How to Get Better, Faster

Desperately Seeking Some Relief

Erica felt desperate. She had been struggling with bulimia for 15 years and reported feeling totally out of control. She was bingeing and purging at least five times a day. She had been in “traditional therapy” off and on over the past 10 years but still felt that her disorder was in charge of her, rather than the other way around.

Many issues such as eating disorders are treated with talk therapy and take a long time to heal. After only three hypnotherapy sessions, Erica had completely stopped bingeing and throwing up. She said, “For the first time in my adult life, I feel like I am in control of my eating.”

Try Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is now recognized as one of the most powerful and effective brief psychotherapies; the reason being that it not only treats the symptom but also the cause. Most brief therapies are based on the precept of only treating the symptom, itself, and are not interested in the cause or causes of that symptom. So after six sessions, the symptom may be gone, but the cause still remains. As a result, clients are often dismayed to find that a short time later, another symptom arises.

Tired of chasing the problem?

Hypnotherapy uses a combination of techniques to treat clients say, for example, with anxiety or phobias, in only one or two sessions. Hypnosis is used to get to the source of the anxiety, which in turn, allows for the anxiety reaction to be quickly and effectively extinguished or eliminated.

What makes hypnotherapy so efficient?

Hypnotherapy is so much faster and more effective because it accesses the mental state in which the “trauma” was first experienced-the unconscious part of the mind. Just talking about the anxiety in a conscious mind state usually does not have any long-lasting effects.

How does hypnotherapy work so much faster?

Hypnotherapy bypasses the common fears, rationalizations, denial systems, and other defenses that the conscious mind concocts to resist the therapist, thereby allowing for the most effective use of therapeutic time. With the world speeding up as it is, there seems to be less and less time to take care of ourselves and just talk about our problems. We want change and we want it NOW. Hypnotherapy makes the most direct use of our limited time.

Remember how long things took before the advent of computers?

Well, hypnotherapy is the high-tech psychological operating system and your mind is much like a computer. There are memory chips in the mind that are accessed through hypnotic regression. By uncovering the hidden memories and “re-programming” them into more positive experiences, hypnotherapy clients can permanently change old behavior patterns and create new, healthy responses.

Is there danger in somebody working with my unconscious?

This concern is very understandable and speaks to what most people have seen on a hypnosis stage show. However, hypnotherapy is not a stage show, it is sacred. It is therapy. Hypnotherapy uses the part of the mind that great giants of psychology, like Freud and Jung, talked about. These pioneers discussed the profound importance the unconscious mind has in treating mental and emotional dis-eases. Hypnotherapy accesses the vastness of information, insight and creativity stored in the unconscious mind of each of us. No danger can come from accessing this part of the mind when the premise is for healing and well-being.

Yes, but does it stick?
And, we all know how difficult it is to change unhealthy, unwanted patterns–no matter what we do in our conscious mind. That is because they are held in the unconscious mind. It’s like trying to get milk out of a bull. SO, by accessing the unconscious mind and affecting change where the patters are held, we not only promote change, but lasting change.

So, where’s the proof it works faster?

Tim

Nikki brought her 10-year-old son, Tim, into my office feeling frustrated. She said that Tim was constantly asking her for something to eat-often right after he had just finished a meal. Nikki expressed how she didn’t understand why Tim was hungry all the time and wondered whether I could help.

After an explanation of hypnotherapy to both Nikki and Tim, I asked Tim’s mom to leave the room and began to induce Tim into a deep, relaxed state. I tell him that we are going to focus on the feeling he gets in his tummy that he thinks is hunger and that we’re going to try to find out what else that feeling might be. Once in a relaxed state, Tim gets in touch with what he calls an “empty feeling” in his stomach. When asked what other feelings might be there besides hunger, he names anger and some sadness. Tim begins to talk about how his mom pays more attention to his younger brother, James and how it’s not fair. Tim expresses his anger and then begins to feel his sadness. He says that he misses his mommy and wishes she would hug him more and tell him that she loves him. Tim then begins to get in touch with his resentment towards his brother.

After expressing his emotions, Tim astutely says, “I just thought I was hungry when really I was sad and mad.” I am impressed with how quickly Tim was able to make this connection. Tim now said that when he feels that empty feeling in his tummy, instead of asking for food from his mom, he will now ask for a hug.

Further therapy was needed to work on the bond between mother and son, but from that session on, Tim no longer confused the feeling emptiness in his stomach with hunger.

Teresa

Teresa came to my office stating that she wanted to work on, what she termed, her “blah for life.” Teresa explained that she had had a tough childhood in that she grew up with an alcoholic dad and an absent mother. She was the oldest of 4 and often had to take care of her younger siblings because her parents were never really there. Teresa said that she does okay–she has a decent job, a nice husband and two beautiful children, but that she just never feels a zest for life. She mentioned how her husband always is telling her to cheer up, to smile once and a while, and to try to have fun. He wondered whether she needed to be on anti-depressants. Teresa stated, “I don’t feel like I can cheer up or smile or simply have fun. I don’t know why, I just can’t. And, I don’t want to take any drugs!”

After I led Teresa into a deeply relaxed state, I asked her to access a specific, most recent time she felt that “blah for life.” She recalled a time last month where she was watching one of her kids play soccer and felt absolutely no excitement. She talked with her “blah feeling” and let it know how she resented it because it kept her from enjoying the little things in life that are so precious.

I then asked her to go back to the source of this “blah feeling.” Teresa got in touch with her 5-year-old self. She described a scene where she was in the living room of the house she grew up in, playing, laughing and running around with her younger siblings. Her dad was drunk and stumbled into the room yelling and slurring. Teresa said that she was feeling scared that her dad would hurt her and her siblings. She gathered up her siblings and they all went and hid underneath the stairwell. I instructed Teresa to talk to her dad and tell him how she was feeling. After she did so, Teresa realized that that at 5, she had concluded that it was “bad” to be a kid, to laugh and play and be free. She decided to leave that 5-year-old under the staircase and become the responsible, controlled eldest.

Teresa wanted to change her conclusion that she had made so many years back. She concluded that it was wonderful and more than okay to be a kid, to giggle and run around and be spontaneous. She decided that she not only wanted this 5-year-old back in her life, but also that she needed her. The adult Teresa rescued the little 5-year-old Teresa from under the stairwell and incorporated her into her heart and into her “self.”

After this session, Teresa cried each and every time she talked about “her little girl.” She expressed how amazing she feels to have her back and how she has begun to enjoy life so much more. Teresa said that she finally feels whole and that her husband can’t believe the amazing zest for life that she now has!

Briefly Summarizing

In this article we discussed what hypnotherapy is, and how it accesses the source of problems and patterns by bypassing the common defenses held in the conscious mind. In doing so, this therapy process creates quick, effective, and lasting change without endangering the client. We then gave case examples of two clients who showed the power and efficiency of this work.

If you are looking for a therapeutic modality that can save you time and money, that can give you relief without the use of prescription drugs, hypnotherapy may be your answer! If you’re ready to try it out, call me for a free, 15-minute consult to make sure hypnotherapy is right for you.

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