Monthly Archive for December, 2009

Depression and Hypnosis

Published in Depression. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Using Hypnosis with depression.
Three things you should know.

Diagnosis Kills

Hypnosis and Depression

Hypnosis has been around for as long as consciousness itself, much longer than depression, which is relatively new on the scene. If we are stuck in a mood it is as if we have been hypnotized. When we absorb information, whatever it might be, it is because we have taken it in through a process that is effectively hypnotic. As young children we are in a state akin to hypnosis all the time. We learn to make rapid associations unconsciously, and we become adept at responding to life, based on those associations. We have learned unconsciously to do what we do, to feel as we feel. Hypnosis is that function of the mind that allows us to absorb information unconsciously. Sometimes, when the information we absorb is intrinsically contradictory, we respond by feeling depressed.

Let me ask you: what is the capital of France? I assume you know. I would like to ask you to reflect for a moment on how amazing it is that you can access the name so quickly, instantaneously, from all the countless other pieces of information that are available to you. The access you have, as well as all the various possible choices you have in how you respond to whatever comes your way, such as that question, for example, is anchored within functions that are also effectively hypnotic.  

You may have heard how in certain cultures a curse, or a hex, a 'magic' spell, can actually cause someone to die. It has been well documented, and although we may not succumb to such magic, we are equally susceptible to the effects of our own, often equally inexplicably irrational, belief systems.

Your belief system determines how you operate. Your belief system can even make you do things against your own best interests. It can trigger strong emotions based on the way it forces you to interpret the world. Based on your interpretations, your beliefs ever more solidified. Hypnosis can be used to address the limitations that come from that solidification, it can help you melt rigid beliefs, such as "I am  depressed."

I often work with clients who have been diagnosed as 'clinically' depressed, or bipolar, or with a 'chemical' imbalance. The diagnosis often serves the clinician who gave it, and the drug company who provides the drug prescribed for it, more than it does the client. In the short term. that prescription may be a lifesaver. In the long term it may become part of a debilitating life sentence.

My issue is that individuals are sometimes forced to live for years with a diagnosis that traps them, reinforcing the behaviors that caused depression in the first place. Depression is something you learn to DO. Diagnosis tells you that it is who you ARE.

If it is who you ARE you are doomed. If it's something you DO, then you can stop doing it as soon as you know HOW.

EVERYTHING is chemical in one way or another. EVERYTHING is behavioral too. Many things respond exactly the way you expect them to. The filters your expectations impose on your perceptions make sure of it. A chemist looks at chemistry, a behaviorist looks at behavior. A hypnotist asks HOW you can do something different from what you have been doing, so that your life can work better.

Hypnosis can change a lifelong pattern of depression because it addresses the deep underlying and often unconscious behaviors and beliefs that have supported it.

 

Living in the Light

Humans are diurnal. That means we live our lives by day, unlike owls, bats, badgers, (as well as a few musicians I know). Most of us need light to feel at our best. Even if it's only a few hours a day. Along with light comes physical activity, looking our towards the horizon, looking upwards with your eyes; a few simple physiological actions that engage you with the external world.

Take a comfortable deep breath or two. Look upwards, relax your body. Be aware of everything that's around you. It should take no more than a few seconds to do this, to reconnect with where you are.

Depression is a withdrawal. Reconnecting with people and things; moving; engaging creatively with the world, even when you don't feel inclined to do so, will change your mood. This is only a beginning; but explore how easy it is to begin. You might be surprised to lean that you really CAN change your mood.
 

Honesty is the Best Policy

I do not want to diminish the debilitating effect of depression. It's something I suffered from myself for many years; and during that time the depression felt entirely non-negotiable, impervious to anything I might do to shake it. Then something changed. I learned that the depression was a choice, and that it was something I DID, rather than something I WAS.

I learned that there were moments of choice, when I could choose how to interpret my experience. My interpretation could affirm whatever I wanted. If I wanted to believe that my life was not worth living, the evidence was certainly there; and if I wanted to believe that my life was full of promise, I discovered that I could choose to believe that instead.

I also learned that my depression had a lot to do with living in a way that was not entirely truthful and open. When I was not in full congruence with myself, when I was not 'walking my talk', I tended to become isolated and depressed. What that means exactly might be different for each of is.

Suffice to say, we can all benefit from coming out of whatever closets we hide in to prevent ourselves from being who we truly are, and from expressing the fullness of our creative capacity.

In my Los Angeles hypnotherapy practice, I have used hypnosis for depression with countless clients. I would say that a majority of the people who come to me for hypnotherapy, regardless of what else is going on in their lives, suffer from some degree of depression, mild or otherwise.

I am not suggesting that hypnosis is a universal cure for depression, but in my experience hypnosis works with depression to help you recognize that you are not just a victim of your emotions.

You do have a choice about how you deal with depression; just as you have a choice in how you deal with everything life sends your way.

Published on December 21, 2009

Is NLP weird?

Published in NLP. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

NLP means neurolinguistic programming. Neurolinguistic Programming means transformational change. It consists of an array of powerful perspectives, tools, and processes developed over four marvelously creative and fertile decades. However, when the subject of NLP comes up with some of my friends who are not involved in the field, they often express misgivings.

