Self Hypnosis

Posted by Jody Workman on April 19, 2011 None comments

Learning self-hypnosis can be a valuable tool. You can use it for anything from boosting your self esteem, to combating insomnia or to feel more empowered when speaking publicly. Self-hypnosis comes in when seeing a hypnotherapist is not possible, for re-enforcing the ground work already laid by a hypnotherapist in a previous session, or if you just want to center and calm yourself before that big, important presentation. It can take just two to three minutes and the rewards can be immeasurable.

Just like hypnosis, self hypnosis is the process of changing and re-programming thought patterns, only with out the hypnotist. You train yourself to go into a light hypnotic trance at will, then begin to add in suggestions and re-enforce ones already established. To build self esteem and see yourself in a more positive way, the steps are rather simple. You start out every night for seven nights telling yourself before you go to sleep, “every day in every way I get better and better” and while telling yourself that ten times, you see yourself in a more positive way. It sounds simple, but the effects are great and it may be that’s all you need for that little boost. If you do need more, that one simple step is the foundation from which to build a more confident you. Read more »

Snoring Solutions

Posted by Jody Workman on April 11, 2011 None comments

We’ve all either experienced it, or heard about it or have had someone tell us we do it. That would be snoring. It may be that our spouse snores, or someone at work telling how she didn’t get any sleep last night because her husband snores or maybe your spouse has told you that you snore. But the snorer is sleeping, what can they do since they don’t know that they are snoring? That is where hypnosis comes in and can help the person who is snoring and the person trying to sleep next to them.

A majority of the people who snore are men, but there are women who snore too. And there are many factors in the reasons why people snore. It can be as simple as the position in which the person is sleeping, which is why poking someone to get then to roll over can cure it for a bit, or it can be medical such as being overweight, or a deviated nasal septum.

Just as when we’re awake, when we’re asleep our brain filters noise and disregards the noises that are unimportant to us. This is why a parent can sleep soundly but wake instantly when their child cries in the room down the hall. They have programmed the noise filter in their brain to wake them upon hearing crying, but let them continue sleeping if they hear the neighbor’s car in the wee hours. When a person is snoring, the sound of their snoring is unimportant to them and therefore they do not wake upon hearing it. Read more »

Dentistry Hypnosis

Posted by Jody Workman on April 7, 2011 1 comments

People all over the world have or have had anxiety about going to the dentist. For some the anxiety is so severe that they do not ever see a dentist and let their teeth literally fall out. This anxiety can be caused from a bad experience with a dentist, fear of any potential pain, or the ill-conceived notion that our society has about going to see the dentist as being something akin to punishment. This is where hypnosis can aid in changing these modes of thought.

We’ve all had a bad experience with at dentist to one degree or another. Being made aware of our first cavity and subsequently having to have it filled. But for some people the bad experience at the dentist was traumatic. And what people find traumatic and how they respond to the trauma is different for everyone. The trauma could have been having to deal with the sound of instruments in their mouth to a painful tooth removal gone wrong. So then when it would come time to need to go to the dentist after that, the anxiety would start. Read more »

Using Hypnosis to Quit Smoking

Posted by Jody Workman on April 3, 2011 None comments

Smoking Cessation

No smoking within 100ft of entrance. Non-smoking facility. No smoking allowed. These are just a few of the signs that welcome a would be smoker. Anyone who smokes in the United States is often made to feel like a pariah, unwelcome and unwanted. Many smokers actually have the desire to quit, but it can be a difficult and daunting task. It is a multi-pronged addiction.

Physically an individual is habituated to the nicotine, and it also meets mental and emotional needs. It can “help you unwind” after a long day at work, or complete a satisfying meal with that cup of coffee, or possibly that last cigarette of the day to help you relax before bed. Some people find it so overwhelming, seemingly so that they often will stop trying to quit after several unsuccessful attempts. Each attempt becomes more desperate than the last, just re-enforcing the person’s feelings of inadequacy and failure.

The concept of smoking cessation is so popular that the drug companies have jumped on the band wagon with devices like the nicotine patch and other medications. The various drugs which the FDA has currently approved for nicotine cessation have a spotty success rate at best. It is VERY difficult to get actual data in percentages as so much contradictory information is available. Some sites say that these aides double your chances of success, but yet do not tell you what the rate is prior to being doubled. No actual numbers are given, only the percentages. They are not being dishonest, just less than forthcoming. After all 2 is in fact 1 doubled. It is just that this would not be considered a worthwhile amount by most people. So while factual, the various numbers cited are not inspiring.

