Thoughts of the Day

Photo by Sara Fogan

     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 my Calminsense Hypnotherapy Facebook page 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.

• “Don’t treat people as bad as they are…treat them as good as you are.” – Ritu Ghatourey

• “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” – Victoria Holt

• “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King Jr

• “Good things take time.” – Lolly Daskal

• “Success is not to be measured by the position you reach in life but by the obstacles you have overcome.” – Booker T. Washington

• “To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise.” – Mitchell Caplan

• “It takes a great man to be a good listener.” – Calvin Coolidge

• “When ‘why’ doesn’t work, try ‘why not’.” – Bille Baty

• “Grace meets us where we are, but doesn't leave us where it found us.” – Anne Lamott

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/.

© 2017

Hypnotherapy and Eating Disorders

(This blog was originally posted on July 11, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D. advocated addressing the emotional problems that caused the eating disorder when working with someone who suffered from anorexia nervosa or bulimia. The hypnotherapist believed that this process would alleviate the symptoms of the disease in order to address them directly. However, he warned against specifically mentioning the client’s bingeing and purging behaviors because these would be inferred during the hypnotherapeutic process. “If you’re not bingeing and purging, you’re not as concerned about the weight,” Dr. Kappas said.

Therapy with someone who is suffering from an eating disorder is a long process which may take many sessions to overcome, Dr. Kappas warned. Furthermore, it is may take many sessions for the hypnotherapist to build rapport with the client to address these issues.

When working with someone who has an eating disorder, he recommended changing the client’s suggestibility from herself to the therapist in order to facilitate treatment. “[She must] turn over conscious control to the therapist to take control of the unconscious process,” Dr. Kappas explained. While she is in hypnosis, provide suggestions to increase the client’s perception of having self-control, feeling better about herself and being calm, he advised. “Think of yourself feeling good physically, emotionally, psychologically. You’re becoming important to yourself. You’re beginning to control old habits and compulsions. You’re not controlled by old habits.”

 Meanwhile, the hypnotherapist and other members of the client's medical/psychological team should monitor the person's eating and bingeing behaviors. “If they get worse, the hypnotherapist] will have to move in and attack the behavior," Dr. Kappas said.

As I explained in my blog titled, Eating Disorders Are Not an Extreme Diet, anorexia nervosa and bulimia are very complicated, dangerous conditions that can cause severe physiological destruction and even death. The symptoms and etiology (medical/psychiatric origin) of each are addressed in the Diagnostics and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, a basic reference guide for various psychiatric disorders. Typically, these conditions are out of scope of my or most other certified hypnotherapists’ professional expertise to address in hypnotherapy (Business and Professions Code 2908). To do so, I would need to receive a referral from the person’s (licensed) medical doctor and/or mental-health worker to work with the individual. Even then, my input as a hypnotherapist would be only to help the client fortify her or his self-confidence and self-esteem and reinforce new healthy-eating behaviors recommended by the person’s medical and psychiatric team. Ultimately, the treatment (management) of anorexia nervosa and bulimia is often a lifelong process which must be done under such medical supervision.

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/.

© 2017

Hyper-Suggestibility and Common Examples of Natural Hypnosis, Part 1

(This blog was originally posted on July 13, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Definition of Hypnosis: “Hypnosis is created by an overload of message units disorganizing our inhibitory process (critical mind), triggering our fight/flight mechanism and ultimately resulting in a hyper-suggestible state, providing access to the subconscious mind.” 

– John G. Kappas, Ph.D., founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute

Earlier this afternoon, I had the honor of describing a common aspect of my work as a certified hypnotherapist to my business-marketing group, the Network Referral Group of the Santa Clarita Valley. In this presentation, I described what environmental factors that can trigger a hyper-suggestible state of awareness and affects our behavior. Following is a list of various ways we can be (and have been) hypnotized by the environment.

Examples and Triggers of a Hyper-Suggestible State:

• Driving past your intersection, street, etc. because you are thinking about something else.

• Appointment with the doctor, investment broker, accountant, etc., law-enforcement officers, etc., any professional that is “out of your scope of expertise” and you tend to zone out listening to explanations, definitions, etc.

• Being glued to the television, etc. watching a police chase or incoming reports about a natural disaster, fire, overseas military activity, etc. not directly related to you, you just feel you “can’t turn away.” Also, continually watching on-line video of hostage executions, etc., for the same reason.

• Missing what someone said to you in a conversation because you were busy thinking about what you should say next or even something completely different.

• Popularity of Poke-Mon Go: more people walking, looking for the icons in the game. Authorities advising people to not play game while driving, do play on public transit

• The Internet: Surfing, commenting on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc. Do you sometimes say/post something you wish you hadn’t because you were caught up in the moment?

• Reactions of the passengers on airlines on 9/11: Initially, they listened to and believed what the terrorists told them to do and believed they were on the way back to the airport, there would be a ransom and release, etc.

• Making purchases on-line, shopping sprees, etc., per encouragement of TV advertisements and in-store representatives

• Get so caught up watching the action in a movie/television series and become sad, enraged, happy, etc., about the action going on in the story. Did you cry when Jack Dawson died in Titanic? Spend all last summer worried/wondering about Jon Snow’s fate at the end of the fifth and sixth season of Game of Thrones?

• Panic buying/selling of stocks after Brexit, other world events or market corrections. Also, feeling pressured to buy into a “Once-in-a-Lifetime Deal!” that is obviously a marketing ploy to make a quick sale.

• Mob behavior/copy-cat crimes based on what was seen on-line, news, social media, etc. For example, "Flash Mobs" and copy-cat crimes that have been promoted or described on social media.

In tomorrow’s blog, I will provide some tips to help return/maintain a fully alert and aware state no matter what is going on around you.

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/.

© 2017