Seattle Area Clinical Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapist & Licensed Trainer of NLP ™ shares the truth about hypnosis, NLP and the unconscious mind to create powerful, positive, and lasting life changes. Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP
It appears the internet today is fascinated with THIS dress:
What color is this dress?
Is it blue with black trim or white with gold trim?
When I first glanced at the picture the answer was obvious to me: white and gold. Then I read an article about the hubbub over the color. I looked again at the pic, and lo and behold, I saw it as blue and black. I can make it flip in my mind. Right now it’s white and gold again. 🙂
What color do you see?
This is evidence of the power of the mind to create reality. The dress is a thing. It exists. It has color properties. However, we can see it in different ways. Just so the situations and stories of our life.
Are we anxious or are we excited? They feel similar in the body–it’s how we label them to ourselves that matters. Is saying “NO!” stubbornness? Or is it independence? Is that little girl bossy, or is she showing leadership qualities? We choose how we look at things.
Now, as I write this, looking up again, the dress is blue and black. 🙂 When I was a kid I loved optical illusions, I had books and books of them. I still do love them. They are not really illusions, however, they are mind choices in seeing. And there’s always more than one option.
This “dressgate” situation reminds me of the spinning dancer phenomenon. Is she twirling clockwise or counterclockwise? Depending on which foot you see her as standing on, she spins the other direction. It’s wild. It’s the power of the mind to “see” differently. Stare at her and see if you can get her to change. I can! 🙂
Maybe the world and “reality” as we see it is not so rigid as we think. And this is wonderful, actually. It means we are in control and can change meanings as useful.
This is part and parcel of hypnosis & NLP. It’s called “reframing.” Seeing things in a new way that make us feel better, think better, choose better actions.
When I was a kid growing up in the Seattle area I had a book of stories. One was called “Ever so much more so.” It was about an invisible, magical powder in a can which you could sprinkle on things and improve them. Sprinkle “ever so much more so” on a donut or on a cup of coffee and you would have an ever so much more so delicious donut or the best coffee ever (does Starbucks know about this?)
This magical powder was an intensifier, just as it could make anything better, it could also make things worse. If you didn’t like coffee to begin with, sprinkling it with the magical powder would make you dislike it “ever so much more so.” The secret ending to the story (spoiler alert!), there was actually nothing at all in the can–the changes were created through imagination.
I often share here on my blog and in my newsletter an idea: what you focus on expands. Your mind is the intensifier–your mind is the “ever so much more so.” If you focus your attention on what you don’t want, you get more of what you don’t want appearing in your world. If you focus your attention on what you do want, you get more of that. Focus affects our outcomes, which I know to be true from my years of work as well as my years of LIFE!
How, then, do we control our focus and, thus, our outcomes? Hypnosis! Focusing your attention on a problem state (as different talk therapies like to do) wraps you much tighter into the problem. Focusing your mind on solutions and the positive things you want instead (via hypnosis), moves you in a different and more successful direction.
I’ve been working with a lovely lady who is a professional musician. Her problem was performance anxiety. That’s gone. Now she says she wants to “grow as a musician.” We can do that. Hypnosis is also powerful for what is called “generative change.” Taking what we’re already good at and making it “ever so much more so.”
I’ve worked with a variety of clients for this type of change, most notably athletes, from hobbyists all the way to Olympic and even an “in the record books” Pro athlete has been in my hypnosis chair. They’re good to great at what they do, however, they want more. They want “greater.” Hypnosis can do that! I’ve also worked with musicians, singers, novelists, day traders, artists and creative people of all varieties.
That’s my joy. I do like helping people fix problems–quit smoking, lose weight, end fear, and such. But helping people be ever so much more so creative, powerful and successful at the things they love, that’s what I love best. When I discovered hypnosis, my life changed. So can yours.
I hope your holiday season is off to a smashing start. More fun to continue…
I was musing this morning on the nature of change. Change is what I sell. Change is good. Change is choice.
There are really two kinds of change. Fixing a problem type of change, quit smoking, lose weight, etc. And that’s a great thing to accomplish! However, there’s another kind of change, and that’s taking what is already good and making it better. That’s called “generative change.”
I love helping people get their creativity and imaginations soaring. Artists, musicians, athletes, writers, stock traders, people seeking a new career path. 🙂 People who are already doing well, but want more. More power, more strength, more creativity, more “go for it.” Marcela Kenevan of Gig Harbor, WA was one of my recent clients and she reports this type of change:
“I feel incredible. Woke up today brimming with creative inspiration.” –Marcela Kenevan
Yay, Marcela! You go, girl!
I’ve had an ongoing debate with several people for several years about what is more valuable to life success: knowledge vs. creativity. I vote for creativity. So did Albert Einstein. He said:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
If you need a boost of creative juice flow for any endeavor in life, think about hypnosis for that jump start. It works!
Happy November. Michael and I wish you and yours some fabulous holidays. 🙂
Speaking of fabulous, I’m often asked “What is hypnosis all about?” Here is another answer. It’s about moving yourself from “I can’t.” to “Yes, I can!” It’s empowerment. Here are some thoughts I’ve written up on the empowerment power of hypnosis!
