The Transparent Hypnotist

Yesterday I mentioned doing a post on the “AH HA” moments and psychologists, so as promised here is the skinny

The first time I knowingly hit an “Ah Ha” moment with someone else, I actually had no idea. In fact I felt terrible about it. It was during a group session and I had not gotten very far in the process. We had done a basic progressive relaxation (relaxing body parts from the top of the head to the tips of the toes). Then I even did the standard (maybe not so creative, but often effective, stairway of relaxation as a deepener - on each step the object is to go into a deeper state of relaxation). At the bottom of the stairway, one would get to place of complete tranquility, a sanctuary. There was nothing in my words but peace, relaxation, and suggestions for obtaining more of each.

But, this was to be a moment of abreaction (so early). I noticed one of the participants sobbing away in the background. I did suggestions for the rest of the group to allow the sounds in the room to fade into the background. Then I had them concentrate on doing a countdown to 100 internally. Quietly, I moved over to the crying man and put a tissue in his hand. He opened his reddened eyes and whispered that he would like some water. So, I escorted him into another room, gave him a glass of water and asked him to wait before leaving. Then I continued the session for the others.

At the end, when everyone else had left, I sat down with the now composed gentleman. I asked what he experienced and he told me the stairs led him to a place of great sadness, where once he reached the bottom, he saw his deceased grandmother in a coffin. And then he repeated several times that it was just so sad. I asked him if he wanted to try doing a one on one hypnosis session and either work through that or take a different approach to the original reason he was there. At the time he said he would let me know.

Enter my relationship with his psychologist. She called me a few days later to give me a follow up. She wanted to let me know that the misery he had experienced in my office had led to a big break through for him. They had talked about it and it led to his dealing with grief he had never allowed himself to experience before. At the time of his grandmother’s death, his had been living with her as his parents had died when he was very young. This led him into a world of instability (governmental bodies got involved and it was all very unfortunate). In turn, he had felt great relief at being able to finally loosen his disappointment from losing his grandmother.

This was similar to the other case I had, where the client had a breakthrough with childhood issues during a weight loss session. I think it is the group sessions that make these abreactions more difficult and harder to see any “ah ha” moments. When doing individual sessions, they seem to happen pretty regularly.

But anyway, that is one of my very positive psychology stories.

I’d love to hear about your “Ah ha” moments?

Have you been here before? No, I don’t mean this blog, but have you lived before this life, a life that did not include reading blogs in the morning with your coffee, a life that was very different than qualms with a nine to five or taking the kids to yet another soccer practice? I suspect this topic is the line in the sand for many when it comes to hypnosis. Past life regression. I can hear the chorus - I don’t believe in that (and you are just about to move on, but don’t, try to be a little more open minded) or the voices say “fascinating.” But for those of you nonbelievers, that’s okay. It is not necessary to believe (that is just my opinion). The information that does come up, real or imaginary, can be really helpful in dealing with difficulties. Some believe it was indeed a past life and in this life, you must overcome the obstacle that held you back in a past incarnation. Other’s believe it is your subconscious giving you signals that will help you cope better with something else, almost like your own metaphorical story

Anyway, Oprah is the lady of the day or at least her show should be in our consciousness. Why? Dr. Oz is on and the topic is past life regression. Since the show is pre-filmed, apparently Dr. Weiss was also present and took the audience on a group past life experience. Dr. Weiss wrote the fascinating book Many Lives, Many Masters.

To find out when the show airs at your location, click here.To learn more about the show, visit the Oprah web site.

(Oops — a glance back at my email reminded me that I owe Ellie a blog entry for today, too.)

From Brian David Phillips’s blog comes a reference to a new trend in advertising research: hypnotized focus groups.

Focus groups have been around for a long time, of course. A company or ad agency will assemble a group of strangers and ask for their perceptions and opinions about a product, service, or even political candidate. The ad agency then uses that data to refine their strategy.

According to this article in BRANDWEEK, though, there is a problem with the focus group concept: sometimes all the group yields are superficial impressions that really aren’t that helpful in targeting marketing.

To get past the surface impressions to what focus group members are really thinking, large companies and their ad agencies have taken to hypnotizing the focus group members before asking for their impressions. A quote from the article says, “Hypnosis helped get past the cliches. We needed the conversation to get to a deeper, more emotional place.”

By using hypnosis to delve deeper into the focus group’s perceptions, for example, Volvo learned that while they have a near-universal reputation for building dependable cars, on a deeper level many of the focus group members also equate driving a Volvo with being middle-aged. That sounds like good data to me, even if it’s not what Volvo would have preferred to hear.

