Hypnotherapy has got to be one of the most interesting therapy methods out there. It’s so alternative, it’s also really effective, and holy is it ever quick. There aren’t many therapists that can say after just a couple of months you’ll likely see drastic changes in your mental health, but I can.
I’ve helped hundreds of people using the RTT method, and one of the best parts of RTT is, it’s incredibly fascinating. You can learn so much about yourself, it gets you feeling like, wow! And it also gets you results. Imagine being able to go to a therapist and say, “hey, I want to stop feeling depressed.” And in just a few months, you’re finishing your therapy with exactly what you asked for.
Now, I can’t make any promises, that’s not how this works. There’s no guarantees in life, it requires a team effort between you and me, but I can say this with absolute confidence. I have a 100% success rate working in depression and anxiety. Let that sink in. All the meds in the world can’t do what I can do for you.
Here’s my philosophy
Even with a rough start in life, we’re not stuck being one way forever just because of our pasts. Our pasts are a piece of the puzzle, sure, but it doesn’t define us. Why should we be eternally stuck with mental health issues because of a sad or traumatizing upbringing? Boo on that. Here’s the truth, our lovely brains have one prime function, and that function is to keep us safe. If you’re dealing with poor mental health, then your brain is trying to help you in a flawed way.
This is the truly fascinating part of hypnotherapy
You can figure out why. ‘Hey brain, why do you keep telling me I’m worthless?’ Or.. ‘brain, why am I depressed?’ I see people say all the time, “what’s wrong with my brain?!” There is nothing wrong with your brain. It’s functioning exactly how it’s supposed to. But! It’s got the wrong information.
How we grow up effects how we view and understand the world, and in turn, creates a road map for how we navigate our lives. If we were given a faulty map, we might just keep making the same mistakes over and over. When we know more, something wonderful can happen! We can start to do things differently, and actually get to where we want to be.
So, where did you pick up that information, and how is that information affecting your life now? There are answers to be found, and I can help you with that. Aren’t you curious? You can have an answer to every question you’ve ever had about yourself, and just be in absolute awe. Not only that, but you can process it and let it go for good.
I’ve helped people resolve issues they’ve had for almost their entire lives, when nothing else has worked! Hypnotherapy, more specifically RTT, has been the answer for countless people, and there’s a good reason for that. In this article, I’ll share and explore with you how hypnotherapy, understanding, new perspective, and ultimately, changing your mind, can work positively for you.
Let’s start with a real example
I had a client that came to see me for social anxiety. This person was avoiding going to parties, large gatherings, making friends, networking, and generally not living their life how they wanted to be. They expressed that deep inside, they actually really wanted to socialize more, and they knew it would benefit their career too, but the thought of it just made them too anxious. Aside from making friends and advancing their career, unsurprisingly, they were just generally tired of feeling anxious all the time! So, they contacted me.
Something they said stood out to me when I spoke to them. They felt in conversations they were ‘giving a part of themselves away.’ It was my first time to hear this. I’ve had many clients tell me they worry what people are thinking, or that they leave situations wondering if they had said or done something wrong, but this was a first.
Part of what I love about what I do is, every person is so unique. My therapist senses were tingling. So I guided them into a relaxed state and I asked them..
When did the social anxiety begin?
This lovely person remembered when they were much much younger. They were eating with their family, and their mothers friend had joined for dinner. Near the end of the meal, dinner is almost finished, and there’s just one fish stick left.
My client is just 6 years old in this memory, she’s still hungry and she wants the final fish stick. She discloses that her parents had put her and her sister on a diet, even at such a young age. Their mothers friend asks if they can have the last one, and my client says yes. When the friend leaves, her mother praises her for giving away the fish stick when it was so clear she wanted it. She tells her “this is exactly how we raised you.’’
“This is exactly how we raised you.”
This is why having a new level of understanding is so incredible
If you’d asked my client before hypnotherapy why she was so anxious, she couldn’t tell you, because she didn’t know. Was her social anxiety because of one incident at the dinner table? Not at all, it was so much more than that. She was able to identify in her daily conversations, that she was giving away the proverbial fish stick. Sacrificing her own thoughts, feelings and desires for the comfort of others, because that’s what she was taught to do. She was essentially trained to put herself last, give everyone else what they wanted, and to forget about her own wants and needs. Now, that would most certainly be a recipe for social anxiety.
This was a bit of a surprise to herself, as she was unknowingly continuing this harmful pattern well into her adult life. That’s the biggest difference. “Unknowingly.” It’s hard to continue knowingly doing something harmful, and it’s a lot easier to stop once you do know. It’s a bit counter intuitive, but even when we’re hurting ourselves or causing ourselves unhappiness, the original intention of the thoughts and behaviours are often good. The intention almost always being, a way to protect ourselves. Can you guess what she was trying to protect herself from?