There are unhappy people in the world who say: “I can’t!” and they make excuses. There are people in the world who let their lives be limited. They feel trapped or stuck. “My life sucks.”
On the flip side, there are powerful people in the world who say: “Yes, I can!” And they do. They say: “I’m going for it! I choose how I live.”
Which describes you? And, which would you rather be?
Empowerment. Hypnotherapy and particularly, NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, are about opening up the mind to new, more desired choices and new possibilities. And making them happen.
A problem is really a problem only if you believe it to be. Henry Ford, the famous automaker, had that wonderful saying: “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right!” Hypnotherapy is all about “Yes, I can.” The belief controls the actions and outcomes. Hypnotherapy empowers useful beliefs.
In my line of work there is a terminology to describe this empowered vs. unhappy state of mind. It’s called being “at cause” vs. being “at effect.” Being “at cause” means I cause my world to be what I choose it to be. Power. Choice. Control. Being “at effect” means I am a cork bobbing on the ocean, helpless to the seas and currents. “At effect” means no control, feeling like a victim.
An aside: Now, this is funny. My speech to text program heard “at effect” as “a defect.” “Being a defect means you are a cork…” And people actually do get this idea. They think of themselves as having a defect, something defective about them, their mind, their personally. I say no way! What we do and how we live, it’s all a choice. And what’s nice about choice is that we can always choose something new at any time.
It is my belief and also the premise of the work I do that people are infinitely resourceful. They do have choices. What I do is open up more choices for them. It’s so easy to do this. Fear is a choice. Calm is a different choice. Overeating is a choice. Healthy eating is a different choice. Smoking is a choice. Not smoking is a different choice. “At effect” people have no idea of their own ability to choose, they live their life in that victim mentality feeling trapped. It doesn’t have to be that way. While other therapies which activate conscious resourcing offer a very limited utility for change, hypnosis kicks “at effect” out the door.
Here’s an example from my work. I had a client who is a musician. She had a fear and anxiety around solo performances. She had been to other therapists for months who made her examine in infinite detail her life history, her relationship with her parents and the deep, deep, deep, psychological reasons for the existence of her problem. Guess what? That didn’t fix it. She came to me and one session of NLP/hypnotherapy later she is performing without anxiety. It’s a new choice that her mind has chosen. I want calm and confident! Okay let’s do that! (That’s where hypnosis and NLP come in, they can do that!) This change in a person’s thinking, that’s being “at cause.”
If only the world knew how easy it is to be powerful.
I believe everyone is capable of choice. Everyone is capable of making their life better. Everyone is capable of getting the life they want. These tools I use are so fast and fascinating. and they result in a life being “at cause”. That means we make choices that bring us happiness, joy, health, and success of all varieties.
Another benefit of all this, the bridge burns after you cross it. When you become a person “at cause,” the excuses for things not being the way you want them to be dry up. You’re not making excuses anymore, you’re taking action. And creating change and success. Once we see ourselves as powerful and in control of our choices and outcomes, there’s no going back. And that’s wonderful. With the right tools, flipping that switch, power ON, in the mind can happen faster than you think.
Warm Regards,
Connie
You can find out more info. of the successes to be had with these mind technologies of hypnotherapy and NLP, here:
When I was little, this was my favorite holiday. Perhaps it still is. However, the appeal is not the sugar rush, nowadays. It’s something more wonderful, and more useful, called imagination. Tonight I’ll be handing out candy to the neighborhood hobgoblins, and I get to see imagination in action.
I was in a coffee shop awhile ago, and a little boy and girl came up to me and informed me that they were, respectively, a princess and SUPERMAN!!! He told me that with passion and intense conviction, and although he wasn’t wearing his costume at the moment, I could see it. Yes, he was superman.
Knowing that you’re superman is a good thing.
Imagination is power. To an unimaginative adult, a chair may be just a chair–something to sit on. To a child, a chair may be so much more, a car, a pony, a fort to climb on, a spaceship. What I love about Halloween is that it allows adults to reconnect to this essential and playful imagination that we all had as children. I was at the costume store the other day, and saw imagination in full play. Adult imagination. Adults looking at, trying on, playing with Halloween costumes, and props–faces alive with “let’s pretend.” Yes, I AM a pirate! There was a magic in that store, and a life and energy that you don’t find in everyday life. Simply: it’s imagination. One of the “rules of the mind” I teach in my Bellevue College courses is that “imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” Yes, it is!
I love imagination. It’s the stock in trade of what I do. Helping people change, in ways they want to. But, before they can do that, they have to have the imagination to see life could be different. They must be able to imagine themselves cigarette-free, thinner, more successful, etc.
That’s part of what I help them do–because I can see it for them. Clearly! A person can come into my office with 50 pounds to lose, and I can fully imagine them thinner and healthier and living life with full passion. It’s who they really are. I can “see” their face thinner. Their body slimmer. I can see twitching turn to calm. I can see happiness instead of depression. Hypnosis helps me communicate what I know is true for them. When people are feeling “stuck” in their lives, partly it’s because they’ve stomped down this innate childlike ability to see the world as full of possibility and potential. I help people reconnect with that ability, and change is streamlined.
