Around the middle of the 1800’s, Dr. John Elliotson and Dr. James Esdaile were using hypnosis as anesthesia for major surgical procedures like bowel resections, supra pubic prostrate operations, breast removals, amputations, appendectomies, tumor removals and the list goes on. Hypnosis was not used in conjunction with any other form of anesthesia in those cases – just hypnosis. It was also safer than ether.  The blood pressure cup wasn’t invented until 1881 and wasn’t widely used until a more modern one replaced the wooden tube stethoscope in 1901, so it was very easy to kill a patient with too much ether.  The early pioneers of hypnosis and hypnotherapy were medical doctors – not entertainers. Dr. Benjamin Rush and Dr. Milton Erickson considered to be the fathers of hypnotherapy in the United States were both physicians. On April 23, 1955 the British Medical Association approved hypnosis for childbirth and surgery, and advised all physicians to receive fundamental training in hypnosis.

Today,  many dentists use hypnosis for root canals and other painful procedures. Top burn centers have started using hypnosis for pain management as morphine slows the blood flow to the skin grafts, and the patient heals faster. Hypnosis is being used for colonoscopies and cystoscopic examinations to eliminate the pain and the discomfort that these procedures can produce. I routinely work with those suffering from IBS, Crohn’s Disease and other painful issues. Best of all, hypnosis is used to manage long term chronic pain. I work with people with chronic back pain or pain from other injuries, TMJ is another condition that involves a great deal of pain.  Hypnosis is the only drug free way to take away the pain.  Childbirth hypnosis or hypnobirthing is another use of hypnosis to stop pain and discomfort.

When it has been proven for over two hundred years to mitigate pain, don’t you think that it might be worth investigating for pain issues in your life?

Conventional diets can’t and don’t work for permanent weight loss. They never have and they never will. Why not? Because conventional diets attempt to deal with the emotional and physical food cravings with the willpower and discipline of the conscious mind. But those cravings aren’t located there, they are located in the cognitive maps of the subconscious mind. To deal with these issues, one must work with the subconscious mind, and hypnosis is the only way to access the subconscious mind deliberately. Hypnosis is the bridge to the subconscious mind.

Overeating and thus excess weight gain is a symptom of something else going on in the persons life. Unless the emotional cues are dealt with and put behind the person, and also the types of foods that cause one to want to overeat are eliminated during the weight loss phase, the conventional diet is doomed to failure.  In fact most individuals that want to lose weight, have been on so many conventional diets… they can’t remember them all!

Individuals do not overeat because their body is calling for more nourishment. They over eat because they are sad, worried, stressed or any number of other emotional reasons. They eat hoping to feel better… to be comforted… we even called the foods – comfort foods! But the “comfort” that this type of eating brings, doesn’t last very long – generally it’s only a matter of moments until the guilt sets in and the person feels even worse. Then they eat some more – and then the guilt… well you see the pattern and get the picture.

I see those that want to lose weight on a daily basis. We attack the overeating on at least two fronts. One – the emotional cause or causes. Two – eliminate the foods the give cues to overeat. The desire to overeat from the physical cues that stimulate over eating, will generally disappear in four days. That leaves us the time to discover the emotional cues and enable the person to move past them.

My three part weight loss program will include addressing celebratory eating, overeating while under the influence and absent minded eating. Again – this is not just another diet in the incredibly long list of conventional diets or “secrets” to dieting, our objective is permanent weight loss.

Many many people that are in the hospitals have done it to themselves by overeating. It happens, but you don’t see too many “skinny” people with colon cancer, gall bladder problems, sleep apnea, Type II Diabetes, heart disease and the list goes on and on. It happens, but quite often people do in fact bring on poor health.

Most people initially want to lose weight for cosmetic reasons only. But wouldn’t it be cool to be trim, fit and healthy as well?

