Wellness Institute Blog

Many people appear to be skeptical when it comes to hypnotherapy and how it can have a positive impact on the way you think. There are many common myths about hypnotherapy which lead people to question its effectiveness. It has been used for over half a century to treat many dozens of issues.

From being used to control pain through hypnobirthing, to helping aid weight loss, treat addiction and also improve symptoms of anxiety and depression; hypnotherapy has been proven to be an extremely effective method of solution-focused therapy.

There’s no way around it; life is getting expensive. As the cost of housing, education, healthcare, and just being alive skyrocket, in many areas, a six-figure salary doesn’t mean you’re rich. It means you’re getting by.

You didn’t go into the psychotherapy field to get wealthy. You became a therapist because you love helping people overcome their mental health challenges and live their best lives. Or because you’re fascinated by how the human brain shapes our experiences and wellbeing. Or because of your entrepreneurial spirit and independent nature.

But none of that matters if you can’t make a living and aren't up to date on the most recent marketing for therapists advice. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mental health counselors make a median annual salary of $46,050. For many of us, that’s simply not enough.

Can you make six figures as a therapist?

It was a beautiful summer day and we were enjoying a gorgeous walk in the park.  The clouds were stunning, the air was fresh, life was amazing.  Stacey and I had been chatting about her upcoming nuptials. Suddenly as I looked over at my friend, she was fidgeting with her shirt.  She had a look of panic on her face as I asked her what was wrong? 

“I can’t catch my breath.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  Look at my hand, it’s shaking.” 

I found a bench for us to move towards unsure of what was happening with her.  “Stacey let’s walk this way if you can?” 

“Make it stop.  I feel so uneasy.  What’s going on with me?  I don’t even feel like me.”  Stacey looked at me for reassurance. 

As I gazed at her I could see beads of sweat forming on her brow.  She appeared very uncomfortable in her own skin.  And then suddenly it dawned on me.  “Sweetie, I think you are having a panic attack.” 

“I think I might be having a heart attack, my heart is racing so fast.”  Stacey pleaded with me as we moved towards the bench. 

I remember being in grad school and my Abnormal Psychology professor sharing that per the Diathesis Stress model, we all have a propensity towards the vulnerabilities and stresses of daily living.  His lecture that day has been with me ever since.  In a sense, we have certain inclinations to experience bouts of sadness, anxiousness, and fearful thinking.   When we begin living from these spaces we can begin to feel the quality of our lives waning.  The energy and enthusiasm we once had for living might be discharged towards our preoccupation with the future, or anxieties about the present.  Our mind informs us that perhaps something is about to happen and we won’t be ready for it.  From a more expansive perspective, anxiety is a green light for engaging in personal work. 

One of the top questions we’re asked at The Wellness Institute is, “Does hypnotherapy work?” With more than 30 years’ educational experience offering hypnotherapy training to masters- and PhD-level students, we know it does.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Many world-renowned medical and psychological organizations have endorsed hypnotherapy again and again as a credible, effective treatment. Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing through today, the chorus of supporters for this heart-centered therapy continues to grow.

Here’s what some of those associations are saying.

British Medical Association

The British Medical Association was among the first professional organizations to investigate hypnotherapy as a potential treatment. In 1892 (you heard that right...1892!), the association released the findings of a committee of nine doctors who had performed experiments involving hypnosis. That committee found that hypnotism “is frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments.”

But despite their endorsement, medical professionals continued to dismiss hypnosis until the mid-20th century. Despite the use of hypnosis in comedy stage shows, clinical hypnosis was quietly becoming more and more commonly used behind closed doors by medical and psychological professionals.

In 1955, the BMA’s Psychological Medicine Group convened to ask itself the same question: “Does hypnotherapy work?” And once again, the 1892 committee findings were confirmed.

Two years later, their final paper was published in the British Medical Journal, one of the United Kingdom’s most established publications for the medical field. They published a paper titled “The Medical Use of Hypnotism” in June 1957, whose introduction read as follows:

If there is a future for an objectively oriented training in psychotherapy, hypnosis might well play a useful though by no means exclusive part. … It is on the whole a method which leaves few scars and makes no fundamental change in the personality that would not have occurred in the course of individual development. In responsible hands it is a safe method of treatment which can be combined with others and seems rarely to prejudice their use later in other hands.

As a professional therapist, you’ve likely encountered misconceptions about even the most traditional of your therapeutic methods. You have probably also received objections from prospective patients as to whether therapy is a legitimate treatment for what ails them.

Many therapists we speak to are skeptical about the merits of hypnotherapy — after all, it’s easy to form misconceptions about a practice most closely associated with the subject quacking like a duck upon the hypnotist snapping his fingers.

Here, we tackle six common myths and misconceptions about hypnotherapy and work to debunk them based on our experience, research, and our development of our Heart-Centered Therapy curriculum.

For those of us that have benefitted from Heart-centered Hypnotherapy and other Heart-centered Therapies (HCT), we have done and continue to do deep, inner work that allows us to heal. 

Within the hypnotic trance work of Heart-centered Therapies, we access the inner knowing of our unconscious that guides us to the lighthouse of our being where we can see far and wide.  And within this knowing, the comfort and safety that we have discovered becomes symbolically represented.  The symbol might come to us as a particular image or color.  It might be a powerful word or phrase.

Not only does it appear in our minds eye, but it kinesthetically lives in the body.  This process is one in which we are able to provide ourselves with an avenue for returning to the state of well-being whenever we want or need that.  It is a resource state and the “anchor” created through symbolic representation grounds and centers us.  It is deepened through the hypnotic trance process and it reconnects us to that wise inner-knowing. 

Through the difficult work of healing wounds, traumas, and pain, we are gifted with a resource state in which we establish an anchor, our privately owned place to return to in order to relocate the self.  Anchors have the capacity to pluck us out of our distress and drop us back into ourselves. 

Ultimately, at an unconscious level, we are tethered to the anchor emotionally, psychically, and kinesthetically.  All we need to do is return to it when we most want it.  This is the solution to finding the self when we feel weak, scared, and disconnected. 

So why don’t we?  With such an amazing tool, how is it that we forget to use them, unable to recall that we've discovered an internal, fundamental support?  We so easily forget the experience of the healing and the gift. 

In the classic fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel”, Hansel and Gretel were taken to the woods to die.  Having been aware of this plan in advance, Hansel gathered small white pebbles prior to their departure, placing them on the path from his home to the woods, marking a path that would allow him to return “home”. 

And it worked. However...

This article is just a friendly heads up that we just released a brand new guide about six of the most common hypnotherapy myths, which we've debunked. Here are a couple of passages from the guide:

 
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Want to read more? Click on the banner below to download the full guide.