Body Syndromes: Guilt and Sexual Frustration syndrome

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was previously posted on December 29, 2015)

 

 

 

Photo by Rick Hustead

 

   Have you ever told an acquaintance that you can’t make it to their party because you have a headache—only to develop a bad stomachache that prevents you from attending a different event that you really wanted to go to? Alternatively, perhaps you have noticed that your period has become irregular or other symptoms of your reproductive organs.  If so, you may have experienced Guilt/Sexual Frustration Syndrome.

   According to John Kappas, Ph.D., whenever a person represses or holds in (does not express) an emotion the displaced energy from that experience is converted into a physical “symptom” of that emotional trauma. Even though there are no nerve endings in the brain, emotions in the brain through our perceptions (e.g., smell, taste, sight, hearing, touch). Electric impulses carry this information through the body and begin to manifest physical discomfort in those areas that are specifically associated with a certain repressed emotion as a Body Syndrome, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder stated.

   Illnesses of the adrenal glands, hips, intestines, lower back and sexual organs typically manifest Guilt/Sexual Frustration Syndrome, which are related to guilt and sexual/relationship problems. Symptoms related to this syndrome include: anorgasmia, constipation, irregular menstruation, Irritable-Bowel Syndrome, lower-back pain and prostate or ejaculatory dysfunction. Perhaps you feel guilty about not disclosing something on an official document or flirting with someone other than your spouse, etc. Alternatively, these illnesses can also manifest sexual/relationship problems, such as sexual frustration, sexual dysfunction, abstinence and sexual confusion.

   As a certified hypnotherapist, it is out of my scope of expertise to diagnose an illness or to recognize/identify specific symptoms that have a psychological or physiological origin. However, once a licensed medical or mental-health expert has ruled out a medical etiology of your symptom, with a follow-up referral from that licensed professional (California Business and Professions Code 2908), I may continue to work with you in hypnotherapy to alleviate and/or control these symptoms. In addition, I can use hypnosis and therapeutic guided-imagery techniques to address the specific emotional trauma that has triggered those symptoms and help you to pursue and achieve your vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.

 

 

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

 

Body Syndromes: Fight/Reaching Syndrome

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

(This blog was originally posted on October 16, 2015)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

 

 

According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., whenever a person represses or does not express an emotion the displaced energy from that experience is converted into a physical “symptom” of that emotional trauma. The phenomenon is called a body syndrome. There are no nerve endings in the brain; however, sensory perception (e.g., smell, taste, sight, hearing, touch) that begin there send electric impulses that carry this information through the body. These impulses ultimately begin to manifest physical discomfort in areas of the body that are specifically associated with a certain repressed emotion. Once we are aware of which emotion is being manifested, we can treat the syndrome, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder stated.

The Fight/Reaching Syndrome affects the arms and hands. Physiological symptoms and diseases that are characterized by these syndromes include: arthritis, blisters, nail-biting, rheumatism, skin rashes or warts.  According to the premise of Body Syndromes, the symptoms of someone who has a Fight Syndrome manifest the sufferer’s subconscious need to defend her- or himself, such as from verbal or physical abuse. Someone who is metaphorically “reaching” for something that is unobtainable, such as a rejecting lover or a promotion the person was denied, might experience one of those physical ailments as a manifestation of Reaching Syndrome.  

People generally do not know what causes this presenting issue when they seek hypnotherapy. Since it is out of my scope of expertise as a certified hypnotherapist to recognize/identify specific symptoms that have a psychological or physiological basis, I refer clients to an appropriate licensed medical or mental-health professional to make this diagnosis (California Business and Professions Code 2908). However, once this other expert has ruled out a medical etiology of your symptom and provided an appropriate treatment, I can continue to work with you in hypnotherapy with a follow-up referral from that licensed professional. In addition to providing complementary therapeutic benefits and help to alleviate and/or control your discomfort, I can also use hypnosis and therapeutic guided-imagery techniques to help you achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.