Part of this problem is because neither the patch nor the medication approaches were designed to be stand-alone therapies, but to be used in conjunction with other treatments to assist in behavior modification. This is where hypnotherapy can come in and bridge the gap. It has been so helpful in ensuring people’s success that Newsweek has even cited “hypnosis snuffs out smoker’s fire and desire”.

There is no deep seated mystery as to how this is achieved. In fact, with hypnotherapy, quitting smoking is actually handled very similarly to how a hypnotherapist handles many other issues: simple, straightforward, and methodical. This is effected by addressing five major issues.

  1. Motivation (this would cover the reasons to quit as well as the benefits.)
  2. Confidence (this will help the person see themselves as successful, increasing their confidence despite a past history of failure.)
  3. Changing what cigarettes mean to him/her (overcoming their relationship to cigarettes and what they mean to them to increase the odds of success.)
  4. Establishing a new, healthy relationship with cigarettes (this is what hypnotherapy does best, with great guided visualization of their body being free of all of the toxins from smoking, as well as the new lifestyle that would be free of smoking.)
  5. Relapse Prevention (this is key. At this point hypnosis has not only aided in the forming of a firm foundation for quitting smoking , but then goes on to assist the client to establish a new, healthier set of patterns.)

So if you are still struggling with that pack of cigarettes and the desire to quit, then consider exploring the option of hypnotherapy. It might just be the long awaited answer for you.

If you are in need of help to quit smoking and would like to learn more about how hypnosis can specifically help you – see our GET Hypnosis in Portland page.

Test Anxiety Helped by Hypnosis

Posted by Jody Workman on March 30, 2011 None comments

We’ve all felt stress or anxiety when we’ve had to take a test. Maybe it was that spelling test in third grade, the SAT’s in high school or college finals, test anxiety is not uncommon and we’ve all felt it at some point in our lives. Even the class brain who is always calm, and maybe even smug, when test time rolls around has felt stress at test taking time. How we deal with test taking stress is what can bring success or sabotage our best efforts and thorough preparation for the test. Hypnosis has been found to aid in relieving test taking anxiety.

Test taking anxiety can be the result of one or many different things from fear of failure, thinking you haven’t studied enough, or exaggerating the importance of the test. Not to say that some tests are not extremely important, but not all of them are of the same importance.

A nurse had to take a test to re-certify for her position at a hospital that she’d held for 20 years. This was an important test and due to her test taking anxiety she failed to pass it the first time she took it. She knew that test taking anxiety had been the cause, so before taking the test again she sought the help of a hypnotherapist. Together the nurse and hypnotherapist found that her test taking anxiety was caused from her fear of losing her job and thus letting down her family.
Read more »

The Cat In The Hat – Hypnosis for Children

Posted by Chris Santana on March 26, 2011 None comments

In the first class I attended at The Northwest Hypnosis Intitute, Bruce Terrill, our instructor, went around the room and asked each student a series of casual questions, one of which was if they had an idea what kind of hypnosis they might want to specialize in if they successfully completed the course. The majority of students, including myself, did not have a clear-cut answer. Two professionals in health care mentioned that they wanted to use their hypnotherapy training to advance their careers. One fellow wants to be a stage-hypnotist and one woman wants to use it for birthing – as part of natural childbirth. This proved interesting and the conversation quickly moved on to how hypnosis is working for children with challenges.

In the medical field, textbooks state that children do not fully develop cognitive processes until about 11 or 12. They have fewer imprints and they don’t worry so much about the facts on how the world should be. They don’t critically evaluate things as readily. And why should they? They’re kids. They daydream, often their attention spans are very short, and they are easily distracted. And all these tendencies make them excellent candidates for hypnosis. When a child listens to a fairy tale, they tend to get completely absorbed, forgetting about the outside world. They’re in a trance, and when the story is finished, they take from the story impressions that become operative in their everyday life. Because of these factors and more, it is commonly accepted in the world of hypnotherapy that children are much more responsive to hypnosis than adults. Read more »

Hypnosis for Phobias

Posted by Jody Workman on March 22, 2011 None comments

To address phobias and the potential benefits hypnosis might have in treating them, one must first look at what exactly a phobia is. A phobia is a persistent and very likely abnormal as well as irrational fear of a very specific thing or situation. The fear, or phobia, can be and is usually so great or compelling that an individual will go to great lengths to avoid the object or situation that they are afraid of, despite any and all reassurances. These individuals usually even have an understanding on a conscious level that their phobia is not truly dangerous or any real threat.

