“You have stinkin’ thinkin’ and need a check up from the neck up!”

I like this quote which I heard from a master hypnotist/healer Robert Otto. Much of the time, what “ails” us is being driven by the content in our subconscious minds. Fears, false beliefs, negative thoughts/emotions -- this is the stuff that often needs to be discovered, released and reframed into something more beneficial, so we can reach our goals.

For instance, I often tell my weight loss clients that if it were just about eating less and moving more, they'd be thin. When that doesn't work, there's a conflict somewhere -- an energy inside working hard against them. While they push, push, push to reach their goals, something else in them is pulling them back. It often feels like an internal tug-o-war.

If you've ever tried affirmations -- postive expressions of your goals that are stated in the present as though they've occurred -- you know that it can feel like a part of you believes, but a part of you resists. If we don't deal with what's under the surface standing in our way, it's harder to change. We can use lots of conscious will-power, but not get where we want as fast as we want, because the creative energy within is divided.

There's always a good reason for the tug-of-war feeling. The "gold" we look for at the subconscious level are the blocks that are still active in you. These often started as creative adaptations, or “solutions” to some problem. They usually have their roots back to when we were a lot younger and didn't have the maturity to understand what was really happening.

Once hypnosis has been induced, we have access to a vast part of the mind that contains all our beliefs, emotions and memories -- it's a part of us that influences us constantly, but which we can't get to intentionally when we're in our ordinary conscious state. Once hypnosis is induced, we work with regression (following feelings into an earlier memory), we use Gestalt work with dreams, we use visualization and metaphor, parts mediation, and other approaches.

While I have a plan for every session, I’m flexible too -- I always trust the sub-conscious mind and where it takes us. I believe we're all always on a path toward healing. There’s a deep part of YOU that wants to heal, and when we do hypnosis together, this part of you is in the driver’s seat.