My first step to treating someone who is manifesting a Fight or Reaching Syndrome is to explore what the client is subconsciously fighting or reaching for. Once the possible cause(s) or motivation(s) has been established, I would use systematic desensitization to help the client neutralize the intensity of the stimulus that triggers his or her physical symptom of this syndrome. I would also incorporate guided therapeutic imagery and teach the emotional freedom technique to increase the person’s perception of being able to control and prevail over the emotional triggers of this syndrome. Therapeutic guided-imagery techniques would also be useful tools with which the client can explore different options for resolving the conflict so he or she could focus on and achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.

 

 

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

 

What Do You Believe?

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

 

(This blog was originally posted on August 26, 2014)

 

Photo by Rick Hustead

 

 

  I love this quote from actress Cameron Diaz: “I know I am capable of anything because I’ve never been told otherwise.” Wow. What a powerful statement. I can almost hear and feel the confidence in her voice. Unfortunately, many people do not possess the same amount of confidence in their own abilities. Why? For the same reason that Ms. Diaz and other people have high self-esteem or high self-confidence: they learned what to believe about their abilities.

  John Kappas, Ph.D., a psychologist and founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, best explained this phenomenon in his Theory of Mind. Your subconscious mind learns and adopts behaviors and ways of thinking from a very young age. By the time you are about five years old the blueprint of your future beliefs and behaviors is estab­lished, based on the beliefs and behaviors you learned during those early years of your life. When you were a very small child, a caretaker believed and encouraged you to believe that anything is possible—or not. You learned by association and repetition of that activity to like and feel comfortable doing it; and every time that person or others encouraged you to participate in the activity/activities you enjoyed, your confidence and self-esteem continued to grow. Conversely, if you received negative messages (e.g., criticism and disapproval) and/or were discouraged from doing “x” your self-confidence and/or self-esteem are unlikely to be so high. For example, there is a fabulous scene in the 1981 film, Paternity, in which Burt Reynolds’ character points to a little boy riding his bicycle on a brick wall. He tells Beverly D’Angelo that the child has never fallen off that wall, but that the day he does fall it will be “the day he finds out about gravity.”

  According to Dr. Kappas, everyone carries the association and enjoyment (or not) of our specific “known” behaviors and beliefs throughout our life or until we are motivated to change this belief or behavior. Whether someone encouraged or discouraged you from doing something or believing in yourself, these patterns formed knowns in your subconscious mind and eventually became part of your subconscious life script. From then on, every time you encountered an unfamiliar situation, this script influenced whether you would attempt a challenge with confidence or bow out because you didn’t believe you could really accomplish the task at hand. Not only does your SCM store the association between those beliefs and behaviors, it also reinforces them every time you engage in that behavior or bow out of an activity. No matter how much your conscious mind dislikes or rails against the self-doubt you carry around with you, so long as your SCM is comfortable and familiar (pleasure) with this known that is what you will continue to believe.

   Your subconscious mind may know what you really want, but it is your conscious mind that possesses the willpower, decision-making, reasoning and logic to literally change your mind. I use hypnosis and therapeutic guided-imagery techniques to help my hypnotherapy clients change those unwanted or negative beliefs or behaviors that have prevented them from achieving their true potential. Hypnotherapy works because you want to make those changes, and it helps you to see and realize that anything really can be possible because you no longer tell yourself otherwise.

 

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

 

 

Vicarious Training

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was originally posted on August 6, 2014)

Photo by Rick Hustead

 

 

    Training clinics are great opportunities to learn tips and techniques from celebrated athletes in your sport. Similarly, you can improve your skill by watching and critiquing video-recordings of yourself training and discussing your observations with your coach. Finally, you can also learn a lot observing other members of your team when they are training or competing and listening to the coach’s advice or instruction to your teammates.

