About sixty percent of my practice is helping people deal with anxiety. Five percent of the population has fairly severe anxiety, and, for some inexplicable reason, women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety than men. Anxiety varies greatly in its intensity and the debility it causes; it can range from a mild anxiety at meeting new people in a social situation to serious clinical depression.

It’s hard to categorize anxieties, but they fall basically into four categories:
o generalized anxieties,
o obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD)
o panic disorders, and
o post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Phobias fall into the first category of generalized anxieties. They can be fear of things like: needles, spiders, medical or dental procedures, bridges, freeways, etc. They can be fears rising from situations like open spaces (agoraphobia), closed spaces (claustrophobia), flying, public speaking, job interviews, bullying, inability to get to sleep, social anxiety, etc.
Because anxieties arise from individual thought patterns, the list is as vast and varied as the human condition. Phobias can be fleeting or last years, and they can be mild or severely debilitating.

Anxiety is often associated with many psychosomatic conditions such as hypertension and high blood pressure, ulcers, and colitis. Whether or not it is the cause, it certainly aggravates these conditions. Children are not immune to anxiety, and I have helped children with emetophobia, for example, where extreme anxiety leads them to vomiting in situations like having to go to school.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves frequent and repeated behavior patterns, or tension states that arise from ignoring or suppressing these thoughts. Common OCDs are constantly washing hands, checking locks, performing rituals before doing a specific task, and even hoarding and kleptomania. Anorexia Nervosa also falls into this category of obsessive compulsive and ritualistic behavior.

Post traumatic stress disorder is common among soldiers returning from the combat where they continually revisit terrifying experiences like watching comrades being blown up, and being injured themselves. Equally traumatic is a bad car accident, or a great loss or some other catastrophe. I recently saw a Vietnam veteran who, for forty years, relived every night in his dreams an incident where he nearly died and all his comrades were killed. Hypnosis enabled him to move on and the dreams ceased.

Panic attacks are a manifestation of extreme anxiety. These attacks happen when there are feelings of danger or fear around some event about to happen, or maybe anticipating making a fool of oneself in a particular situation. It’s all about doom and gloom, and this gives rise to feelings in the physical body, such a pain in the chest, or stomach, or in the head where it brings on a migraine.

How can hypnosis help these disorders? The first step is to take a detailed history to evaluate all the circumstances surrounding the anxiety condition. It is important to listen deeply, as the history will give clues as to the direction to take in the hypnotic state.

Next, I induce hypnosis to a deep somnambulistic level and take the client back in time in an age regression to the original cause of the anxiety. In most cases the unconscious mind in hypnosis will be able to recall the original sensitizing event, and in conversation tell me how it started, when and where it started, and why it still persists.

I then reframe the original sensitizing event. This is a process of putting the persistent anxiety and the circumstances surrounding it into a new “picture frame”. I am telling the client’s unconscious mind, which houses all his or her belief systems, to change the original imprint and now to be free of the anxiety, however long it may have persisted. Often an anxiety has its roots in childhood. My job is to help the client realize this and put it in the context of ‘now’ in the present. Once the client can see the origins of it, and how debilitating the anxiety has been over the years, then he or she is able to let go.

Let me give you an example from my practice. An engineer in his mid thirties explained to me he had to give a talk to his manager and his team every Monday morning on the progress he had made that week in designing a new product. He experienced panic attacks at the thought of the Monday morning meeting. In the regression we went back to the age of sixteen. He was falling behind in his grades in school, so his parents sent him away to a special school boot camp that had very strict discipline, and any breach of discipline was punished. He remembered being made to stand up on the dining table and apologize to his fellow students and the teachers for every misdemeanor. He had forgotten about the incident and had no idea that this was the cause. Once he realized that his hang-up was a holdover from his youth, he was able to make the necessary shift and put aside his Monday morning meeting anxiety.

I teach clients how to relax using instant hypnosis. With practice, you can put yourself in deep hypnosis in three minutes. If you’re in the car, just pull over and stop, or at work go into the bathroom for three minutes. By relaxing both physically and mentally, you can overcome the anxiety and put it aside if it flares up. I often implant a “hypnotic trigger” like pressing a set of fingers and thumb together, breathing and counting to ten, then releasing the tightened fingers and slipping into a mode of deep breathing and relaxation. The trigger sends a message to the unconscious mind to relax and this prevents the old feeling of anxiety from arising.
The simple secret to overcoming anxiety is to learn to relax. Get into a relaxed position and just breathe deeply. For deep-seated anxiety you may need more help, and hypnosis is a quick and effective way to uncover the cause and free you from it.

The “Hypno-Band” weight loss system is a proven way to reduce weight through hypnotherapy. It is a remarkably effective and safe procedure, at a fraction of the cost of real surgery. Unlike a surgical procedure with all the risks associated with an operation and anesthesia, the risk of infection, and the possibility of something going wrong, the “Hypno-Band” procedure is completely harmless to you, as it is carried out only in your unconscious mind.

