Q: Where can I find a list of things that you specialize in?

Start with the " Services " section on the main site, and go from there. It's not a comprehensive list, but it will get you started. If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to send me an email. The Services section includes pages about: Sleep & Stress ...and more!

Question 1

Where can I find a list of things that you specialize in?

Accepted Answer

Start with the "Services" section on the main site, and go from there. It's not a comprehensive list, but it will get you started. If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to send me an email.

The Services section includes pages about:

Sleep & Stress

...and more!

Question 2

What sorts of things can be addressed through hypnotherapy?

Accepted Answer

That would be a BIG list.

The "Services" section of the site is a great place to start making that list.

That should be enough to get you started...

Question 3

What is somnambulism/a somnambulist?

Accepted Answer

By strict definition, "somnambulism" means "sleepwalking" and a "somnambulist" is someone who sleepwalks. But these terms have also been adapted for use in the hypnosis community. Until you have experienced hypnosis for yourself, often the closest thing you have to compare it to is that fuzzy state that is somwhere in between being awake and being asleep referred to as a "hypnogogic" state. Because of that, hypnotists often use the word "sleep" in conjunction with their work and terms related to sleep are generally easier for someone who does not have first hand knowlege of the effects of hypnosis to understand.

In the context of hypnosis, somnambulism can be defined this way:

Somnambulism

A deep state of hypnosis, where the client may respond with amnesia, anesthesia, negative and positive hallucinations, and complete control of the senses. It is characterized by the eyes rolling up underneath the eyelids. Somnambulism IS NOT "sleepwalking" as sleepwalking often occurs without any conscious awareness. In the hypnosis context, "somnambulism" refers to the ability to transition smoothly and easily between the conscious and unconscious experience.

Somnambulist

A person capable of reaching a profound state of hypnotic trance or somnambulism. Somnambulism can be "learned" with practice and experience. Somnambulists are able to quickly and easily slip in and out of various altered mental states that we recognize as "hypnosis".

Natural Somnambulist

A somnambulist who is capable of reaching that level of hypnotic trance known and somnambulism without training or practice, generally during their first experience with hypnosis. In Kappasinian terms, this is most likely with a person who responds equally well to all suggestions, both direct and indirect, affecting both the body and emotions. This person would have a near 50/50 Suggestibility (50% Emotional Suggestible and 50% Physical Suggestible).

Want to know if you are a natural somnambulist?

Or learn more about "levels" of hypnosis with: Arons Scale of Hypnotic Depth

Question 4

Can you really be hypnotized?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that occurs in most people on a regular basis.

Many people associate hypnosis with a state of deep relaxation, but the process of hypnosis does not have to involve relaxation at all! In fact, one way to induce hypnotic trance is by using a "shock induction", which uses the startle reflex to make the mind open the suggestion.

If you have ever watched a stage hypnosis show and seen the hypnotist shout "SLEEP!" while yanking the arm of a subject, who then collapses in a heap, you have witnessed a shock induction.

Most people can be hypnotized. In general, if you have at least normal intelligence and even a bit of imagination, then you can too.

The process may vary between stage hypnosis and clinical hypnosis, but the end result is the same, a state of heightened suggestibility where hypnotic suggestions bypass the critical faculty and subconscious mind / unconscious mind act upon them.

For most people, the experience of hypnosis is profound. Your heart rate drops and smooths out and your brain activity settles into something closer to an active sleep state than full wakefulness. For many of us, the closest state we have to compare to in daily life is that of "lucid dreaming'. Of course, the hypnotized subject remains in complete control and has an awareness of what is going on around them at all times.

If you'd like to experience hypnosis, reach out to your local hypnotist! We LOVE what we do. You don't need to be seeking some type of behavioral therapy, or need to change something in everyday life. Most of us are always looking for a new hypnotic subject and would be more than happy to gve you a demonstration of the power of your subconscious mind / unconscious mind.

Question 5

How is hypnosis done?

Accepted Answer

Hypnosis is a state of intense concentration or focused attention marked by increased suggestibility. The hypnotic trance state is created by way of an "induction". An induction is a way get the conscious mind to take a back seat and allow access to the unconscious mind.

There are many forms of hypnotic inductions that can lead to the hypnotic trance state. They range from the progressive relaxation technique that can take minutes to hours, to "instant" inductions that can have a person open to verbal suggestions in split second.

