Intro to Hypnotherapy
We all have baggage from the past, generally from our interactions with others, that affects us in the here-and-now.
Often we are successful. But sometimes, that success is short-lived because of an underlying code that has been damaged (i.e. baggage).
Our minds are powerful. Determination and will power are powerful forces. So is self-analysis and self-understanding.
Yet, much, perhaps the greater part, of our minds lies just below our daily conscious awareness in
the part some of us call "spirit."
Freud called it the unconscious, but most people call it the subconscious, because that is how it
feels. We sense it there, just below the surface. Every so often, something scratches that surface,
and we get a glimmer of revelation about our own subconscious motivations.
As powerful as the conscious mind is, we see its limitations in each new year's rash of New Year's
resolutions. The unconscious wins year after year.
Often, we are driven, and we are not quite sure by what. We make a determination, and go out, and do the opposite. We enact self-defeating behaviors, despite the best intentions of our conscious minds.
- We pick up another muffin, another cigarette.
- We go back to the partner we know is not good for us, sometimes without rational justification.
- We are immobilized by fears we know defy sense.
- We strategize the steps to work toward a goal we avidly desire, but procrastinate and remain mired in inaction.
These behaviors, that directly undercut our conscious decisions, are not without reason. While illogical to the conscious mind— while their motivations are hidden from sight— in the realm of the unconscious, they are eminently logical.
The unconscious is steering you by an internalization of the past—overriding your conscious mind
and the needs of the present—inserting self-protective behaviors, appropriate in the past, into a
present where they are no longer adaptive, where they have outlived their usefulness.
But you don’t have to stay stuck with counterproductive and self-defeating behaviors.
The unconscious can be reprogrammed.
Hypnosis is a powerful tool for accessing your own subconscious mind, reading that programming, and then rewriting the code.
A sensitive hypnotherapist functions as a respectful guide in the terrain of your own unconscious. Hypnosis is a tool we use—together.
In hypnotherapy, we can plant therapeutic suggestions for change. We use hypnotic suggestion to help you bring your conscious and unconscious into agreement, both on your attitudes and your behaviors, enabling you to conquer undesirable habits and undertake new ventures.
We can also, as you desire and as you are ready, explore more deeply the ways baggage holds you back.
We can unpack the old bags AND repack them in ways that help bring your subconscious motivations and desires into line with your present-day conscious motivations and desires. Together, we can use time regression to explore the past connections of present-day behaviors and self-evaluations.
As human beings, we construct our self-esteem out of pictures (self-image). Social science shows
that we create these pictures out of what others have [often wrongly] reflected back to us across our lifetimes. We call this “the looking glass self.”
We can reassess negative imaginations you might hold about yourself and help you come to see
your own value and worth.
It is not necessary to continue to live—in the present—with an image of your self that was damaged by the negative assessments of others in childhood. Neither is it necessary to live with the wounds to your self esteem that others may have created more recently.
Rather than letting others tell you who you are, you can “speak into” your own life and self-evaluation.
With hypnosis, we can erase, redraw, and redefine your self-image
The hypnotic imagination can be used to clarify your vision of a future different from your lived
experience today. It can be used to empower you to take action. It can be used to help you become your own best friend.
Rev. Dr. Nadine Rosechild Sullivan, Ph.D., ChT is a certified clinical hypnotherapist and age
regression therapist. Hypnotherapy is an effective modality for goals, including but not limited to:
phobia reduction, pain management, weight loss, and smoking cessation. It is also useful for building bridges between your unconscious and conscious awareness. It is an effective tool for getting to the root of habits, fears and self-defeating patterns of thought, and creating change at the subconscious level. Hypnotherapy is neither frightening nor spooky. In hypnotherapy, you are never vulnerable. You remain in control at all times. The experience is much like guided meditation. It is an effective, and spiritual, tool on the path to becoming the you that you would like to be.