The Systems Approach in Hypnotherapy

(This blog was originally posted on May 29, 2014) 

 

                The basic idea or premise of the Systems Approach is that every part of the social/emotional system will affect the entire system. In other words, you cannot separate one component of the system from the sub-total or entire system. It doesn’t matter whether one spouse returns to college and completes the Bachelor of Arts degree she abandoned long ago to have children or whether her husband loses weight to improve his health and suddenly attracts a bevy of female admirers. The changes in behavior can affect the basic structure of the relationship or system and create resistance within it. The ultimate goal of the Systems Approach is to bring the System back into balance.

                For example, if a man comes in for hypnotherapy; his “presenting issue” is marital discord, and the hypnotherapist is working only with the man (husband). However, if the hypnotherapist doesn’t keep the client’s wife in mind during the therapy, she is liable to walk out of the marriage because she has not been taken into account within the “system.” Ideally, both spouses would come in for hypnotherapy to work on their marital issues. If this is not possible or the spouse refuses to come in, the hypnotherapist could work just with the client to specifically teach him how to deal with her.

                According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., no matter what the client’s problem or issue happens to be, the systems approach infiltrates all areas of therapy. Even if only one member of the family or one spouse or partner in a relationship is seeking therapy, that issue must be dealt with within the context of the client’s own system. Therefore, the hypnotherapist must address components in the person’s work, relationships, family past, the hypnotherapy he or she is receiving, plus aspects of the entire social system or relationship. If these other issues aren’t taken into account, the therapy won’t be successful and only the issue being addressed in therapy will be “treated” (improved or eliminated) per the client’s goal, Dr. Kappas warned.

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss

(This blog was originally posted on January 2, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

  

Whenever I work with a hypnotherapy client to help the person lose weight, the first thing I do is to establish the motivation for losing the weight. Is there a health reason such as diabetes control? Does the person want to improve his or her physical fitness or just take off a few pounds after indulging during the holidays? Sometimes friends or relatives in the person’s social circle put on pressure to drop the pounds. Or, a client may use excess weight as a “shield” to protect against emotional rejection or even a subconscious fear of returning to a previous lower weight where an emotional trauma may have occurred, said John G. Kappas, Ph.D., founder of Hypnosis Motivation Institute.

“If you are not personally motivated to achieve the weight-loss goal, the weight-loss program is unlikely to be successful,” Dr. Kappas warned. 

Once the client identifies what is motivating him or her to lose weight, I help the person to resolve any previous issues or resistance to losing weight* and develop a strong, positive self-image about being at the desired weight and feeling comfortable with being physically attractive. When appropriate, I also refer the client to be examined by a physician for guidance about an appropriate exercise and nutritional regimen, which I will reinforce during the hypnotherapy sessions. All hypnotic suggestions would incorporate the client’s feeling motivated to feel physically, emotionally, mentally healthy and happier every day and to project positive feelings and ideas of successfully losing weight in a healthy way.

*California law allows access by California residents to complementary and alternative health care practitioners who are not providing services that require medical training and credentials. The purpose of a program of hypnotherapy is for vocational and avocational self-improvement (Business and Professions Code 2908) and as an alternative or complementary treatment to healing arts services licensed by the state. A hypnotherapist is not a licensed physician or psychologist, and hypnotherapy services are not licensed by the state of California. Services are non-diagnostic and do not include the practice of medicine, neither should they be considered a substitute for licensed medical or psychological services or procedures.

 Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

Dominant laws of suggestibility: Delayed Action

 

 

One of the most effective suggestibility techniques I use is the law of “Delayed Action.” Here, I provide a specific suggestion that is designed to work at some point after the hypnosis session in which it is introduced. The timing may be several hours or even week(s) after I have introduced it during the hypnotherapy session.

 For example, if a client’s most significant “trigger” to smoke a cigarette is after eating the evening meal, I will create the hypnotic suggestion that the person engages in a specific alternative behavior at that time. At the beginning of the session I will ask the client about various activities that he or she enjoys doing, such as going for a walk or playing a board game with the kids, etc., to replace that undesired behavior. When the person is in hypnosis I will drop a suggestion into the person’s subconscious mind that he or she will engage in that desired, enjoyable behavior after eating instead of lighting up. The key to this technique is that the hypnotic suggestion only kicks in when the specific situation presents itself: in this case, after a meal.

Depending on the client’s suggestibility (how the person learns), I will use a direct and literal suggestion for the physical suggestible client or a more inferential one for an emotional suggestible person. The key is to use language to which the person’s subconscious mind will most readily and easily respond whenever a subconscious trigger “kicks in” the delayed-action suggestion.

 

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

Thoughts of the Day

 

                Every now and then I like (and need) to take a few moments and remind myself about what is really important to me, in my life. If you follow me on Facebook you may have seen some of these quotes before on this page, or will in the future. Many of these Quotes of the Day are beautiful examples and illustrations of the work I do as a hypnotherapist, so I will probably draw on them in future essays.

