What if hell doesn't matter?

Raise the bar!

NOT interested in dreams? Really?

NOT interested in dreams? Was she SERIOUS? After all, wasn’t she a HYPNOTHERAPIST! How could she NOT be interested in dreams?

When I recovered from my state of complete dumb-foundedness, I realized that my colleague’s training had probably never introduced her to dreams and dream working. I know mine didn’t. I was dream working long before getting bitten by the 'Hypno-bug.'

The thing is … everybody dreams. Not everyone recalls their dreams, but that’s easily remedied. The thing to keep in mind is that every night everyone is averaging 4 or 5 dreams. That’s a lot of dreams over the course of a lifetime!

Some of those dreams are good. Some of them are bad. And some of them are downright nightmarish.

So why do we dream?

We dream because dreaming serves an important purpose. Researchers have learned that, like sleep, dreaming is linked to both learning and repair of the body-mind.

Dreaming supports our overall health and wellness.

The Shamanic perspective suggests that there are three kinds of dreams. Night dreams. Day dreams. And this dream.What’s interesting is that they make no distinction between them. They’re all dreams.

As Hypnotherapists, what we generally work with is “this” dream. We work our craft to resolve the underlying cause of a person’s “bad” dreams; those internal conflicts, fears, inadequacies and such which play out in their daily living.

Day dreams are those involuntary imaginings or flights of fancy we all experience while awake. Some of them are flights of fancy where our mind is focused attentively on something pleasurable – receiving accolades for accomplishment, winning the lottery, experiencing a romantic liason with Brad Pitt (or Angelina) – obviously, these are good dreams.

Unfortunately, too many of our day dreams are bad dreams. We call them ‘worry.’

As Hypnotists we routinely use this naturally occurring state of focused attention. We invoke day dreams through suggestion using future pacing, mental rehearsal, guided imagery, and other techniques.

Night dreams have fascinated people since the earliest times. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks took dreaming very seriously, building temples and shrines where dreams could be invoked for the purposes of healing and guidance.

The modern-day experience of the dream temple occurs in offices where therapeutic dream work is facilitated for the same purposes - healing and guidance.

Dreams speak the language of image and emotion – the same language of the subconscious mind. So as Hypnotherapists we are uniquely positioned to work with dreams!

When a client’s presenting issue is a recurring nightmare, Hypnotherapy is a very effective method for finding resolution. Once the cause is uncovered and resolved (usually something from childhood) the anxiety-generating reruns come to an end.

Dreams can serve as a healing ‘barometer’ to provide the CH with feedback following a session, perhaps by indicating partial or complete resolution, or by surfacing the next layer calling for healing.

I have found that having a foundation in working with my own dreams has deepened my understanding of regression work. It has helped me to develop an intuition I apply in sessions. It’s hard to explain. Things just stick out. The mind works through association so contrasts, play on words, exaggerations, and minimizing are just a few of the valuable subconscious cues that grab my attention.

Most important - dream working has taught me to stay curious, naïve even, and not rush. All dreams are sent in service of healing and wholeness – even the bad ones. Even cancer. I teach the client to trust the subconscious mind, as I do. Rather than try to force things we simply allow the answers to be revealed through the process. 

Dream working has taught me a gentler approach.

Our dreams have their roots in our daily living. They are the subconscious mind’s way of showing the conscious mind what’s most important. It’s just not what we think. It’s what we have been avoiding, what we haven’t wanted to look at, and it feels uncomfortable.

As John Gray wrote, what we can feel, we can heal. 

Dreams provide natural gateways into the subconscious mind, where all our feelings and memories reside. Work with the subconscious mind and the doors to the past will open to allow healing. And it will happen automatically. 

Not interested in dreams? Are you sure?

Starfish Calling

 

Two friends are walking along the beach at dawn following a storm. They notice that the storm has left the beach littered with starfish. Hundreds of starfish. Thousands of starfish. As they walk and talk, one of the companions picks up a starfish and tosses it back into the water. And then another. And another.

Finally, their friends stops and says, “What are you doing?” To which the friend replies, “I am throwing the starfish back into the ocean.”

“But why?” asks the friend.

“The sun is coming up,” explains the other friend, as another starfish is sent sailing into the sea. “If I don’t, they will die.”

“Look around you!” argues the friend. “There are hundred, possibly thousands of starfish on the beach. What difference could it possibly make?”

Picking up yet another starfish, the other friend tossed it out into the water, saying, “It makes a difference to that one!”

One of the things that drew me into the study of hypnosis and healing with the mind was my own search to discover a purpose-driven vocation. After years of working my way through countless books, programs, and courses I eventually arrived at a statement of purpose. And here’s where I’m going to go out on a limb. 

I’m going to share it with you.

My purpose is to reconnect lost souls with the awareness of the light at the core of their being to illuminate the world.

I know what you’re thinking… Cue to the theme song from Twilight Zone, right?

But actually, this is something I have been doing all along. You see, before hypnosis, I owned a self-help/spiritual bookstore. Turns out it is actually congruent for me to put my emphasis on raising consciousness. 

As a spiritual bookseller my job was to help “lost souls” find their way. After all, weren’t we kindred spirits stranded on the wrong planet? The least we could do is embrace one another in recognition of the journey we all share; a journey to wholeness. 

Life is, after all, a healing journey.

I have come to realize that none of us are truly lost. We just feel lost when we have forgotten our true nature. 

I have also come to accept that healing isn’t something we do. It is the natural result of reconnecting one’s awareness of one’s Core Integrity. 

Regardless of what we conceive it to be, we are connected to Life and Divine Nature. Our Core Being is the light within us, our inner beauty and love which, like the moon, reflects Divine Light and Love. 

