hypnotist. Please watch for my first review, a book about self-hypnosis by Roy Hunter.

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This article was originally posted on November 14, 2007

Hot topic of the day

For the last couple of weeks, maybe a little longer, there has been a lot of discussion as to what “hypnotists” should call themselves. Of course, there is always the term “hypnotist” . Well, actually, that’s what we are. Calvin Banyan has suggested the term “consulting hypnotist”. I’m not sure about that one. I don’t understand just how that fits in with what we do. By the way, this is one of the very few times I disagree with Cal.

I can freely call myself a hypnotherapist. Some hypnotists can’t in some states. But basically, I am a therapist, by license and when I do hypnosis, I am still doing therapy. I believe that I will continue to call my self a hypnotherapist unless someone has a label that I like better. I do believe that when doing hypnosis, the progress is more rapid than regular talk therapy. By the way, I also call myself a psychotherapist. I sometimes have to remind my friends that it is one word, not two.

More to come

The first several posts are topics that I felt somewhat compelled to cover. I’m not sure why and I do have a couple more of these. Tomorrow, I want to discuss the respect and admiration that I have for my clients. After these things are out of the way, I want to talk about the good stuff. The benefits we all get from hypnosis and the many ways to acquire those benefits.

Any one with comments, please post them. I will also read emails. If you want to discuss a topic here, let me know. I’m open. If you disagree with something I’ve said, let me know. I’ll consider your differing opinion and will sometimes change my mind. I don’t need to believe that I am always right. If I don’t change my mind, I’ll let you know why.

Good night.

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This article was first published on November 14, 2007

Purpose of This Blog

When I started writing this blog, I thought that it would be a good place for Hypnotists to get together and discuss some issues. As I got a little further into it, I thought that it would be a good place for the general public to explore hypnosis. Now, I think it woudl be a good place for hypnotists and the general public to get together and learn from each other.

If you read this, I encourage you to leave comments, both positive comments and constructive criticism. I haven’t written much in the way of conversational writing for quite some time. Most of my writing has been for reports and evaluations. This is technical stuff and that has probably carried over into my writing in this blog. Please bear with me. I am working at making my writing more conversational.

Mission Statement

I guess the mission statement for this blog would be “To bring Hypnotists and the General Public together for the common good.”

If we can do anything to educate the Layman about the process of hypnosis or remind the Hypnotist of the uncertainty that the layman feels before that first session, than this blog will have served it’s purpose.

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This article was originally posted November 13, 2007

Kinds of Training

There are all types and various lengths of hypnosis training availabel today. The National Guild of Hypnotists (NHG) requires that you receive 100 hours of training from one of their Certified Trainers. There are programs that will certify Hypnotists after a weekend of training. I recently saw some posts by an individual that received his training free by watching videos online.My opinion

I believe that you should train for the longest period of time that is available to you. If you are a consumer, you should inquire about your Hypnotist’s training.

Why?

Anyone can learn to hypnotize. You can learn to do hypnosis with someone by reading a book. Most people already know how to hypnotize theirselves. They do it several times a day without even realizing it.

The problem is that the Hypnotist should know what to do after the hypnosis starts. There are specific ways to word suggestions. He or She should know what to do if there is an abreaction or what to do if the session takes an unexpected turn.

The more we know about our craft the better.

I am authorized to do hypnosis with my clients because I am a Licensed Professional Counselor. Even though I had no training in hypsosis, I could have read a book and done hypnosis with my clients. I wasn’t comfortable with that so I sought out training and became certified by the NGH. I continue to expand my knowledge by attending frequent trainings.

There is a movement afoot to get Hypnotists recognized as a seperate profession. I am in favor of this and encourage everyone to act in the most professional manner of which they are capable. This includes continued training

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This article was first published on November 2, 2007

To begin with, the National Guild of Hypnotists requires it’s members to obtain continuing education. After that, I believe that it is in the best interest of the hypnotist and his or her clients to obtain as much training as possible. It is considered unethical to practice techniques that you are not trained to perform.

I have attended several NGH conventions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts with mixed results. There are so many presenters and it is difficult to assess the value of their presentations to your situation by reading a brief description. There have only been couple of presenters that I thought I had not received anything of value from their presentation. I now attend the Solid Gold Weekends in Las Vegas. To date I have been very happy with the results of these trainings.

There are many excellent hypnotists that are willing to share knowledge of the craft of Hypnosis.
I have several favorites but there are many others that are probably equally as gifted. My favorites are : Roy Hunter, Calvin Banyan, Gerald Kein, Shawn Brookhouse, and Don Mottin.

Roy Hunter is a disciple of Charles Tibbets. Mr. Tibbets was a major influence on hypnosis in the 20th Century. He wrote a major book on hypnosis called “Miracles on Demand”. Roy Hunter has followed in Tibbets‘ footsteps but I believe that he has taken Tibbets‘ work far beyond where Tibbets left off. The first two books I read after certification were Hunter’s ” The Art of Hypnosis” and the “Art of Hypnotherapy“. Both are highly recommended.

Gerald Kein owns a Hypnosis School in Florida and publishes a lot of training material of value. I personally use his technique called “Ultra Height Hypnosis” on a regular basis and have been very successful.

Calvin Banyan is influenced by Gerald Kein and Roy Hunter. He is one of the rising forces in the field at this time. He has written several books and other training materials. I personally have trained and been certified in his method of therapy that he calls “5 Path Hypnosis.” I use this frequently and it has proven to be valuable.

Shawn Brookhouse is from England and frequently comes to the US. He often lectures on Ericsonian Hypnosis and should not be missed if the opportunity arises.

Don Mottin is a trainer and hypnotist that works mainly in direct suggestion. I tend to minimize my involvement in direct suggestion but Mottin is a wealth of information and the information that one gets from him can be useful in many ways.

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This post was originally posted on November 1, 2007

There are lots of ways to train in hypnosis. My initial training was as a licensed mental health professional. I actually could have used my license to practice hypnosis but I decided that becoming a certified hypnotist would be in the best interests of my clients.

I did some research and decided that membership in the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) would be the organization of which I wanted to be a part. I sought out a Certified Instructor and made arrangements to be trained.

The Guild requires 100 hours of training but this particular instructor required 200 hours. Based on my schedule, I had to arrange private instruction and I started visiting this guy all day, every Thursday for 200 hours worth of Thursdays

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This post was oringinally posted on October 28, 2007

I’ve just realized that I have been a Hypnotist for 9 years. I also have been a Psychotherapist for 15 years and have worked as a Substance Abuse Counselor and an Assistant Substance Abuse Counselor for several years before that. The more I work with hypnosis, the more find that it can be used more quickly and more effectively than my other disciplines.

The purpose of this blog is to explore the lessons learned from my clients and my training.

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I actually started this blog in October of 2007 and posted a little but I have never been satisfied with the appearance of the blog. It just didn’t look interesting to me. I was on the blogger platform and it just didn’t work for me. I have made a few posts. Actually, I thought several were pretty good, or at least helpful. I have moved my blog to the Wordpress platform and I believe that I will be able to create a much better looking blog.

I will repost my posts from the Blogger blog and will carry on from there. This will always be underdevelopment as I learn more and more about developing the blog.

What the mind can conceive, hypnosis can achieve.

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