You may know that originally I came from England, so I have contacts with hypnotherapy practices all over Britain. I read earlier this year about a hypnotist in northern England who had pioneered a procedure for virtual Bariatric surgery with a high success rate. I decided to learn it and offer it through my practice. I understood first hand exactly what the real surgery involved, as 21 years ago I had a similar procedure myself. I had multiple stomach ulcers and the surgeon performed what was effectively gastric bypass surgery. It was many months before I was able to get fully back to work, and I can tell you that this should only be a procedure of last resort.

There are three basic surgeries available today for those with a Body Mass Index of 30 or more.

• Adjustable Gastric band,
• Gastric Bypass, and
• Sleeve Gastrectomy.

The Adjustable Gastric Band surgery, also known as “Lap Band” surgery, is the least intrusive of them, and it can be removed later if you don’t like it. The procedure is laparoscopic, so it is the least intrusive, with five small incisions, the largest being just over an inch and the remaining are about one centimeter long. A small television camera is inserted showing the patient’s organs on a screen, and the surgeon carries out the operation using instruments inside the patient which he controls remotely. A plastic band is placed around the top of the stomach designed to restrict the amount of food the stomach can hold. You effectively have a new stomach the size of a golf ball. However, the digestive system works normally as food trickles into the rest of the stomach and digestive juices break the food down in the usual way.

The band has a tube that can be filled with saline from a port implanted under the skin on the lower belly, so the hole allowing food to filter into the digestive system can be further reduced, or the saline can be taken out, allowing a larger intake. The new stomach fills rapidly and sends messages to the central nervous system saying you are full and don’t need any more food.

The effect of giving the surgery in the hypnotic state is dramatic. This procedure is vividly conveyed to the Hypno-Band client who experiences it as if it were a physical surgery. What happens is that your unconscious mind is being constantly reminded that the stomach is now the size of a golf ball and you simply cannot eat in the style that you did before. It is as if the gastric band is a permanent obstructive feature of your anatomy, and all the neuro- physical effects going on in your mind and body are the same as if you had had the actual surgery. After the procedure, I have seen clients of mine lose as much as eleven pounds in ten days and continue to reduce weight until they reach their goal.

As a licensed practitioner of the Hypno-Band weight loss system, I offer a procedure that has been thoroughly tested and has achieved successful weight loss for hundreds of people. Just four visits over a period of a few weeks gives you all the reinforcement you need to set you on the course to achieve your healthy weight.

It’s easy, effective, affordable, and there are no unpleasant side effects. Claim your new body and new vitality today. We look forward to being your partners!

ref. The “Hypno-Band” Weight Loss System by Geoffrey Knight

Weight Loss with Hypnotherapy

Weekend #8 Recap: Our training was for Hypnosis Weight Loss (a.k.a Weight Management) and it rocked plus Students had Real Breakthroughs to boot!

Students received another full weekend of top notch Hypnotherapy training from the NW Hypnosis Institute as Bruce Terrill, CI, CHt worked his magic. The topic was weight loss and on several occasions Bruce pulled back the curtain and showed the students the inner working of what makes the NW Hypnosis Institute’s teachings so different. Bruce not only teaches the NGH (National Guild of Hypnotists) course materials and tons of additional materials – he also uses several special techniques to instill confidence and skills that would normally take students a significant amount of time in a professional practice plus loads of practical application to achieve. Most students in the class just enjoy learning from Bruce and don’t realize the extremely unique / world class training they are receiving… Bruce is a-ok with that, in fact he prefers it that way.

The weekend’s course materials consisted of a full Weight Management Session Checklist (below is some of what students practiced & learned):

• Establish Rapport with Client
  • rapport, rapport, rapport – you can’t help a client if you don’t have rapport. So we practice it over and over again.
• Client Information Form
  • 4 page intake form (the basics)
• Weight Management Questionnaire
  • 12 page questionnaire
  • the “meat and potatoes” of the program
• Basic Assessment Worksheet
• Goal Setting Worksheet
• Weight Management Script
  • custom designed for each individual clients needs
• Weight Loss Contract
• Teaching Client Weight Management Autosuggestion Exercise
• Teach Client Self-Hypnosis
• Plus additional Hypnotherapy procedures, tests, steps & practice.

The single most powerful thing over the entire weekend (according to several students) was the Diagnostic Trance Process. “The Diagnostic Trance involves an exploration of the various unconscious images and associations connected to the problem.” It was amazing yet so simple and several students gained huge breakthroughs (and practical steps) into improving / fixing personal “problems” they practiced with. I just love how powerful yet simple hypnotherapy is… it simply just works! I can’t wait to hear all of the weight loss success stories from the students when we attend class two weeks from now.

