Hypnotherapy is an effective tool for relieving anxiety for several reasons:

1. Deep Relaxation – Hypnosis induces a deeply relaxed state, helping to reduce stress and tension that contribute to anxiety.
2. Reprogramming Negative Thought Patterns – It helps access the subconscious mind, allowing for the reprogramming of negative or irrational thoughts that fuel anxiety.
3. Improved Coping Mechanisms – Hypnotherapy can introduce new, positive coping strategies to handle anxiety-provoking situations more effectively.
4. Reduced Physical Symptoms – Hypnosis can help alleviate physical symptoms of anxiety, such as rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, and shallow breathing.
5. Addressing Root Causes – It may uncover past experiences or trauma contributing to anxiety, allowing for healing at a deeper level.
6. Boosted Confidence and Self-Esteem – Hypnosis can reinforce feelings of self-worth and empowerment, reducing anxious tendencies.
7. Enhanced Mindfulness and Focus – It helps individuals stay present and manage racing thoughts, promoting a calmer mindset.
8. Non-Invasive and Drug-Free – Hypnotherapy provides a natural alternative to medication, appealing to those who prefer holistic approaches.
9. Better Sleep – Since anxiety often disrupts sleep, hypnosis can promote relaxation and improve sleep quality.
10. Increased Emotional Regulation – It can help individuals gain greater control over their emotions, reducing panic and overreactions to stressors.

Take the First Step

Ready to overcome personal challenges? Schedule a consultation to learn how hypnosis can support your unique weight loss journey. Together, we’ll create a customized approach that addresses your specific challenges and helps you achieve lasting results.

Certified as member of the National Guild of Hypnotists since 1999, I can be reached @ 413-774-7171 or by clicking the link to contact me.

Are you struggling to achieve your weight loss goals despite trying countless diets and exercise programs? Hypnosis might be the missing piece in your weight loss puzzle. This guide explores how hypnotherapy can help you develop a healthier relationship with food and finally achieve sustainable weight loss.

Understanding Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Hypnosis isn’t about swinging watches or magic tricks. It’s a scientifically-supported approach that helps reprogram unhealthy eating patterns by accessing your subconscious mind. During hypnotherapy sessions, you’ll remain completely aware and in control while achieving a deeply relaxed state that makes you more receptive to positive suggestions.
How Hypnosis Supports Sustainable Weight Loss

Unlike crash diets or temporary solutions, hypnosis addresses the root causes of overeating and unhealthy food choices. Here’s how it works:

Breaking Emotional Eating Patterns

Many people use food to cope with stress, anxiety, or emotional pain. Hypnosis helps identify and resolve these emotional triggers, replacing them with healthier coping mechanisms.

Strengthening Mindful Eating Habits

Through hypnotic suggestions, you’ll develop greater awareness of your eating habits. This includes recognizing true hunger signals, eating more slowly, and enjoying smaller portions.

Enhancing Motivation

Hypnosis helps strengthen your commitment to healthy lifestyle changes by aligning your subconscious mind with your conscious goals.

What to Expect in a Weight Loss Hypnosis Session

During your sessions, you’ll experience:

• Deep relaxation that reduces stress-related eating
• Positive suggestions for healthier food choices
• Visualization techniques for success
• Tools to manage cravings and emotional eating

Scientific Support for Hypnosis and Weight Loss

Research shows promising results for hypnosis in weight management. A meta-analysis published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found that people who used hypnosis with weight loss programming lost more weight than those who didn’t use hypnosis.

Beyond Weight Loss: Additional Benefits

Clients often report:

• Improved sleep quality
• Reduced stress levels
• Increased self-confidence
• Better energy levels
• Enhanced body image

Is Hypnosis Right for Your Weight Loss Journey?

Hypnosis can be particularly effective if you:

• Have struggled with yo-yo dieting
• Experience emotional eating
• Want to develop healthier eating habits
• Need support maintaining long-term changes
• Feel stuck despite knowing what to do

Your Path to Success Starts Here

Weight loss doesn’t have to be a constant struggle. Through hypnosis, you can finally align your subconscious mind with your conscious desires for a healthier lifestyle. Many clients report feeling more in control of their eating habits after just a few sessions.