·         “Oh, yes. The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or…learn from it.” – Rafiki, The Lion King

·         “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. So if you’re feeling uncomfortable right now, know that the change taking place in your life is a beginning, not an ending.” – Neale Donald Walsch

·         “A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.” – General George S. Patton

·         “I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.” – Virginia Woolf

 

·         “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” – German proverb

·         “Sometimes an answer not yet blowin’ is stirring in the breeze.” – Robert Brault

 ·         “Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius

·         “Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship.” – Dorothy Parker

·         “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walter E. Disney

 ·         “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa

·         “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you handle it.” – Lou Holtz

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

 

Dominant Laws of Suggestibility: The Law of Repetition

Photo courtesy of Microsoft/Bing

 

During a typical hypnotherapy session, I reinforce hypnotic suggestions in various ways during the hour or so I spend working with a client, but mostly I do this through repetition. In other words, I simply (and literally) repeat the suggestion many times and at different times during the session to reinforce the new behavior in the person’s subconscious mind.

A common and oft-repeated suggestion that I give a client during his or her hypnotherapy session is “deep sleep.” These words are employed to deepen the person’s relaxation and comfort in hypnosis so the individual can go even deeper into this state (not to encourage the person to actually fall asleep). The real work of behavior change occurs in the subconscious mind. Therefore, the more times I make this suggestion to deepen the hypnosis, the more receptive the client becomes to other hypnotic suggestions designed to implement the desired behavior change.

Depending on the client’s suggestibility (how the person learns), if the individual is an emotional suggestible and is more inclined to learn through inference, I may also use metaphors in this context. Regardless of the language I use, I will repeat the suggestion because the more often it is given or made, the more automatic the behavior becomes.

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

Riding Lessons

(This blog was originally posted on June 15, 2011)

Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan

When it comes to riding and working with horses, my education is on-going. Following are several things I have learned:

 

·         Know your geometry. When it comes to horses and riding, everything has a shape—even a straight line. Galahad and I are working on trotting a perfectly round 20-meter circle. (Let’s face it: the perfectly round circle is a lifelong goal for most equestrians!) This is more difficult than it looks: Both of us have a more comfortable “side” that we like to work on, and I tend to lean to the inside while he likes to bulge to the outside. Therefore, I keep tracing a mental image of that round circle in my mind as we trot the pattern on the ground…all while I am using my seat, leg and hand aids to keep the horse “straight”!

 

·         Ride with your eyes. This is one of horseman Chris Cox’s mantras, and his advice really been comes in handy as I practice those circles. If I don’t look where I’m going, I can’t expect my horse to know where I want us to be. But even more important is, when I sit straight and tall in the saddle, looking straight ahead where I want to ride my body is in better balance, which helps my horse to maintain his balance as he trots forward.

 

·         Ride the next stride. In other words, “the show must go on.” Every time you work with a horse, you need to have a plan. Where are you going to ride? What are you going to work on? The horse is looking to you to be his “leader,” so you must be worth following. It is easy and natural to become distracted by what is happening or has just happened during a ride. Whether your horse spooks or your circle is starting to look like a potato or the ride is going perfectly, keep riding forward. Rather than become distracted or obsess about what has just happened, file a mental note in your mind about how you dealt with the issue and ride on.

 

·         Stay in balance. Riders are often reminded that if they look down at the ground when they ride, they will be “picking the spot to land.” That may be true, but if you are feeling dizzy or off-balance when you ride, this will also affect the horse you are on. Riders at the Spanish Riding School, in Vienna, do not ride with stirrups when they ask their horses to perform the “airs above the ground” because he needs to find his balance on the horse without interfering with the animal’s balance. On several occasions, I have felt Galahad shift his balance beneath me. Even though I didn’t feel off-balance, something didn’t feel right or comfortable to him so he adjusted his body to accommodate whatever was going on with me. This experience is actually very humbling and reinforced how much the rider’s balance can affect the ease, comfort and even safety the horse can move with someone on his back.

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

The Reaction Formation

 

                Have you ever felt (secretly) very hostile or resentful of a sibling or colleague but still behaved in a considerate, solicitous and even friendly way toward that individual? Or, have you ever put on a brave face and nonchalantly agreed to ski down a more advanced run even though you felt (privately) terrified to advance past the bunny slope? If so, you have experienced a defense mechanism known as the reaction formation.

This response is characterized by transforming negative emotions or behaviors—or, more accurately, emotions or behaviors that are perceived to be negative or inappropriate—into a more desirable and functional form. Like all other defense mechanisms, the reaction formation is characterized by four common traits: 1) it is unconscious; 2) it is self-deceptive; 3) it contains elements of denial; 4) it distorts reality through thoughts and action. Their primarily role is to protect the subconscious mind from what it perceives as a threat or “pain.” In this case, the pain would be caused by our peers negatively judging our attitudes or behavior that contradicts acceptable beliefs or behaviors: “How can/why do you resent someone you barely know just because he or she possesses a specific skill or talent?” Rather than risk other people’s criticism of your feelings—the origins of which are unclear even to you—you overcompensate and cultivate those more socially acceptable behaviors to be accepted in your social group.

     According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, we are all subconsciously motivated to maintain and/or restore a known physical and emotional status of comfort and security. In this case, social acceptance represents pleasure, whereas criticism and potential rejection from our peers are pain. Since the SCM is motivated and even programmed to seek the pleasure stimuli, we may adopt these defense mechanisms to literally “defend” against potential social rejection (pain). For example, a veterinary student who so transforms his personal dislike of dogs to specialize in caring for canines has a greater chance of running a successful veterinary practice, where dogs are often patients.

Even though almost everyone uses one to ameliorate an undesirable reaction to an unpleasant circumstance at some point, these defense mechanisms provide only a temporary perception of control over the environment. Eventually, we have to deal with and resolve the primary issue that triggered the defense mechanism to achieve personal growth.

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014