Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Center

Analytical hypnotherapy works on the basis that every symptom has a cause, in the same way that the term ’cause-and-effect’ works in other areas of life. Analytical hypnotherapy looks at the root cause of the problem. This system is based on the findings of Milton Erickson and the Analytical Hypnotherapy techniques of Dr R D Longacre.

Direct Suggestion hypnotherapy works on the symptom, seeking to relieve the symptom thereby giving the client a chance to change and heal as they see fit. This is an “old school” modality which is based on the founding principles of James Braid and James Esdaile. This is a very small part of hypnotherapy but because of entertaining stage shows, this is what most people associate hypnotherapy with.

Part Therapy hypnotherapy is an effective and simple tool similar Ego State Therapy that most main stream psychologists will be familiar with. The Parts that control the clients behaviours are addressed separately with the hypnotherapist acting as a mediator. The parts come to a successful resolution of the matter being addressed, and are then re-integrated in harmony with the client. This technique is based on the teachings of Charles Tebbetts and Roy Hunter.

GAIA is the foundation upon which all that comes from it are grounded.

“The poor physician treats the symptoms.
The good physician treats the disease.
The excellent physician treats the patient.”

We offer you a GAIA Deep Healing Meditation option to deal with Balance in your life.

What is Deep Healing?
Healing, as we have discussed is the process of moving mind, body, emotion, and behavior in the direction of becoming more whole and finding a healthy balance (homeostasis). As a system becomes more whole, its component parts function better, and they function in a more coordinated, effective way in relationship to each other. Deep Healing refers to the process of creating this balance on all levels of the internal system and, in addition, finding balance in relationship to the outside world (mate, family, community, planet) .

Superficial Healing
Healing is easy to see when a cut on a finger mends. In this case, healing addresses the unbalanced state in the body, in which energy (blood) was being lost and the interior of the body was excessively exposed to potential damage (infection). A few sutures and a bandage, and the healing process proceeds on its own.

But what if the bleeding is from an ulcer in the stomach? Sure, a surgeon may operate and suture it closed and the body will repair the wound as it did the finger – but that may not be enough. Often, a further form, like deep healing is needed. This is because a stomach ulcer may actually be the end result of a series of changes beginning with the person living a life of too much unbalanced stress. Or it could be that the person has been using alcohol to excess, or living a life that is unhealthy in other ways.

In such cases, local treatment by surgically repairing the ulcer treats the symptom, but does not treat the deeper cause. This leads to a state of incomplete healing, and because the true source of the symptoms is not being adequately dealt with, they are likely to recur. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of all our illnesses are of this type – and to make a complete return to health and wellness we need deep healing.

To continue with the example of the ulcer: to heal more deeply we must ask questions of the person with the ulcer, and help her/him discover a more effective way of relating with her/his body and the world. The best way to achieve this is through the use of mind tools such as cognitive behavior change strategies, guided imagery, deep relaxation, and self hypnosis to create changes in attitudes, habits and beliefs.

Deep Healing Source
So, whether we are dealing with, for example, high blood pressure, headaches, spastic bowel, diabetes, obesity, back pain, or stress management problems, etc., the most effective and most rapid way to complete healing is through looking at the system as a whole. We must address the relationship among mind, body, emotion, spirit, and environment.

We must pay attention to the fact that our thoughts and images control our nervous system, the factory that produces the chemicals that control our perceptions, feelings, and behaviors. Our thoughts and images thus determine whether we are healthy or not. This deep healing process involves accessing the wisdom of the conscious mind and accessing a place of peace and calm that is inside of you. Opening the highest level of your physical and spiritual system where you can create balance and organize your world so it can return to harmony.

Now we are free to go on to high level wellness and peak performance. Because the process of deep healing has opened the inner doors to our vast inner reservoir of wisdom peace and calm, we can now understand at a deeper level the importance of paying attention to the functioning of the system long before we develop symptoms.

Examples of Deep Healing
So, what is Deep Healing?

For an individual, healing means developing higher levels of health, wellness, and performance of mind, body, emotions, and behaviors, as well as developing balance and happiness spiritually and in relationships. Here are some examples of healing at each of the levels:

Physical: Healing at the physical level is exemplified by the wound that stops bleeding and closes over or the infection that goes away through the action of the immune system.

Emotional: At the emotional healing level; healing and wholeness can mean overcoming a tragic loss and finding hope and courage again – or it might mean learning to relax through anxiety or anger.

Mental: At the mental healing level, it could be choosing to avoid distraction and to focus clearly on that which is most important – or to think more creatively and logically and make better choices.