   One benefit of this kind of training is that you can observe what the athlete is doing and how he or she is doing it in terms of what the instructor is asking for. You will also have a firsthand look at how the technique looks when it is done correctly or incorrectly, accompanied by the trainer’s feedback to the athlete without the pressure of being in the spotlight yourself. You can focus on and mentally process these instructions and corrections in the context their being a (hopefully) supportive critique of your technical performance. You can then incorporate what you learned during this “lesson” into visualization and imagery exercises to improve your own execution of that or a similar technique.

   Another benefit of vicarious training is that you can test your skill at identifying those minute technical movements that facilitate the successful execution of a technique or an error. If the student makes similar mistakes that your coach has also previously called you on, listen closely to his or her suggestions to correct that error. Hypnotherapist and Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., explained why suggestibility can be a game-changer in how you perceive and process information. For example, a physical suggestible person learns best from direct and literal instructions or cues from the environment. This athlete will take in the instruction the moment it is given. However, an emotional suggestible learns from metaphor and inference. In addition to taking in the literal instructions, this athlete truly learns by projecting the coach’s corrections and tips for the other student onto his or her own athletic performance. This is one reason why vicarious learning opportunities such as viewing training videos, auditing clinics, and watching peers practice or compete in the sport are so effective in improving athletic performance.

   Finally, you are also likely to glean additional information about the sport, in general, and the specific technique or movement being practiced, during conversations between the instructor and the athlete. Even if you have heard it all before, as it were, it is beneficial to listen to this information again to reinforce the information you have learned about the techniques you are or will be working on. Furthermore, the coach may use different phrases or expression to clarify what the student needs to learn or understand. You never know, but this slight variation in the instructor’s language or communication technique may also resonate with you and deepen your understanding of the skill you have been training to improve.

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

 

 

Venturing Into the Unknown

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was originally posted on December 25, 2013)

Photo by Rick Hustead

 

 

For many of us, doing something new or unfamiliar can be very scary. But, you know what? After you do that thing just one time it loses that essence of being scary. It becomes “known” to your subconscious mind and is integrated with your repertoire of behaviors. Your subconscious mind will file away the memory of that sensation, experience, or associated emotion for future reference for future behaviors the rest of your life—even if you never repeat the specific behavior. (Advanced calculus, anyone?)

Hypnosis Motivation Institute co-founders John G. Kappas, Ph.D., and Alex G. Kappas Ph.D., revolutionized the practice of hypnotherapy based on their findings that not everyone receives hypnotic suggestions the same way (suggestibility). Suggestibility refers to how you learn, and it influences how you interpret every experience. In Kappasinian Hypnotherapy there are two categories of “known” (learned) experiences:

• Pain: Anything new or unfamiliar (unknown). It may also refer to a physically or emotionally painful experience. 
• Pleasure: An experience that is known and familiar, although it may not necessarily be pleasurable. “Pleasure” can be a positive or a negative emotional/physical experience.

When you first learned how to walk, the first step or two was probably wobbly. You probably held onto a parent’s hand for dear life for the first attempts; it may have taken a week before you could make it across a room without stumbling and falling down (Pain). Fast-forward a week, a year, 20 years to today. Now, you are able to skip, jump and run—and so much more—without even thinking about it (Pleasure) because these activities are familiar and comfortable.

Just imagine all of the things you can and will achieve when your subconscious mind recognizes and accepts that these new behaviors are now “knowns” and are here to stay!

 

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

 

Eyes on the Ground

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was originally posted on July 13, 2011)

 

Photo courtesy of Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht.

 

No matter who you are, every equestrian benefits from having someone observe you ride. Ideally, you can train with someone who can constructively critique your position, aids, etc. while you work with your horse. No matter how good or experienced an equestrian you are, it is almost impossible to notice every detail about your position or technique that another person’s experienced eye could easily see. There is nothing so valuable for improving your ride as receiving feedback—good or bad—at the precise moment you are asking for a movement. This kind of instruction can truly make all the difference in how you ride.

