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Monday, February 16, 2015

Animals and Hypnotherapy House Calls

Photo courtesy of Microsoft/Bing

The first time I make a house-call to work with one of my hypnotherapy clients in his or her house, I always ask whether the individual has a dog or a cat in the home. The reason why I want to know this has nothing to do with my love for (which I do) or fear of (which I generally don’t) animals. Rather, I want to know this because most pets react in some way when their human goes into a trance state.

Even the most minute alteration in our breathing rhythm, speech pattern and/or movement or any number of minute physiological “tells” that are invisible to us immediately alert our animals when we are no longer in our usual alert and aware state. I have worked with many people whose dogs started to bark or whine as soon as they went into hypnosis. While these sounds don’t necessarily distract me from the hypnotherapy work I am doing, clients often get distracted and even distressed by their pet’s obvious confusion about their subtly altered state of conscious awareness. To avoid this, I usually suggest that the animal be secured in another room or outside during the hypnotherapy session; an even better solution is for another resident in the house to take the dog for a walk or to the park. That way, the client can enjoy the calm and relaxation that hypnosis provides while the pet does not have to sound the alarm about its human’s unusual behavior.

Over time and repeated home visits, pets typically get used to having me around and their owner’s unusual, uber-mellow demeanor during the hour or so that I am there. Sometimes the animals even hang out as if they are observing the session, themselves. Many even settle down for a long morning or afternoon nap beside the client. I don’t know that these pets actually become hypnotized along with their human, but they generally seem more relaxed and mellow by the time I leave.

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/.

Friday, February 13, 2015

What Do You Eat?

Photo Courtesy of Microsoft

When Bill Maher asked when was the last time your (generic) doctor asked you what you eat on the February 6, 2015 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, I started to wonder the same thing. Depending on what the blood-test results show, a lecture about the dangers of high cholesterol and how certain foods affect this level may be forthcoming. They also want to know if and how much I exercise each week; presumably that is because exercise is an easily quantifiable and relatively benign question to ask. Ditto for getting the stats about daily alcohol consumption (basically, none). But I honestly could not remember any time a physician or even a nurse (RN or LVN) asked me what I actually eat on a regular basis versus offering advice about what to avoid eating, altogether.

However, one of the first things I do ask my hypnotherapy clients is about their diet. This is true whether the person wants to increase his or her self-confidence, improve a golf swing or lose weight. I want to find out what they eat and even when they eat. I want to know these details because nutrition plays a huge role in how we perceive and respond to events in our environment.

Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., observed that low blood-sugar levels can exacerbate or even cause a person’s presenting problem (behavior or belief). For example, a sudden drop in blood sugar can trigger physical symptoms such as shaking, light-headedness and feeling tired, or even psychological symptoms such as depression, paranoia, irritability and memory problems. Furthermore, Dr. Kappas found an association between a person’s low blood-sugar levels and fluctuating suggestibility with the onset of a phobic response. (This fluctuation in suggestibility literally becomes obvious in our handwriting: lines of writing literally become “wavy” when the person is hungry and blood-sugar level is lower).

Not only do I ask my clients about their food choices and eating patterns, I describe how and why what they ingest (and imbibe) can affect their behavior. In addition, I explain how eating nutritious meals that contain protein prevents the sudden drop in blood-sugar level that can contribute to those physical and psychological symptoms of anxiety. If and when necessary, I will also refer a client for a further medical and/or psychological evaluation if the individual describes eating behaviors (e.g., bingeing/purging, starvation) or beliefs about food or nutrition that are out of scope of my professional expertise.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Progress at Your Own Speed

Opportunities and events rarely just drop into our laps. An immediate, successful outcome is not guaranteed. Usually we must put in a lot of work and have a lot of motivation to reach a goal or milestone. Days, weeks, months and even years can pass without making any obvious progress toward our goal. During that time it is easy to become frustrated and even disillusioned about when/whether/if we will ever get our “break.” Sometimes life even steps in and replaces the original goal and desired outcome with something better than you could have ever dreamed of.

Recently, my dad commented (again) how excellent it was that actor Benedict Cumberbatch has enjoyed such great success in the film industry. However, he has certainly been paying his dues as an actor for many years—mostly on stage in Britain and some roles in television movies and series in Britain and in America. Receiving an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, well, that’s quite an endorsement for the Sherlock star’s acting chops, is it not? Of course, Mr. Cumberbatch’s story is not one of overnight success, at all. Do you remember his very minor role as a cavalry officer in Steven Spielberg’s (2011) film, War Horse? As he landed roles in bigger projects, it just seemed like he suddenly popped out of the woodwork. He had the lead role in the film about Julian Assange and a role in August: Osage County, a major film starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. He even voiced the dragon in a recent Lord of the Rings movie.

