Hypnotherapy
Working with your subconscious mind
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a process of healing accessed beyond the conscious mind:
- From a relaxed state of focused awareness (think theta brain waves) you can access your subconscious.
- From there we can clear out suppressed emotions from unprocessed past experiences and self-imposed limitations that are holding you back or causing unhelpful patterns in your life.
- We can then integrate your conscious goals or access deeper wisdom or guidance to move you toward an intentional life.
Hypnotherapy isn’t about putting you in a trance or changing your beliefs through magical suggestion.
Many of us already live in a trance, shut from our true essence and wholeness. Living this way works until it doesn’t, and signs of imbalance finally rise to the surface showing up as physical, mental or emotional illness.
Hypnotherapy focuses on the root of the problem – not on symptoms (although being allowed to deeply, deeply relax does feel amazing). Removing stuck emotions and blockages to our natural energetic flows helps us come back into balance, resolving ailments.
Why the subconscious?
Our emotions arise to be experienced fully and then dissipate. They’re energy moving through. Instead of allowing our emotions in life, we often suppress uncomfortable emotions or cling to positive emotions.
Either way, we’re storing funk.
In yogic philosophy, we call these samskaras or trapped energies that store subtle impressions of past experiences or emotions. These stuck energies form our conditioning and can be related to trauma, unhelpful patterns, our health, or even how we experience pain.
Instead of talk therapy, which focuses on the conscious mind to logically shift our beliefs, in hypnotherapy we access your deeper subconscious to clear out these unhelpful samskaras, opening you up to profound healing and transformation.
What can hypnotherapy help me with?
Hypnotherapy can dislodge the sources of repeating patterns, which manifest in many unhealthy ways in our lives, specifically…
Women’s Health & Healing
- Menopause and perimenopause
- Childbirth preparation and haptonomy
- Birth trauma and grief
- Fertility
- Miscarriage and stillbirth
- Endometriosis
- Menstruation pain
- Postpartum anxiety, depression and mood disorders
Stress & Anxiety
- Deep stress reduction
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Improving sleep and overcoming insomnia
- Social anxiety
- Nervous system regulation
Life Transitions
- Grief and loss
- Divorce and relationship changes
- Relocating
- Retirement, career transitions and job loss
- Becoming a parent, step-parenthood and adoption
- Empty nest
- Serious illness
PTSD & Trauma
- Post-traumatic stress disorder and complex-PTSD
- Trigger mitigation
- Reduce both intrusive and avoidance
- Unresolved trauma, abandonment and inner child work
Relationship Challenges
- Communication challenges and relationship conflicts
- Unhealthy dynamics, codependency, abuse
- Insecure attachment styles
- Forgiveness
Chronic Pain & Migraines
- Arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Migraines
- Back and neuropathic (nerve) pain
Mood Conditions & Self Love
- Mitigate mental health issues, including depression
- Improve emotional regulation
- Develop confidence, self acceptance and self love
- Body positivity issues
Sleep & Insomnia
- Improve sleep quality
- Increased deep (slow-wave) sleep
- Faster to fall asleep and get back to sleep
Digestion & IBS
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis
- Esophageal conditions
- Functional indigestion
Autoimmune Conditions
- Lupus
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Skin conditions, psoriasis and alopecia areata (spot baldness)
- Multiple sclerosis
Habits & Compulsive Behaviors
Life Direction & Dreamwork
- Dream work and interpretation
- Developing intuition
- Inner wisdom, guidance
- Guides, guardian angels
- Accessing your Akashic records
Athletic & Public Performance
- Fear of public speaking and performance arts
- Improve athletic performance and recovery
- Skill refinement
- Reduce test anxiety and improve performance
Malaise or Midlife Crisis
- Burnout
- Feeling lost, stuck or lacking purpose
- Wanting clarity in life direction
- Seeking drastic life changes
Other Conditions
- Preparation for surgery or dental procedures
- Sexual dysfunction
- Pain control
- Chemotherapy (relief from nausea and vomiting)
Note: I only offer hypnotherapy for substance abuse (including smoking cessation) when paired with a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses the physical/chemical component of addiction. Similarly, I only provide hypnotherapy for weight loss and disordered eating when paired with a comprehensive lifestyle approach and often holistic support.