You may have picked up on it. She was trying to avoid being scolded by her mother. How did she avoid scolding and instead garner praise? By putting other people above herself, not saying how she really feels, giving too much, and enduring uncomfortable situations, just like her mother taught her to do.
Interesting right? She was so used to it growing up, she hadn’t realized this was such a common theme in her life. In looking at this memory with fresh eyes, she could see it’s no longer helpful for her to continue in this way. Who’s going to scold her now, and so what if they do? Once upon a time, she did what she needed to do to get by, but as an adult..
Does it make sense anymore?
Absolutely not! Worrying about making everyone else comfortable, giving away part of herself, not speaking her truth.. all of this was not only hurting her life and her career, it just didn’t make sense anymore. She didn’t need to appease her mother any longer, and she had absolutely no desire to continue to sacrifice her own happiness for the comfort of others. She could still be her lovely and kind self, but now she could choose to do it without giving a piece of herself away.
With her new awareness, it was much easier to find a solution and finally move forward. It may seem simple to us, but for her, she’d never come to the conclusion she could walk away, or tell people how she really felt, because.. once upon a time, she couldn’t! But now she can, and that understanding led to changes and realizations that improved her life exponentially.
She began interacting with people she actually enjoyed talking to, and excusing herself from the situations she didn’t enjoy. As her conversations became more enjoyable, the image in her mind went from anxiety inducing, to rewarding. She began feeling safe to speak up and say her real opinions, and unsurprisingly this attracted likeminded people.
Have you ever chatted with someone you just vibe with? It feels great. Socializing and being around people was no longer draining as she started talking to people who gave as much as she did. With that new understanding and a positive mindset, almost like magic, the social anxiety was gone.
Knowledge is our superpower
Our thoughts, feelings, and actions can change drastically when we have more information. Just knowing can make a world of difference. Notice in this following example, that beliefs and emotions can rule our perception and understanding, but they can also change. Once they change, our feelings change, and when our feelings change, our thoughts change.
What happens when our thoughts and feelings change? Any actions we might take change right along with it! With the right information, we start to make better, more informed decisions, and our lives change in incredible ways.
Consider in the following example
Imagine for a moment that you’re sitting on a busy train. All the seats are full, and you can see over near the priority seats that there is an elderly man with a cane, standing. The priority seats are filled with people who seem to need them, except one. In one of the seats is a much younger man. He’s sitting directly next to the elderly man, and could easily offer up his seat, but instead, he’s sitting and looking at his phone.
We might be thinking some things about the younger man. Maybe that he’s rude, selfish, entitled, or that he simply doesn’t realize where he’s sitting. Other people might be thinking the same thing, some might even speak up about it, whisper to one another, or make their thoughts known with a stern look. However, the train stops at the next station, and the elderly man assists the young man to stand. He then hands him the cane and supports him as they exit the train together.
Here’s another interesting observation. The intentions of many passengers thinking badly of the young man were actually good! They saw a situation that appeared unjust, and they wanted to change it or help in their own way. We didn’t know he need that seat, he looked looked perfectly fine. How were we to know?
However, once we do know, our thoughts and feelings change. If we saw those two again, we may just offer up a smile, some kindness, or our own seat if we have one to offer. More than likely, we’d just keep to ourselves, but we certainly wouldn’t be feeling the same as we did when we saw them the first time. Sometimes all we need is more information, and we can see things completely differently. The same is true when we learn more about ourselves.
The mental health issues we deal with on a day to day are our minds way of trying to help us, but we’re trying to help ourselves with old and outdated knowledge and coping mechanisms. The negative voices we hear in our minds are the putdowns of the past. The anxiety, the depression, the anger, the explosive feelings, however it may be presenting for you, are often the accumulation of misguided ways our mind tried to help us cope once upon a time.
What is it you’re dealing with that you’d love to be free from?
Maybe it’s anxiety, depression, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, feeling bad about yourself? Anger? You may have a little voice in your head that tells you terrible things all the time. Or maybe a mind so full of thoughts you can barely sleep at night. You may often find yourself thinking, what’s wrong with me? You’re not the only one. I could relate to everything listed above and more, and I can also confidently say I crossed every last one of them off my list.
Any insight into why my mind might be doing this?
Most of our beliefs and understandings are formed when we were children, when we often weren’t prepared for the situations we had to face. Maybe you had to grow up too fast, or had to manage people or situations you really shouldn’t have had to. You’d have to figure out what to do with the very limited experience of a child. But! You have that experience now. You can process and understand from your adult perspective, and improve how you think and feel about yourself entirely.
We could look at important moments in your life and change your mind about it in the most fascinating, efficient, and effective way. You have options available now, you can find your answers, and you can take your power back. There’s no need for these old subconscious thoughts to be affecting your life any longer, so why not clear out the cobwebs? Get refreshed, and start feeling good?
How can I do that?