Hypnosis is an effective tool for getting rid of  nausea and fatigue of chemotherapy. Those that must under go chemotherapy are counseled by those that are administering it that “they should expect to feel tired and experience nausea”. And then they do. They were given a powerful negative suggestion by the administrator. The person that indicated that they going to feel bad, made this suggestion with good intentions. They didn’t want the person that was to undergo chemo to feel that the side effects were unusual, so they tell them to expect them! That is a suggestion. They will now expect those side effects!

Hypnosis deals with suggestions to the subconscious mind, and those suggestions have proved to be beneficial for medical purposes for well over two hundred years! Hypnotic suggestions allow people to quit smoking, quit drinking, to experience painless dentistry and to make permanent behavioral changes in their lives . Hypnotic suggestions are used to enable individuals to undergo colonoscopies  and cystoscopic examinations without either pain or discomfort! Isn’t this incredible? Doesn’t it make sense that if hypnosis will allow one to undergo medical procedures that normally are conducted with anesthesia without discomfort, these same types of suggestion while in hypnosis, will allow a person relief from the nausea and fatigue of chemo?  In fact the stomach and how it feels  is directly connected to the subconscious mind

I routinely see those that are seeking relief from the symptoms of IBS or Crohn’s disease. Are we saying that we have found a cure for them? Of course not. But isn’t it pretty cool that they can live their lives without the pain, the dysentery, the discomfort and the fear of an attack?

If you or someone you know is undergoing chemo or about to, give me a call for a complimentary consultation.

Weekly, individuals come to see me in my hypnotherapy practice in Atlanta Georgia with the thought that they might be drinking just a little too much. Of course they will protest that they couldn’t be an alcoholic, but maybe they ought to cut back a bit. It’s not rare to find those that are drinking two bottles of wine per night! At first they insist that their marriage, job, family relationships and their life are perfect. But if that is the case, why are they drinking wine, beer or liquor instead of tea, water or coffee?

They are drinking to change the way they feel! They don’t seem to want to admit that they are unhappy. They don’t seem to grasp that if they need alcohol to feel better – drinking is not the problem… it is a symptom of the real problem or problems. Would that person want a doctor operating on them that had drank two bottles of wine the night before? Would they want a dentist to do a root canal or perform cosmetic surgery on them who had drank a fifth of vodka every five days? Would they want to be in an airliner that was being flown by a pilot that only drank a couple of martinis before take off? Of course not. They realize that other people have diminished abilities when they drink – but somehow they don’t think that they might not be as good of a marriage partner, a parent or a son or daughter, an employee or a supervisor if they are staying at home and consuming alcohol in front of the TV or on their deck until they fall asleep.

If one is drinking to feel better… one is drinking too much! Period! It’s kind of like smoking cigarettes – the person that smokes feels that only others will develop cancer. Folks come in routinely drinking ten or more bottles of beer a night and think that’s normal and alright for their body and mind – it isn’t. They are damaging their body as it wasn’t designed to run on alcohol.

There is a fog from drinking. That fog gives one altered personalities and diminished capabilities that doesn’t disappear overnight even if that person is not hung over and feels sober. Alcohol has a half life that stays with one and builds if that person is drinking on a daily or every other day basis. An individual that drinks in excess – will have a brain that is 17% smaller than if they didn’t.

The liver is the body’s filter. It’s used to filter fats, medicines (even like Motrin) and just about everything else. One really needs a liver to live –  and there is no such thing as dialysis for a liver. Your liver should be pliable and have good tone in order to function properly. Excess drinking will destroy it, and if those on the transplant committee feel that the candidate is an alcoholic – even if the candidate doesn’t share that opinion… they can’t get onto the waiting list for a new liver.

There are safer and much better ways to feel good. If you could or might be drinking to excess and slowly killing yourself or functioning beneath your potential, call me for a complimentary consultation and lets find out whats broke and fix it. Lets not waste your consultation time by defending why you drink – lets fix whatever the real problem is.