All this sounds very “woo woo”. Does it work?
You’re telling me. As a prior engineer, I hear you loud and clear!
Take heart in knowing that the roots of “woo” is “wu”: the ancient Chinese word for “spiritual awareness” 悟 and “female healer” 巫.
Personally, my gradual shift from “woo” as a dismissive description of the unconventional to embracing “wu” as the mystery of what we don’t yet know about the world took time and ongoing exploration, but here’s what most resonates for me:
Energy healing and subconscious transformation can work, especially where nothing else does.
I’ve experienced and seen profound improvements in my and others’ lives thanks to the techniques I guide.
The American Medical Association, British Medical Association, and American Psychological Association, among others, all recognize hypnotherapy as an effective medical treatment.
While everyone’s experience is different, subconscious and subtle forms of energy work can often shift what mainstream forms of medicine and therapy cannot by working at the roots instead of symptom management. Especially as part of a larger treatment approach with modern medicine or therapy, deeper subconscious work can shift stubborn dis-ease into wellness.
The more they learn, the more scientists agree with ancient knowledge.
The mind-body connection is becoming well documented in Western science and has been long accepted in traditional medicine.
As wild as it may sound, we really are just stardust and energy vibrations. Every element we know of came from nuclear fusion in stars, our sun provides the energy on Earth and, according to quantum physics, atoms are just vibrating energy, not physical form. So, of course our subconscious plays a pivotal role in our health.
It’s all in line with yogic and ancient systems of knowing that are being rediscovered with modern science.
At the end of the day, nothing works if you don’t believe in it, including many modern pharmaceuticals. But, unlike modern medicines, the negative side effects of these healing techniques are nonexistent.
Being open to – or at least curious about – how subconscious or energy-based healing can help you is vital to seeing improvements in your life.
Supportive Healing Modalities
To support your specific goals and depending on your preferences, I may incorporate supportive healing modalities beyond hypnotherapy that help shift unhelpful energy patterns that may be blocking your progress to wellness including: Sat Nam Rasayan, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, flower essences, breath-led movement, meridian tapping, sound healing, chakra balancing and energy healing.
Sat Nam Rasayan
Sat Nam Rasayan is a traditional healing art based in Kundalini Yoga that uses a specific focused awareness to allow healing. In Sanskrit, Sat Nam Rasayan means “deep relaxation into the Divine Name” or, put another way, to meditate into the silence of the underlying source of all creation (the Tao, if you mix roots). Clear as mud?
Essentially, Sat Nam Rasayan practitioners enter and maintain a deep state of being to allow your own system to find balance and harmony. The healer enters a sacred space called shuniya or “zero”, a space in Buddhism called sunyata or “emptiness”, a state of pure awareness. It’s a place where the healer can sense and release emotional, mental, or physical resistances that cause dis-ease including past trauma and self-imposed limitations.
Similar to other forms of energy healing, the focus is on restoring your natural balance and based on the idea that we are all connected by loving energy. But unlike some energy healing techniques, Sat Nam Rasayan doesn’t try to “work” on you – it works by relaxing, accepting and allowing all to align and flow through your being so your body can heal itself.
Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation technique for deep relaxation. Unlike hypnotherapy, the ultimate aim is total relaxation and stress release, and not necessarily specific healing and releasing blockages. In our fast-paced lives, sometimes the ability to ease into peacefulness and sleep is the biggest gift you can give yourself.
Depending on your needs, I might incorporate Yoga Nidra techniques into our sessions. In particular, it helps with reducing anxiety, breaking through acute insomnia, and reducing blood pressure related to stress.
It also can improve heart-rate variability (a sign of the health of your nervous system and your body’s ability to adapt to and calm from stressors), improve self-esteem and increase dopamine (the feel good hormone).
Energy Healing
Energy healing has come to mean many different techniques. All work to unblock and bring your energy systems into balance, allowing your physical, emotional and mental systems to align for wellness. I typically practice Sat Nam Rasayan, a traditional energy healing technique based in Kundalini Yoga.
To support your healing, I may also incorporate other energy-based modalities into our sessions, including sound healing and chakra balancing techniques, as well as breathwork (pranayam), meditations, and yoga postures (asanas) or kriyas (specific yoga sets).