Halloween is something wonderful in that it allows us to play and imagine. That’s a muscle worth stretching.
All the Best to you and yours this holiday,
Connie
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Michael and I would like to wish all of our hypnosis blog reading friends a safe and happy Fourth of July.
Hypnosis is all about freedom and independence. It’s all about creating and celebrating independence from bad habits, unwanted responses, and negative thinking of all varieties. For any of my fellow Star Trek fans (Trekkies), who remembers the episode where Kirk is speaking to Spock about “freedom” and the alien says: “Freedom?? You speak the holy word.” Well, that’s how I feel about the work I do as well. 🙂
Can hypnosis help with…? The short answer is: YES! If it involves the mind and how we respond to life, hypnosis helps!
Prepare to delve into a world of power—your own.
Hypnosis unlocks positive change, and unleashes potential, changes habits, changes minds, changes bodies, changes your experience of life itself! Hypnosis creates a world more in line with your goals and desires.
Here’s my definition of hypnosis: “Hypnosis is a state of accelerated learning.” It’s super powerful and super positive.
When I’m teaching self hypnosis for Bellevue College Continuing Education, I’m often asked by students: What is hypnosis good for? What can it be used for? Can hypnosis help with this, that, and the other thing? Yes!
A problem is only a perspective, and perspectives are subject to change. So hypnosis can be used to develop a more resourceful perspective on ANY problem. When you think differently about something, you feel differently, and your responses and choices in the world are different. Here is a list of problems that hypnosis helps with, though it is by no means an exhaustive list:
• agoraphobia • anxiety – anxiety state • confidence boosting • creativity • depression • embarrassment • emotional pain – guilt • exam nerves • fear of flying • insomnia – sleep improvement • interview nerves • migraine • motivation • memory and learning • nail and finger biting • nervous problems • nightmares • panic state, panic attacks • pain control • performance anxiety • phobias (all kinds) – irrational fears • procrastination • public speaking • relationship problems • shyness • smoking • social anxiety • sports performance • stage fright • stress and related problems • weight loss & weight management
When you’re ready for some positive changes, whether you live in the Seattle area or beyond, call us at (425) 564-8608. www.mindworkshypnosis.net Hypnosis works!
Summer begins this week, and that means it’s a good time to find your happy! Happy is good! Michael and I are “starring” in this happy video. It makes us smile, and we hope the same for you.
If you need some help to find your happy, we can do that!
Hello, to my Hypnosis Blog readers! In Seattle and beyond. 🙂 Here is another in my new video series designed to give a flavor of the utility and joy of hypnosis. This one features the idea (and it’s been WELL documented) of that inner peaceful calm that lives in hypnosis. It’s like a meditative state, one that is easy to enter and maintain.
While the unconscious mind is busily working on wonderful life changes, the experience of hypnosis itself is one of deep physical relaxation, clear-thinking, almost bliss. Several of my clients come out of trance and say: “I’ve never been that relaxed in my life.” One lady said it was like going to the spa, feeling so refreshed and rejuvenated. Yes, it is. A spa for the mind.
Are you ready for a vacation from your life’s problems? How about a permanent vacation from them? Come experience hypnosis. It’s not what you think it is. It’s infinitely better. And it’s cheaper than a trip to Maui, let me tell you! 🙂
The answer is: “yes!” Michael and I have a saying: “If it involves the mind, hypnosis can help.”
I’m continuously asked whether I’ve worked successfully with clients on something very specific, like: Have you worked successfully with clients who pick at their face, have you worked with clients who play soccer, have you worked with teenagers who smoke, have you worked with diabetics with sugar “addictions,” have you worked with someone with a fear of dinosaurs, have you worked with a person wearing pink socks, on a Tuesday? At this point in my career, yes to all.
That’s like asking a painter: have you ever painted a portrait where the man has a mole on his left cheek? Has he? Maybe yes, maybe no. But could he? Absolutely yes. It’s like asking a master carpenter if he could build a birdhouse? Has he? Maybe yes, maybe no. But could he? Absolutely yes.
Once you understand the nuts and bolts of your craft, you can create anything. NLP and hypnosis are about changing the thinking, feeling, and responses in the moments and situations of your life, as it’s useful to do so. The details of those situations are irrelevant, once you understand how the mind works and how we create change in our minds and lives. I do have that understanding.
I can help anybody do anything. These mind tools that I use, primarily NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) are less about the content of a problem, and more about the structure of a person’s thinking. When you change the latter, the former dissolves. And fast!
This idea is so counter to what’s understood in our culture about the nature of personal change, and I understand that. I read a post on Facebook yesterday which I find repulsive (and wrong) on so many levels. Here’s what it said:
“Until you heal the wounds of your past, you are going to bleed. You can bandage the bleeding with food, with alcohol, with drugs, with work, with cigarettes, with sex; But eventually, it will all ooze through and stain your life. You must find the strength to open the wounds, stick your hands inside, and pull out the core of the pain that is holding you in your past, the memories and make peace with them.”