Meanwhile, actress Julianne Moore has been acting in and headlining films for approximately twenty-five years. She has received five Academy Award nominations, including her current nod for Still Alice. It seems likely that she will finally win a long-overdue Oscar this year, so say Hollywood pundits, but who knows? Meanwhile, Ms. Moore carries on promoting the movie and working and perfecting her craft.

And, what about the unexpected play that New England Patriot cornerback Malcolm Butler made during the Super Bowl XLIX? Just when it looked like Seattle Seahawk’s wide receiver, Ricardo Lockette, was about to catch the touchdown-winning pass in the end zone in the last few minutes of the game, Butler jumped up and grabbed the ball instead. Suddenly, the comfortable 10-point—and then manageable three-point—lead that the Seahawks had been enjoying through most of the second half of the game was reduced to a four-point deficit from which Seattle would not be able to overcome. Throughout the game, both teams had played hard and made strategic mistakes that could have changed the outcome, but there was no denying that the Patriots constantly continued working and fighting for those winning points. Their unbeatable lead may not have happened as early in the game as New England would have liked, but their never-surrender attitude and determination to win ultimately paid off in the end.

One of the biggest challenges many of us face is being patient with ourselves as we strive to accomplish something. As you pursue that promotion at work are you compromising your health by getting little or no sleep and poor nutrition? The physical consequences of these behaviors could affect your perception, mood and ability to focus or problem-solve, which could inadvertently jeopardize your chances of being promoted. Are you so focused on completing a project that you neglect relationships with or responsibility to family or friends? Are you so focused on attracting that perfect partner that you pay no attention to your professional goals and other social bonds? Where and how will your goal, once it is accomplished, fit and balance with other important areas of your life?

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Age-Regression on The Blacklist

(Spoiler Alert: This blog contains details about the story arc of a recent

episode of The Blacklist. Do not continue reading this article if you have

not yet seen but plan to watch Luther Braxton: Conclusion)

Ah, the practice of age-regression has reared its controversial head once again.

When she was a little girl, FBI Agent Elizabeth Keen’s parents supposedly died in a tragic house-fire. Fast-forward twenty-five years or so where a scene in NBC’s hit television series The Blacklist, titled Luther Braxton: Conclusion, has Keen being held hostage while a physician conducts an age-regression to reveal the location of a mysterious object. Her kidnapper, Braxton, and even protagonist Raymond “Red” Reddington believes that the woman knows what happened the night Keen’s home burned down and where the object is located. However, neither the hypnosis nor the drug cocktail of muscle-relaxants and truth serums seem to have any effect on her even when she insists that she also wants to know the truth about what happened that night.

As I explained in a previous blog titled Age Regression…And Why I Don’t Use This Technique to Uncover Traumatic Memories, age regression is a very dangerous procedure in that it can cause unnecessary psychological trauma for the client. When the subconscious mind “buries” a memory or “forgets” what happened during a traumatic incident, this is the SCM’s way of protecting the individual from further distress from thinking about or even reliving what happened. Repressed memories are common among people who have experienced psychological/physical/sexual abuse or other significant traumas such as the one that Agent Keen has experienced.

During the 1970s and 1980s, age-regression hypnosis was used as a crime-solving technique, especially to reveal previous sexual abuse which experts at that time believed was the cause of all psychological problems. Some people theorized that hypnosis would be a useful technique to rewind a person’s memory of a traumatic incident to discover what had happened. They held that once such information was revealed, hypnosis could help the victim to vent out repressed memories to resolve any feelings about and reactions to the trauma. Eventually, however, experts realized that this technique did not help either the client (alleged abuse victim) or lawyers to prosecute their cases because memories are filled with distortion and amnesia. In addition, when a person is under hypnosis he or she becomes highly suggestible and very eager to please the hypnotist. A highly emotional-suggestible client will infer that the hypnotist wants to hear certain information, and will duly provide those details.

However, I do not use age regression to discover (or help my client discover) information or memories that the person is not ready to address. When a terrible trauma has occurred, a person knows how to breathe, sleep, eat and eliminate. If a memory is too traumatic, the mind creates a “scab” over that memory to protect the individual from further trauma or stress. Just like you wouldn’t pull a scab off of an abrasion, I do not use hypnosis to rip a similar scab off your mind. Again, since there is no way to prove the veracity of any memories that a person regains while under hypnosis, this information would not be allowed in a court of law.