Relationship: At the relationship level, it could be going beyond conflict, communicating honestly and treating others with respect, unconditional positive regard, and love.

Spirit: At the spiritual healing level; healing might mean realizing that we have not been living up to our own ideals, awakening to our true values and purpose, and reorganizing our lives to better reflect them.

Deep Healing Our Planet
Just as we can be out of balance at the individual level, our families, communities, nation, and world can be out of balance and in need of deep healing. To be truly deep, healing must also examine and balance the environment – the people, the natural world, and the man-made structures – and how we are relating with it.

We will be focusing on Earth Star Chakra – Grounded into the Earth, Rejuvenation and restoration directly from Mother Gaia. The earth star chakra is sometimes referred to as one of the “new chakras” or “subpersonal chakras.” Think of your earth star chakra as a high-performance root chakra! It is the grounding point for your entire chakra system and etheric body.

The soul star chakra is outside of your physical body and located in your etheric body approximately six inches above your head. It resides within your auric field and is connected to your other chakras. The color of this chakra is deep red.

See the Seven Steps of the GAIA Deep Healing Meditation Course below:

GAIA Healing Step One of Seven – Root Chakra is at the base of the spine.
GAIA Healing Step Two of Seven – Sacral Chakra is near the reproductive organs.
GAIA Healing Step Three of Seven – Solar Plexus Chakra in the abdomen.
GAIA Healing Step Four of Seven – Heart Chakra in the center of the chest.
GAIA Healing Step Five of Seven – Throat Chakra is at the base of the throat.
GAIA Healing Step Six of Seven – Third Eye Chakra is between the eyebrows.
GAIA Healing Step Seven of Seven – Crown Chakra on top of the head.
GAIA Healing Conclusion

Past life regression is a technique that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations. Past-life regression is typically undertaken either in pursuit of a spiritual experience.

Hypnotherapy clients are guided into a relaxed state of awareness via hypnosis, to relive and resolve scenes or challenges from past lives that manifest into current life issues.

Past Life Regression Hypnotherapy or PLR

Past Life Regression is a gentle form of hypnotherapy which takes an individual back through time to their previous lives or incarnations by accessing memories and experiences that are normally hidden in their subconscious mind. Life today is so busy and so ‘noisy’ that these memories are usually concealed beneath the noise of everyday thoughts. A PLR session guides you out of the noise and into a deeply quiet and peaceful state where it’s far easier to locate the memories held in your subconscious mind.

Past life regression hypnosis is used to recall past lives and seeks to bring into consciousness hidden or repressed memories that have been carried forward from a previous lifetime or incarnation.

During a session, I will use guided imagery or hypnosis to regress the client to a point in the past. This point may be a previous life or a specific time during the client’s childhood. Once these memories become part of conscious memory, the client is often able to work through many conflicts, release possible spiritual blockages and examine any lessons learned from a spiritual perspective.

Past Life Regression can help you to:
Reconnect with past life experiences.
Help you understand why you feel a deep connection with certain places.
Explore your past life and current Soulmate experiences.
Identify physical ailments you have, which may be remnants of past life experiences.
Explore unresolved emotions which have carried through into this lifetime, creating fears or beliefs which you have been unable to explain.
Acknowledge and embrace the key lessons learned through those lives.
During A Past Life Regression Hypnotherapy Session
Hypnosis aims to subdue or move past the analytical/rational/logical behaviour of the conscious mind and gain access to the workings of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is a mind boggling landscape of infinite wisdom, capacity, knowledge, creativity and potential. With the clients limiting beliefs out the way, the hypnosis practitioner can start gaining access to this landscape. The very nature of these factors of the subconscious mind may be the doorway that allows access to past life experiences. However, since the sense-making part of the mind is subdued it is down to the skill of the hypnotist to help the client navigate their way around their past life and to help them make sense of what they are experiencing.

Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is a normal part of life. The course of stress is always external and the manifestation of stress is always internal. You can experience stress from your environment, your body, and your thoughts.

We offer you a Meditation and Hypnotherapy option to deal with Stress.

What is Stress and how can we describe it?

There are two types of stress:

Acute stress prepares us for fight-or-flight, and is generally short-term.
Chronic stress is long term and is the main cause of stress-related health problems.
Stress causes chemical changes in the body that, left unchecked, can have negative effects on both mental and physical health.

Acute stress in detail

Acute stress is a short-term response that originates in a part of our brain called the limbic system, specifically in the amygdala. The amygdala activates another part of the brain, the hypothalamus, which wakes up the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (our fight-or-flight response system). This interacts with vital organ systems, our skeletal muscles and the endocrine system of glands that secretes hormones.

