Musings on Hypnosis by Certified Hypnotherapist Donna Sherman, CHt

  Well it has been quite a time! I do hope everyone had a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving, I sure did, and I find myself enjoying this holiday season more than usual. I have been seeing lots of clients and every time I do, I just keep on learning and more. Experience really is the best teacher and my work has been so unbelievably gratifying! It is never too late to make a change in your life. If anyone reading this thinks so; it is time to rethink that. The human mind is always ready for change as long as it functions. Bad habits can be transformed into good ones. Creative blocks can be unblocked. Old fears can melt away like an Autumn snowfall. There are always new paths to travel. I don’t mean to sound like a motivational speaker, I realize I might. I don’t think there is a “one size fits all” solution to motivate anyone, the way many actual motivational speakers do. I think it is very individualized, what rings the right bell for a person or what metaphor

  Artist: Salvador Dali   How do we know the subconscious really exists and is in constant action? If you look for examples in your life, you will see it. The other day I found myself out driving and having to stop short.   Automatically my right arm flew up  in front of the empty passenger seat next to me, as though to keep an invisible passenger from flying forward.   I found myself thinking about this. I grew up back in the time before all the back-seat-rear-facing-child-car -seats and I remember always clamoring to get into the front seat whenever my family took a drive.  Truly I am not even sure we used our seat belts either (times were different :) !  So, more than once I saw my parents do exactly what I did the other day. So this action: stopping short,  arm flying out to help restrain the passenger, was etched into my subconscious, for as long as I can remember.  And I still do it today, even if my passenger is wearing the seatbelt, or even if no

Photo by Donna Sherman   I am asked by so many people how many sessions will it take to solve an issue and this is a question worth exploring in a little more depth because there is no "one size fits all" answer.  And it is interesting to explore why this is. There are many misconceptions about hypnosis out there, and the biggest one might be that it is some sort of magic, a silver bullet to immediately "fix" a problem. And on one level, this is actually partially correct.  It is almost magical when the realization hits just how powerful your very own mind really is.  Most of us may already think this, but when you come to the point where you KNOW it, in your gut, it is an almost supernatural kind of feeling.  But, like all power, it must be used responsibly and this is where time comes into the picture. Because it takes time to really understand just how to harness it. When you realize that it has only ever been your own self that is re

Artist: Pablo Picasso   If you've read my bio page you will see that I make a connection between creating a character for a play or film and hypnosis. Most wouldn't find much connection between these two things at all! However, I do. And I'll share with you why. As an actor; how do you make a written sentence from a script come alive?  Anyone can read a sentence out loud, that takes no special skill. The skill behind it is manifested by the intent from which the actor speaks it   And the intent in which the actor speaks it,  comes from what it is that actor has decided that the character in the play wants. Not necessarily what the character in the play states they want, if asked, but what the character really wants deep down inside, overall. In my study of hypnosis at times I have been transported back to my very early study of acting and basic script analysis.  I think it is because the subconscious mind in people operates so very much like an

  Artist: Xetobyte   Imagine you are just about to go onstage to speak before a huge crowd of people and you are unexpectedly handed a slip of paper with three words on it, and those three words say: I AM INVINCIBLE. Now imagine those three words say: I AM INVISIBLE. Which situation produces the better outcome for your speech?  Is there any doubt? :) Language is power.  What we tell ourselves has a profound effect on any outcome.  We hand ourselves metaphorical slips of paper just like that all the time. The interplay between our subconscious thoughts, our conscious minds and our actions is endless and constant.  Did you know that our subconscious mind never sleeps?  Much like a computer program, it is constantly running beneath the surface of everything we think and everything we do.  It's pretty amazing. Our subconscious minds hold our belief systems, our memories, our experiences, our dreams, desires, our imaginings, and has been doing so every d