Wellness Institute Blog

The Cleveland Clinic’s Integrative Medicine Clinic introduces Hypnotherapy in this way.

“Holistic psychotherapy utilizes traditional and non-traditional therapies of holistic healing with the purpose of creating an integration of the mind, body and spirit. The idea combines a broad range of different holistic approaches to help the patient reach the deepest level of healing possible.

Traditional Talk Therapy

Holistic psychotherapy services include traditional talk psychotherapy and non-traditional therapies including hypnosis, heart-centered hypnotherapy/regression therapy, creative art therapy, breath therapy, rebirthing breath and guided imagery. Holistic psychotherapy is only delivered by a licensed clinician  who has a certification in Advanced Clinical hypnotherapy”

“Traditional talk therapy is used for patients not yet ready for non-traditional therapies. This approach includes psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, cognitive/behavioral, developmental, educational and family systems therapies that utilize a  perspective to match the individual needs of the patient. These therapies mainly involve discussions and mainly address the 10% of the mind that is the conscious.” So one might ask, “How effective can a therapy be if it only engages 10 % of my mind?

How do we determine if a client is not yet ready for hypnosis?

1. This may be their first therapeutic experience and they need to learn to trust and feel safe
2. They may have been “scared” by someone else, usually someone who is not truly educated about the benefits of hypnotherapy.
3. They may belong to a religion who has misinformed them about hypnotherapy

How do we move them from talk therapy into hypnotherapy?

1. Educate them about how hypnotherapy could benefit them
2. Educate them about the conscious mind (10 %) and the sub-conscious mind (90 %)
3. Address their fears, one by one
4. If they are open to it, begin very slowly and teach them self-hypnosis

Mind-Body-Spirit Therapies

ENGAGING THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND  = 90 % of the mind

“Non-traditional therapies are based on a variety of traditions, which tap into different levels of mind-body-spirit healing. These therapies involve energy work, elements from different traditions of healing as well as from the field of transpersonal psychology. All therapies have a strong spiritual component, which utilizes different levels of consciousness and spiritual awareness.”

• “Hypnosis is a beginning treatment intervention that induces the client into a relaxed state. The clinician then provides post-hypnotic suggestion for relief from symptoms or for self improvement. A trance is a natural occurring state, so anyone can be hypnotized. Only a light to medium state of hypnotic trance is necessary for effective therapy.
• Heart-centered hypnotherapy or regression therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which the patient is placed in a hypnotic, altered state of consciousness for the purpose of re-working or re-framing unhealthy, addictive behaviors,  dysfunctional relationship patterns  and disease in the body. This process can allow for deep healing to take place because of the energetic and emotional release and the profound level of insight  and healing that can be attained.”

Once the client gets a clear understanding about how the conscious mind works, and in comparison, all the dynamic information contained in the sub-conscious mind, they usually are excited to explore. We often explain this phenomenon like the comparison between the old fashioned typewriters (talk therapies) and the modern computers (hypnotherapy and other holistic psychotherapies). The old typewriters have no memory capabilities which, just like talk therapies, only addresses what is seen on surface. Computers, as we all know, contain a vast amount of information which connects infinitely to all other resources. This is the beauty and dynamic healing capabilities of hypnotherapy. And so it is no surprise that cutting edge Integrative Medical Clinics like The Cleveland Clinic have seen the great healing capabilities of hypnotherapy.

Perhaps you would like to add hypnotherapy to your skills and make yourself elegible to be employed in the field of Integrative Medicine.

“Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.” - Marshall McLuhan

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” - Henry Winkler 

Assumptions negatively affect our relationships in several important ways. We unconsciously make assumptions and judgments about (1) other people’s behavior, (2) other people’s intentions behind their behavior, and (3) our own behavior and intentions.

For example, a husband goes to the store to get something for dinner. He knows his wife will be hungry and tries to find out what she would like. He calls her from the store, but to no avail. Then he tries to decide what she may want. He had asked her in the morning but she didn’t know what she might want 10 hours later. When she gets home in the evening, he prepared what he likes and says, “I didn’t know what you wanted, so I didn’t get anything.”

1. Meaning in life is found in the living of each moment.
2. Passionate commitment to a way of life, to one’s purpose and one’s relationships, is the highest form of expression of one’s humanity.
3. All human beings have freedom of choice and the responsibility for our choices.
4. Openness to experience allows for the greatest possible expansion of personal expression.
5. In the ever-present face of death itself, we find the deepest commitment to life itself.

How Hypnotherapy Puts Zest Back into Helping People

Therapists, like yourself, sit hour after hour, day after day, week after week, listening to clients who go over and over their problems and why they can’t change. You offer suggestions and they play the “Yes, But Game” telling you why that wouldn’t work. Clients do need to tell their stories, but it’s not the events in their story that are the problem; it is when the story becomes a never-ending repetitive pattern like a mouse on a mouse wheel. The client becomes stuck in this pattern, often clinging to their story as some type of badge of honor. We as therapists may want to ask ourselves, in continuing to listen to their stories, are we contributing to maintaining their repetitive patterns. Eugene Gendlin has done research showing that when we continue to think and talk about a problem, we are actually drawing the same lines heavier, rather than inspiring the painting of a new picture.

Hypnotherapy is one of the most sought after clinical trainings in the world. And it is one of the most requested forms of treatment by patients and clients.  After teaching hypnotherapy for over 30 years to tens of thousands of therapists internationally, we have discovered that therapists are very curious people. They really want to understand the mind and how it works. They want to understand why bad things happen to good people. They are driven toward self discovery and personal growth. To our amazement we have found that the majority of people entering the field of psychology want to understand human behavior and that often begins with their own.

Authority issues in the therapeutic relationship: Transference and Countertransference

Surprise, surprise! Therapists are human just like their clients, often with very similar issues. This is why Freud, Jung and others brought to our awareness the concepts of transference and countertransference. They became aware of experiencing authority conflicts and power struggles with their own patients as well as with each other, their colleagues. From our 35+ years of teaching and healing professional therapists, we have also become aware of how pervasive unresolved authority issues are within all of us, therapist as well as patients. Do you find yourself reacting (being triggered) when a client engages in a power struggle with you? Perhaps they disagree with your advice, miss an appointment, or don’t keep an agreement they made with you. An extreme form of this is a client who reports you to your professional Board or takes a legal case against you. The way to notice a trigger is to check in with your body. When a client is late (or any of the above mentioned triggers), drop into your chest or stomach and see if there is a tightness, shortness of breath or discomfort. Notice your jaw; is their clenching or tightness?

It usually requires hard work and persistence to attract new clients to your practice. New clients may come through online marketing, the Yellow Pages, referrals from colleagues, or an event where you were a speaker. By far the best source of new clients, however, is referrals from your existing clientele. There is no cost to you, and no effort other than letting your clients know that you appreciate their referrals and will welcome any new clients that they refer.