Take the First Step

Ready to transform your relationship with food and achieve your weight loss goals? Schedule a consultation to learn how hypnosis can support your unique weight loss journey. Together, we’ll create a customized approach that addresses your specific challenges and helps you achieve lasting results.

Certified as member of the National Guild of Hypnotists since 1999, I can be reached @ 413-774-7171 or by clicking the link to contact me.

The list of pain medications on the market is a long one, but not as long as the combined side effects listed on every bottle, magazine and television ad. One concern is the potential risk of becoming addicted to narcotic prescription drugs. Research shows that several popular painkillers may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems. These concerns prompted Merck to pull its blockbuster drug Vioxx off the market. Studies also have linked Celebrex and naproxen (Aleve) to heart risks. [NPR.org, December 23, 2004]

There are a slew of both prescription and nonprescription drugs used to treat chronic pain, all have potential side effects, and in some cases, may take many weeks to reduce pain levels. Some side effects are: allergic reactions, diabetes, dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, confusion, constipation, increased blood sugar, liver damage, bleeding peptic ulcers, stomach upset, diarrhea, and kidney problems. Chronic pain often leads to depression and sleep problems and this downward spiral can change a person’s life into a nightmare.

With risks as serious as these we ought to be more mindful before regularly ingesting these pills. Why take chances with those drugs that can produce other illness or even death when hypnosis works without the harmful effects of certain medications? As a hypnotherapist, I know that hypnosis can relieve symptoms of chronic pain from arthritis, Fibromyalgia, IBS, headaches, childbirth and more.

Because thoughts and emotions can and do effect pain, hypnotherapy provides the cognitive behavioral therapy that is often needed to effect change. Move the perception of pain from the foreground of the mind to the background, and it’s possible to change the level of pain.

At the University of North Carolina, hypnosis is transforming the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, a gastro-intestinal disorder, by helping patients to use their mind to quiet their symptoms. Doctors at the University of Washington’s Regional Burn Center in Seattle regularly use hypnosis to help people alleviate their pain. Several Hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School are using hypnosis to speed up post surgical recovery time and in the year 2000, studies have shown that patients hypnotized before surgery required less pain medication, sustained fewer complications and left the hospitals faster than patients who went without pre-surgery hypnosis.

Doctors regularly prescribe nicotine patches, gum, lozenges and pills to wean smokers off cigarettes. I personally see three or four smokers each week, and none of those who have quit needed drugs. In fact, some of them tried all of the above and still were smoking when they made their appointment. Pharmaceutical companies are racing to find the magic pill to reduce nicotine cravings, reduce obesity, and treat alcohol and drug abuse. While these are noble causes, what side effects will these new drugs have?

Hypnosis has always been controversial, as has, in the not so distant past, the practice of Chiropractic and Acupuncture. It’s time to put all the fear and the myths behind us and to move ahead into the twenty-first century. Hypnosis is not a spell, but a naturally occurring state that we can learn to use to our benefit. It has been forty-seven years since hypnosis was first approved by the American Medical Association in 1958.

For many years, I have been teaching my clients how to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT or tapping). This amazing yet simply technique is useful for almost everything from relieving pain and/or anxiety, to controlling cigarette cravings, reducing obsessive thought patterns, to diminishing fear, reducing grief and sleep deprivation. This procedure is based on acupuncture and combines hypnosis with the physical “tapping” of the meridian points of the energy fields in the body. It allows people to easily help themselves and is completely natural.

Hypnotherapy does not take the place of qualified medical care and one should always consult with their physician before reducing or changing their medications. But hypnotherapy can be a wonderful adjunct in helping one to reduce their medication. The benefits and side effects of hypnosis are many. It’s relaxing, informative and healing. My clients regularly report the added benefit of sleeping better and having an improved mood regardless of why they came in. I always make sure to tell my new clients there is no reason to be afraid or nervous. It’s like having a mental massage that soothes your soul, heals your body and is great for making changes.