What if that idea is ugly ridiculousness? What if change were easier than that and pain free? In the work I do, we heal the life by re-arranging the structure of thinking, the internal mind strategies that create a problem, and we don’t even have to delve into content. So no, there’s no sticking your hands inside wounds and wallowing in misery. Not in my office!! No blood. I don’t want that on my carpet. Perhaps the above is what counselors or talk therapists do. That’s not what I do. Nor would I ever.
Skilled NLP is more powerful and successful for change than that. The proof is in the pudding. Feel free to visit my website and see all the pudding. Or, come to my office and have a taste yourself.
What is hypnosis and NLP good for? What can it help with? Anything and everything.
Here’s my Tuesday musing, atop a swathe of color from a photo I took at the Tulip Festival last spring. 🙂 This was my summary advice to a friend on how to deal with negative people’s influence:
I also gave her explicit instructions on how to accomplish said directive. In essence, that’s what hypnosis does, help you make useful distinctions in your mind. What’s valuable, and what’s true.
Happy Tuesday!
Warm Regards,
Connie
PS: This pic makes me eager for Spring. Darn groundhog, promising us more winter. 🙂
Here’s my morning musing. 🙂 My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, says this: “The truth is that reality is built out of consciousness not the inverse. Our imaginations determine what will be real next.”
This is a difficult concept for many. Yet, day after day, year after year, doing this work, I absolutely know it’s true. What we focus our minds on we create in our lives, whether that be success or misery. What we’re thinking about in this moment creates our tomorrows. So, my advice? Think about what you WANT. 🙂 Not what you don’t want.
What are hypnosis and NLP? They’re express tickets into the playground called “the unconscious mind” where we can focus this imagination in ways to create a better, desired reality. I use the word “playground” very intentionally, because doing this(targeted reality making) is so much FUN and such a pleasant experience for all involved.
I’ve come up with a new description for what I do. Hypnotist = Targeted Reality Engineer ™.
Exciting times! Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP sends our best wishes to our Seahawks out in New Jersey this Super Bowl weekend! Go get ’em!
I was born in Seattle and grew up across the Lake on the East Side, so, yes, this is MY team. Go Seahawks!
When the Seattle Supersonics won the NBA National Championship in 1979, I celebrated with the rest of the city and state. It’s time for another Seattle Championship celebration!
I woke up this morning thinking about motivation. Have you ever said to yourself: “I WANT to do this!”? Did that alone move you to do it? For the people that come into my Bellevue hypnotherapy office for help in such things as losing weight or quitting smoking, the answer is typically “no.” They want to. They haven’t. (Yet.)
Have you ever said to yourself: “I NEED to do this!”? Did that move you more or less to actually accomplish it?
Want vs. need. Those two words create different feelings inside us, that are often in conflict. Here is a classic example I hear from my weight loss clients: I want to sit on the couch, watch TV and eat donuts, however I need to go to the gym and get on the elliptical machine.
Want is desire, an attraction, a pull. I want that new car. Need is necessity, and can be a push away from something we don’t want. I need to do the dishes, or I won’t have any clean ones to eat off of. Either one alone, want or need, might move us to action. Or not.
Here’s my insight! What if we combine these motivations?
How much more likely are you to DO the thing you both want to do and need to do? What if you wanted to go to the gym as well as needed to? Would you be sitting on the couch with donuts? No way, Jose!
A combo of want and need generates massive power for forward action! You’re moving away from what you don’t want and don’t need and towards what you do want and do need at the same time. This is something I help people create in themselves through hypnosis and NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming. I have found it to be very, very useful for helping clients achieve their goals.
The meaning and utility of words is my business. And because one of my personal goals (NEED and WANT) is to become the best at what I do, I spend every waking minute, including this Sunday morning, musing on the power of words. If you need or want some changes in your life and they aren’t happening, give us a call. We’ll get you moving in the right direction.
There’s an expression: the camera doesn’t lie. I maintain that, yes, it does! I found this video being shared on the internet the other day. It shows a model’s before and after pic. Before, how she really looks in her photo shoot, and after photoshop digital manipulation of the image.
This video from 2012 has recently gone “viral” as they say, with millions of new views. A mom showed it to her daughter to make her aware that the glamour and fashion industry’s images we are bombarded with daily are not REAL bodies. And she shared it on the internet.
Wow. Longer hair, mouth enlarged, eyes enlarged, legs, arms, neck lengthened, sizes removed, butt contoured, skin color changed…I guess the photo-shopper found NOTHING attractive about this woman to begin with?
This is part of the battle we face in weight management hypnotherapy work as well. So many women come in my door toting a sense of “not good enough” and a very negative self image and inner barrage of negative self talk. This originates from a skewed view of what is “beautiful” and “normal” based on, well… lies. Images such as this create an impossible unattainable “perfection” that no human body can meet.
Part of the client weight loss work I do deals with the nitty gritty of portions, food choice, emotional eating, motivation to exercise and so on. An equally important item that needs addressing is self image, and the release of crazy unrealistic inadequacies that may have been implanted by the fashion industry.
