Getting to the Cause Through Corrective Therapy

(This blog was originally posted on September 14, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Earlier this year, I posted an essay about one of my favorite cognitive, non-hypnosis techniques, the Paris Window, which helps get to the cause or foundation of a client’s therapeutic issue. Here, the individual is asked to describe his or her feelings about this goal or issue in the context of personal feelings and beliefs about how other people feel about it. Corrective Therapy is a second cognitive technique that helps to identify the subconscious cause or root of the therapeutic goal by having the client write five or six sentences about what he or she wants to accomplish through hypnotherapy and replace each word (or group of words) with a relevant synonym (subconscious symbolism).

The intention of this technique is to get to and identify the true goal of the therapy as it exists in the client’s subconscious mind. The process or format of each of these sentences will depend on his or her suggestibility (Emotional versus Physical). To start, the person writes the sentence with each word the head of its own “column.” As the client writes each new sentence, the Physical Suggestible client will provide synonyms to replace each word in the original sentence; the Emotional Suggestible client will provide a synonym or metaphor/association for the each word in the previous sentence.

Consider the following example for a client who comes in for hypnotherapy with the following stated goal: I want to lose weight. A Physical Suggestible client might choose the following synonyms to replace the original word or phrase for this goal in follow-up sentences:

I	Want	to lose	weight
Me (I) ↑	desire (want)	to drop (to lose)	pounds (weight)
(client’s) name (I)	need (want)	to take off (to lose)	inches (weight)
Man/Woman (I)	have to (want)	release (to lose)	body mass (weight)
Person (I)	must  (want)	let go of (to lose)	size (weight)

When an Emotional Suggestible client chooses replacement words to express the goal, this individual will be replacing the word from the previous sentence with a new synonym/association. The word or phrase in parentheses indicates the term that has been replaced.

I	Want	to lose	weight
Woman/man (I)	need (want)	relinquish (to lose)	pounds (weight)
Sister/Brother (woman/man)	want (need)	missing (to lose)	obesity (pounds)
Daughter/son (sister/brother)	rejection (want)	lacking  (missing)	ugly (obesity)
Husband/Wife (daughter/son)	isolation (rejection)	deficit (lacking)	lonely (ugly)

                                               

                                                                                       

I employ Corrective Therapy during the cognitive (alert) portion of the hypnotherapy to discover any underlying, subconscious motivation(s) behind the person’s unwanted behaviors that may be preventing the desired behavior change. One benefit of this technique is that it is very visceral: the person can literally read the story about how the origins or basis of this subconscious resistance evolve while writing the responses to each question (ideomotor response). Once the issue is revealed, I will discuss it with the client in terms of his or her beliefs and feelings about the problem/conflict and create strategies to change unwanted behaviors and accomplish this goal. When the person is in hypnosis, I incorporate specific suggestions in his or her hypnotic script to help the person implement these new beliefs or behaviors to help actualize this self-improvement goal.

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

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.

• “Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.” – Thomas Edison

• “You learn who you are by unlearning who they taught you to be.” – Nikki Rowe

• “Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear.” – Tony Robbins

• “At any given time the universe is giving you the best result possible.” – Deepak Chopra

• “To push the boundaries, you need to know where the edges are.” – Mark Boulton

• “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius

• “The only person you should strive to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.” – Lolly Daskal

• “Nothing ever leaves us until it has taught us what we need to know.” – Pema Chödrön

• “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

• “You are not stuck where you are unless you decide to be.” – Wayne Dyer

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

Hypnosis Is Not a Cure for Paranoia and Schizophrenia

(This blog was originally posted on September 7, 2016)

John Kappas, Ph.D., conceded that treating a client who has schizophrenia is a touchy legal issue in that schizophrenia is a medical and psychological illness which is out of scope for hypnotherapy. “You can spend all your time trying to cure the condition and it won’t work,” the founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute told his hypnotherapy students. Indeed, many physicians accept that schizophrenia is based on a neurochemical imbalance. Medication can help control the symptoms but psychotherapy won’t “cure” the person, he said.

The California Business and Professions Code 2908* allows hypnotherapists to provide complementary and alternative health care to these patients if they have a referral from a licensed medical or mental-health professional. However, people who have schizophrenia generally don’t come in for help in the first place, Dr. Kappas said. However, those individuals who do allow themselves to be hypnotized to deal with other issues in their lives may show good results in terms of behavioral correction, he said.

The hypnotherapist found that many individuals who have schizophrenia also had low blood-sugar levels, which can induce hyper-suggestibility and paranoia. Dr. Kappas said that explaining the relationship between low glucose levels and suggestibility, and teaching the client how to control his or her blood-sugar level through diet, could reduce panic and sensory sensations caused by fear.

If the client has paranoid schizophrenia and reports hearing voices, it may be possible to use hypnosis to teach the individual to control some of these thoughts, he said. “The behavior will get rid of the voices for a long period of time, then they’ll come back and stay there.” Ultimately, hypnosis and hypnotherapy cannot be employed as a cure of schizophrenia and the client must receive medical treatment.

*Business and Professions Code 2908: 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 alternative or complimentary 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 as 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® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2017