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Most counselors and therapists undergo professional training to become more effective working with clients, add new modalities and techniques to their toolboxes, accrue clock hours/CEUs, and comply with ethical codes and licensure requirements. But those who train at The Wellness Institute get an additional benefit. Not only do they gain a valuable and life-changing technique to use with their clients, but they get the chance to be the client.

Learning Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy is a hands-on process. Doing your own personal healing work is part of the training.That may be a challenging statement for you. Just like our clients, therapists learning the Heart-Centered techniques experience resistance, expansion, confusion, exhilaration, and a host of complicated emotions. But unlike many other training programs, we are given the space and the community in which to explore and confront whatever comes up.


How Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy Training Changed Me

The Wellness Institute and Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy completely changed my life. It was what I had been searching for, both as a client and as a psychotherapist, without fully realizing how much had been missing. I had done talk therapy, of course, but never found it particularly effective at resolving my personal issues. As a person who spends a lot of time in my head, I can talk my way through anything, so it was easy to feel like I was going in circles.

Discovering Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy was such a powerful experience that I can’t even describe it in words. It was as though I had been living in a small box. After my first hypnotherapy session, the whole universe opened up around me. No more box!

The growth and expansion that I’ve experienced in the last several years is precious to me. I have always believed in the importance of “healers” (therapists, doctors, nurses, social workers) doing their own work, but I honestly had no conscious idea of exactly how deep that work could go.  

Before Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy, I spent 9 years working in community mental health, with brave and troubled clients, and I often felt I was missing something. Now, in my private practice, I am able to offer clients real solutions and the deepest level of healing I’ve found. I am grateful every day to have found The Wellness Institute. The profound changes in my life, and in the lives of my clients, have been priceless.

But don’t just take it from me. Here are more stories from Wellness Institute graduates, in their own words.


Lou-Ann Lauborough, LICSW, CSW-G, ACHt

“The two-year Internship Program at the Wellness Institute has personally changed my life! First of all, the skillful facilitators created an environment of safety so that I could emotionally connect with the other participants on a very intimate level, which is essential for building a foundation on which to grow. With the lectures, meditations, hypnosis sessions, psychodramas, and breath work, I was able to dive deep into my unconscious and deal with my own grief, fears, birth, and childhood issues. I healed old wounds.

My self-esteem has grown tremendously, and I have a deeper relationship with my Spiritual Connection than ever before. When I came to Wellness, I thought I would learn techniques in hypnosis to utilize in my counseling practice. I never expected I would have this kind of personal growth! I am so thankful to my teachers and classmates for honoring me and helping me grow! I would highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to experience personal healing and spiritual growth, and develop some very powerful tools to use in their counseling practice.”

James Musgrave, DMin LPC LADC ACHt

“Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy personally healed my childhood issues, allowing me to find me, become healthy, and make healthy choices in my life. And now, numerous clients are finding real closure and healing the childhood issues that were causing unhealthy results in their lives (physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually). Now that I’m a hypnotherapist, my client load has increased.

Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has advanced my career first by helping me heal, then by giving me a tool to really get to the root of the issues in my clients’ lives. Completion of hypnotherapy training also put me into a network of like-minded people, who have been a resource to even more personal growth.”


Tracy Kenela, LMHC CRC CEDS ACHt

“After completing the six-day training at The Wellness Institute, I found myself opening up to a whole new world of possibilities for personal and professional growth and healing. Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy allowed my mind, body and soul to discover and heal the places that were hurting in my life. I found it to be a comfortable, safe, and highly effective method of treatment that fit naturally into my private counseling practice. Many of my clients have responded enthusiastically to having this additional resource available to them as an alternative to talk therapy.

“Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy reached beyond what I've ever experienced in regular talk therapy. As a participant in the internship program at The Wellness Institute, I continued to learn new ways of healing my own trauma and shock, while growing personally and professionally. It was truly amazing to observe myself breaking free from so many of the resentments I'd been carrying around for years. It was like, all of the sudden, these things no longer had such a strong hold on my life. I was able to look at people — and myself — in a different, more forgiving, and compassionate manner. Continuing on my own healing journey has also profoundly improved the quality of care that I give to my clients, to my relationships, and to myself.”


Maria Catalina Quesada, PhD

“Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has saved the lives of so many souls. They were able to release the toxic emotions that affected their bodies. They were able to reclaim their healthy power, and attract healthy relationships. The creation of a safe place, the incorporation of an anchor, and the encounter with their inner child create a new dimension in their lives. As for my own personal growth, there are no words to really explain how this model saved my life. My practice has grown, and I am finally able to really help in the healing process of others. I thank God, my teachers, and my mentors group for this process.”


David Fawcett, MSW, PhD

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has transformed my life. What began years ago as a simple effort to get CEUs has evolved into a profound professional and personal journey. Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has given me insight and has allowed me to release many old blockages, including creative expression. It has made me a better therapist and writer.”


Regina McCarthy, LCSW

“I have lived with chronic anxiety all my life. I have been healing with The Wellness Institute since 2009 and feel much more present in my life. I am more grounded. I am less reactive to my triggers, and can see/feel some as they happen. I am less judgmental of myself and others. I have a better marriage, and I am a better mom. I also feel my feelings. Sometimes not right away, but I can recognize them in my body and use them instead of hiding them; as an adult child of an alcoholic, that was never allowed. I have done a lot of talk therapy, which kept me in my head. It did set the foundation for me to have the courage to try Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy. However, I now realize that is only a part of healing. Feeling what is happening in my body is my gold.”


Mark Roy, LCSW

“Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has helped me in working with my clients. I am able to help them go to a much deeper level than they’ve gone with talk therapy or any other therapy. It helps them to access issues, concerns, troubles and issues in relationships that they have not been able to access before. As a result, they are able to determine their part as well as other people’s parts in their dysfunctions. Hypnotherapy has helped me professionally because I am able to evaluate how my unresolved issues impact the relationship between me and my clients. This also helps me to understand and change my behavior in all of my relationships with my clients, family, and friends.”


Karen Krehlik, LISW

“There are three specific areas where hypnotherapy helped me as a clinician. First, the visits to the Wellness Institute and my personal hypnotherapy work have cleansed my spirit and my mind from the debris of the therapy room. I always return feeling balanced and lighter. Second, when I return, my insight is greatly enhanced. I am able to fully hear and feel what my clients need and are asking to address. Third, when I have Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy with clients, their own insight has grown, which deepened their personal work.”


Marilyn Brennan, LISW-S

“I am always in awe when my client becomes aware of the connection between past trauma/shock experiences from their childhood and adult life (conclusions and decisions made about themselves at the time) and how it affects their daily life today. This became apparent in my own work on past traumatic experiences, and the realization that I had the power to change the experience(s) and my reactions.

“Having the ability to go back to incidents that my conscious mind was totally unaware of allowed me to have a better understanding of my behavior and reactions. Of course, it’s like peeling an onion: there are many layers that need to be addressed, which is a good reason to continue to work on one’s self. Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy also helped me connect more with my spiritual self, a piece that has always been there but somehow tucked away inside and did not experience growth.”

Wondering how to become a hypnotherapist?

Many of the mental health professionals above started in your same place. They understood the benefits of hypnotherapy training, they knew it was the right fit for them, but they weren't sure how to go about becoming one. Until they found The Wellness Institute. We're accepting applications on a rolling basis, click here to learn more and apply