I work tirelessly to remember this. And inspire others to do the same. Because it requires consciousness to facilitate healing. 

Roselyn Bruyere, author of Wheels of Light, once said, “If you knew why you are here you would show up!” The burden is upon each of us to show up with a commitment to honing our knowledge, tools, and skills in service to healing.

You are the instrument. 

You are never done learning and healing because, like metal in a forge, you are being shaped by your life experiences for a purpose. You have a purpose that is unique to you. What it might be is up to you to discover. 

Which brings me to the starfish story ….

You see, this story never set right with me. I have never been satisfied with healing just one. What I wanted was companions to join me! And find more effective ways to return the ‘lost ones’ to their Source of Love…

And in so doing, perhaps, illuminate the world.

The Pros and Cons of Hypnotherapy 4

Seriously, what are we?

Some organizations use the letters CHt to designate Certified Hypnotherapist. Others use the letters CH interchangeably for Certified Hypnotherapist/Hypnotist or Clinical Hypnotherapist.

With the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (IMDHA) I am a CHt. My certificate reads “Certified Hypnotherapist.” When I joined the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) I became a Certified Hypnotist.

Fair enough. Basic certification hadn’t qualify me to do ‘therapy,’ anyway - hypno or otherwise.

A few years ago the NGH announced their decision to change the meaning of the letters “CH.” According to the NGH, I am now a Consulting Hypnotist.

I’m not sure exactly what this is supposed to mean and I certainly don’t recall signing up to become a consultant. A consultant, by definition, is someone who offers advice. And none of my training to date has qualified me to do that!

I know the NGH have their reasons and I trust they serve the greater good. My boggle is that, according to my diplomas, I am a “Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist.”  Frankly, I would be quite content to be called a Certified Hypnosis Practitioner.

But then, CHP already belongs to the Certified Health Physicists….

I won’t belabor the point. Bigger brains have worked on this problem, I know.

We also have Certified Instructors (CI) and Certified Professional Hypnosis Instructors (CPHI) … which seems to suggest that the CI’s are somehow not professional …

Sadly, this is sometimes true. As a result, too many newly certified hypnotists leave hypnosis school with stars in their eyes only to give up. Or worse, quit before completing their training.

Many hypnovices never go beyond relaxation hypnosis ‘scriptnotism’. Not that there’s anything wrong with relaxation hypnosis, but there is a significant difference between relaxation hypnosis and Hypnotherapy.

The problem is that many hypnovices are unaware of this!

And the public has no way of making a distinction because our credentials don’t make a distinction. As far as the public is concerned all hypnotists are the same. Whether a hypnotist has 50 hours or 1500 hours of training, 2 years or 20 years in practice, as far as the general public is concerned we all wear the same overalls.

Let’s play a little game of ‘what if?’ …

What if the various guilds found a way to amalgamate and pool their resources for the betterment of the profession?

What if the onus of responsibility was taken off the shoulders of the Hypnovice and put squarely onto the shoulders of the profession to educate the public?

What if we didn’t have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps? What if we pulled each other up?

In defense of the various hypnosis certifying bodies, they have done much to bring hypnotism out of the dark ages by providing structured training, educational journals, conventions, board certification, union, insurance, forums, etc.

And pioneering leaders like Tom Nicoli, Scott Sandland, and Melanie Roth (to name but a few) have stepped up to further the profession by initiating movements like World Hypnotism Day and Hypno-Thoughts.

http://www.worldhypnotismday.com/

http://www.hypnothoughts.com/

Whether you are new to the profession or a seasoned hypnotherapist, take your craft seriously and, as Ghandi suggested, "Be the CHANGE" you want to see in the world.

The Pros and Cons of Hypnotherapy 3

There seems to be a wasteland between basic training and advanced professional training.

Take Veronica.

Veronica called me after receiving her CH certification. She desperately wanted to make the transition from her current profession as a medical worker into hypnosis. And while she felt that she had found her calling, with hypnosis she recognized her training had not prepared her to work with ‘real’ clients.

She asked me to recommend a suitable advancement program.

It was quickly evident that Veronica lacked the basics. While she had earned the CH designation of a Certified Hypnotherapist, her training had focused almost exclusively on past-lives.

My best suggestion to Veronica was to take Gerald Kein’s Omni-Hypnosis Basic to Advanced Training Program. She had the option of either attending a live training in Florida or doing the distance-ed program; a program I had found very comprehensive and affordable.

I then suggested that, following the Omni-Hypnosis training, she consider the 5-PATH™ training with Cal Banyan.

Alternately, Banyan Hypnosis offers the NGH basic certification course prior to 5-PATH training. The ideal would be to allow herself time to integrate the basic course before moving into the rigors of advanced training, but if time and costs were a concern, she could take them back to back.

I stressed the importance of laying the groundwork for the advanced work.

Veronica, tight on funds and anxious to begin her new career, decided to skip the basics and sign up for the advanced training in 5-PATH™.

Several months later, Veronica called to give me an update following her 5-PATH™ training. She admitted that the course had been over her head. Unable to grasp the material, she floundered. The trip proved to be a disappointing waste of her hard-earned resources. 

I hate to say, “I told you so” …  

What Veronica needed was a solid foundation upon which to build her desired new career as a Hypnosis professional. What she needed was consistent information to guide her in acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to practice.

And our profession let her down. 

How? By failing to provide basic standards for certification. 

Veronica had obtained her CH so technically she 'qualified' for advanced training while 'practically', she was grossly unprepared.

Result: Veronica gave up on hypnosis. And her dream.