I invite you to take a look at this video and ask yourself a question. Which woman do you find more appealing? More normal? The real woman, or the digital creation? I opt for the real woman.
Here is another fun video from the mind of Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP. Michael and I have had numerous trainings, including a current go-round of improvisational comedy/acting classes. We’re stretching our quick-mindedness and creativity, useful tools for a hypnotist (and anyone). One exercise in improv class is called “narrative collage.” You take on various viewpoints of different players in a scene to tell a story.
Here is the story of healthy eating, as seen by Ms. Donut.
“Start with Trust.” That’s the slogan of the Western Washington Better Business Bureau. And it’s also an essential beginning of any hypnosis work.
We are an Accredited Business with the Seattle area Better Business Bureau.
Our status as an Accredited Business is your guarantee of ethical business practices. We have achieved an “A” Rating, which is the highest available for our business. After we’ve been in business for seven years (which happens in a few months), we will be awarded the “A+” rating, I’m sure. That’s as high as it goes. 🙂
“Start with Trust.” Why is this accredited status and “A” ranking good news for you? Unfortunately, the “hypnosis industry” does attract some questionable people, un-trust-worthy people. Many lack skill. Some lack ethics. Accreditation by the BBB is your guarantee of professionalism and ethics. Match that with true, solid, bona fide credentialing in the arts of hypnotism and NLP, and now you’ve got a business to do business with!
Who wants a horrible story?!! Here is the other side of the coin, wayyyyy other side, on the topic of hypnosis and professionalism. I went to a hypnosis demonstration once upon a time and the (evil) hypnotist said to someone who wasn’t cooperating: “Do what I say or your head will explode.” Yikes!! This is utterly appalling to me.
I know for a fact that some people practicing hypnotism in the Seattle area have a similar mindset. They don’t care about people, and they want shortcuts rather than learning, and they don’t care about anything other than money!
There are also people in the world who approach the practice of hypnosis as a serious profession and as a passionate joy! Me! And my Michael! We are doing our utmost to be good at it, so our clients get what they came for. That’s success, and that’s what I strive for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Success for my clients! And my students. To improve the quality of hypnosis skill in the Greater Seattle area, Michael and I teach as well.
When you’re looking for hypnosis services, there are telltale signs of who’s bogus and who’s the real deal. Accreditation with the Better Business Bureau and an “A” Rating indicate the real deal. That logo, the BBB and flame SHOULD inspire trust.
I hope when you’re looking for hypnosis services, you find someone trust-worthy!
It’s here! And that means diving into life. Experience it. Get your feet wet.
Remember being a kid? And the joy and excitement and endless pleasures of summertime? Fun. Freedom. Relaxation. All that positive feeling is still in you and can be extracted and utilized any day of the week and any season of the year. Even if you’re far from that kid you once were and life seems stressful and hectic, you can bring a lightness and warmth to your days.
Hypnosis and NLP work to bring you any good feeling any time it’s useful. Turn this into a summer of joy. I double dog dare you.
I love amazingly talented people. Here’s one. I found this story on ABC News this am.
That’s probably my favorite rendition of the Star Spangled Banner — EVER!! The key to success is what young Julia said, and how wonderful that she knows it and is able to do it. “What I love.”
I offer a plethora of hypnosis services, from weight loss to quit smoking to sports enhancement. Here’s what else I do: help people to find their passion! That activity, career, LIFE direction, thing that brings ultimate joy and success. Because, when you do what you love, you are going to excel.
Yay, kudos to Julia for knowing from AGE 2 that singing is her gig! That’s amazing. I discovered my passion (hypnosis) much, much later in life, and let me tell you, life is a whole new ball game when you love what you do.
If you need help in finding your passion, guess what? There’s help. It’s your own brain, the unconscious, creative, problem-solving part. We can activate its help anytime you want.
Albert Einstein said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” This idea is the core and essence of hypnotherapy.
Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life!
When you think you cannot do or achieve something, that is what I call a LIMITING BELIEF. You know those little monsters that get chomped up in PacMan? Well, that’s how I approach limiting beliefs in my Neuro Linguistic Hypnotherapy work. They’ve got to go! “I can’t do it.” “I’m not good enough.” “I’m not smart enough.” “I don’t deserve it.” What if all that was absolute baloney, and yes, you can, and yes, you do?
Another truism of my life, and my work: what you think, you become.
Hypnosis (when done right by creative people) helps you see beyond and imagine success. That change in thinking, leads to change in doing and being. Trust me! It works! Who are you not, that’s happy and successful? Let me help you become that person.
Warm Regards,
Connie
Connie Brannan, CHt. & Licensed Trainer of NLP®
Professional Conversational Hypnotherapist Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP
Accredited Member of the Better Business Bureau
“Best of Bellevue” 2011 and 2012
The polling results are coming in, with clients who have seen office old and office new. They say they prefer office new and especially it’s “quality of light.” It’s got more natural, and less artificial light. Feels more open and air-y. I liked the “nest” feeling of the full, leafy tree right next to my window in office old. In this one, the trees are more at a distance. More panoramic! Still beautiful, still green, still trees. These trees dance. Whole lot of life and swaying going on out my office window.