By the way, Agent Keen was unable to recover most of her lost memories in last week’s episode of The Blacklist. This outcome did not surprise me, however, since a person will not and cannot be made to say or do anything in hypnosis that he or she would not say or do while in an alert and aware state. Her subconscious mind kept fighting to protect her from painful memories of a past trauma despite every attempt—including Keen’s stated intent to remember—to bring them up. (There was a brief allusion to the possibility that she had previously been hypnotized to forget those painful memories in the first place, but that’s a topic for a different day.)

In conclusion, I would like to remind you that my first responsibility to my clients is to do no harm. As a certified hypnotherapist, my role is to help you achieve your vocational or avocational self-improvement goal. If you should spontaneously remember a traumatic incident, I will use hypnosis to help your present reality be more powerful than the past, and refer you to a licensed psychologist or other medical professional for additional professional support in areas that are outside my scope of expertise in hypnotherapy.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Don't Let Them Grind You Down

Positive self-esteem is a strong predictor of whether you can and will accomplish a goal. When our self-esteem is high, so is our self-confidence. Nothing seems beyond our ability to achieve, and we put out all the stops working to succeed. Unfortunately, other people’s negative opinions or beliefs about these abilities can have a deleterious influence on our success, as well as our self-image.

During my hypnotherapy training at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, I observed in an in-class demonstration of muscle testing (kinesiology) to show how positive or negative energy can affect our beliefs in ourselves and our abilities. During the presentation, a volunteer held his arms out perpendicular to his body while the class sent “positive” images and thoughts about his ability to keep his arms elevated. The volunteer was told to think similar positive messages during the experiment, and his arms stayed at that elevation. Then the class was instructed to send or think negative beliefs about the volunteer being unable to hold his arms up anymore. Sure enough, his arms dropped several inches and the person described how difficult it felt to sustain that position even though he continued to send himself positive messages about being able to do so. In the next experiment, the volunteer’s arms dropped to his thighs when he also sent negative messages about his inability to keep his arms elevated. Finally, the class and the volunteer were instructed to think and send positive messages about his ability to hold his arms perpendicular to his body once again, which he was able to do.

I witnessed a similar “demonstration” about how belief in self can affect performance during the January 24, 2015 episode of Saturday Night Live. In one sketch, musical guest/host Blake Shelton kept interrupting a magic show by declaring that the purported “magician” couldn’t actually do magic and that magic wasn’t real. Even though the magician continued to demonstrate his prowess by doing successful card tricks, etc., Shelton continued his tirade and challenged the performer to use magic on him to prove otherwise. Ultimately the magician’s self-confidence got so worn down after listening to repeated disparaging comments about his skill that even he started to doubt his ability when he couldn’t complete a card trick. He and the rest of his audience even agreed that magic didn’t really exist when the “spell” he tried to cast on Shelton apparently failed. However, once the naysayer stormed off in disgust, the magician was able to complete another magic trick. His belief in himself (self-esteem) and his self-confidence immediately went up. He declared that magic really does exist and performed another successful trick as the audience applauded with approval.

HMI founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind tells us that we start receiving message units the moment we are born. Between the ages of five and eight, we start taking these messages directly into the subconscious mind. In addition, as we get older we are also strongly influenced by what our peers think about us and our abilities. Even negative messages that cause emotional pain such as criticism about our ability to succeed will be accepted and integrated to help form our life script. Negative messages create negative beliefs, and unless or until those beliefs are replaced with positive ones, our self-image will not improve even if our physical ability and strength has actually changed.

Remember: The path to a positive self-image starts with self-confidence and self-esteem you feel from the inside. Once these beliefs are there, keep reinforcing the positive messages in your mind so they become an indelible part of your subconscious mental script. Negativity can only gain a foothold in our subconscious minds if we invite and allow it to grow there in the first place, so don’t let other people’s negativity grind you down with them.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Why Are New Ideas Scary?

Last week, I saw a brilliant television advertisement for General Electric. Titled “Ideas Are Scary,” it shows how people react when introduced to a new idea: “Ideas are frightening, because they threaten what is known. They are the natural-born enemy of the way things are,” the narrator explains.

According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, the longer you have held a belief or been practicing a behavior, the more deeply you ingrain it in your mind. Eventually, it becomes a default, a comfort zone, a known. Every time you repeat that behavior or habit, you send another positive message to the SCM that reinforces your comfortable association with what you are doing. In his Theory of Mind, John Kappas, Ph.D., refers to the subconscious mind categorizing certain events or stimuli as “pleasure.” In this context, pleasure is something the person identifies as familiar or known, but not necessarily “pleasurable.” In other words, you are equally likely to continue to behave in a particular way even if it is uncomfortable, because that behavior is what you know and where your subconscious mind tells you that you are safe. However, anything “new” is initially considered painful; the subconscious mind will continue to reject it until repeated exposure to the stimulus makes it familiar (known) and can be accepted in the subconscious mind.

