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 Frequently Asked Questions How does Depth Hypnotherapy work? Who can benefit from Depth Hypnotherapy? What happens in a Depth Hypnotherapy session? |
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If you are reading this website, most likely you have already done a lot of inner exploration — and perhaps a lot of therapy as well. You may have a lot of intellectual understanding about both your emotional history, and your present patterns. Yet, you have probably also encountered the frustrating reality that cognitive knowledge alone does not help us achieve the happy, healthy, fulfilled lives we want.
For this reason, Depth Hypnotherapy utilizes the much deeper healing potential available in an altered state — a state of deep, yet alert relaxation, which can be achieved through guided visualization and body awareness. In this state, clients are fully aware of what is going on, and remain in control of the process; the conscious mind is still present, it's just not running the show. In this altered state, we can access and shift the energetic patterns that are no longer serving you.
I like to use the analogy of clay. On the deepest levels of mental, emotional and physical existence, most of us experience ourselves as a clay sculpture that has already dried. After all, we believe, it's not possible to “change the past;” the things that happened to us cannot be undone. Cognitive knowledge of what happened can help us understand why our sculpture took on the shapes it did — yet, if the clay is truly dry, we're stuck with it.
Depth Hypnosis works with the understanding that, in fact, the past isn't really past at all. All of the significant things that ever happened to us — or, more accurately, all of the beliefs and postures we formed as a result — are still alive in us. This is the source of the tremendous difficulty we experience in trying to change our deeply-rooted patterns. Yet it is also the reason why change and healing are possible. In Depth Hypnosis sessions, we can follow these patterns back to their source — where the clay of our beings is still moist and malleable, and can be re-sculpted into more life-affirming forms.
Although some people fear they “can't be hypnotized,” the type of altered state utilized in Depth Hypnotherapy is actually a common occurrence in our daily lives. For instance, you have been in a similar state if you have ever daydreamed, found yourself “lost in thought,” or had time fly by while you performed a repetitive task like driving, gardening or cleaning. It is surprisingly easy to access this potentially transformative state.
Unlike some forms of hypnosis, Depth Hypnotherapy does not rely on external suggestions to change unwanted behavior. That type of hypnosis is usually only effective over the short term, if at all. Depth Hypnotherapy seeks to effect permanent change, and directly involves you in the process.
Depth Hypnotherapy also differs from psychotherapy, where much of the healing is believed to result from the relationship between the therapist and the client. In this work, the significant healing relationship is between you and your own inner wellspring of balance, wholeness and health. My primary role as a Depth Hypnotherapist is to facilitate your reconnection with that part of yourself.
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Who can benefit from Depth Hypnotherapy?
Some people come for help with seemingly localized issues like physical pain, weight, insomnia, smoking, phobias or creative blocks. Others come with more generalized concerns like depression, anxiety, sexuality or relationship problems. Some come because they are battling with addictions, eating disorders or other compulsive behaviors, or because they have been diagnosed with a serious illness. Regardless of where you are, Depth Hypnotherapy can meet you there — and help you access the healing you seek.
This isn't a “one size fits all” approach; each session is unique. Yet it operates on the principle that, on an energetic level, all of our symptoms and problems have the same cause: a blocked or distorted connection to the fullness of our own beings.
You do not need to hold any particular spiritual beliefs in order to benefit from Depth Hypnotherapy. I am delighted to work with anyone who feels drawn to this work; I believe we all have much to teach each other, and to learn from each other. I work with both individuals and couples.
My background has also led me to develop several areas of special interest. These include:
1) Health issues (physical pain; preparation for, and recovery from, surgery;
organ donation and transplantation)
2) Sex and sexuality
3) Creative process issues
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What happens in a Depth Hypnotherapy session?
I offer sessions at my home office in Oakland,California, near Mills College. Day, evening and occasional weekend times are available. Sessions are typically ninety minutes to two hours in length. In most cases we will follow a specific sequence for Sessions One and Two, in order to lay the groundwork for subsequent sessions. After that, we may use any or all of the techniques described below.
Session One
We spend this session going over your “emotional biography,” including both the external events and circumstances of your life, and your internal responses to them. This helps us begin to recognize the energetic patterns that probably became established early in your life, and have most likely continued, in one form or another, ever since. If you have come with a specific issue to work on, we will also cover the history of that issue, and examine how it relates to the themes of your emotional biography.
Session Two
In this session, I will help you access a relaxed, yet conscious and alert state through the use of guided visualization, breathwork, Focusing and/or shamanic drumming. In this state, you will make contact with an inner source of guidance, however you may conceive of it (Isa Gucciardi, developer of Depth Hypnosis™, defines this as “that part of yourself which has only your highest good as its sole intent.”) Regardless of whether you view this guide as your own Higher Self, an interdimensional being, or a product of your imagination or unconscious, this contact will help to ground and support the rest of our work together.
Sessions Three and Beyond
Generally, we'll begin by talking a little about your response to the previous session, as well as any significant insights, experiences, emotions or dreams you've had since then. Any of these can provide an entry point — a way to go deeper into the unconscious heart of your issues. Then we can use the following techniques to work with whatever has come up.
Focusing and/or Body Bridge: By tuning into your body and paying close attention to subtle physical sensations and accompanying emotions, we allow all the different parts of yourself to be heard. In some cases, this is enough to allow stuck places to shift. At other times we may use physical sensations as a bridge into a regression, allowing us to revisit the origin of an issue.
Age Regression: Revisiting childhood traumas in an altered state can provide much deeper insight into their true nature, as well as how they contribute to imbalances in your current life. Particularly when combined with Soul Retrieval, regressions can also help heal the energy distortions caused by such events.
Prenatal and/or Birth Regression: Many theorists believe that the prenatal and birth experiences have a profound impact on peoples' lives. Even if you do not think you can remember these events, revisiting them while in an altered state may provide surprisingly deep levels of insight and healing.
Past Life Regression: Regardless of whether you believe in the paradigm of past lives or approach this as an imaginative or metaphorical process, it can provide another way to understand — and heal — recurring dynamics in your current life.
Soul Retrieval: Shamans use this term to refer to the “retrieval” and reconnection of parts of the self which had become disconnected from the core, generally due to trauma or shock. Although traditionally shamans do soul retrievals for their clients, in Depth Hypnotherapy I will most often guide you to do your own — which can be both more empowering, and more effective.
Dream Work: Shamanic-style exploration of dreams, and/or regressions based on the emotions you've experienced in dreams, can provide us with important information about levels of your consciousness which might otherwise remain hidden.
Spirit Releasement and Shamanic Extraction: Traumatic situations, enmeshed relationships and relationship breakups are just a few of the situations in which people commonly take on emotional energies or thought patterns which are not their own. The spirit releasement/extraction process can help restore you to proper energetic balance.
Shamanic Journeying: Shamanic journeying is an ancient technology for accessing higher levels of wisdom. I can teach you to journey on your own, as well as assist you with journeying in sessions. We may also work together to interpret the images you receive while journeying — since this form of inner guidance, like dreams, tends to present its messages metaphorically.
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