The use of hypnotized focus groups is not universally accepted, though. The article goes on to include quotes and perspectives from opponents of focus group hypnosis, too. It’s an interesting Monday afternoon read, both informative and thought-provoking.

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When I think of winter, an image that comes to mind is one where it is cold, raining or sleeting, and there huddled together at the entranced to buildings are the smokers, taking their five minutes to catch a quick fix. Maybe it is me, but I really am not a fan of the cold. I think that would be so humiliating to be forced to stand out there and give in to the quirks of my subconscious mind.

It is nice to see certain employers actively taking a stand and doing something to try to help these people. And yes, I am aware the employer has everything to gain from doing so: healthier employees may equal a higher quality output (people do still care about that, don’t they?), less health care expenses, and maybe even better morale. In a press release today, PG&E announced that they are trying out group hypnosis for their employees to help with smoking cessation. So big clap on the back for PG&E. They are testing this out in San Francisco, Fresno and Sacramento, and if it proves successful they will make it a company wide program.

They started the pilot this past summer and had a 60% success rate for people quitting cold turkey. It is possible this is the number who quit by using hypnosis (it is not clear in the release). The hypnotist involved is Mary Mitchell, who regresses her group back to the time when each member tried his or her first cigarette. Then she uses NLP to replace the thoughts of this moment with the positive suggestions for change.

Source: Sacbee.com

Wrapped in white
and here before you
wizened with words
or costumed as such
standing in the light
the persona grew
striking a mystic cord
and masking much
it is only as a sage
that I present this page.

In the realm of dreams and other fun things, I have decided not to embrace the nightmare. That is, I am embracing the world of sage wisdom and mysticism (with a little Roman Goddess mixed in) for All Saints Eve. Yes, that is what I am doing presently, working on the idea of an office gathering. And I say All Saints Eve because it is a time to remember those who have dearly departed from our lives, but as the legend has it, this is a time they come forth. I know, Ellie is venturing into the nebulous again, but I do have several clients who believe in the presence of those no longer on this plane. Many have seen psychics, mediums and invested in other avenues. I present none of these. But I was thinking about having a gathering for them based on a guided meditation of having a moment to say one last word (or a few) to their loved one.

Despite the deepness of the subject, I think the rest of the evening would be more toward merriment (what merriment you can have with healthy snacks and apple cider). I have thought about making it a costume event as well, hence the poem above.

That means I have to come up with an appropriate masquerade. So, with an artist friend’s help, we created a mock up for a Sage costume, using the Romanesque concept. I think this is my favorite costume yet (did you like my little poem about the costume?).

And because I have gone to all this trouble to create the concept, I entered it in brickfish.com’s Star Costumes contest. So…if you would not mind…please vote for me. And I open this idea up to you as well. You can enter this Halloween costume contest by clicking on this link. Let me know if you do, I will surely vote for you as well.

So, I know this is a little out of the norm, but it is what is going on with the transparent hypnotist. I hoped you enjoyed this little aside as much as I did working on it all.

As you may have figured out, the subject of group hypnosis has been on my mind lately. There is a part of me that feels like it is a good thing because a lot of hypnotist do well with groups. I am just not sure I am one of them. Do you ever feel like there is something out there that you should be doing because it seems to be the thing to do? Or is this peer pressure (probably imagined peer pressure).

During an evaluation several years ago, while working in a group situation, I received some interesting feedback from the team leader. She said that I had hurt the group by not giving more of myself to the group overall. It was obvious I had much to offer, but chose instead to do so on an individual basis rather than the playing the group dynamic.

I have thought about this over the years, trying to see the wisdom of it, but what I always, ALWAYS come back to is that some people are group oriented and some are not. I fall into the latter category apparently, but I do not think this is a bad thing. My strength seems to be in connecting individually. After meetings, I am always pulled aside by various people who want the personal attention.