Certified as member of the National Guild of Hypnotists since 1999, I can be reached at 413-774-7171 or by clicking the link to contact me.

I am pleased to report that Hypnotherapy has come a long way since I began my practice in 1999. Thank goodness images of swinging watches and Freudian looking men are primarily gone.

Generally, the most common requests for hypnotherapy are these: weight loss, smoking cessation, fear, and anxiety reduction. It is certainly not limited to these. In my practice the issues I am presented with range from fear of public speaking to fear of poultry, from chronic illness to addictions and beyond.

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a relaxed state, not unlike meditation but with a focused awareness.

The hypnotized person will converse normally and have a recollection of the session. There’s a sense of timelessness, and often a sense of detachment from the body. It is reported that we actually go in and out of hypnosis 15-50 times a day (Brent Baum). Whenever we go within, day dream, or become emotional, we are in a state of hypnosis. One cannot be hypnotized against their will nor can they be made to do anything they do not want to.

We each have a conscious mind, an unconscious mind, and a subconscious mind. The formal definition of hypnosis is: the bypass of the critical faculty and the establishment of selective thinking. In hypnosis we bypass the conscious part of the mind – the thinking part of the mind, and work primarily with the subconscious mind – which is the feeling part of the mind. For example, a phobia is often irrational and emotional. If it could be changed by using the intellectual part of the mind, it could easily be eradicated.

Stage hypnosis has little to do with therapeutic hypnosis. I cannot tap someone on the forehead and permanently remove a long held problem, no matter how much I’d like to. And neither can anyone else! Stage hypnosis is simply a form of entertainment and the participants’ willingness to perform makes for a good show.

What is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is an interactive dialogue while under hypnosis to get to the root of the problem.

It’s interesting that there often isn’t a direct correlation between the problem and the presenting issue. A fear of flying could suddenly present itself seemingly out of the blue, but may actually have begun as a lack of safety as a child. Likewise, a man who had a fear of vistas (a view) nearly experienced a car accident as a young boy. He noticed his mother falling asleep at the wheel and pulled the car to safety, at that very moment there was a vista. The fear had become cemented with the view – hence the long held fear of vistas.

When the event is revisited in regression, emotions are released, and as perceptions change, often the problem disappears. Please keep in mind, these brief examples are an over simplification of the process.

There are many hypnotic techniques I regularly use to address the personal difficulties my clients face in life.

Hypnotherapy is an amazing art form when done correctly. I have personally experienced some amazing results, and witness miracles occur nearly everyday. I feel blessed to have found my calling and to help people to overcome their challenges. What more could I ask for?

This article is by Hannah Seo and was originally published in the NYT on 2/8/23.

In the 1770s, a German physician named Franz Mesmer made a splash when he said he could cure physical and mental ailments by putting people in a trance to realign their magnetic fields. “Mesmerism” was popular for about a decade until it was publicly discredited in 1784, but some elements of the practice persisted.

In 1841, the Scottish surgeon James Braid started using a similar technique of fixed attention to cure headaches, alleviate pain and anesthetize patients. He called it “hypnosis,” after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep.

Today, hypnosis, also called hypnotherapy, has a lot more data to back up its use for mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. It can also be an effective treatment for sleep problems, pain, irritable bowel syndrome and quitting smoking, studies show. And it’s still occasionally used as a way to sedate patients for surgery with little (or no) medication.

Despite all of these varied applications, hypnosis can’t seem to shake its reputation as a stage gag — in which you might stare at a pocket watch and then cluck like a chicken — or a way to retrieve lost memories and probe “past lives.” (The former can be misleading and the latter is pseudoscience.)

Experts say it is a technique that requires diligence and focus, akin to mindfulness and meditation. Here’s what to know.

What is hypnosis?

