The Transparent Hypnotist

Do you ever have clients who do not keep you posted on their progress of change? I’d say many of us do. I know several hypnotist who consider clients they do not hear from as being successful. I’m not sure why this is? It seems like possible denial.

I try to keep an open door for past clients, always asking them to keep in touch, let me know how it is going, good days and bad days, etc. Now granted some do take advantage of this, and I think it is great. But then there are those I wonder about who do not respond to emails or phone calls following up.

Yesterday though, I had a new client who said she was recommended by a friend of a friend. She finally told me who (didn’t know the full name, only a few sketchy details, but enough for me to know who). It was a client from a year ago who suffers from all sort of maladies related to the lungs, which cause immense depression. Medication she is on makes her very sensitive to light, so she, once a very outdoorsy person, now has to live life in the dim confines of her house, which she describes as a prison. Pretty glum. My heart broke for her at the time, but I thought it was great that she was taking a step forward to do something. For anonymity, I’ll just say she had an addiction problem, and she wanted to kick it. Apparently she did after our session, which was the intent and expectation. It’s just really good to get positive feedback.

So, clients, please realize that most of us hypnotists are interested in what is happening with you, good or bad. You bring us in on some pretty personal information, and we become invested in your outcomes. Please let us know how it is going.

And hypnotists, sharing your successes and pitfalls can always be a great help to others. If you care to share, please do so. Clients, too.

For the past month or so, we have all been seeing what we want to see, or rather, I have been seeing what I want to see. But, the magic spell has been broken, and a hero stepped in to rescue me from delusion. Who is this hero? Well Paul, of course.
He discovered the hidden error of my ways. Rather than being the transparent hypnotist, I have been masquerading as the transparent hypnosist. The veil has dropped and I’m now back to being a hypnotist. Thanks for catching the misspelling on the blog header!
But…now that I am thinking about it. Perhaps my subconscious mind was telling me something with that misspelling. If you break it down, what is a “tist?” I’m sure someone here has studied Latin and perhaps will share. Then again, what is a “sist?” It’s not a cyst, but a bit of assist. And isn’t that what we do, assist people to help them accomplish what they want to accomplish? So perhaps, I am a hypnosist. Hmmm….

As promised last week, thought I’d talk about ducks. Ducks, you say? Yes, ducks. And yes, it pertains to hypnosis and life in general.

Lisa Halpin (if I recall correctly) coined this term “duck” for potential clients who are probably not willing to be good clients. These people wants the quick fix and want to take no responsibility for creating their own change. They may use a skeptics logic as an excuse to not utilize the benefits of hypnosis (I wasn’t really hypnotized. This won’t work. And the list of excuses goes on). A duck expects you to see them after normal business hours or weekends. A duck may also be someone who makes repeated appointments (if you let them) and does not have the courtesy to cancel. A duck may try to stiff you on the payment end. In other words, a duck is not a good client.

Why are they called ducks? If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck (unless it is a hunter with a duck call, which I suppose, would be even worse).

I bring this up because a while back, one of you emailed me and asked if I had a problem with people not showing up for appointments. I didn’t answer in the email because I thought it might be worth addressing here. Yes, I have people who miss appointments. It is annoying, especially since my office is about 45 minutes away from where I live (the price we pay for living in quiet isolation rather than the near by metropolis). I tend to think of these people as ducks. But I do realize that there may be valid reasons why the person missed the appointment. As one psychologist friend says to his clients, “You have one time to miss an appointment without canceling in advance. After that you pay for the hour whether you are there or not.” I use this now and have it on my intake form, asking people to sign off on it. I also have new clients fill out an intake before I agree to see them. If they are not willing to go so far as filling it out in advance, then well, duck, duck, no goose, just a duck.

Also, if I get an inkling that someone is a duck, I always provide them (mandatory) with a free information session. If they are willing to show up for that, it gives me an opportunity to learn more about him or her (are they analytical or non-analytical, how do they process information, what is the real motivation for seeing me). Oh, the other important thing about scheduling information sessions with a potential duck - if your office is not convenient to your life, schedule the appointment for a time when you are already at the office (after another client, etc.).

The day before the appointment, I also send email or call to confirm. This seems to help.

If someone misses an appointment (the first paid session), I tend to email or call them and say something to the effect, “I had you down on the calendar this afternoon. Is everything okay?” This keeps the door open.

So, potential or already clients of hypnotists, please don’t be a duck. We know your life is important, but so is ours. Please be courteous. It doesn’t take much. (Keeping in mind that if you are actually reading this, you probably are not a duck).