The setting in Bellefield Office Park is a world away, so calm and peaceful and full of life. What a nice place to refocus your mind on success.
It’s February! Yay! And I’m of a musing mind. Here’s a story:
Another client reports to me that she has said “adios” to her years upon years long counselor after working with me a few sessions. Now, I’m not saying that talk therapist counselors are inept, wrong-minded and wrap people deeper and deeper into their problems, with an endless quest for “why,”…obviously my client is feeling so much more empowered and happy in her life that she simply doesn’t feel the need to go sit and whine about problems anymore. She agreed with my plan: get rid of them instead!
Everything about this girl has changed, and it’s so beautiful to see. She came in hiding under a hood, so filled with anxiety and fear and paranoia in her life, face twitching and chewing her lip, insomnia, jealousy … She looks different now, her hair, her makeup, her clothes, her posture, her tonality (confident!!), her face is smooth and beautiful, she smiles, she reports that she is sleeping “better than she ever has,” she’s glowing, says this has impacted her kids, they’re laughing and smiling and enjoying life more, too. That’s what a little creative NLP/hypnosis will do for you. It’s been less than a month since I began working with her.
I often notice that the people with the quote unquote “biggest problems” are the ones to have the easiest, most dramatic transformation. They’ve hypnotized themselves into having problems, and we re-direct all that creative power in a new direction, one that feels better and leads to achieving their goals instead. I love what I do!!!!!!!!!!!!
A new client was paying me yesterday and made a semi-snarky comment about how getting the money must be my favorite part. No way. You’re mistaking me for some other Seattle area hypnotist(s). The above description of a positive transformation is my favorite part. That’s why I do this.
Hypnosis is a larger field of study and practice than what is generally known. It’s being used all over the place, and not by “hypnotists.” There’s more to it, than the world commonly acknowledges. You know why that is? People hide the fact that what they’re teaching and doing IS hypnosis.
The word hypnosis has a negative, perjorative, fear-infused connotation in some people’s minds. Unfortunate, and absolutely ridiculous! And that generates fear, and hiding on the part of hypnosis sellers. There are teachers and change workers creating fancy new words and titles and acronyms for the work they are doing. Hey, buddy ….pssst. Some of us do know. It’s all hypnosis.
I attended a training last year on enhanced reading and rapid absorption of information that was absolutely, 100% hypnosis. They never used the word, in their literature, in their marketing, or in the course itself. They called it something else, which they had created to hide the fact that it is hypnosis. They even hawked self-hypnosis CDs which they also called something else. I asked the instructor: “Why don’t you call this what it really is?” He never responded.
I don’t hide my hypnosis. I am PROUD to be a hypnotist. I’d rather change the misconceptions in the world rather than try to camoflauge what I do.
What is hypnosis? It’s communication on deeper levels within our own brain, it’s a doorway to resourcefulness. To creativity. To power. It’s 100% organic and natural, it’s amazing, and lovely, and pure positive goodness.
I wish these practitioners of hypnosis who sell it as something else just in order to get more students and to make more money would stop that. You’re helping to keep the ridiculous myths alive. How will the understanding of hypnosis in the world change for the better if you continue to hide it’s power and success?
Stop hiding the hypnosis!
Warm Regards,
Connie (Hypnotist, and proud of that!)
I bought some chicken yesterday from a local supermarket deli. Got it home, and opened the packaging. Found THIS! Yikes. Battered and fried feathers.
I’m not eating feathers.
How repulsive, obviously they lacked the big picture on plucking the chicken before you cook it. If you look up the word “grotesque” in the dictionary, this chicken wing could be there. I didn’t even want to touch this thing, but I had to, to toss it into the garbage can. I’m not eating THAT!! Ick, and yick!
In my Neuro-Linguistic Programming work with clients “ick and yick” can be useful. People come into my office wanting to stop smoking. People come into my office wanting weight loss, which means, behaviorally, eating less to no sweets, pastries, cookies, chocolate, candy of all varieties, brownies, twinkies, donuts, ice cream, sugary sodas, french fries, potato chips and other carb-laden, junky processed foods that pack on the poundage on the body. I can help with that! Ick and yick finds a home.
When I was a kid my mom tried to make me eat liver. It’s a nightmarish recollection. I hate liver. As an adult, I would never choose to eat liver, because it’s horrendously repulsive, in looks, taste, smell, in every way invented. My response to the thought of liver is this: “get it away from me! No way in hell is that thing going into my mouth!” Like that chicken wing yesterday.
With NLP we can take this feeling “get it away from me, ” capture it, and attach it to anything, where it’s useful to do so. We can attach it to chocolate. To cigarettes. To brownies. To anything. If you don’t like it, you’re not going to eat it, or smoke it. This is called “aversion” anchoring. It’s another piece of the work, and it helps! On the flip of away from, I create good feelings that people prefer over cravings, things like calm, happy, joy, satisfied, healthy. Towards something wonderful and away from something disgusting, now we have a propulsion system of change.
