To minimize risk of exposure to and spread of the COVID-19 virus and COVID-19 variants, I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. Meanwhile, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE!
(This blog was originally posted on May 4, 2014)
Photo by Rick Hustead
At some time in
our lives, just about everyone uses a defense mechanism to cope with a
stressful or disappointing experience. These strategies can include denial or
displacement of the unpleasant emotion, repression of a memory, substance
abuse, regressing to an earlier stage of development or even substance
dependency. However these behaviors provide only a temporary perception of
control over the environment; eventually, we have to deal with and resolve the
primary issue that has triggered the defense
mechanism in order to achieve personal growth. To be an effective
hypnotherapist, I must recognize which one(s) a client may be using, how and
why the device is working in this situation, and when it is preventing desired
change and personal growth to occur.
According to John Kappas,
Ph.D., resistance to changing a behavior is the first stage of effecting
this change. “We do things systematically to avoid change,” said the founder of
the Hypnosis
Motivation Institute. “Change is a threat
to the unconscious mind.” To facilitate change in a client’s behavior—such as
helping someone to quit smoking or to lose weight—the hypnotherapist must “buy”
the person’s symptoms of defensive behavior and provide some symptomatic
relief. But for the problem or unwanted behavior to be truly resolved it is
often necessary to go for the cause of the conflict or symptom. “The client may
be subconsciously protecting [the cause] by employing defense-mechanism
devices,” Dr. Kappas explained.
Usually, many
factors combine to create the primary issue or problem, and the client is
suggestible to those precipitating factors, the hypnotherapist explained.
Consequently, the first hypnotherapy session with a client is the most
important component of the therapeutic process, because this is the first
opportunity to start working with the client’s suggestibility
and “suggest” certain changes in behavior. For example, I might work with a client
to desensitize the person to the association of smoking a cigarette while
drinking an alcoholic beverage before supper. Or, I would create a new
association in which a client would “choose” to write about his or her negative
emotions in a journal rather than eat a bowl of ice cream when the person felt
angry or sad. But these changes in behavior—social drinking and displacing
negative emotions through eating—can and will only occur when the client is
ready to recognize the relationship between the emotion and behavior.
“You cannot
cure a person by telling him what the problem is,” Dr. Kappas said. “Whenever
you hit the cause of the problem, symptoms start to disappear. Once you
identify and remove the primary cause of the problem, you must alleviate secondary
issues.”
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist
based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. Sara has been voted the Best Hypnotherapist in
Santa Clarita, California, three years in a row (July 2019, September 2020,
July 2021). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up
an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2021