If you would like to learn how to help people lose weight with hypnosis, hypnotherapy & NLP – learn more from our next Hypnotherapy Training Course.

If you are currently dealing with a weight management issue and are interested in weight loss via hypnosis, contact Bruce at (503)267-1675

via Hypnosis Weight Loss – Weekend #8 | Portland Hypnosis Training.

Creating Exercise Motivation Through Hypnotherapy

While most of us think of the typical “male pattern baldness”, hair loss and hair thinning can be just as prevalent and worrisome for women.

Pattern baldness, also called androgenetic alopecia, can affect over 30% of men and women alike and often occurs when DHT, a metabolite of testosterone, shrinks hair follicles. Hormonal imbalances (like menopause) can also serve as triggers for hair loss, as can some medications, chemotherapy, nutritional imbalances, and stress.

Many over-the-counter options for hair restoration may help enlarge the shrunken (or shrinking) hair follicles; appropriate diet and supplements may improve blood chemistry; but getting to the root of the cause is key.

A June 2009 article in Self Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil cites that mind-body experts at Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (ACIM) have determined hypnotherapy can help people with “alopecia nervosa and other types of hair loss.”  A 2008 study done at ACIM found more than 57% of the clients who underwent hypnotherapy showed, “significant hair growth after…hypnosis.”

Hypnotherapy can help you get to the source of your hair loss. In the hands of a well-trained hypnotherapy professional, you just might find you can stop the loss and establish a new, healthier pattern for your life in the process. If you would like to start your new pattern of growth, please contact Shawn Marie Howe, a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Registered Nurse, and Master Herbalist. You can reach Shawn at A Healing Place at 503-263-3642 and www.ahealingplacecanby.com.

If you are interested in finding out how hypnosis can improve your reading and comprehension skills, please contact Debbie Taylor, a former reading teacher turned hypnotherapist, at Intuitive Hypnosis at 503-312-4660.

Not many of us can recognize and admit that negative thinking can control our lives. For those who have the courage to face their issue, you can find help and perhaps understand where the negative thinking is managed in your subconscious. Hypnosis can help you understand your habits by accessing the subconscious mind. Accepting your subconscious instincts relieves you of half your problems.These detrimental negative thinking patterns are like weeds in the mind. Hypnosis is a tool that can tend to the garden of your mind and release the habit of negative thinking. There is a seed that was planted without the full conscious awareness of why the pattern of negativity has taken root.

Take control of your negative thinking and self-talk by allowing yourself  healing that has held you back from a life of greatness and well being.  Seek hypnotherapy to help you tend to your mind and live the life of happiness and well being you deserve.  By understanding how negative thinking can be detrimental, I will reframe by giving you insight into how BENEFICIAL positive thinking can affect your life:

• Live longer
• Helps with stress management/ decrease stress
• Improve your health
• Greater resistance to catching the common cold
• Reduce risk of coronary artery disease
• Better coping skills during Hardships
• Stay motivated and achieve more in less time
• Create a positive attitude and mindset in you
• Gain more confidence and inspire those around you
• Puts the LAW OF ATTRACTION to work for you
• Increase in energy to stay focused and on top of things

Today, more tired than usual, while sitting at work staring aimlessly at my computer, I started asking myself why I feel so lazy even to lift a brow towards my resenting workload.  Typically, I am always functioning at 110 percent. Always at my highest performance, day in and day out.  Despite cycling through my job like an industrial dryer cycling through it’s monotonous routine and feeling burned out by the 10 hour day workweek, I know that lack of a full nights rest was partially to blame. But that’s when I started beating myself up because whats really to blame is myself; for putting off work and then having to face the consequence of sleeping late. But it’s not really work that I’m talking about, it’s the procrastination that’s compromised me from being productive at work. I’m certainly not a chronic procrastinator; nor a procrastinator by trade, but I know how “putting off” can hinder a  person  from achieving a better quality of life.

There is an underlying emotion behind procrastination, and it is in our subconscious mind that stores that information. According to Debbie Papadakis, a canadian hypnotherapist and psychotherapist who specializes in procrastination defines it as a subconscious delay in or avoidance to carrying out an action. It’s derived from a latin word which means in favor of tomorrow.  Procrastination is not done intentionally and the procrastinator is not lazy or incompetent. But we all act in accordance to the beliefs that our subconscious mind holds, and it is within this belief system that causes this habit.  Granted, we have all post-poned and put things off to the last minute because life just happens. But when it becomes a real problem, like for many Americans, the need for change is utterly important when it means taking rightful responsibilty over our lives.  The tool for change becomes vital in keeping up with our demanding society.  Hypnosis is the perfect therapy in relieving the debilitating habit of procrastination. If you are one grappled by the negativity of procrastination, discover  how hypnosis can change your life by ridding you of the limiting beliefs harbored by your subconscious mind .  Take control of today and don’t wait till tomorrow because sooner or later, you might just end up a day late and a dollar short.