I walk the talk, and use the tools for my own success. I took that chicken wing, and captured the revulsion, and now that’s how I feel about chocolate brownies (my former weakness). I’m not buying or eating any brownies today. None. Not interested. I’m not eating any brownies tomorrow, either. Nor the next day. When will I want brownies? Possibly never. And I’m OK with that.
This is called taking control of your life, and it’s a good thing!
One of the concerns and worries often expressed by potential clients is the question: Do the changes last? If we end the habit (or the fear, or the urge or what have you) will it stay gone long term? YES!!! Once you upgrade the program in your mind, it stays upgraded, unless you change it again.
Here’s more evidence. Kristen Oulten of Renton, WA came in for help with a cola addiction. That was MONTHS ago. Here’s her current report:
“Hello again Connie, Well, it’s December and I haven’t had any Coke or Pepsi since my session with you last February (woo hoo!). My first experience with hypnosis and NLP was a success! Thank you!”
— Kristen Oulton, Renton, WA
Yay, Kristen!
I know it works myself. As I’ve often spoken about, I had a SEVERE spider phobia for most of my life–we’re talking decades. In one brief NLP session, fear and panic was changed to calm and clear-minded. And it’s been six years now. Six years and the calm is still in place. NLP works! Hypnosis works.
Find out for yourself. I know it’s a leap of faith to believe change can happen so easily and permanently. Hypnosis when skillfully wielded (that’s the clincher–based on the skill set of the hypnotist helper) is AMAZING. I like to share outcomes that people have experienced with me and my work. Because I love hypnosis and I know its power and I’m good at it.
Someone told me, you know, people don’t usually talk that way. Confident, she meant. Yes, I’m confident. I know what I know and the proof is in the pudding. Kristen, above, is more pudding.
I hope you’re all having some happy holidays, and when you’re ready to see some positive changes in your life, well, we can do it!
When I was six years old, in my first grade class, we were doing an art project. They asked us to draw a rabbit. Now, we didn’t have a live rabbit to look at, so they taped a photograph of a rabbit to the front board. We sat with our crayons and went at it!
Something different happened during that art project, which I noticed at the time but didn’t understand. I drew that rabbit perfectly. REALLY, really well. As I was drawing, I was looking at the photo at the front of the room, and concentrating. Really concentrating. Inner focused concentration, connecting with the photo and following the curves.
When we were done, I was astonished at how perfect my rabbit drawing looked. Amazingly life-like. The teacher was walking around the room, looking at our work and made a big fuss over my rabbit, complimenting me. She held it up it to the entire class, and asked me if she could keep it as an example of good work for future classes.
I let her, which I’m sort of regretful about, because I wish I could look at that rabbit drawing again right now! (Actually, I could see it again, using hypnotic regression, but that’s another story for another time.)
All well and good, the teacher kept my picture. Now, here’s the interesting part of the story. A string of students then came up to me afterwards asking “show me how to draw a rabbit.” Apparently, I was now the rabbit-drawing-expert. And I couldn’t do it.
I remember taking a piece of paper and CONSCIOUSLY trying to replicate my rabbit for the first kid in line. No way. It was a pathetic squiggle. And the student took it, and walked away looking like he held a treasure.
I drew more pictures for my fellow students, and they were nothing like a rabbit, non realistic and just bad caricatures.
I understand this scenario now. I used self hypnosis to draw the rabbit. Like that book, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” I tapped into my unconscious mind, my creative mind power using a focused attention. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, however I did recognize that I had a different state of mind while drawing my rabbit initially, and when asked to show how. No way could I just “draw a rabbit” quickly on command. That activity involved my six year old conscious mind.
Our conscious minds are linear, logical, limited. We can and do astonish ourselves with our own abilities when we utilize our creative mind. Not just a tiny part of our mind. That’s hypnosis–a doorway into more power! Who knew? I was already a hypnotist in first grade! 🙂
You know, “Dear Abby” died. And that’s a sad thing. I grew up reading her advice column, and it was always pretty sound common sense type answers for all of life’s dilemmas. I loved Dear Abby. Her daughter has now taken over the pen name, and is writing that same advice column. However, she is NO Dear Abby.
I was reading the column today, and her advice was wayyyyy off the mark. Bad advice. Stupid advice.
She was promoting GUILT. A woman wrote in about her massive guilt over past relationship mistakes, and the answer was: “You appear to be carrying a large burden of guilt. And that’s a good thing.”
In polite parlance, I beg to differ. What really went through my mind in reading that answer: “Puritanical bullshit nonsense!”
I help clients release guilt all the time. It’s one of those corrosive, self destructive emotions that doesn’t need to hang on for years, decades, life times. We let that go. We grab onto the learning and wisdom from the past experiences (so we don’t repeat the mistakes), and move on in a new direction with new better feelings and concomitant new better choices and behaviors.
As my teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, says: “Good feelings, good decisions. Bad feelings, bad decisions.” Right on, Richard! I agree wholeheartedly!
