Katin's blog

I love TED Talks. If you haven't discovered them yet, you are in for an amazing treat. You can find them at TED.com, on YouTube, and now bundled into like-topic "seasons" on NetFlix.

In this TED talk (see below), the speaker mentions three ways we have had available to change the brain's operation: the therapist's couch, drugs, and the knife. He then says that this way of using real-time brain MRI imaging as the most advanced bio-feedback machine yet created will be the fourth way we can alter the brain's operation and wiring.

I'm guessing he is bundling hypnosis into the 'therapist's couch' method, though that is a bit like bundling swimming into the physical therapist's office. Hypnosis is something anyone can do, even by themselves once they know how. We all visit various levels of trance each day as part of the normal operating of our minds and bodies.

We've certainly come a long way. Or have we? Ever wonder what basic tenants of hypnosis are the same as they were a century ago? Can you spot hypnosis disguised as other "miracle modalities" from the nineteenth century? Are you able to discuss the development of hypnosis through the decades, what they had plain "wrong" back when, and why the modern shifts in models and techniques are more effective?

If these kinds of questions have ever crossed your mind, and if you have a few minutes until your next client appointment, you might want to check out all of the free ebooks on Hypnosis available on Google Books. You can read them on your desktop, laptop, and now also on your iPad or phone using the Google Books app.

http://books.google.com/ebooks?q=hypnosis&as_brr=4

Explore centuries of hypnosis literature, discover where some of the most persistent (and annoying) myths about hypnosis originated, and brush up on your fodder for sparkling party conversations by browsing scores of books dating from the early 1800's through the 1970's. Newer titles are available for purchase as ebooks, too.

Last week (Jan 4), the Better Business Bureau released its list of the top ten most common scams of 2010.

If you haven't been to a HypnoSummit conference, this might be the right time to check one out. You don't have to fly anywhere, make hotel reservations, rent any cars or eat out. It's 100% online with a web site that is dedicated to ongoing improvement of online conferences.

It all happens live with video and chat rooms, and all the sessions are recorded and available to attendees for 3 weeks afterward. So if you need to jump out for part of the day, you can and still get terrific value.

The value is really where it's at, too: for $99, you get 24 hours of seminars, workshops and programs specifically for hypnotherapists. Two tracks this time: technique and business. Learn advanced hypnotherapy techniques from leaders in the field. Get up-to-date business information specifically for professional hypnotherapists.

The spring 2010 Hypnosummit was this past weekend, and once again, it was another very worthwhile event. I'll highlight some of the sessions I enjoyed the most. Those of you who attended with a Gold pass, you can go to the Library Archives area and view recordings of any of the sessions for the next three weeks.

I mostly concentrated on the live sessions this year, so I could interact with the speakers and ask questions. The technology is slowly improving, and in his Key Note, Scott Sandland, founder and key organizer of the Hypnosummit, promised many more improvements before the fall summit. I was a bit disappointed that the software hadn't evolved more, and there were some annoying audio-dropout problems. Such is the lot with new technology, however.

o o o

Most professional hypnotherapists are small business people, and small business skills are just as important to a successful hypnotherapy business as trance skills and people skills.

However, while we've trained in the trance skills at school with teachers, the classes probably didn't include many hours of business skills. Business skills are simultaneously simple ("just do it") and complex (do what, when and why, and how much?)

There is a fabulous web site now available that will help any small business person figure out the big-picture plan with powerful strength of direction and specificity. It's called "Good Little Biz", at http://goodlittlebiz.com.

There you will find videos of Marsha Shenk, the site's creator and owner, explaining how to work though seven worksheets of questions to answer for yourself.

I've always found one of the most amazing uses of hypnosis to be in the area of pain control. The idea that full surgery can be done without any anesthesia has always been, in my opinion, one of the most impressive applications of hypnosis.

I've often mentioned to clients or audiences that hypnosis was used in many surgeries in the 1800's, especially noted in the Civil War for amputations. Not only would the operation be pain-free, but the survival rate was much higher and healing much faster with patients that had hypnoanesthesia.

That's why I was so pleased to find the article, "Hypnosis as Sole Anesthesia for Major Surgeries: Historical & Contemporary Perspectives," which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Oct 2008. It is not only an excellent reference on the history of hypnoanesthesia, focusing on the two most noted surgeons that used it in the Victorian age, but the author also covers modern cases, applications and results of hypnoanesthesia from his personal experience.

I find that at parties, dinners, meetings and whenever I meet new people, people are interested in hypnosis and love to ask questions and talk about it.

One of the most fun areas of making conversation can be around all the strange names for phobias. Remember when Lucy asks Charlie Brown if he has panophobia?

"What's that?" Charlie Brown asks.

"Fear of everything," Lucy replies.

"THAT'S IT!!" yells Charlie Brown.

As a hypnotherapist you know that hypnotherapy can be very effective for reducing and eliminating phobias. In my experience, a little entertaining conversation about phobias has always done a great job of putting people at ease and creating a few laughs. It makes it very easy to say something like, "Oh yes, hypnosis works well on phobias, smoking, weight control, stress management... plus all the cool exploration like past life regression." That almost always resulted in them asking me for my card.

If you are new to using hypnotherapy or self-hypnosis as a tool for improving your life and health, you may be wondering why the core of it all seems to revolve around relaxing and relieving stress and tension.

Most of the inductions (hypnosis sessions) that you can download online or on CD uses a progressive relaxation process to reach a deep state of trance. Many free downloadable sessions are only focused on deep relaxation and releasing stress and tension from around the body - and nothing else.

Why is that? In today's modern world we expect direct, efficient, cause-and-effect, software-controlled, exact science and results-driven approaches and methods. You may have a dozen issues you would like to address directly with hypnosis, why waste time on this basic relaxation stuff?

A good quote is from Dale Carnegie's book, "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living":

“Seventy per cent of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they got rid of
their fears and worries.”

RE: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hypnosis/SA00084

Every professional hypnotherapist should know what the Mayo Clinic is telling consumers about hypnosis. Chances are that savvy consumers that are researching hypnosis will have read it. You might even link to it from your web site or profile as a resource for your potential clients to learn about the myths and truths about hypnosis.

Covered in the article are these topics:

• What is hypnosis?
• Who is hypnosis for?
• Types of hypnosis
• Myths about hypnosis
• How to choose a qualified professional
• Risks of hypnosis

It is, overall, a good article. The weakest section by far is the last section, "Risks of hypnosis," where it states that hypnosis can cause "headache, dizziness and nausea", though such side effects "are uncommon". We all know those aren't risks of hypnosis, in fact, those are often the symptoms hypnosis is used to reduce and eliminate, especially in conjunction with medications and medical procedures.