When used as a form of therapy, hypnosis is often induced using one of the relaxation techniques, but more rapid inductions also have a place in the office.

For street and stage hypnosis, the more rapid inductions are used almost exclusively.

At their core, all inductions have one thing in common, they must create a trance-like state by bypassing the critical faculty of the conscious mind allowing hypnotic suggestions a clear path to the subconscious.

For more analytical subjects, confusion techniques and indirect suggestions are often the easiest way to accomplish hypnosis. For the less analytical a wider variety of inductions and more direct suggestions are called for.

When hypnosis is used as a form or therapy, especially in conjunction with other behavioral therapy techniques, deep trance is not necessarily required. Things like pain control for physical chronic pain can be accomplished at remarkably light levels of trance.

Of course, on stage, a deep level of trance is often a plus as it enhances the effectiveness of hypnosis as an entertainment tool.

Question 6

Can you be hypnotized with your eyes open?

Accepted Answer

Yes! While it's common for people to close their eyes while being hypnotized, it's not a requirement.

You have probably seen examples of people being in hypnosis with their eyes open, just think of every stage hypnosis show you have ever seen. As active as some of the shows are, it's critical that people be able to see where they are going as they run around the stage being "the world's greatest race car driver" or something similar.

During the "induction", the process of transitioning into hypnosis, the eyes are commonly closed. However that's just to help the subject concentrate and is completely optional. Once the person is in hypnosis, eyes open or closed doesn't matter.

In a therapy environment, most people close their eyes during the induction and keep them closed unless they are specifically instructed to open them for some reason by the hypntherapist. However, in my experience, about 20% of subjects will spontaneously open their eyes partially or fully during the session. If you are a new hypnotherapist, it's a little disconcerting when it happens as the subject has a bit of a "lights are on but no one is home" look to them, but after a while you get used it.

In general, hypnosis has no dependence on the state of the eyes. Open, closed, whatever works for you!

Question 7

What did Sigmund Freud think of hypnosis?

Accepted Answer

When the young Sigmund Freud made his way to Paris and Jean Martin Charcot’s Salpêtrière School in 1885, he was drawn by the study of neurology. However, once he was exposed to the study of consciousness, his interests began to evolve in to a passion for psychology, including hypnosis.

Freud was first exposed to hypnosis just a few short years before he went to study under Charcot in Paris. While studying with his mentor and later colleague Josef Breuer, Freud was able to witness, then later practice hypnosis in a clinical setting.

At the time, Breuer was working with a young woman suffering from what was called "hysteria" at the time. Bertha Pappenheim, "Anna O." as she came to be known, was suffering from a variety of physical and mental conditions that defied explanation by the current medical community. These included non-specific pain, speech disturbances and period refusal to eat or drink.

Breuer used hypnosis to try to alleviate her symptoms using relaxation. During these sessions, Breuer allowed Anna O. to speak freely and to explore memories that she seemed to recall without trigger or reason.

After two years of therapy with Anna O., Breuer defined the foundational principles of what would come to be called "psychoanalysis" (the talking cure). This new type of therapy being developed in Vienna was later to form the foundation of Freud's methods.

Breuer would later distance himself from Freud because if Freud's insistence that virtually all trauma could be traced back to sexual conflict.

While starting his private practice and further developing his version of psychoanalysis, Freud utilized hypnosis with many of his clients, preferring a dominant, assertive, paternalistic technique of hypnosis.

As Freud continued to develop his own theories and practices, including variations of psychoanalysis and free association, he began to move away from hypnosis as a modality. Freud later wrote that he felt his methods were more effective and that traditional hypnosis "did not effectively do away with client resistance, yielding only incomplete information and temporary results".

It was partially due to Freud's personal role in developing psychology as a field of academic study that Hypnosis is not taught at most universities to this day.

But in spite of the setback caused by Freud’s rejection of the practice, Hypnosis continued to become more widely accepted around the turn of the Century, including by such organizations as the British Medical Association in 1892.

Interestingly, as even his own protégé Carl Jung, noted, Freud's obsession with sex detracted from the effectiveness of his methods. As time has shown and Freud's theories have been increasingly discredited and his methods dropped from modern use, hypnosis and the use of hypnotic suggestion have been increasingly validated by modern scientific methods.