Hypnosis wise I think this idea of individual attention plays large with me. I did a group session once where we worked on creating a “safe space within our mind,” and rather than leading the group to a beach or a stream in the forest, we worked on finding that wonderful place individually. Halfway through, I noticed one of the participants sobbing. It was not tears streaming down, but loud, heart-wrenching sobs. Not knowing what she was experiencing, I gave suggestions for the group to either stay in their constructed space or go to a place within their memory that was happy or peaceful. The sobbing grew worse. Restlessness set in for the other participants. I then gave suggestions to either allow the sounds in the background to take them deeper into relaxation or if they chose they could bring themselves back to normal consciousness by counting from one to five in their minds and opening their eyes when they were ready. Sadly, my crier did not open her eyes, but sobbed even more. So, I had the group count down in their minds from 25 down to one, allowing each number to help them stabilize any emotions, letting go of any anxiety, releasing all sadness. This worked and we continued. Upon finishing, many pulled me aside afterward and asked if everything was alright and I explained how the release process can cause great emotion and that seemed to ebb the curiosity. I ended up spending more time with the crier afterwards. As it turned out, she had a large break through and had understood something within, mourning childhood and such. Sadly though, she has not returned to hypnosis because she had come for stress relief and found herself more stressed in the process. Even though she said a great weight had been lifted, hypnosis was not for her.

For me, I was exhausted. It felt like doing mental gymnastics (and I am no gymnast) to keep the session balanced. I know this is all part of hypnosis and that I probably grew a lot from it, but it strengthened my concept that I much prefer the one on one.

Gosh, sounds as if I am justifying something here. Hmmm.

So, were you with me? Did we connect?

After awaking, throwing on my Yoga pants and a t-shirt, sitting in the dampness of the new morning, I spent the first thoughts of the day in meditation, working on firing the grid. The morning was so quiet,except for the crickets and some deer in the field beyond the house. The solitude was as ever, very nice, just me and the morning…and maybe thousands of other people. I began to wonder who else was sitting in contemplation of healing the earth at the same moment. Such thoughts often filtered through and for a moment, I actually felt the connectedness, not just to the wood on the porch under me, but to all those who were doing the same thing. There was a slight sensation of euphoria with this thought, a lifting of the burdens, a breath of hope in what feels like an inevitable course of time.

And so, this turned into the theme of today’s post - the invisible processes of the group dynamic. Not really knowing what I would write about, the cup of tea and me have made it to this point.

The idea of groups intrigues me and I wonder about its potential. If you are a “Universal Consciousness” believer, it seems like group hypnosis could be very powerful with under currents running the gamut from intuitive support to helping with feelings canceling out loneliness. I wonder about the whole vibration or frequency concept with groups. I know little about the psychics involved with vibration or frequency, but it seems like they could be elevated by a group of simpatico souls (Yes, I have also just read The Tenth Insight and yes, I read the whole thing but did not enjoy it nearly as much as The Celestine Prophecy).

Before this morning, I might not have actually been aware of the potential of group hypnosis, perhaps did not understand it at all. I know it is not a new concept, it is just something that has been enigma to me. I think I will let this rest for now and come back to it tomorrow.

Hope your day is peaceful.

The other day I mentioned working with a client on smoking cessation. I hope you read Michael’s comment on it. It was very helpful.

In listening to my client, she mentioned that someone had suggested she try a mass hypnosis session for her goal of being free from cigarettes. These sessions are done by a traveling hypnotist who comes to town once a year and does a mass hypnosis session with several hundred people at once, relatively cheaply. Interestingly enough, this particular client choose to do individual sessions because she wanted the one on one experience and thought it would be more beneficial.

But guess what, I am not going to rally against the hypnotists who do this sort of work. I know there has been some news in the past about frauds, etc. and I am sure there may be some. Rather, I will say that my favorite “confusion” induction comes from Robert Otto, a hypnotist who engages in mass hypnosis and seems to have great success. Indeed, I am a bit envious of his talents, and use this to motivate myself to continue learning.

Many clients ask me about these mass sessions and if they “work.” I admit to a little delight (and a sigh of relief) when I hear that they thought about going to such a session, but opted for me instead, simply because it means that they are making an effort. They have put some thought into their process of change. It is not that they chose me over another hypnotist, but that they weighed the options and made a choice. It shows initiative to some degree and this is always positive.

Now the people who attend the mass hypnosis sessions, do I think little of them. I certainly do not. I do not begrudge anyone in their efforts to help themselves. I hope that they have educated themselves in the process and made the correct choice that will work for them. There are just as many success stories with mass hypnosis, as not.

The client who brought all this to mind mentioned mass hypnosis because the person who told her about the mass session idea wanted to know why she chose to quit smoking in several sessions, when perhaps she could have done it in one. It was her choice to ween herself off rather than just diving in, and she had under lying reasons for this as well. It was not just smoking she wanted to work on, but wanted greater insight into herself (regression, etc.). With a mass session, the attention is focused to a group, and my client wanted the individual attention.