Weight Loss and Hypnotherapy: Special Offer for September 2016

Photo by Rick Hustead

“Winter is coming,” is a popular line in The Game of Thrones.

Winter is also coming for us, and it will be here sooner than we know. If you want to take off some weight and get fit in time for all those holiday parties or get started on one of your New Year's Resolutions for 2017, now is the perfect time to try hypnotherapy and therapeutic guided imagery to help you achieve these goals! Following is a brief summary of how this program works.

The first thing I will do is to establish your motivation for losing the weight. Is there a health reason such as diabetes control? Do you want to improve your physical fitness or just take off a few pounds to get ready for the holiday parties you will be attending in a couple months? Perhaps friends or relatives in your social circle have been putting on pressure to drop the pounds. Or, you may (subconsciously) 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.

It doesn’t matter what your motivation for losing weight happens to be. However, said Hypnosis Motivation Institute John G. Kappas, Ph.D., “If you are not personally motivated to achieve the weight-loss goal, the weight-loss program is unlikely to be successful.”

Once we identify and establish your motivation to lose weight, I will use hypnosis and guided-imagery techniques to help you resolve any previous issues or resistance to losing weight*. I will also use these therapeutic techniques to help you develop and reinforce your strong, positive self-image about being at the desired weight and feeling comfortable with being physically attractive. All of the hypnotic suggestions I use will incorporate your expressed motivations 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. (Depending on your weight-loss goals, I may also refer you to be examined by a physician for guidance about an appropriate exercise and nutritional regimen before we begin this program, which I will reinforce during your hypnotherapy sessions with me.)

SPECIAL OFFER!

I am currently offering a 15 percent discount on all hypnotherapy for weight-loss/weight-management sessions. This offer is good through September 30, 2016 and is not exchangeable for cash. For more information and to set up an appointment, please contact me at (661) 433-9430 or send an e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com. I look forward to hearing from—and working with—you soon!

*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/.

© 2016

Give Yourself Permission

Photo by Rick Hustead

Safety and legal restrictions aside, has it ever occurred to you that one of the reasons why you don’t try something you really want to do is that you don’t allow yourself to do it? By “allow,” I am referring to your subconscious mind and your subconscious mental script.

When I was in junior-high and high school there was an unspoken expectation that “girls weren’t good at math.” Of course, some of them absolutely were, but I bought into that stereotype to such an extent that I likely sabotaged my success in those classes. It got to the point where my high-school geometry teacher suggested I talk to my academic advisor about transferring to a different class. Both men were surprised I was an honor student except for that class. Long story short, I asked my neighbor—my “surrogate mom” who was not only a teacher but also happened to be very good at math—to tutor me after school. I worked very hard to improve my overall grade, and I was the only one to earn a 100-percent score on the first-semester final exam.

Is this an example of giving myself permission to succeed or just hard work and determination to succeed? I think it is a bit of both. I didn’t know about subconscious mental scripts back then, but I am confident that my attitude and desire to change that current negative situation into a positive one. In my subconscious mind, I had to give myself permission to believe that a different outcome was possible to become willing to put in the hard work that would help me achieve my goal.

These days I have a much better understanding about how the subconscious mind works, so I typically include a suggestion to “give yourself permission” when I work with my hypnotherapy clients. For example, it is not uncommon for someone who has never been hypnotized to feel nervous or even resist going into the hypnotic state during the first hypnotherapy session. This may also be true during subsequent sessions when a client is working on letting go of an unwanted belief, habit or behavior. However, once I offer the hypnotic suggestion for the individual’s subconscious mind to give permission to change that behavior, acceptance of this new belief becomes obvious as the client’s breathing deepens and the physical body becomes more visibly relaxed.

It may also be necessary to give yourself permission to do something during your day-to-day life, even when you are not in hypnosis or at a hypnotherapy session. Some people, especially women, may find it difficult to set personal boundaries and say “no” when they really don’t want to do something or accept another role/responsibility at work. It is okay to say no. It is also okay to say yes. So starting right now, so long as it you are not imposing your will or desires on anyone else, go ahead and do what makes you feel comfortable. Try something new and do something that you want to do. Give yourself permission to believe in yourself and your ability to succeed!

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/.

© 2016

Give Yourself Permission

Photo by Rick Hustead

Safety and legal restrictions aside, has it ever occurred to you that one of the reasons why you don’t try something you really want to do is that you don’t allow yourself to do it? By “allow,” I am referring to your subconscious mind and your subconscious mental script.

When I was in junior-high and high school there was an unspoken expectation that “girls weren’t good at math.” Of course, some of them absolutely were, but I bought into that stereotype to such an extent that I likely sabotaged my success in those classes. It got to the point where my high-school geometry teacher suggested I talk to my academic advisor about transferring to a different class. Both men were surprised I was an honor student except for that class. Long story short, I asked my neighbor—my “surrogate mom” who was not only a teacher but also happened to be very good at math—to tutor me after school. I worked very hard to improve my overall grade, and I was the only one to earn a 100-percent score on the first-semester final exam.