The simplest way to describe hypnosis is as a state of both deep relaxation and focused attention, where your mind is more receptive to making subtle changes in feelings and behaviors.

The intense concentration and focus of hypnosis may sound foreign, but it’s not unlike “being absorbed in a good book or movie, getting lost on the internet or scrolling on your phone,” said Dr. Elvira Lang, a radiologist and founder of Comfort Talk, a service that trains medical staff to reduce anxiety and pain in hospital patients using hypnotic language (named that way since people are often afraid of what she calls “the H word”). You are absorbed, less aware of your physical or sensory surroundings, rapt and yet at ease.

Formal therapeutic hypnosis has a few more steps. First a hypnotist will try to induce a hypnotic state by getting you to relax and focus on their words. Once you are induced, they will talk you through suggestions based on your goals for the session. If you’re trying to get over a fear of flying, they might tell you that the plane is an extension of your body and get you to imagine floating with the plane through the sky.

The patient should become so focused on the hypnotist’s words that everything else falls away, said Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University and a leading hypnosis researcher. The aim is for the suggestions you hear in that trance-like state to shift your perspective, feelings and eventually behaviors.

In addition to traditional in-person hypnosis, there are hypnosis sessions online and a crop of apps with prerecorded video and audio; some will also connect you with hypnotists remotely. Those are usually generic and work on common issues like insomnia and smoking.

Who can benefit from hypnosis?

Tonja Langis, 47, was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which, for her, is accompanied by chronic pain, anxiety and a loss of self-confidence. She’s been in individual and group therapy for trauma for the past 11 years and has tried a range of therapies. Ms. Langis started small-group hypnosis therapy sessions almost a year ago, and now does one-on-one sessions once a week with her psychologist in Nashville, Tennessee.

During sessions, Ms. Langis said there’s a “detachment from the pain sensations” that she normally feels, and that she feels “really comfortable” in her body. “It feels like a deeper state of relaxation than meditation,” she said.

Everyone’s pain is individual, with different causes and reactions to treatment. But “it’s very clear by now” that hypnosis can be effective for pain, said Afik Faerman, a postdoctoral researcher in clinical neuropsychology who has done work with hypnosis. Pain management is one of the most-studied applications of hypnosis, he said, with research suggesting that it’s effective for helping people deal with both acute and chronic pain.

Ms. Langis said that hypnosis has helped her with irritable bowel syndrome. Since starting, “I’ve only had two flares, which is a huge reduction for me.”

The conditions Ms. Langis deals with — chronic pain, inflammatory bowel syndrome, stress and anxiety — are some of the ones hypnosis is most commonly used for. It’s also frequently used for insomnia and addiction. But it won’t work for everyone.

People with extreme mental illness, schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis are not good candidates for hypnosis, Dr. Lang said, in part because they tend not to be hypnotizable, and also because the treatment can be emotionally difficult for people with these conditions.

Hypnotizability itself is another limitation. One person might go under immediately and readily take suggestions, while another will never feel themselves slip into a hypnotic state.

The ability to be hypnotized lies on a bell-shaped curve, Dr. Spiegel said. Research suggests that 10 to 15 percent of people are incredibly hypnotizable, while another 10 to 15 percent either struggle to be hypnotized or can’t experience it at all. The rest, the majority of us, are somewhere in between — mildly to moderately hypnotizable.

It’s hard to tell how hypnotizable you are without a formal screening. Dr. Lang said she has seen extremely skeptical people turn out to be very hypnotizable, and people who are excited to try hypnosis discover it doesn’t work for them.

“I view hypnosis as a talent or an ability,” like a good ear for music, said Mark P. Jensen, a health psychologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “Some people are Mozarts, but most of us aren’t.”

Hypnosis is best used when combined with different types of therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy, Dr. Faerman said. “Hypnosis plus C.B.T. is more effective than either of them individually,” he said, as evidenced by research on its effectiveness for treating obesity, pain and distress in people with fibromyalgia and acute stress disorder.