Your mind is incredibly clever. It’s like a huge library full of your life experiences, and it’s surprisingly organized. You can’t consciously be aware of all that information all the time, or you’d be overwhelmed with it all! But it’s there. It’s sitting in your subconscious, and it’s doing it’s job to keep you safe. However, if you’re dealing with mental health issues, it’s very likely doing it in a flawed way.
I guide you into a hypnotic state, so you can access the information that’s sitting in your subconscious mind. It’s just waiting there for you to ask. There’s always a more accurate story to be told when you can see what your child self perceived, and you as an adult can make sense of it. Hypnosis is really just meditation, and when you’re relaxed in meditation, these answers are there ripe for understanding. All I do is guide you into that relaxation, find the information you need, we process it, and we update the story.
Maybe you’ve heard about the man who loved to peel potatoes? Stay with me here. When he was a child, his parents pretended they couldn’t peel potatoes very well, and they told him his was so good at it. So of coarse, he started peeling potatoes for his parents, and he felt pretty darn good about it. He spent most of his life being the family potato peeler, and it only occurred to him in his adult years when it dawned on him, that his parents had tricked him into peeling potatoes. Now, this is rather mild. Maybe even a bit funny and charming. This is also such a great example of what happens to us as children on a psychological level, and it’s not always as mild as peeling potatoes.
Here’s an idea of what might just be leaking through from the subconscious library of your mind. -I’m so stupid. I don’t do anything right. Nobody likes me. I can’t trust anyone. What if I can’t do it? I’m not good enough. I can’t cry. It’s better to be alone.-
Now imagine you knew why your mind keeps whispering these things to you. Imagine you could flip through the pages of a book labeled, “it’s better to be alone,” find out where it got it’s title from, and change your mind about it. You could have your wow, aha moment, put all the pieces of the puzzle together and have it all click into place.
It’s really incredibly interesting, and it’s so efficient. We’ll get you nice and relaxed, find the answers to your burning questions, process the information, and we’ll tell your subconscious mind the truth. The truth might just be, “I don’t want to be alone, I don’t want to push people away. I want to connect, make friends, and have healthy relationships.”
If you tell your mind what you really want, then you’re going to start actively searching for whatever that is, and you’re infinitely more likely to find it. Let’s get your mind working positively for you, and put an end to anything outdated, hurtful and unhelpful.
“That was like mental surgery.”
Annonymous client
Major changes happen throughout the month post therapy
Once you’ve understood and processed the bits and bobs from the past, you can update your mind with the truth. It’s almost like a mental surgery. Let’s remove for example; “I am not good enough.” And install “I’m perfectly fine just as I am.” Whatever it is you tell me you want, you can actually communicate straight to your subconscious with a personalized hypnosis recording. It’s honestly so effective, and pretty cool.
My anxiety clients recording was chock full of everything she asked for. “I want to feel confident.” Done. “I want to just do it. No thinking, just.. do it.” Done and done. “I want to be able to speak up and say what I really think.” Beautiful, let’s get that information straight to your subconscious. I can do that for you! Really, I can. The incredible thing is, it often feels so natural.
Why does it feel so natural?
The heaviness, the burden, the anxiety, the depression? It’s not you. It’s more like a backpack you had no idea you were carrying. A burden placed on you that you’ve been unknowingly carrying around, probably most of your life. That’s the unnatural part. The anxiety, the depression, the anger. It’s not your natural state. If you consider that babies aren’t born angry, anxious, depressed, or putting themselves down, it certainly makes you wonder where you picked it up and learned it along the way.
The healing, natural part is putting that load down. Taking it off and refusing to carry it anymore. I’ve seen it countless times when my clients tell me they feel so good, so much lighter, so themselves. They discover so many true things about themselves they weren’t allowed to realize when they were small. Maybe it was squashed down, repressed, not encouraged by teachers, parents, maybe even friends.
You might just be an outgoing person, a natural born leader, actually quite funny, talented, a positive thinker. It becomes pretty clear what is intrinsically you, and you can really notice and feel it. “Oh yeah, I remember now, I used to be like that!” You can be free to speak up, to make great choices for yourself, to live in the moment, laugh out loud, be the real you. Whatever that may be, you can rediscover it! We just have to figure out where the wrong wires got crossed, and uncross them.
Let’s do it!
How much happier could you be if you saw the world differently? If you could see the best in yourself, forgive yourself, respect yourself, set healthy boundaries, recognize your true potential? You can look at your past with new perspective and understanding, and you could change the way you perceive yourself, the world, and the people around you. If you knew why you do the things you do, it becomes nearly effortless to experience healthy and positive changes. You can update that roadmap in your mind so you can get to where you want to be in life.
For my client who is now free from social anxiety, they see themselves differently, and you can too. You don’t have to give away the metaphorical fish stick. You can explore your thought processes with a sense of curiosity, learn so much about yourself, understand the where’s and why’s, and make the choice for phenomenal and positive change.