Is this an example of giving myself permission to succeed or just hard work and determination to succeed? I think it is a bit of both. I didn’t know about subconscious mental scripts back then, but I am confident that my attitude and desire to change that current negative situation into a positive one. In my subconscious mind, I had to give myself permission to believe that a different outcome was possible to become willing to put in the hard work that would help me achieve my goal.

These days I have a much better understanding about how the subconscious mind works, so I typically include a suggestion to “give yourself permission” when I work with my hypnotherapy clients. For example, it is not uncommon for someone who has never been hypnotized to feel nervous or even resist going into the hypnotic state during the first hypnotherapy session. This may also be true during subsequent sessions when a client is working on letting go of an unwanted belief, habit or behavior. However, once I offer the hypnotic suggestion for the individual’s subconscious mind to give permission to change that behavior, acceptance of this new belief becomes obvious as the client’s breathing deepens and the physical body becomes more visibly relaxed.

It may also be necessary to give yourself permission to do something during your day-to-day life, even when you are not in hypnosis or at a hypnotherapy session. Some people, especially women, may find it difficult to set personal boundaries and say “no” when they really don’t want to do something or accept another role/responsibility at work. It is okay to say no. It is also okay to say yes. So starting right now, so long as it you are not imposing your will or desires on anyone else, go ahead and do what makes you feel comfortable. Try something new and do something that you want to do. Give yourself permission to believe in yourself and your ability to succeed!

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/.

© 2016

Power Breathing

Photo by Rick Hustead

Breathing—especially diaphragmatic breathing—is one of the most natural and basic things that you can do to relax and calm down during a stressful situation. Power breathing is an effective technique to release/force out negative emotions you associate with that situation, event or even a person.

These techniques are similar in that both entail taking deep breaths of air through the nose and holding the air in the lungs for a few seconds before releasing it through the mouth. In power breathing, however, the air is released more forcefully, often with a “whoosh” sound, as if you are blowing out a very large candle. I find that imagery of Old Faithful’s steamy eruption or the sound and sight of the mist produced when whales or dolphins breathe on the surface of the ocean are useful for this exercise. Other good metaphors include a tornado, the power of a wind tunnel or even a volcano; it is completely up to you which imagery—if any—to use when you practice this technique.

The important and therapeutic aspect of this technique is that you associate the forceful release of your breath with symbolically, forcefully releasing those negative emotions or events, etc., you associate with holding back or impeding your personal growth. It doesn’t matter if you identify specific stressors to release (Physical Sexual/Physical Suggestible) or simply recognize them as a generic category of “everything that bothers me.” (An Emotional Sexual/Emotional Suggestible individual is more likely to do this.) The important thing is that you are allowing yourself to release—even force out—those negative associations this way. The force with which you let go of these things physically strengthens this intention in the conscious mind. The fact that these negative associations are being released on the exhale—a natural process of every breath we take—reinforces this intention in the subconscious mind. 

It is a great technique to help release stress and tension when you are stuck in rush-hour traffic, too!

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/.

© 2016

How Passive-Aggressive Behavior Affects Motivation

Photo by Sara Fogan

According to Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development model, passive-aggressive behavior begins when a child is between three to six years old (Loco-Motor stage), when he or she is just starting to become independent. The youngster also learns about guilt and initiative at this time. Erikson observed that if a child is punished or discouraged from expressing initiative, he or she would try to sabotage the parents. For example, the individual might wet or soil the pants instead of going to the bathroom despite having been toilet trained. This kind of passive-aggressive behavior carries over into adulthood as a way to subtly hurt or frustrate someone as if to teach a lesson to the other person. However, it is ultimately the person who behaves in this passive-aggression way who suffers the most.

John Kappas, Ph.D., considered passive-aggressive behavior part of a “losing syndrome” in which the person subconsciously always expects to fail because he or she was never allowed or encouraged to succeed at a task, or was even punished for being assertive. An example of passive-aggressive behavior in adulthood is an employee saying or doing something at work that contradicts the workplace environment/culture that jeopardizes the individual’s chances of promotion or even gets the person fired.

In the above example, Dr. Kappas worked with a man who sought hypnotherapy to increase his motivation about his job and stop procrastinating. The client conceded that he had had 20 jobs over the years; despite feeling optimistic and believing he would succeed at the beginning of each employment, it ultimately wouldn’t work out. When asked why the jobs didn’t work, the client blamed his co-workers when something went wrong; or, he became bored very quickly if he didn’t feel challenged if the job didn’t pay well.

To help the client work through these issues, the hypnotherapist identified and pointed out common denominators between the unwanted behavior (procrastination and low motivation) and the man’s passive-aggressive tendencies. Examples included tardiness to work, tendency to daydream, avoidance of responsibility and failing to show up at meetings or appointments. Next, Dr. Kappas recommended specific dietary changes to stabilize the client’s blood-sugar level and reduce anxiety and frustration, and gave him positive suggestions for future personal growth and appreciation of his abilities. Finally, Dr. Kappas introduced him to the Mental Bank Concept to increase the client’s motivation and sense of self-worth.

“Passive aggressiveness gets worse as the person gets older,” warned the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder, which is why it is so important to obviate these behaviors sooner than later to ensure continued growth and opportunities for self-improvement.

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/.

© 2016