In all, over seventeen different hormones are released during an acute stress response. Adrenaline and noradrenaline are familiar names. These hormones are released by the adrenal medulla (part of the adrenal glands, two small glands located on top of each kidney).

How long acute stress lasts may vary – the response can last for a few minutes or a few weeks.

Physical responses

Blood sugar levels rise.
Additional red blood cells are released (to carry extra oxygen).
Blood flow to large muscles of movement increases.
Peripheral blood vessels constrict.
The pulse quickens.
Blood pressure rises.
Digestion stops.
The parasympathetic nervous system, mediated by the vagal nerve, counterbalances the acute stress response. It will slow things down again, given time and space. Our centre of reason, the pre-frontal cortex, is also able to step in and influence this pattern, but it often shuts down, leaving us unable to make emotionally intelligent decisions when we most need to do so.

Chronic stress in detail

Chronic stress occurs when repeated acute stress responses keep the body continuously alert, negatively affecting health. The parasympathetic nervous system does not get a chance to do its job and calm things down. The ongoing stress response causes the hypothalamus and pituitary gland to release a chemical known as ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). ACTH, known as the “stress hormone”, stimulates the adrenal gland to produce and release cortisol.

A persistently high level of cortisol affects our health in many ways.

Insomnia can result when the normal cyclical fluctuations of cortisol levels through the day and night are disrupted.
Certain immune functions are suppressed by high cortisol levels.
Wound healing time lengthens.
Bone formation decreases.
Cortisol promotes the synthesis of glucose from proteins in order to make more glucose available as fuel in response to stressful situations. This reduces lean muscle mass and increases blood sugar levels.
Cortisol also increases the deposition of abdominal fat and increases cravings for food, especially carbohydrates (sugars). This can set up a cycle of stress and overeating.
These changes are slow and incremental and are often only noticed once our health is significantly compromised.
Specific health problems include (but are not limited to):

high blood pressure
ischaemic heart disease (angina and heart attacks)
diabetes
depression
anxiety
headache
osteoporosis
We adapt to chronic stress through a variety of coping mechanisms, some of which may be genuinely helpful and some which may be maladaptive and further contribute to the negative impacts on our health in the long term.

We offer you a Meditation and Hypnotherapy option to deal with Stress.

Developed by Frank A. Gerbode, M.D., of the Institute for Research in Metapsychology in Menlo Park, California, TIR is a regressive desensitization procedure for reducing or eliminating the negative residual impact of traumatic experience. As such it finds major application in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A one-on-one guided imagery process, TIR is also useful in remediation of specific unwanted stress responses, such as panic attacks, that occur without significant provocation. “Thematic TIR” traces such conditioned responses back through the history of their occurrence in a client’s life to the stressful incidents primarily responsible for their acquisition. The resolution of the primary incidents then reduces or eliminates the target stress response.

As an intervention technique, TIR is both highly structured and client-centered. It is highly structured in that the therapist who is called a “facilitator” guides the client who is called a “viewer” repetitively through an imaginal replay of a specific trauma. It is client- – or, as Dr. Gerbode prefers, “person-” – centered, in that a TIR facilitator doesn’t interpret or critique the viewer’s experience or tell him how he should feel or what to think about it. A patient and systematic anamnesis, TIR unsuppresses the trauma being addressed to provide the viewer the opportunity to review and revise his perspective on it. TIR’s uniqueness lies, in part, in the fact that a session continues until the viewer is completely relieved of whatever stress the target trauma originally provoked and any cognitive distortions (e.g., observations, decisions, conclusions) embedded within the incident have been restructured. (Gerbode, 1989)

TIR is recognized by the American Psychological Association) as a effective procedure for the successful management and reduction of trauma.

In this practice we are staying away from the idea of pathology. We no longer question the weaknesses of man, nor do we analyse them. We focus on the positive aspects of man and ask questions his or her recourses and attributes to conquer a problem. We believe that every human being is unique and created perfectly, with all the resources needed so succeed. Mental illness does not exist, only healthy people who see a problem as an opportunity to grow.

You can thus either view yourself as a frog or a potential prince, who doesn’t even need to be kissed by a princess. You only need to discover your inner prince.

This is a model of pathology
As early as 1952, attempts were made to diagnose and place people in categories of disorders. Since 1952, literally to this day there were attempts to categorize people and place them in a box, and the boxes changed constantly and adjusted to try and classify the complexity of the human nature.

These diagnoses are becoming progressively complex. Suddenly new boxes and new diagnoses appeared. Old ones became abundant. The time has come for us to move away from these disorders. The absence of depression is not the same as the presence of happiness, positive emotions and meaning in life.