In his 1977 book "Clinical and experimental hypnosis: in medicine, dentistry, and psychology" Dr. William S. Kroger wrote:

In the light of the historical development of Freudian theory, perhaps ‘we need a psychoanalysis of current psychoanalytical resistance to the use of hypnosis.

Current research in hypnosis does not substantiate a single reason for Freud's avoidance of hypnosis... Since scientific hypnosis was in its infancy in Freud's time, one can hardly blame him for adopting a negative attitude. However, there is no valid reason why Freud's successors should continue to use this embryonic period in the historical development of hypnosis to criticize contemporary hypnotherapy. Masserman recognized that hypnosis was the core that underlies all forms of psychotherapy...

Shortly before his death, Freud spoke very resignedly about the poor results of psychoanalysis in an article seldom mentioned by his loyal followers. As Rado observed, 'Digging into the past yields diminishing returns.' Others question the value of recapturing early fantasies and memories. This is not to imply that many of Freud's observations in human behavior will not be of enduring value. Contemporary technics in hypnoanalysis could not have developed had it not been for his penetrating insights.

Are Freud and his sexuality based version of psychoanalysis destined to be a footnote in psychological history? Many now think that may be the case.

Question 8

Is there anything that you won't work on with a client?

Accepted Answer

Yes. I've got an open mind, but there are limits. If you are already lower than your ideal weight range and you want to work on weight-loss, I will suggest to you that we work on body image instead. If you insist, I won't be able to work with you.

Otherwise, I am open to a wide range of things. I won't do anything that I feel will endanger your health, sanity or well-being, or that of another. I won't do "past lives" or anything else that crosses the line into the mystic or metaphysical. I just don't have the temperament for it.

I don't have a lot of hard limits. Ask. I promise that the worst I will say is that I am not interested.

Question 9

What is trance capacity?

Accepted Answer

"Trance Capacity" generally refers to the aptitude of an individual to achieve hypnosis or "trance".

For more information, search Hypnotechs.com for "Arons Scale", a way to measure hypnotic depth and the "The Spiegel Eye Roll Test for Hypnotizability". Both pages discuss the concept of hypnotic depth/trance capacity.

Question 10

What Is Hypnotherapy Used For?

Accepted Answer

I started keeping this list on my "General Hypnosis" page and I add to it as I wander across new uses.

Abandonment Fear of Loss of Control Moodiness Self-Control Addictions Fear of Needles Motivation Self-Criticism ADD/ADHD Fear of Success Nail-Biting Self-Defeating Behaviors Age Regression Fear of Surgery Nausea Self-Esteem Aggression Fear of Water Negativity Self-Expression Agoraphobia Forgiveness Nightmares Self-Forgiveness Anesthesia Frustration Obsessions Self-Hypnosis Anger Gagging Obsessive-Compulsive Self-Image Anxiety Gambling Overeating Self-Mastery Assertiveness Guilt Overly Critical Sexual Problems Assist Healing Hair Twisting Pain Management Shame Attitude Adjustment Headaches Panic Attacks Skin Problems Bedwetting Helplessness Passive-Aggressive Sleep Disorders Biofeedback Hopelessness Past Life Regression Smoking Breathing Hostility Perfectionism Social Phobia Career Success Hypertension Performance Anxiety Sports Change Habits Hypochondria Pessimism Stage Fright Childbirth Immune System Phobias Stress Chronic Pain Impotency Postsurgical Stubbornness Communication Improve Health Premature Ejaculation Study Habits Concentration Improve Sales Presurgical Stuttering Controlling Indecision Problem Solving Substance Abuse Cramps Inferiority Procrastination Sugar Addiction Cravings Inhibition PTSD Superiority Creativity Insecurity Public Speaking Tardiness Death or Loss Insomnia Reach Goals Temptation Discouraged Irrational Thoughts Rejection Tinnitus Dreams Irritability Relations Test Anxiety Exercise Jealousy Relationship Enhancement Thumb Sucking Fear of Animals Lack of Ambition Relaxation Tics Fear of Death Lack of Direction Resistance to Change Trauma Fear of Dentists Lack of Enthusiasm Responsibility Ulcers Fear of Doctors Lack of Initiative Restlessness Victimization Fear of Failure Lower Blood Pressure Sadness Weight Loss Fear of Flying Medication Side Effects Self-Awareness Worry Fear of Heights Memory Self-Blame Writer's Block Mistrust Self-Confidence