15 Tips to Take Hypnosis to Healing

Here's a list of 15 tips to help you be more effective in taking your hypnosis practice into a healing practice.

1. Listen. The client needs to feel heard. Often the Hypnotherapist is the last resource to be called upon following a long chain of failed attempts to resolve the client’s problem. A distraught, frustrated client is an emotional client! And the subconscious mind is the feeling mind. So listen!
2. Educate. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. So teach your client what she needs to know to be successful working with you. Uncover and dispel any fears or misconceptions about hypntherapy with a well-crafted pre-talk.
3. Condition. Most of the problems we deal with in our offices are the result of childhood conditioning. So why not condition your client for success? After all, all healing is self-healing. It’s not something we do, it’s something that happens when we allow it. The therapeutic relationship provides the safety and validation the client needs to allow change to occur. So train your clients how to work effectively with you. Prove that they’re in good hands, that you can be trusted, and their subconscious mind will show you the gold!
4. Carpe Diem! "Seize the day." When an abreaction occurs, mentally do a little Snoopy-dog dance then, reassure the client. Remind her that this is why she is here! Prove that you can guide the client quickly to relief and she will gladly walk with you through the Valley of Fears.
5. Relax. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was the client’s problem. So it’s reasonable to expect that it might take a while to resolve it. Healing is, after all, a process. Release the need to be a 'one-hit-wonder.' Be patient. Slow down. Take things one step at a time. Work with the client's subconscious mind to achieve healing.
6. Focus on feelings. Where do we feel our feelings? In the body - primarily in the gut, chest and throat areas (which correspond with major nerve plexus’.) Working with the body has many benefits. First, it gives the client a physical point of focus. And hypnosis is maintained through focused attention. Second, it gives the client a way to subjectively gauge her level of discomfort and, therefore, measure improvements.
7. Validate. All feelings are good. Acknowledge the negative, uncomfortable feelings and make them acceptable so the client can finally allow them full expression. Affirm the positive, better-feeling feelings that come naturally as a result of releasing the negative thoughts and feelings.
8. Test the results. As Yoda said, “There is no try. There is only do and not-do.” Don’t try to convince the client that it’s working. Prove it! Show her that change is already occurring! (Even if it’s 5 minutes into the session.)
9. Wrap up at a point of feeling better. Ask your client to assess how much better she feels compared to when you started. Then drive home the evidence that positive change is occurring, and that complete resolution is merely a matter of time. And when healing is complete the client will not only be free to ‘do’ things differently, she will have a newer, better expectation of life in general. And her thinking and feeling will be congruent with her desired ‘doing.’
10. Shoot for the stars and take what you can get. We’d all love to ‘nail’ the ISE right out of the gate so we can ring the ‘one-session-miracle’ bell. Realistically, though, we’re not in charge of the healing. The client’s subconscious mind decides what it’s going to reveal, when, and why. So work with whatever comes up. Even seemingly insignificant events can generate the gold of healing. Think of a small child who runs home to Mamma crying over a paper cut. When Mamma examines the finger she finds the physical injury is barely visible. Yet Mamma knows that the way to help the child feel better is to give attention to the perceived hurt. She validates the child’s feelings by giving attention to the wound without judging. In doing so, the child’s emotional distress is quickly relieved. A calm child emerges with a new understanding that she can make it through a traumatic event and feel better. Whether the event is an obvious trauma, a minor scrape, or a complete misinterpretation of circumstances - treat it as Mamma would – with love and acceptance.
11. Focus on releasing. All that internal pressure is stress. And stress inhibits cognition. In short, we cannot think clearly when we’re all stressed-out. So focus on releasing the feelings to bring relief. With relief will come clarity.
12. Be thorough. The more the client releases, the more clarity she will enjoy. Increased clarity will allow insight and understanding. Understanding allows forgiveness. And forgiveness is the healing. So be thorough. Release everything. Ensure there’s nothing left to reseed the issue. And when release is complete, forgiveness will come easily. It will just happen automatically.
13. Forgive everyone. I mean everyone. Don’t discriminate! All forgiveness is self-forgiveness. Every individual in an event (even by-standers) are 'players' on the stage of the client’s inner mind. These individuals have been internalized as parts of the client. The mind works through association. Asthese individuals are associated with the internal pain the client is suffering, they need to be forgiven. So forgive them all – even the ‘good guys.’
14. Polish. Polishing techniques can be used to clean up residual material; generalize changes; compound change; help deepen the healing; and apply the healing to specific areas of the client’s body or life. Polishing can project change into the future as an expectation of things to come. They can also be given as homework as a self-healing, self-empowerment tool.
15. Walk your talk. Clairvoyant healer, Rosalyn Bruyere, once said, “If you really knew why you are here you’d show up.” Hypnotherapy is not merely a job or a profession, it’s a calling. So take your work seriously enough to do your own work. Whatever practice you choose to keep yourself clear – whether it's journaling, self-hypnosis, meditation, tapping, dream working, prayer or something else – make it part of your daily routine. Think of it as brushing your teeth. Consistency counts.

The Devil's Therapy: From Hypnosis to Healing is coming soon. Watch for it!