Lately you may have noticed articles from respected sources that give hypnosis credit as an aid in alleviating suffering from many medical conditions; as a way to break destructive habits; and even as an assist to achieving goals.
Perhaps you have become intrigued by the subject, especially if you once thought of hypnosis only as entertainment.
If you´re like many intelligent people I meet, you´re probably thinking, "Hypnosis sounds interesting, but what can it do for ME?"
There are many possibilities. Here are five to consider as a start.
1. Hypnosis can help you move away from habits you´d like to leave behind. It´s a popular therapy for smoking cessation, some say the best. It involves no drugs, no physical pain, and usually puts you in a relaxed mood. While no smoking cessation method works all the time for all people, hypnosis is at the top of the list for effectiveness with no negative side effects and with positive, often long-term results.
But smoking is not the only negative habit hypnosis can help you eliminate or lessen. Overeating, nail-biting, hair twisting and even falling in love consistently with the wrong people are habits that can be removed or reduced with hypnosis.
2. Hypnosis can help you acquire healthy, useful habits that would be productive for your life or work. My clients have used it to lose weight, work out regularly and more strenuously, choose healthier foods, and even to enjoy new challenges.
3. Hypnosis can improve your performance in sports, in your work, in skills like public speaking, and in meeting people—when networking for business or for social contacts. It can help you think faster and improve skills. Children can be hypnotized for improved study and test-taking abilities (as can adults returning to school in later years!). Adults can become fluid speakers who shine in meetings and presentations. And better skilled at driving, communicating and even romance.
Teens can enhance social skills useful in dating as well as confidence in school subjects, sports, making new friends.
4. Hypnosis can reduce, and sometimes even alleviate, physical pain. But there´s a cautionary note here: Because hypnosis can be so effective at this, it is crucial that the pain is discussed with a physician. Wiping out the sensation of pain is dangerous if the root cause is not diagnosed first. Pain is a signal that something might be wrong and should be checked. Always consult your doctor first.
Can hypnosis cure illness? There are some indications that it can, particularly with certain mild skin conditions that are caused by—or exacerbated by—emotional distress or nervousness. In these situations, use hypnosis in partnership with your doctor´s treatment, and always with his/her knowledge.
5. Hypnosis can empower psychotherapy to achieve improved results in less time.
You may work with a psychotherapist who is also trained in hypnosis or with two
separate mental-health providers. If you do the latter, sign a form that allows the two to communicate about your situation, and you´ll get twice the benefit.
We do that in my office, where there are five psychotherapists and one hypnotherapist—me. For patients who could benefit, my colleagues suggest seeing me, usually for one, three, or six sessions. The results have been excellent, especially in situations involving fears and anxieties that hold people back from achieving all they could.
For some clients, combining the two approaches eliminates the need for prolonged therapy.
And because a competent hypnotherapist or hypnotist can teach you self hypnosis, either in a class or through private instruction, you can reinforce your gains and improvements on your own.
Hypnosis may be one of the best "bargains" in complementary healthcare. For the cost of a few sessions, some problems can be erased and others reduced considerably; by learning self-hypnosis, a client or patient has a skill to use with him/herself that can be used in many situations and throughout a lifetime. © 2008 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Relaxing the Rule
Waves softly pound a rhythmic island beat against white sand dazzling under a cloudless sky. A warm and gentle breeze smells sweet, carries pleasant music and softly caresses Susanne Giller's skin. Stretched out in a chaise longue, the 33-year-old is serene and worlds away from all stress and tension.
"I have a drink in my hand," she adds.
The Hopewell Township woman was in paradise -- not as a result of frequent-flier miles or winning a contest. She reached the imaginary place through self-hypnosis -- and did so while in labor, opting for the self-induced state over pain medication to deliver a healthy baby boy, her first child, after four hours of labor.
Giller is the first to deliver her baby at University Medical Center at Princeton after completing the hospital's new HypnoBirthing course. The five-week course teaches expectant mothers self- hypnosis techniques such as visualization, guided imagery, special breathing techniques and positive affirmations. It can result in a faster, less painful and less stressful experience during a time traditionally distressing for the mom-to-be.
Says Linda Stout, certified HypnoBirthing instructor and class teacher at UMCP: "Often the discomfort and pain felt in labor is brought on by tension caused by a mother's fear of pain. A woman who learns how to decrease her anxiety through techniques of HypnoBirthing can also reduce the pain she feels."
