A DREAM REALIZED - MEDICAL HYPNOSIS TRAINING IN PALM HARBOR

When I began a private practice 17+ years ago in California, there were only a couple of places to get medical hypnotherapy training. One of those places was in Phoenix, AZ, and I made many extended trips there through the years. My first medical hypnotherapy teacher, Dr. Michael Preston ("Hypnosis: Medicine of the Mind"), passed away last October. Sean Longacre ("Visualization & Guided Imagery in Complimentary Medicine), founder of the National Board for Hypnotherapy & Hypnotic Anaesthesiology in Arizona, passed away a few years ago and the Board was disbanded. Bruce Lipton ("Biology of Belief") was on the Board of Directors at the American Board of Hypnotherapy in those early years and taught me about the science behind the mind-body connection. As a student, I was definitely ready. And the universe caused amazing teachers to appear!

Although hypnosis is being utilized more and more as a complimentary adjunct to conventional medicine, there are still very few avenues for practicing hypnotherapists to receive the appropriate specialty training needed to work within the medical model. When I started the UP Hypnosis Institute 7 years ago, my intention was to offer quality training and support for those desiring to help people and to eventually offer specialty training in medical hypnotherapy. Well, eventually has arrived!

Melissa Roth is someone I met early in my hypnosis career and attended many of her seminars and classes, both at the American Board of Hypnotherapy is California and the National Board for Hypnotherapy & Hypnotic Anaesthesiology in Arizona. She has gained notoriety for her work with medical professionals and has developed programs for working with fibromyalgia, IBS, and more that are now industry standards. Now I am so happy to be partnering with her to offer Medical Hypnotherapy Specialty Training for the first time in the Tampa Bay Area starting November 20 (see: http://www.uphypnosis.com/). This truly is a dream come true, and only the beginning of my quest to have expert hypnotherapists in every hospital and clinic.

Projecting this DREAM out into the future, I imagine well-trained hypnotherapists out in the world receiving the respect and success they deserve and helping people to discover the Unlimited Possibilities that are available to us all through Mind-Body Cohesion(c). And just as I am passing on the wonderful teachings of Preston, Longacre, Lipton, and my other wonderful teachers, I imagine UP Hypnosis Institute students spreading their knowledge and making this a healthier, more enjoyable life experience for their clients and students.

The flow of energy is positive, self-perpetuating, and getting more powerful each and every day. I look forward to what the universe causes to appear NOW!

PAIN IS A BEHAVIOR!

PAIN IS A BEHAVIOR

Although some people's behavior may be a pain (couldn’t resist), I have come to think of the experience of pain as being an "expression", either of some disturbance within the physical body, or some disturbance in the thought process. I'm convinced that people can get into the habit of having a pain on cue, so to speak. They can literally program themselves to get the pain at certain times and in certain situations. In that way, it might very well be thought of as a learned behavior.

Recently I saw an ad in a magazine that I had to cut out and use in classes. I MUST share this with all of you. It was for a new migraine medication and showed a pondering woman at her work desk with bubbles of thoughts above her head. The sequence went like this:

Bubble #1: "If I get a MIGRAINE (their emphasis) tomorrow......"
Bubble #2: "I'll never make it through that two-hour recital....."
Bubble #3: "But Kate's counting on me to be there....."
Bubble #4: "Plus, I've got that presentation for work due Monday....."
Bubble #5: "Somehow I'll have to get it done."

Then the ad states the following:

"Thinking about migraines even when you're not having one? Maybe it's time for a change. TxxxxxX can help stop migraines before they start so you can get fewer of them to think about......"

Tell me that ad agencies don't know something about the power of suggestion. And by the way, how do you "STOP" something that doesn't exist…yet???

I'm working with a gentleman who fell off a ladder 3 1/2 years ago and had part of his brain removed. His wife was told he would be a quadriplegic the rest of his life and never regain his body or brain functions, and that she should put him in a nursing home and get on with her life. She didn’t listen. When she called me in to work with him on pain and attitude about 5 months ago, he had recovered a remarkable portion of movement of most of his body. He still must be lifted in and out of wheelchair, but is walking between bars with a physical therapist and astounding the doctors.

On my first visit, he had some pain going on in his back. On a scale of 1-100, with 100 being the worst, it was at about 70. Just talking with him and getting him to create some imagery to represent releasing endorphins from his brain and sending them down his back, he was able to immediately take it to 40. A few minutes later it was insignificant. His mind envisioned the endorphins as musical notes, so that is what we have used since.

Sorry to be so wordy (you know ME), but back to the point. In speaking with him, it became obvious he had come to “expect” that whenever he sat for over ½ hour, the pain would show up. I think pain comes from our belief system. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say that ALL of our problems, conditions, painful memories, diseases, etc., are caused, exacerbated or affected by our belief system. That may be a radical stretch for some to accept, but as long as I hold that “belief” in my energy when working with clients, I somehow seem to be able to help them consider that possibility, and sometimes that alone facilitates profound changes that help them to move forward. The reason I believe that hypnosis and NLP are so powerful in dealing with the experience of pain is that it allows the person to go inside to discover the source of what really needs attention. Change the beliefs and the expectations, and you can change the expression and experience of pain.