For Lindsey C. McKernan, a clinical psychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who uses hypnosis in her practice, training in the practice came with her training as a clinical psychologist. But not every clinical psychologist will necessarily have such training.

As a hypnotist, Dr. Spiegel said, “my job is to identify your ability to be hypnotized, and stimulate and teach you how to use this ability to solve a problem.” Like with other therapies, seeing results with hypnosis will take time and practice. If you’re dealing with a chronic condition, that will require regular treatment.

Rachael Howe, 32, has been dealing with chronic pain in her back since she herniated three disks between 2013 and 2016. Both her physical pain and mental distress prevented her from getting restful sleep. Ms. Howe, who lives in Auburn, Wash., tried years of physical and talk therapy in addition to medication, but they didn’t help very much, she said.

About a year and a half ago she tried a remote hypnosis session after a referral through a previous therapist. In an early session for relaxation and sleep, her psychologist took her on an imagined walk through the Cascade Mountains, where she had gotten married. He described arrows on the ground that would each lead her to deeper levels of relaxation.

As she walked, Ms. Howe recalled, she felt her pain fade away as her body loosened its tension. “I actually ended up falling asleep,” she said — her therapist ended the session and they rescheduled. “I can’t believe I actually got a couple of hours.”

Ms. Howe has done many sessions since, focusing on increasing calm, managing pain and reframing negative thoughts. “The ideal scenario is for patients to work with a hypnotist and learn the skills to go through these sessions themselves,” said David Patterson, a pain specialist and clinical psychologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine who is Ms. Howe’s clinician. Practicing this way is especially important for conditions “like chronic pain, where you need relief over a long period of time.”

Ms. Langis noticed that the immediate relief from pain and fatigue she gets through hypnosis wanes after a few days. She regularly re-ups, going through recordings of her previous sessions. She said she feels herself going deeper into the hypnotic state over time. “As I practice more, I’m seeing more and more benefit, and so I’m becoming more encouraged to practice more,” she said.

After re-listening to sessions and practicing staying in a hypnotic state, Ms. Howe said she feels she now has the discipline and skill to calm her body and mind when pain flares.

“It’s not like it works 100 percent of the time,” she said, but “the more you do it, the more you get out of it.”

Would you like to make profound changes in your life and or experience healing? YOU CAN!

The 7th Path System is a mind-body-spirit approach to self-hypnosis. This system combines the benefits of meditation with the power of self-hypnosis to help you make good positive changes in your life.

Practitioners of this new system will benefit in many ways because it is a holistic approach. This means that as you work on a particular issue such as improving motivation, concentration, breaking a bad habit, or whatever, the positive effects of using this system will affect many other areas of your life.

The 7th Path System does this by first removing old negative programming from your past first, such as limiting beliefs and habits. Then, you begin to work on any specific issue that you care to focus on.

7th Path Self-Hypnosis is a wonderfully effective and powerful vehicle for change using your subconscious mind to:

• Get in touch with your spiritual self and maintain a healthy emotional state
• Overcome a negative habit such as smoking, over eating or procrastinating
• Create a new habit such as exercising regularly
• Increase your confidence in situations such social gatherings
• Reduce stress, sleep better, improve mood
• Overcome fears and insecurities, and past negative conditioning

You probably have experienced the frustration of trying to use “will” power or “think” power to make the changes we want to make, only to find these changes short lived. You won’t make much progress until you move through the fears, limiting beliefs or emotional baggage that keeps you stuck. That is why reading many self-help books often produces few lasting results. This class uses a mind-body-spirit approach to gently and efficiently remove the old programming that blocks your success.

You will experience and learn how to go into hypnosis and break unwanted patterns and beliefs. One student equated it to “gentle dynamite”. Then you will learn how to craft and use your own suggestions to create new healthy beliefs and behaviors.

Blue Moon Hypnotherapy is a firmly established business and has been since 1999.

Contact me today for your confidential, free 20 minute phone consultation so that we may begin the process of helping you to achieve the health and lifestyle you really want.

* Results may vary