  • A friend in Los Angeles told me today, "I met someone who does NLP. They were really weird. They kept looking at me in a way that was really intense and off-putting."
  • Other people tell me that NLP feels like a cult. Apparently they have encountered newly-certified practitioners of NLP who were so excited about the tools they had learned that they couldn't curb their enthusiasm.
  • Some people have experienced NLP as inappropriately applied sales techniques, used by unscrupulous sales people, to persuade customers to buy things they didn't need, or want.

No doubt there's truth in all of this. Anything that works well is going to have a downside.

For many of us, life is almost unthinkable without the convenience of cars and airplanes; yet both cause incalculable damage as pollutants, and kill people whenever they crash. Name anything you like, and you can discover ways in which it is misused, or causes harm – language, love, religion, food. At one time or another, everything has been used to gain power over others.

As for NLP, one of the misunderstanding common among beginning practitioners and clients alike, is that it consists of a series of techniques or patterns. There are certainly a lot of them. There are even books available with compilations of hundreds of such patterns. But this misses the main point. NLP is not primarily about techniques or patterns. If you imagine that this is what it consists of, then it's certainly going to be weird, and somewhat unsatisfying, a never-ending accumulation of strange exercises. So what is NLP?

More than anything else, NLP is – the mindset that recognizes that any behavior or internal mental state can be changed.

To be effective, an NLP practitioner must believe this in their bones, and they must then communicate it to their client, by whatever means are available to them. Only then can the tools and patterns be used effectively to cement the transformation that has already begun.

Are those patterns and tools necessary? Absolutely! But the initial acceptance of the possibility of unprecedented transformational is a prerequisite. Otherwise the tools are mere tricks; and the client will end up with yet another reason to believe that nothing can help them overcome the problems for which they came to see you.

As a hypnotherapist, my practice changed completely as soon as I recognized the vital importance of my explanation, and demonstration, of the power of the mind to effect previously unimaginable transformation.

Once the client has truly absorbed this, then the work begins. Once the reality of the possibility for almost unlimited transformation is understood by the client, then they can imagine a new destination for themselves. The rest of the work has to do with planning the journey, removing the roadblocks, negotiating the inevitable diversions, and undertaking the journey itself. Is it always as simple of that? Actually, yes.

There are, of course,  many different sorts of roadblocks, and many ways of approaching the journey, many possible roads to take; as many roads, in fact, as there are individuals taking that journey towards congruence and fulfillment.

And yes, it is that simple!

In the presence of an experienced hypnotherapist, or practitioner of NLP, you will not experience the weird feeling of being scrutinized. Instead, you will feel like you are having a conversation with a good friend who has your best interest at heart, and who also happens to have the skills to help you to embody those changes you are seeking. You will experience a feeling of being seen, and heard, and understood, and appreciated, and supported.

If not, look elsewhere.

It's as simple as that

. arrow April 2010 NLP certification program

Published on December 16, 2009

Can I be hypnotized?

Published in Hypnosis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Three common objections to hypnosis

Even in Los Angeles – original  home of the “hip hypnotist” – people seek hypnotherapy solutions as a last resort. Pain management, phobias, addictions, weight loss … there is a long list of problems for which hypnosis is typically very effective.

Sigmund Freud hypnotist

Sigmund Freud - hypnotist

People are afraid of failure.

  • “I can’t be hypnotized.”
  • “Will you make me behave like a chicken?”
  • “I tried it. It didn’t work?”

Hypnosis is a natural state of mind. We are all in a trance of one sort or another much of the time. The trick is to use the state of hypnosis, or trance, to your best advantage. Anyone can experience the pleasant state of hypnotic relaxation, and everyone can benefit from it when it is used by a skilled practitioner.

Stage hypnosis is usually performed as comedy. While it demystifies hypnosis, it also inevitably misrepresents the power of the hypnotic process. Your choice to volunteer as a hypnotic subject for a stage show may indicate a certain willingness to goof around. When you approach a hypnotherapist to help you effect change in your life, you have something very different in mind.

Unfortunately, as in all professions, there are some poorly trained or ineffective practitioners of hypnosis who advertise themselves as hypnotherapists. Hypnosis is an art, and hypnotherapy is a collaboration between artist and patient/client. It is not a question of it (hypnosis) working. It always works. The question is whether the power of that work is communicated, prepared for, executed, followed up etc. in a way that fully addressees your issues and needs.

Pat Collins the Hip Hypnotist (with Lloyd Bridges)

Pat Collins, the 'Hip Hypnotist' (with Lloyd Bridges)

There is a lot of misunderstanding about hypnosis. Hypnosis. or trance is a natural state of mind. To paraphrase one of the greatest hypnotists of all time, Milton Erickson, “Everyone walks around in a trance of disempowerment. The work is to change that to a trance of personal empowerment.”

There are very few things that produce rapid permanent positive change as effectively as hypnosis, and those that do usually have elements of hypnotic trance built into them. Even Sigmund Freud, who began his career as hypnotist, acknowledged that hypnosis was the single most effective modality to help bring about permanent positive transformation.

Sigmund Freud hypnotist

Published on December 11, 2009