Hypnotherapy

What is hypnosis? Hypnosis is a natural occurring state, a deep physical and mental relaxation, a state of focused attention and awareness, which allows the individual to access the deeper areas of the mind.

Hypnosis Is Not…                    

• Sleep

• A State of Unconsciousness

• Being Gullible

• Being Weak-Minded

• Being Controlled by Someone Else

• A Loss of Control

©2020 Center For Advanced Life Skills

When asked, “What is hypnosis?” many individuals think of stage hypnosis, which is only a form of entertainment.  The lay hypnotist dressed like a magician will have a volunteer come up from the audience and will pull out a stop watch, waving it in front of the individual and suddenly snap his fingers and the person pretends to be in a deep trance.  The hypnotist may instruct the person to do stupid tricks such as barking like a dog or clucking like a chicken.

Remember that when you are hypnotized you will not feel strange, or feel like you are in an unconscious state or that the hypnotherapist has any control over you.  Remember you are always in control.  If you think about reading a favorite novel or listening to a favorite piece of music, something that relaxes you, this is what being hypnotized feels like.  Because it is a natural state of deep physical and mental relaxation with a state of focused attention, you will hear everything that is being said, and you will be very relaxed.  

You will learn how to enter into trance, that deep state of focused relaxation.  If I were to ask you to close your eyes with your feet grounded on the floor and your hands resting on your lap that is something you would probably do.  If I instructed you to go down two flights of stairs from my office and rob The Bank of The West is that something you would do?  Of course not because you are not a bank robber and a felonious act does not coincide with your belief system.

Before we walk through how hypnosis may assist you I want to review some fundamental tenants of hypnotherapy.  If you are in danger to yourself or to others I will follow the same legal and ethical guidelines to make sure that you and/or others are safe.

Hypnotherapy as a treatment modality is not recommended for someone who is dealing with repressed, traumatic memories.  Your treatment would need to come from someone who would have special training in repressed/traumatic issues and who also works with a psychiatrist trained in this area.  Hypnotherapy is not a cure for any physical condition.  If you have a life-threatening disease I would need a referral from your medical doctor with very specific agreements in the focus of our treatment.  I may be able to help you with pain management, but it would only be in coordination with your medical doctor.

If you have been diagnosed with certain psychiatric disorders and are under the treatment of a psychiatrist for Schizophrenia, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Bipolar Disorder or experience Epileptic Seizures, I would need a referral from your MD or psychiatrist before proceeding.

We will have an initial telephone intake to explore what goal you want to achieve through hypnotherapy.  We will talk about my approach to hypnotherapy and see if it feels it would be a great fit for us to work together.  We will discuss rates, and then schedule our first appointment and the subsequent appointments needed for your recommended treatment program.

During our initial meeting I will take an extensive confidential personal history to identify what issue that you want to change in your life.  Examples include but are not limited to: Stress Reduction, Changing a habit (smoking), wanting to get out of a rut and experience a personal transformation, get over or learning to manage certain fears or phobias, or symptoms associated with an ongoing illness.

We will thoroughly review in concrete cognitive and behavioral ways what you want to change, how invested you are in making this change, the time and energy you are willing to invest to make this change occur and the cost you are willing to invest in making this change.  Most hypnotherapy issues require a minimum of eight sessions, which are usually an hour and a half in duration.

Hypnosis is a learning process, taking different steps guided by me in which you fully participate to learn to go into a deep state of physical and mental relaxation.  We will begin with some tests to see how easily you can achieve a state of relaxation.  Once you learn this initial step, we will have you learn how to go into a deeper state of trance.  You will be awake but in a deeper state of relaxation.  Much of the work in hypnotherapy is on a subconscious level.  There was something that at some point that caused you to become fearful of heights.  Over time, this fear was reinforced by anticipatory anxiety that something traumatic would occur and you started avoided driving up the mountain to your summer home or taking an elevator past the 5th floor.  Hypnotherapy guides you to let go of those fears and replace them with strategies to overcome places that you have avoided or continuing to engage in behaviors that damage your health.

In the summer of 2018 I will complete a certification on Neuro Linguistic Programming, which “is a synthesis of cognitive and behavioral philosophies that focuses on the relationship between the person’s mind, their language, and their behavior.  NLP explores how a person communicates to self and others, and how that communication affects their performance in life.” © 2020 Center For Advanced Life Skills.   In the end of August I will take an advanced Master Level Medical Hypnotherapy training through MindbasedHealing.org.

Lawrence J. Schulte, Ph.D. C.Ht.

Certified Hypnotherapist H33914