I am sipping my coffee (some odd Indiana Jones inspired flavor from Boca Java) and shaking my head. The forums on the Internet are probably an anthropologist’s dream of unique and strange behavior. They are intriguing, often helpful, a great way to meet others with like minds, and yet, they are also occasionally disturbing (but I’m preaching to the choir, I suspect).

Here’s the latest. In response to a client (and my own interests), I posted a question about migraines and alternative methods of dissipating them in an alternative health Google forum. I have noticed now that it has gotten way off the subject and seems to be a battle about the legitimacy of acupuncture, chiropractors, does money exists, and other diatribes. So much for relieving the old headache.

However, I have received some interesting suggestions and remedies that I thought I would share (please note that this is not an endorsement of mentioned ideas. It is merely intended for the enjoyment of the reader):

1. Organic coffee enemas
2. Chinese herbs
3. Getting rid of commercial household cleaners
4. Drinking more water
5. Adding a little bit of sea salt (trace amount) to water to balance trace minerals
6. Acupuncture
7. Chiropractors
8. Pharmaceuticals
9. Increasing magnesium
10. Psychology

There were more, but these standout. The one I like the best and actually has helped me (my client is opting for drinking more water, along with my suggestion of relaxation and meditation) is a simple suggestion - It’s not my pain. My family history includes brain tumors and head injuries. It was suggested that my subconscious mind may have taken on this pain of my loved ones. And saying to myself (along with deep breathing) that “it’s not my pain” seems to really alleviate a lot of my head aches.

If you care to add any of your success stories in relation to headaches or migraines (or anything that you feel is pertinent), please share!

It seems like having an interest in hypnosis means reading - a lot. I am ever grateful to the book recommendations everyone sends me. It’s all part of the learning process. So today, I though I would ask: what hypnosis (NLP or other related subjects) are you currently reading?

Me? I’m reading “Monsters and Magical Sticks: There’s No Such Thing As Hypnosis?” by Steven Heller and Terry Steele. I’m not that far along, but its a nice once over of hypnosis and NLP. The authors have a lovely, slightly sarcastic sense of humor, so it’s not drudgery to read it and its easy to hold onto the information.

Please feel free to share your reading material.

Guess I’m back to weekly rituals. Today’s reference to hypnosis is not so fun, but just something that has nagged me for a few days.

The headline reads:

Murder retrial hinges on whether witness was hypnotized

To get the real gist of this, you may want to read it yourself (it is short), but to synopsize:

A murder may be retried because a key witness may have been hypnotized before the trial. Basically, the witness may have been hypnotized by his mother to help him sleep and accept the fact that he wasn’t responsible for the death involved in the case. If any of the testimony resulted from this “session” it could be inadmissible.

It seems pretty interesting, though I’m not sure what I think about it. I understand that hypnosis is far from being a truth serum (remind me to tell you about a call I got several months ago from someone who wanted me to use hypnosis on them to prove to their ex-spouse that they were innocent of abusing their children - I didn’t do it, by the way). What I wonder in this case is what sort of hypnosis the witness’s mother used. Perhaps it was regression to just release the issue? I guess I don’t really understand why it would be inadmissible, unless the courts believe that false memories were implanted, etc.? Any thoughts?

Another quick tale or more about a post from two weeks ago. We’ll save ducks for another time. http://transparenthypnotist.blogspot.com/2007/05/hypno-massage.html

I spent last week looking for a copper bracelet. Yep, the cheap (but pretty, really) kind. Why? Have I gotten tired of the traditional metals in my life? Being an industrial girl, one never really tires from any type of metal. So, no, that’s not it.

Rather, it is an attempt to make my body feel a little bit better. I decided in the spirit of open mindedness to go to an intuitive healer (I mentioned this in a past post) just to see what it is exactly that they do. I was led through a guided meditation involving a tour of the mind. Leaking copper pipes played a huge role. So the intuitive healer “suggested” I add a little copper to my life and hence the quest for a cooper bracelet.

Since that time, I have engaged in the quest, going to what a friend of mine calls the crack pot remedy section of every pharmacy I pass. Well, sure enough in a small pharmacy I found a cooper bracelet (with magnets), sure enough, not in the jewelry department, but in a section with magnets, herbal extracts and large funky sunglasses.

