Depression and Sleep

(This blog was originally posted on January 15, 2016)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

John Kappas, Ph.D., observed that depressive sleep tends to be light, which allows the individual to maintain enough awareness of the environment and maintain a sense of being able to stay in control. Often, someone who is dealing with depression reports tossing and turning throughout the night and easily awakens. However, the person’s belief that he or she does not sleep at all is usually not completely accurate, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder stated.

The hypnotherapist can prove that the client actually does sleep by having the individual place an illuminated clock beside the bed. That way, the individual can always see what time it is whenever his or eyes open. For one week the person should record the time whenever he or she wakes up, and then try to drift back to sleep. By the time the person finally “gets up” out of bed in the morning, the individual can look back at the times he or she woke up during the night to see that there were some solid hours spent asleep—usually between three to five hours.

“If you get that pattern, and the person has had some sleep (a nap) during the day, people can get by on five hours of sleep,” Dr. Kappas explained. Once the person realizes that he or she is actually getting some sleep, the anxiety about not sleeping usually disappears and the person sleep six to eight hours a night. “This mechanism works pretty well with depressive sleepers, and we use it quite regularly.”

However, if the person is genuinely unable to sleep at all, he or she will not have venting dreams and therefore is at risk of stimulus overload and a subsequent loss of the critical thinking/reasoning process. In this case, it would be inappropriate to use dream therapy because the thought of not sleeping would only induce further distress and anxiety.

“Don’t take away what little sleep they have,” the hypnotherapist advised.

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

The Pros and Cons of Making (Internet) Connections

(This blog was originally posted on August 2, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

My original “goal” for communicating on social media was for services like Twitter and Facebook to help me market my services as a hypnotherapist. To be honest, I was initially very reluctant to join either of those services. It seemed like a false and impersonal way to get my message out, let alone explain and assuage doubts about what hypnotherapy can do to help a person achieve self-improvement goals. A lot has changed.

My website, www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com, does the majority of “explanation” heavy-lifting for me. However, social media has been very beneficial in helping me introduce myself and what I do to a worldwide audience and market new hypnotherapy skills and promotional offers. It has also enabled me to become socially active in causes about which I am passionate—such as animal conservation, anti-poaching and helping to rehome shelter animals—as well as connect with very good friends. In fact, I have never even met some of my on-line friends.

Before the advent of social media, interpersonal connections were made in the course of face-to-face encounters, introductions through mutual contacts and well-placed advertisements in newspapers and magazines. These days, entire populations of potential contacts are available at the touch of a button on a computer or SmartPhone. It has truly never been easier to make a potentially career-altering connection.

Indeed, there is a caveat to the benefits of having such widespread and easy access. Social media is that these various outlets offer a chance to express any and all feelings you want to share without offering an option or warning to take a time-out before pressing that “send” button. Unlike face-to-face or even voice-to-voice communication in which you have a chance to perceive nuances in language and expression, there is no or very little opportunity to make this kind of interpretation in 140 typed characters. (Facebook does provide the option to use emojis to support the emotions behind the sentiment the writer is trying to convey.) As Dr. Alex Kappas liked to say, “I know you believe you think you understand what I have just said; but I am not sure that what you heard is not what I meant.” Indeed, during the course of a passionate written exchange it is easy to lose track of the emotions and words that are being expressed and leave a long-lasting, sometimes negative, impression that overshadows the original intent of the message.

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 to Overcome Fear of Water

(This blog was originally posted on August 24, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., once worked with a client to help her overcome her irrational fear of water. She told the hypnotherapist that she even felt anxious just thinking about water and always tried to wipe the fluid off her face as quickly as possible. This anxiety was a legitimate fear versus a phobia because the client had nearly drowned in a river as a young child and was subsequently involved in a car crash where the vehicle went over a bridge. However, she also manifested 27 symptoms consistent with having low blood sugar. 

When working with someone who has an irrational fear of water, start by advising the person to change her eating habits to normalize the blood-sugar level, Dr. Kappas advised. It is also necessary to modify her suggestibility to decrease this fear and susceptibility to suggestions about it. Once the client is in hypnosis, work with the individual to separate her anxiety of water and the sensation of it making contact with her face.

Use circle therapy to desensitize the person to the fear reaction by repeatedly having her bring up the fear and then relax, the hypnotherapist said. This process will help the individual associate relaxation with the originally threatening stimulus. As the client disassociates her fear of water from the fear of her physical reaction, she will gradually be able to think about this stimulus without associating it to a fear response.

Finally, use a double bind to lock in her sense of relaxation, Dr. Kappas said: “The harder you try to feel the fear of water, the more difficult it will become.”

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