In my practice of hypnosis I specialize in stress relief, pain management, and healing from physical trauma. Typically, individuals seeking to reduce the amount of pain they have been living with come to Empower after having exhausted all other possibilities; no longer willing to "just live with it." Chronic pain is a life-altering experience. It steals the pleasure from life, interferes with relationships, impairs the ability to function at work and at home, interferes with sleep, reduces the ability to respond to any other of life's many stresses, and often creates marked personality changes. Many of my clients state: "I don't like who I've become. The pain and the drugs have stolen my life."
My clients range in age from 17 to 88. Over the years I have noticed that in almost all of my clients the biggest obstacle to achieving their goals is their lack of belief in their ability to do so. My experience is that faith and belief are critical to any change. Therefore, my approach with all my clients is to first help them re-establish their faith in the future and their belief in themselves. Every session is individualized and designed to meet the particular needs and goals of each client whether it is a 70 year old recovering from hip replacement surgery, a 40 year old battling the side effects of chemotherapy, a 50 year old struggling with the pain of fibromyalgia, a 45 year old trying to lose weight after all the diet plans have failed, a 25 year old golfer trying to improve his putting, a 20 year old college student trying to eliminate a 10 year battle with test anxiety, or a 55 year old with COPD trying to quit smoking.
Hypnosis can be a very effective integrative health modality. However, it is not intended to replace the attention of a primary care physician. Therefore, I request that all my clients who are seeing me for a health related issue continue to see their physician and keep him or her informed of our work.
Hypnosis is not for everyone. Though a highly effective and very enjoyable method of making changes in their lives for most people, a small percentage of the population find it difficult to enter into the trance state. Many of these, with patience and practice, ultimately are able to relax into the state sufficiently to accept appropriate suggestions and make the desired improvements in their lives. For the remaining few, hypnosis is simply not going to be their path to a happier and more enjoyable, productive, life. My experience has been that strongly right-brained individuals such as artists, musicians, experienced meditators, and people who fantasize or daydream easily enter the trance state easily. People who are strongly left-brained or very analytical such as accountants, engineers, mathematicians, lawyers, tend to have more difficulty but even these people can experience the state with practice.
Most people, when they begin, want to know how long it will take to feel better or putt better or lose 20 pounds. The answer to the question depends, in large part, upon how easily and deeply they trance. In general, I suggest they think about 2-4 sessions per issue. I phrase it this way because most of my clients, having discovered how easy, pleasant, and effective the technique is while successfully dealing with the primary, presenting issue, now want to work on other things too. The golfer, after improving his putting, now wishes to reduce his stress level at work. The college student, having mastered her test anxiety, now wants to improve her concentration, memory and study habits.