Break Old Habits...With Hypnotherapy!

(This blog was originally posted on January 24, 2014)

Photo by Rick Hustead

     Habits have a way of taking a toll on our lifestyles. The good news is that it is possible to change these behaviors. Hypnotherapy can help you replace the subconscious mental script that you currently follow (the habit you want to dump) with one that you design to help you to live the life you want to lead.

     According to John Kappas, Ph.D.'s Theory of Mind, the only two things humans “know” from birth is to react to a fear of loud noises and to react to a fear of falling. Everything else is a learned behavior or belief. The good news since you , it is have learned to do something it is possible to unlearn it—even those things you have been doing “forever” such as put off doing homework or projects until the last minute, smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, bite your nails or eat a pint of ice cream before going to bed. So long as you are motivated to change these behaviors, through hypnosis and hypnotherapy, I can help you construct a new script or “game plan” to achieve your goal.

     As a certified hypnotherapist, I may work with you to achieve a variety of vocational avocational self-improvement goals (see the Appendix page on my website for a complete list of these topics). During the course of the hypnotherapy, I use guided imagery and Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques to help my clients find solutions and strategies to replace their unwanted habit and increase their self-confidence to make these behavior changes. Each solution is necessarily unique to each client, because it comes directly from that person’s subconscious mind, via hypnosis.

     And I will be there to motivate and support you as you let go of unwanted beliefs and behaviors to embark on your new life, unencumbered by old habits that used to weigh you down.

SPECIAL OFFER!

I am currently offering a 10 percent discount on all hypnotherapy for weight-loss/weight-management sessions. This offer is good through February 28, 2018. It is not exchangeable for cash and may not be combined with any other offer. For more information and to set up an appointment, please contact me at (661) 433-9430 or send an e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com.  

I look forward to hearing from—and working with—you soon!

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/.

Weight Loss and Hypnotherapy Special Offer for February 2018

Photo by Rick Hustead

Summer will be here sooner than we know. If you want to take off some weight and get fit before summer returns, now is the perfect time to try hypnotherapy and therapeutic guided imagery to help you achieve these goals! Following is a brief summary of how this program works.

The first thing I will do is to establish your motivation for losing the weight. Is there a health reason such as diabetes control? Do you want to improve your physical fitness or just take off a few pounds to get ready for the spring and summer? Perhaps friends or relatives in your social circle have been putting on pressure to drop the pounds. Or, you may (subconsciously) use excess weight as a “shield” to protect against emotional rejection or even a subconscious fear of returning to a previous lower weight where an emotional trauma may have occurred.

It doesn’t matter what your motivation for losing weight happens to be. However, said Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John G.Kappas, Ph.D., “If you are not personally motivated to achieve the weight-loss goal, the weight-loss program is unlikely to be successful.”

Once we identify and establish your motivation to lose weight, I will use hypnosis and guided-imagery techniques to help you resolve any previous issues or resistance to losing weight*. I will also use these therapeutic techniques to help you develop and reinforce your strong, positive self-image about being at the desired weight and feeling comfortable with being physically attractive. All of the hypnotic suggestions I use will incorporate your expressed motivations to feel physically, emotionally, mentally healthy and happier every day and to project positive feelings and ideas of successfully losing weight in a healthy way. (Depending on your weight-loss goals, I may also refer you to be examined by a physician for guidance about an appropriate exercise and nutritional regimen before we begin this program, which I will reinforce during your hypnotherapy sessions with me.)

SPECIAL OFFER!

I am currently offering a 10 percent discount on all hypnotherapy for weight-loss/weight-management sessions. This offer is good through February 28, 2018. It is not exchangeable for cash and may not be combined with any other offer. For more information and to set up an appointment, please contact me at (661) 433-9430 or send an e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com.  

I look forward to hearing from—and working with—you soon!

*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 an alternative or complementary 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 a substitute for licensed medical or psychological services or procedures.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified clinical 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/.

© 2018

Using the Dristhi While Riding

(This blog was originally posted on February 2, 2017)

Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan

When we practice balance poses during my yoga class, the teacher reminds us (the students) to focus on our drishti to stay in-tune with the work and control our body. Recently I asked one of the instructors about this concept. She explained that the drishti refers more to looking inward with the third eye to control behavior/habits and attention in daily life, not just focusing on a random spot in the near distance to maintain balance in the tree pose. This made complete sense to me and reminded me of something that horseman Chris Cox frequently reminds students and attendees at his training clinics.

“Ride with your eyes.”

It makes sense that when we look at something, even for just a few seconds, our attention is focused on it. The physical body makes tiny adjustments to maintain balance and mobility (even standing still). Unless you make a conscious effort to stay perfectly still or in one position, it is natural to lean toward or into the object of your fascination. Next time you have a conversation with someone, notice if you or the other person leans or moves slightly closer to each other.

If you ride horses, you are probably familiar with the warning that looking down at the ground is like picking your spot to land when you fall. Indeed, looking four, five or even six feet down from the back of an animal can disrupt balance our proprioception (body awareness) as the muscles in the body alternately tighten and release to stay on the horse. While you are distracted by what is going on the ground, you are more likely to miss what is going on around you that the horse perceives and reacts to. Before you know it, you’re on the ground wondering what just happened.

When Mr. Cox advises to ride with the eyes, it is a great way to focus (softly) on the environment around you as well as the specific direction where you want to go. This kind of focus widens the periphery of your visual field to nearly 180 degrees—the closest humans can get to being able to see the same kind of landscape horses perceive. In a way, this experience creates a kind of subconscious overload as the mind scrambles to process the various message units (perceptual stimuli) to create—you guessed it—a state of environmental hypnosis. The wonderful thing about this state is that it is actually a state of heightened awareness of environmental (and physical) stimuli even as the physical body becomes more comfortable and relaxed. When you are so focused, breathing begins to slow and the physical body relaxes while the subconscious mind remains aware of what is going on around you. You remain completely aware of your surroundings so you can communicate with and respond to your equine partner’s reactions and behavior during the ride.

 

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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2018