You can Google phobia and find lists that literally rank into the hundreds of various and sundry different phobias that people struggle with. Having said this, many people have phobias that they deal with on a daily basis. Some are relatively minor while others might be quite debilitating and in fact rule a person’s life. Individuals who suffer from the more extreme phobias will actually choreograph their entire life around avoidance of their phobia. This is where hypnosis and/or hypnotherapy can assist a person in gaining control over their life. Read more »

Anchoring Wellbeing with Hypnosis & NLP

Posted by Jody Workman on March 18, 2011 None comments

Ever feel nervous before giving that big presentation and wish you could somehow channel the confidence you feel when you’re snowboarding? Or feel as relaxed as you do in your hammock while taking that bumpy flight? Hypnosis can help.

With hypnosis the hypnotist can take you back to a time where you felt confident, whether that was last weekend when you were snowboarding down Mt. Hood or when you were in high school and star of your team. The hypnotist will take you back to those times when you felt your most confident and connect, or anchor, that feeling to a specific gesture such as pressing your thumb and index finger together, or a word you can chant or even a piece of jewelry. So then whenever you need to feel that confidence again you can trigger it by pressing your thumb to your index finger, or chanting that magic word to yourself or wear that special piece of jewelry to bring back that feeling of being confident.

Removing that negative connection, or trigger and turning it into a positive one works much the same way. If rush hour traffic stresses you out every commute, then the hypnotist can take you to a relaxing time and anchor it to the trigger of pressing together of your fingers or even deep breaths. When it comes to anxieties or phobias to activities such as flying, the process is a little different. Instead of going back and finding a relaxing time and anchoring it to a trigger gesture, the hypnotist takes you back to find what is triggering the anxiety and why. Read more »

Hypnosis in the Military

Posted by Chris Santana on March 14, 2011 None comments

“Military Hypnosis” is an accepted term for a “specialist application of the normal tehniques of hypnotherapy.” According to the School of Hypnosis department of the College of Management Science in London, England, it applies to four major categories while in active duty. It is used in 1. Battlefield analgesia -where access to pain killers is not practical, 2. Surviving pain or mental pressure under torture, 3. Convincing a captured enemy to co-operate and 4. Enhancing battlefield performance or special operations. That’s quite a bit to take in. Yet, with a little research and common sense, it becomes quite clear early on that military applications for hypnosis go much further. Whether you want to investigate Radio-Hypnotic Intracerebral Control, used by the Russians as early as 1930, or present day treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, one trail to follow is how the military introduces hypnosis through the terms “allowing” and “conceptualize”.

If you go to school to get certified as a hypnotherapist at The Northwest School of Hypnotherapy in Portland, Or. both terms will come up in the first week – it’s a familiar way to introduce some of the more advanced concepts that need to be understood and applied later to be a effective hypnotherapist. If you’re in boot camp, the same terms may apply to become an effective soldier. Read more »

Hypnosis in China

Posted by Chris Santana on March 8, 2011 None comments

In a culture where alternative medicine has been accepted practise for centuries, I was surprised to find hypnotherapy is just coming into vogue.
Although the somewhat modern age of hypnotherapy was ushered in by Jan Zhou in the 18th. century, it is still commonly referred to as “social constructionism” or “role-playing theory.” This theory suggests that the subject and “hypnotist” are really engaged in a role-play relationship, and therefore there is no hypnotism going on at all ( sounds very much like China ). Today, with no existing laws or guidelines for hypnotists or hypnotherapy training programs, small wonder the subject is a source of hot debate.
The Global Times reports two very conflictng views in the same article from Feb. 26, 2010. On one hand, there’s a quote from an anonymous employee of an eight day hypnotherapy school that charges the equivalent of four semesters at an accredited University stating, “that even a junior high school graduate could master the skills of a professional hypnotist.” On the other, they quote Dr. Wu Rengang, a psychiatrist at the No.2 Hospital in Beijing going so far as to say that, “as far as I know, there are only two qualified hypnotisits in China,” and “Maybe you can learn how to hypnotize someone within a week, but to become a professional hypnotist requires the skills needed to provide proper psychological guidance after hypnosis.” Read more »