For Giller, it couldn't have gone more smoothly. The pain of labor was manageable, she said, using hypnosis to work with her body instead of against it.
"The breathing technique helped me tremendously, and when I let go of the fear and pain, it was as if someone had just given me drugs," she says. "It totally re laxed me. I pictured a place where I was happy and a beach in the Caribbean is a happy place. In between the contractions, I pretended I was there."
Childbirth changes
The business of birthing has changed over the years from the traditional hospital setting to one that now includes involvement by a midwife and the use of hypnosis as a way to reduce or eliminate pain medication. Some clinical studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of hypnosis in reducing pain following surgery, as well as provid ing relief from cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, headaches, arthritis and other conditions.The HypnoBirthing program taught at UMCP was developed 18 years ago by New Hampshire hypnotist Marie Mongan and has since grown in popularity. Today, it is taught internationally by more than 1,700 doctors, nurses and midwives, including Stout, a registered nurse, who were trained and certi fied by Mongan's institute.
For the excited parents-to-be, the big moment arrived at 5:35 p.m. Dec. 16 when Susanne and husband, Oliver, welcomed a baby boy, Alexander Heinz Giller, who weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces.
Four hours of labor.
No pain medication.
Susanne chose the hypnosis approach out of a desire to deliver her baby without pain medication if at all possible, and to reduce stress for her and her baby's well-being.
"I tried to be as healthy as I could while pregnant and wanted to see that through to the birth," she says. "It's crazy to eat so healthy and do all the right things, then reach the actual birth and say, 'All right, give me all the drugs you can.'"
Giller learned of the hypnosis course during a pre-natal exercise class.
"I thought it was worth trying," she says. "But when I told people about it, they said, 'That's crazy.' They all told me to get the drugs, just get the drugs."
Giller carefully weighed the options.
"My thought was, I have nothing to lose," she says. "But I knew, as I told my friends, medication would be there if I have to. It's not as if it's a home birth with no choice. It just made a lot of sense to me."
It's an option expectant women should consider, Giller says.
"My advice to women is to be in charge of your birth plan and have no regrets when it's over," she says.
Taming the stress
The five-week class began in October for Giller, a pediatric occupational therapist in the Flemington school district. Techniques she learned also helped her handle work stress during the final stretch of her pregnancy.
"Some days, I had a really stressful day at work," she recalls. "Being pregnant, you shouldn't have too much stress, so the techniques would help me to calm down and feel better. An emotional, hormonal woman needs something to calm her down, but you couldn't take anything while pregnant."
About 3 a.m. Dec. 16 of last year, Giller had the first indication it might be show time after her water broke.
"I didn't have any pain and the midwife in the class assured me I'd be fine until contractions began," she says. "I did my meditation and went back to sleep until about 9:30 a.m."
At 11 a.m., Giller and her husband went to UMCP to have the medical team examine her and determine how far along she was toward delivery.
"I had packed all my bags just in case and we cleaned up the house in case anyone had to come in," she says. "I wasn't having any labor or contractions, and once at UMCP, they said I was only three centimeters dilated."
Susanne and Oliver left the hospital.
"I could tell something was different, but the contractions weren't that bad," she says. "The staff suggested I go home, maybe take a bath, and relax."
It was nine days before Christmas and Oliver had a different idea.
"My husband said he still hadn't done my Christmas shopping and suggested we go to the jewelry store and I could pick out what ever I wanted. A woman will never say no to jewelry, so we went to a jewelry store and looked. An employee there said it looked like I was about to deliver and I thought, she has no idea."
Contractions were now about five minutes apart.
"But they weren't horrible," Giller says. "I was doing the hypno- breathing and it wasn't that bad."
The couple picked up deli sandwiches and went to the home of Oliver's parents for lunch
Contractions were arriving every four minutes.
"And then three minutes and I said I think it's time to go."
When the Gillers arrived at UMCP, Susanne was at eight centimeters and nearly ready to deliver. It was about 5:30 p.m.
"The midwife looked at me and told Oliver to give me some water because I looked low-energy. But it was because I had meditated my self to a place where I was happy. I was thinking to myself, I'm on the beach and very happy."
Benefits Of NLP Training - What You Stand To Gain?
