Total Mind Therapy is a term I coined. It involves a system that utilizes tools like NLP and Hypnosis that enable you to shortcut your journey toward success.

What is Hypnosis?

Many people believe that hypnosis is mind control. But actually it is very different than mind control. In fact, Dr. David Spiegel, Assoc. Chair of Psychiatry Stanford University School of Medicine says, “Hypnosis is not mind control. It's a naturally occurring state of concentration; it's actually a means of enhancing your control over both your mind and your body.”

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Scientific studies have shown that hypnosis contributes to accelerated change in people. Hypnosis has been documented in the use of pain relief, changing unproductive habits like smoking, losing weight and reducing stress and stress related syndromes. It’s been used by Olympic and professional athletes to improve sports performance and by sales people to improve sales performance. Hypnosis can be used as your shortcut to permanent, positive health and happiness. 

Although the word “Hypnos” comes from the Greek “to sleep,” hypnosis itself is a totally natural state of mind and is not sleep. In hypnosis a person is awake and focused. Their ability to listen and absorb suggestions is heightened, while their awareness of their surroundings is greatly reduced.

Here is a definition of hypnosis that I like:

“A trancelike condition usually induced by another person in which the subject is in a state of altered consciousness and responds, with certain limitations, to the suggestions of the hypnotist … or trance is a naturally occurring state, like sleep or daydreaming, where attention is turned inward, with heightened openness to new ideas. Hypnotherapy induces the trance state of heightened receptivity, and offers direct or indirect suggestions to the unconscious, which it may or may not accept.”

In a nutshell, hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness where the subject displays an increase in suggestibility. Hypnosis uses words to lead a subject into an altered state of consciousness. This altered state is similar to daydreaming or drowsiness, that feeling you have when you just wake up or are just falling asleep, not quite awake and not quite asleep. In hypnosis a person is much more receptive to suggestions, but only suggestions that agree with their core beliefs. In other words you cannot make a person do something in a hypnotic trance that goes against their morals, such as rob a bank or steal a car.

You see hypnosis is a tool you can use to create significant changes in your behavior. These changes can enhance your mind and your body.  Through trance work, a hypnotist can give you suggestions that help you quit smoking or over eating. A hypnotist can give you suggestions that help you control your anxiety and stress or suggestions that help you focus and have a better golf swing.

I began studying Milton Erickson and hypnosis in the late 1970’s while attending college. I was lucky enough to have a hypnotherapist in my class and I went to quite a few sessions with her to work on focus and concentration as well as confidence. After I found that the process worked for me I was hooked and have used hypnosis techniques ever since for both my personal and professional development.

I’d like to give you one last quote about hypnosis. “Hypnosis. What comes to mind when you hear the word? A caped magician swaying a pocket watch before his subject's eyes? Someone barking like a dog? What should come to mind is this: A smoker chucking the cigarettes forever; a dieter finally losing those persistent pounds; a woman giving birth without drugs or severe pain. Welcome to the real world of hypnosis.” - The Capital (Annapolis, MD), April 2004