Instead of labeling a person with, e.g. depression, being a monster, a murderer, etc. and attempting to treat it per se, we can acknowledge the positive and utilize it to our advantage.

The focus, therefore, should not be on what is wrong with man, but rather on what is right with people. It also happens when there are questions to be asked about what the positive intention behind behaviour was rather than to condemn the behaviour itself. It may ask us not to judge, but to ask for the intention of people.

The positive model
In positive psychology, we want to move away from the model of pathology. We do not focus on depression, anxiety or other mental disorders. We rather focus on the strengths and resources we received as well-created human beings.

To combat depression does not necessarily imply the absence thereof and will not automatically result in a feeling of happiness, positive emotions and a meaningful life.

We want to focus in the here-and-now, mindfully and with all our senses concentrate on what we do have.

Core components of positive psychology
Gratitude:
It’s so easy to focus on what we do not have, rather than focusing on what we do have.

The Tibetans have a statement that reads: “the moment when we are content, we have enough”. We will not be content when we have enough. We will have enough when we are content “.

This is when you become mindfully aware of the little things around you. It is when you use your five senses to appreciate everything around you and what you do have. These are precious moments.

Gratitude is when you deviate from yourself, and focus on the moment and your surroundings.

Perhaps you can make a difference in someone’s life with an unexpected act of selflessness. Who knows?

Mindful meditation:
You are not required to sit quietly every day and physically meditate. You don’t need to sit in a mandala-position and recite all kinds of rhymes.

Meditation is awareness of every moment. Wherever you are, whatever you do, be consciously aware with all five of your senses of your surroundings, your doings and your feelings. It’s about savoring your food, wine, garden, your surroundings on your way to work, everything and anything, mindfully and in the moment of the here and now.

Just allow yourself from time to time to become still and do nothing. Just breathe, relax, and become aware of whatever you are experiencing with your five senses. This is what mindful meditation is about.

Learned optimism:
You can learn to be more optimistic. You are not a victim. You are not a victim of your genes, or education, or of your life experiences.

Your problem is not in how you were growing up. You may have learned that you are a victim. But you’re not. You could have been a victim as a child, but now you’re so much older, wiser and more experienced with the resources that you have acquired in your own learning experiences as an adult.

You are also not a victim of the events in your life. There are things that happened, and you now have the choice to feel like a victim or a survivor.

You can choose to follow a self-fulfilling prophecy reinforcing those thoughts. It’s your choice to keep on thinking negatively, and to keep on reinforcing the pattern of your negative thoughts.

It is your choice whether you will be a person ruled by fear or one driven by life. Your choice to be a prince… or a frog.

It has been our observation that regardless of the magnitude or chronicity of the problems people experience, there are situations or times when, for some reason, the problem simply does not happen. Bed-wetters have dry nights, combative couples have peaceful days, and teenagers sometimes comply with the rules without an argument, and so on. Most people, therapists included, consider these problem-free times to be disconnected from or unrelated to the problematic times and so little is done to better understand or amplify them. The exceptions to the problem offer a tremendous amount of information about what is needed to solve the problem. Solutions can be unearthed by examining the differences between times when the problem has occurred and times when it has not.

Clients often simply need to do more of what is already working until the problem no longer exists. The concept is so simple. If people want to experience more success, more happiness and less stress in their lives, let them assess what is different about the times when they are already successful, happy and stress-free.

Therein lays the solution -increasing those activities which have a track record of having achieved (even for short periods of time) the desired goal. Initially, a very interesting thing happens when we ask clients about exceptions. They often are quiet momentarily and appear to be lost in thought. The reason for this silence is that people generally cast the events in their lives in black and white terms: “You never are the one to make plans for us. I always do; or “He wets the bed all the time.” Although it is unlikely that only one partner is “always” the planner and it is impossible that any person wets the bed “all the time; this, nevertheless, is the way people perceive it. So, when we ask, “What is different about the times when your husband does make plans for you?” or, “What is different about the nights when there are dry beds?” we are asking people to report on experiences they haven’t really paid much attention to yet. All they have been noticing until now is slow social calendars, hurt feelings, wet beds, laundry, and frustration. They fail to notice or give significance to the occasional time when one spouse does ask the other out for lunch, or that morning last week when the bed was bone dry.

Another reason clients sometimes seem a bit unprepared when we ask the presuppositional question pertaining to exceptions is that they do not expect therapy to be a place where one discusses what is going right. Therapy is a place to talk about problems. After all, no TV or movie therapist ever asks about what is going right. In asking about exceptions, we are not only attempting to redirect people’s attention to what is already working but also orienting people as to what we think is important to know and talk about in therapy.