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a method that enables us to modify our behavior, feelings or thought problems by means of our trained brain. NLP is a powerful tool to benefit the people who desire to seek self-improvement and growth. Today NLP is being used in business, counseling, building relationship, career development and personality development. NLP is used in groups as well as independently on individuals.
Neuro Linguistic Programming was first coined in the early seventies by John Grinder, an assistant professor of linguistics, and Richard Bandler, a student of psychology. As a program of self development, NLP meant for modeling human behavior. It was resulted from deep research on the relationship based on observable patterns of human activities, linguistics and neurology.
The main function of NLP is to replicate various forms of human interaction including relationship, behavioral pattern, motivation, memory and communication. This kind of training can be useful to know how the brain works and helps people who want to improve their communication skills.
The people who are into sales and marketing, management and presentation, performance, training and coaching, negotiation and meditation can benefit greatly from NLP training. The function of NLP is to examine how our brain works. Whatever we do, in terms of some neurological patterns, gets recorded in our brain. As we repeat the same thing over and again that becomes our habit and that gets reflected in our behavior becomes fixed. It will have unhappy results if we repeat these neurological patterns for years. Let me illustrate this point by taking one example. It will always give pleasure if we replace our habits, such as over-eating or smocking, with a new pattern. By replacing such old thinking and behavioral pattern with new one, we can achieve such positive results.
NLP training can be acquired through various workshops, seminars, online learning programs and other comprehensive educational courses. NLP Training curriculum is tailored according to the needs of life coaches, business trainers and mental health practitioners alike.
NLP training courses can be useful to those want to develop their communication, leadership and motivational skills. NLP training is also very important in sports. The clients are made aware of the things they're doing by their coach who teaches them to concentrate on their game. This leads them to better performances. NLP training can benefit to those who want to improve their health. According to some health experts, there's a link between thoughts, behavior and health. NLP practitioners prefer to work within therapy. It is useful for individuals to help them change their limiting beliefs, habits and behaviors. It helps people to deal with emotions and assists individuals to find meaning in life by setting reachable well-formed goals. One of the best advantages one can have is to improve himself by getting rid of habits or vices he dislikes.
About the Author
Terry Elston is the head NLP coach at NLPWorld Ltd where you can get trained as an NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner, NLP Coach and receive NLP Business Training. Also make sure you visit the website for FREE NLP Training CD's, MP3's & Special Reports!
Neuro Linguistic Programming was first coined in the early seventies by John Grinder, an assistant professor of linguistics, and Richard Bandler, a student of psychology. As a program of self development, NLP meant for modeling human behavior. It was resulted from deep research on the relationship based on observable patterns of human activities, linguistics and neurology.
The main function of NLP is to replicate various forms of human interaction including relationship, behavioral pattern, motivation, memory and communication. This kind of training can be useful to know how the brain works and helps people who want to improve their communication skills.
The people who are into sales and marketing, management and presentation, performance, training and coaching, negotiation and meditation can benefit greatly from NLP training. The function of NLP is to examine how our brain works. Whatever we do, in terms of some neurological patterns, gets recorded in our brain. As we repeat the same thing over and again that becomes our habit and that gets reflected in our behavior becomes fixed. It will have unhappy results if we repeat these neurological patterns for years. Let me illustrate this point by taking one example. It will always give pleasure if we replace our habits, such as over-eating or smocking, with a new pattern. By replacing such old thinking and behavioral pattern with new one, we can achieve such positive results.
NLP training can be acquired through various workshops, seminars, online learning programs and other comprehensive educational courses. NLP Training curriculum is tailored according to the needs of life coaches, business trainers and mental health practitioners alike.
NLP training courses can be useful to those want to develop their communication, leadership and motivational skills. NLP training is also very important in sports. The clients are made aware of the things they're doing by their coach who teaches them to concentrate on their game. This leads them to better performances. NLP training can benefit to those who want to improve their health. According to some health experts, there's a link between thoughts, behavior and health. NLP practitioners prefer to work within therapy. It is useful for individuals to help them change their limiting beliefs, habits and behaviors. It helps people to deal with emotions and assists individuals to find meaning in life by setting reachable well-formed goals. One of the best advantages one can have is to improve himself by getting rid of habits or vices he dislikes.
About the Author
Terry Elston is the head NLP coach at NLPWorld Ltd where you can get trained as an NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner, NLP Coach and receive NLP Business Training. Also make sure you visit the website for FREE NLP Training CD's, MP3's & Special Reports!
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