Many years ago, figure skater Michelle Kwan decided to train without a skating coach. She had previously won a silver Olympic medal, and she owned many national and world championship titles. Surely, these experiences and her talent as a skater qualified her to work without a trainer. However, she did not skate so well on her own; within a year Ms. Kwan re-hired her former coach and started winning medals again.

Even trainers have trainers. At the very least, they acknowledge the philosophies of other horsemen who have influenced their own work with horses. In 2010, I was privileged to audit a couple of Jan Ebeling’s dressage clinics at Equine Affaire (Pomona). In addition to teaching his own students, he competes at Grand Prix dressage competitions around the world. At one point, Mr. Ebeling disclosed that in addition to being coached by his wife (also an accomplished dressage competitor), he sends video of his training sessions to his own instructor…in Germany!

I rode in my horse, Galahad, in his first-ever show in 2021. We did okay at the schooling show, but I wanted to do much better next time around. So, in April 2022, I rode almost every day leading up to the competition and took several extra lessons to work through some of the trickier transitions for us. I followed the mantra, “Perfect practice makes perfect performance,” and I relied on my trainer’s experience as a riding teacher and a successful eventing competitor to help me prepare for this competition. I wanted to ride an accurate test on show-day, and I trusted Darla Opava’s insights as she advised me how to fine-tune my position and aids when. She even corrected my mistakes before I even made them—at least before I was aware that I had made an error. The hard work paid off: we placed second in a class of six competitors and earned a solid, qualifying score. I was thrilled.

As the tagline for those MasterCard® advertisements might read, “Having a trainer to watch you ride: Priceless.”

 

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023

(Don't Start) Thinking About Tomorrow

I am continuing to suspend in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

 

(This blog was originally posted on August 22, 2014)

 

Photo by Sara R. Fogan, C,Ht.

  

     One of the most important things we can do for our mental and emotional well-being is to allow ourselves to relax. I know, I know. That is easier said than done, especially on a Sunday night, because, well, tomorrow is Monday. Indeed, sometimes it feels like all of Sunday isn’t even part of the weekend, let alone a day of rest, because it has morphed into a day of preparation for Monday. It’s when we rush to put the finishing touches on homework assignments or projects for work and start psyching ourselves up for the grind of the week ahead. Furthermore, the more we think about the deadlines that are coming up, the social events or school activities that we “must” attend next week, or the rush-hour traffic we will have to negotiate early tomorrow morning, the more anxious we become. It’s enough to ruin the weekend, but only if we let it. Here are some suggestions to help you relax and enjoy the day:

• Before you leave work, etc. on Friday, make a contract with yourself to not bring/do work at home; or, if you know that you must work on a project, that you will reserve some time between Friday evening and Sunday evening to relax and unwind.

• Use imagery to visualize, picture or pretend that you are able to relax and enjoy the rest and relaxation that you deserve this weekend.

• During this “Me Time,” just do what you want whether that is sleeping in, participating in a sport or hobby or even doing nothing at all.

• Turn your activities into opportunities for moving meditation. In other words, focus only on what you are doing at that moment. If/when you notice that you are actively thinking and worrying about work or school, draw a couple of deep breaths and center your attention back on you and what you are doing right now. Whether you are cuddling your spouse, playing fetch with your dog or watching a movie with your kids, you will be able to enjoy whatever you are doing right now if that activity is occupying your full attention.

• Use or recite affirmations that support your decision to relax and to think only about the present (i.e., what you are doing right now.)

• Before you go to bed, make a mental or literal checklist to confirm that you are prepared to deal with tomorrow’s challenges. For example, is your mobile phone charged or charging? Are your completed home-work assignments in your backpack? Is the project you completed for work in your briefcase? Once you have verified that everything is okay, you can sleep quickly, soundly and deeply and know that you are in the perfect place to enjoy a successful, productive week.

 

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, four years in a row (2019-2022). For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2023