Patch Adams
In the movie Patch Adams, Patch is a man who enters a problem focused psychiatric hospital after he tries to kill himself. He meets many fellow patients but the one who intrigues him most is Arthur, a famous mathematician whom the techs say “counted too many fractions”.

Arthur has a habit of walking around the hospital holding up four fingers and saying, “How many fingers do you see?” When other patients and techs tell him they see four fingers, he exclaims, “You’re crazy.” Patch is intrigued by the question, and late one night he talks to Arthur about it. Arthur holds his fingers up and asks Patch to tell him how many he sees. Patch says, “There are four fingers, Arthur.” Arthur then pushes Patch to think differently when he says, “No, look at me. You are focusing on the problem. You can’t see the solution if you focus on the problem. Look at me.”

Blurring his eyes to see Arthur more clearly through his fingers, Patch’s eyes see eight blurred fingers. Now when Arthur asks him, “How many do you see?” Patch tells him, “Eight.” Thrilled, Arthur says, “Good, eight’s a good answer… see what others fail to see out of fear and unconformity. See what no one else sees. You must see other things or you wouldn’t have come here anyway. You must have seen something more than a bitter old man. I think you are on your way!”

If we focus solely on the problem, and nothing else, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to solve the problem. If we can broaden our frame of reference, it is more likely that the problem may be solved.

You have a to choose between two worlds. One wold limited, minute and scary. The other beautiful, wonderful that stretches out in-front of you. This is where you prosperous and your true-self is a reality.

Years ago there was a beer commercial where everyone looked alike, wore the same fancy clothing and all were having the same kind of beer, whilst listening to the white noise which sounded like the bleating of sheep. Suddenly a man entered the bar, wearing white pants and a floral shirt. He was completely different to the rest, and ordered a different type of beer. Everyone stared at him. He was completely out of place.

Most of us, however, live like we were raised to live. We are computerised to be like the Jones’. Just to fit in. We have to become adults, finish school, and if we are lucky, we get a tertiary education, and then start a career. We work to make our lives as comfortable as possible simply to live and to be comfortable. We get married, have children. We work and get a house with white picket fences, a garden and a dog. We raise our children and do our work daily faithfully. We work to retire, receive a golden watch, relax on the porch. Make sure our will is in order, and eventually die. What a miserable life to live!

After all. This is how most of us live our lives. We chase after achievements, we live in pursuit of wealth. We boast on Facebook about our successes and those of our children.

This is an empty and mindless life. Our daily routine exists out of what is expected of us. We follow our mundane routine – going to work (and hating it), fetch the kids, and have supper in front of the TV barely aware of what and how much we are devouring. Spending countless hours with meaningless activities, just as a distraction. To forget about our lives for a second. Just to be repeated the next day, tomorrow. Grateful for weekends that bring a welcome, but short lived change to this boring life. Then we succumb to many more of our addictions. Whether eating, drinking, buying, gambling, drugs, sex, smoking, or whatever it is to forget. Constantly trying to fill the empty barrel.

But it’s also a terrifying life. In this life, you become what society expects of you. You lose the faith you had in yourself and allow society to judge you. Comparing your achievements to the people around you, resulting in constant self-doubt. You lose all self-respect, and you start to feel scared and anxious. You do not feel as if you are good enough.

At this juncture you just start grabbing at anything and everything just to help you cope.

This world has no purpose and no meaning. It is an empty and meaningless world. You are confused and just trying to survive. The negativity of this world overwhelms you to such an extent that the beauty of it all surpasses you.

And then there is the other world.

In this world, there is life. It is being. There’s existence. There is pure thought. There is the Great Mind (God). Here, you are a product of God’s mind. In this world you are infinitely unique. In this world, your earthly existence is only a small part of your eternal existence where you are from God and part of God. In this world, you know only that you have a task to complete, not always knowing what this entails. In this world, you are important to God, and responsible to God. In this world you do not feel inferior. You do not feel you have to escape reality.

In this world, you are no longer afraid, but filled with awe. Filled with the awe of the greatness we experience every day. Consumed by the beauty of our universe and the obscurity and greatness of it, unaware of time and space. Our universe has no limitations or boundaries. In this expanse you are so small that you actually are nothing, and yet you are so great… In this world you just need to take care of yourself, and know that you always have choices. In this world, there is a never-ending joy and happiness – the adventure of life itself!

If you choose the first world, you choose your problem. Or you can choose the second world, and enjoy the free world mindfully.