Are you wondering if this “crack pot” remedy really helped? I’ll tell you even if you are not - YES, indeed it did help. The most noticeable change that has occurred in the four days that I have been wearing it is that my hand and wrist were sore from using a track pad on my lap top (I didn’t take the mouse with me on my retreat) and the soreness has gone away. For those of you who are thinking that it would heal with time, I continued to exacerbate my hand and wrist by constant use of the track pad and not the mouse.

Is it the cooper? Is it the magnets? Is it a placebo effect? Or perhaps, is it a “suggestion” from the intuitive that it would make me feel better?

As I drink a cup of British Breakfast, I am contemplating a call left on my business line at midnight (yes, 12:00 am on the dot, and yes, I have my business line transferred to the house when I’m not at the office). I ignored it and went back to sleep. Then at the crack of dawn, it began to gnaw at my paranoia. Was something wrong at the office? Worse was something wrong with the office?

So, I got out of bed, shuffled to my desk and checked the message. Wouldn’t you know it, at the midnight hour someone decided to give up the ciggies. Rather poetic timing and all. (So, if you who called is reading this, you have my appreciation for the timing even if it did take me out of Egypt.)

Smokers. Hmmmm. My personal problem child - in that it is always the smokers it seems that are the problem child. I think there may be a humor book out there that needs to be written about hypnosis and smokers.

Dearest clients and potential clients who may be considering using a hypnotist to curb the ciggies, I am not mocking you. Many, many people have kicked their smoking habit in the butt using hypnosis as a tool, and many have been just fabulous clients. However, in my experience, smokers are the ones who call in the middle of the night (and don’t let me stop you from doing this if you need to, most people are away from their business phones then), the ones who do not return phone calls or emails, the ones who miss appointments, and a variety of other antics. Here’s the thing, we as hypnotist understand your plight. It’s not just about getting over an addiction or giving up a bad habit, it is giving up a friend who you may have come to believe is a comfort and a joy (though not a true friend, but a creature that takes and takes, is really abusive, and has its own agenda that cares nothing for you and only about making money for big tobacco). With this in mind, if you have made an appointment with a hypnotist to have a session and you decide you are not ready to give up smoking, please, please, please, just call and cancel the appointment. Your hypnotist will understand and not think poorly of you. It’s just not your time to quit and that’s okay. That way, when you are truly ready, no bridges will have been burned, no guilt, and the path for liberation will be always open.

So, if you are a smoker trying to quit and have questions, please post them. I or some brillant hypnotist who reads this blog will respond. Or if you are a hypnotist with a good smoker story, please consider sharing it here.

Tomorrow I will talk about ducks.

He always rubs his wrist after a session. It is because his wrist has fallen asleep and if it doesn’t fall asleep, then he says, he wasn’t in a hypnotic state. This happens whether he is reclining, laying down, or sitting up.

She says she gets twinges of euphoria during a session.

Another undoubtedly gets chilled (and always uses my handy dandy throw).

To counteract this effect of hypnosis, another has hot flashes.

Most report feeling like they received a full night’s rest in the hour.

And then there is me. Unless the suggestion for no head pain is given before returning to normal consciousness, I get head aches.

Okay people, what do you or your clients experience during a hypnosis session?

Interestingly enough, I posted a question to a paranormal/reincarnation group on Google and found that a gentleman answering my question has posted it all over. Interesting.

I had not intended for this blog to get very paranormal, metaphysical, or New Age, but alas, it seems like a avalanche descending.

I used to say I was a clinical hypnotist, but what a confining category it seems to be. I have always been fairly open-minded and discovered a joy in working with those who have the more unusual issues. These seems to include a variety of others wanting to enhance psychic ability, see ghosts, to control one’s ability to be a medium, understand the meaning of life, and of course re-experience past lives. I do admit these people are probably most fascinating to me where as the classic smokers and weight loss clients are those of whom I empathize.

A while ago, I went to a local NGH meeting and the leader of this particular group was very much against doing anything but clinical hypnosis, arguing (against whom I was never sure - himself maybe?) that anything else defames the noble profession. I see his point though it seems driven out of fear or an urge to control. Hypnosis has a lot to come up against. This person is also against stage hypnosis shows, but as a wise hypnotist once told me:

We need hypnosis shows because it provides an opportunity for the public to try it, be seduced by its magic, and eventually be less afraid of it and actually utilize it as a tool in making life better.

So, I’m fairly sure, at least in my own practice, that just providing clinical hypnosis services is limiting and perhaps close minded. Rather, it’s all about how one presents one self and hypnosis. If it is done in a way that is respectful to profession, self and client, well then maybe one can really accomplish something, including pushing the boundaries of mind.