I have summarized the plot of this ad in the context of Dr. Kappas’s model, below:

· The new idea is introduced as a hairy, unrecognizable creature lying on its back in a baby bed in a neonatal ward. Nurses huddle against the walls, pointing and talking to each other (presumably) about the unusual creature in their midst. Once out of the ward, the “ugly, messy” idea wanders around alone on the street. (Unknown: pain)

· People throw objects at it from car windows; pedestrians stare, grimace and hurry past. The Idea is ushered out of businesses and even evicted from a café where it has stopped to rest. Sad music plays in the background as it shuffles out of the restaurant. With its shoulders slumped, the Idea finally curls up in a cardboard box on the street. (Rejection)

· When it finally ventures back onto the street, the Idea passes General Electric, where an employee opens the glass front door and welcomes it inside. Here the Idea is finally, no longer scary. It is no longer messy or a threat to the status quo. The innovators and inventors at General Electric seek out and create new ideas, themselves. After all, new ideas are familiar, comfortable and “knowns” for them. They are ready and willing to nurture this fragile creature into an established concept or belief: (Repetition creates comfort)

· By the end of the advertisement the Idea has been cleaned up: Its once limp and lank coat and tail and head feathers are now fluffed and their color returned to their former luster. The now-receptive audience gives Idea a standing ovation as it steps behind the podium on a stage to present its message to others: “But under the proper care, they become something beautiful,” the narrator concludes. (Acceptance of a new known in the subconscious mental script.)

This is by far the best illustration of the Theory of Mind that I have ever seen. I encourage you to click on the Ideas Are Scary link to watch this clever advertisement and see how it illustrates Dr. Kappas’s concept. For more information and examples of the Theory of Mind, I invite you to read more of my blogs at www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com.

Friday, February 6, 2015

My Thoughts on the Milgram Obedience Experiment and Suggestibility

Experimenter is being promoted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival this week. The film is about psychologist Stanley Milgram, whose 1961 obedience experiment famously demonstrated how obedient people could be when they are confronted with real or perceived authority.

I remember reading about this project while I was pursuing my undergraduate degree psychology. In Milgram's study, participants were made to deliver electric shocks of various and increasing intensity to other people. The Yale University psychologist was interested to see at what point and under what circumstance a participant would disobey authority: i.e., refuse to administer the shocks, which were portrayed as extremely painful and possibly causing permanent physical damage to the recipient. In fact, the “shocks” were imaginary and the people who were supposedly receiving them were actually members of Milgram’s research team. Ultimately, the researcher reported that 65 percent of the participants were willing to administer the electric shocks to others despite the extreme stress they reported feeling while administering the shocks and the pain they believed they were causing others.

Remembering and thinking about this study made me cringe, but it also made me wonder: Could John Kappas, Ph.D.’s models of suggestibility explain the social psychologist’s observations? Following are reasons why I think the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder’s theories work very well to explain why Milgram’s research participants were willing (albeit begrudgingly) to continue to administer those shocks.

1. He had authority. Milgram was conducting his research in a prominent and respected academic university. Since he held a Ph.D. in psychology his subjects would have called him “Dr.,” which automatically implies a position of power or authority.

2. He had a message: The psychologist told the participants what to do and when to do it, and he did not waver from his instruction even when they voiced concerns about the harm the continued shocks must be doing to the shock recipients.

3. He overloaded the participants’ conscious and subconscious minds with written and auditory information (message units) about the intensity of the electric shocks being delivered and the sounds/exclamations of pain that the recipients uttered. Milgram also continued to deliver his authoritarian patter of instructions that the participants should continue to administer the shocks even if and when they wanted to stop taking part in the experiment.

Afterward, Milgram and his team debriefed the participants to explain that the electric shocks used during the experiment were imaginary and reassured them that no one had been harmed in any way. I’m sure that was a relief for those who had obeyed each one of the psychologist’s instructions to complete the experiment. The questionable and controversial ethics of his research design reportedly resulted in the American Psychological Association creating ethical standards for ensuring the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of participants in future studies.

I also follow the APA’s guidelines for ethics and professional conduct when I work with hypnotherapy clients. I will not and would not ask you to say or do anything while in hypnosis that you would not say or do while in a fully alert state of awareness. Furthermore, your subconscious mind would not comply with any hypnotic suggestion(s) that contradicted your ethical and moral beliefs. For more information about hypnosis and how it works, check out the Hypnosis Facts link on my website.