Holding guilt would lead to more guilt-inducing behaviors. Bad, bad advice, Dear Abby 2nd generation. I miss your mom and her common sense.
Another wisdom I’ve learned from my many teachers: “What you focus on expands.” When you focus your mind backwards and wrap yourself tighter and tighter into mistakes and the negative emotions there, that does not create positive change. That creates more mistakes and more negative emotion. When you focus somewhere else, you get something else. That’s what hypnosis helps with: a new focus. And new feelings. And new choices that lead to happy and successful and healthy.
SUCCESS! Great word, fabulous idea. Seeing the word in print should spur positive feelings, should it not?
I saw a picture the other day. A beach, with “success” scratched in the sand near the surf’s edge. A friend shared this on Facebook, as an inspirational thing. No, it isn’t! I delve daily into the world of unconscious communications. I find and study (and change when useful) what is being communicated under the surface, which absolutely does affect us. A facet of my job is that I have trained myself to look for and listen in particular for “limiting beliefs,” ideas which stop us from success.
This picture has a very limiting belief embedded within. It’s an unconscous communication, and it’s quite negative.
Imagine this picture. The tide is out, and the sand is fairly dry but still moist. What’s about to happen? Soon, that word will be washed away, vanish, be obliterated. You know it’s going to happen, it’s a function of the location of the word and the ephemeral manner in which it is written in the sand and the inevitability of the tide. Messages in the sand do not remain. They go away.
“Success does not last.”
NOT a message I like for my unconscious mind!
I’d rather believe success is something we control and keep for as long as we want it. Not subject to the whims of nature. I’d rather have a message of empowerment (I create success) rather than disempowerment (you’re going to lose it soon and there’s nothing you can do).
Beliefs are not just ideas. They are movement operators. They create action and activity in us. Or they stop us. This picture is a stopper! Something to muse upon!
I was on a hypnosis forum this morning, and a hypnotist-wanna-be (he’s not there yet) was espousing on the evils of the unconscious mind. He called it “sad” and “destructive” and didn’t think it should be involved in decision making. Wrong! Wrong and double that for more wrong!
Wow, this guy doesn’t know what hypnosis is, and he doesn’t know how the mind works. All decisions come from the unconscious mind. All of them. Contrary to what we “think,” all our behaviors and decisions are driven by unconscious processing. That’s why we “think” we want to change something (like quit smoking), and yet we don’t do it. You have to get into the level of the unconscious mind to make changes, and there’s where hypnosis and Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP come into play.
Here’s what I believe: the unconscious mind is pure positive energy and it’s ALWAYS moving toward what it perceives as the best way to achieve positive goals. When new (more useful) choices are introduced, via our work–hypnotists & Nelpers–the unconscious mind says: “YES, yes, yes, that’s better and I’m going for it.” Fear becomes calm. Bored becomes motivated. Depressed becomes joy…and so on. And new behaviors flow from there.
I LOVE unconscious minds, and it’s such a joy and privilege to communicate with them. High-Five to the unconscious mind!
Obesity! That’s an ugly word! What is it? The dictionary says it means “excessively fat or fleshy”, originating from latin words meaning “intensive eating.” Good news: It’s really NOT an immovable monolithic THING, it’s a cumulated effect of choices, patterns, behaviors and actions–which are moveable objects, not monoliths.
Obesity is a huge problem in Seattle and the world. I was musing today on the mindset of healthy eating, healthy movement and exercise, and reshaping the body, and how easy those things are to create and sustain through hypnotherapy. It really comes down to focus and frame of mind. When you successfully change those, you change everything.
“Habits” don’t control us, it’s the UNconscious drivers of habits that are important. With hypnosis, those things can be located and changed. And I mean EASILY. With skilled hypnosis and NLP – supercharged powerful conversational hypnosis – ideas, feelings, and habits that lead to “obesity” can change in a heartbeat.
If you do emotional eating, binge eating, have tried fad diets and worse in a fail after fail attempt at weight control of obesity, well….there’s a new kid in town. Only she isn’t new. She’s been there all along, you just haven’t noticed her. Her name is HYPNOSIS. She’s starting to flex her muscles. Yay!
Hypnosis is a powerful, powerful tool in the battle with obesity. How do I know this? I’m living it, baby! And I help people in the Seattle area and beyond with my hypnotherapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming work and hear and see their weight loss results.
Cut through all the gimmicky crap (like, eat grapefruit for a week), artificial diets that don’t sustain any real changes, or radical and RIDICULOUS ideas like body surgery for obesity, pills to alter your chemistry with who knows what awful side effects, and think for a moment about what really has the power over you and your choices. (dramatic pause) NOTHING! You have the power, only you aren’t currently connected to it. Hypnosis and NLP (done well by someone creative and skilled) can do that, connect you to your power. Goodbye, Obesity!
There’s a reason Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP has been awarded “Best of Bellevue 2011” and “Best of Bellevue 2012” for WEIGHT LOSS AND CONTROL PROGRAMS. Because hypnosis works best for obesity. Obesity isn’t a body state (as medicos keeps insisting), it’s a mind state. And you can change your mind anytime. Now is good.
When you’re ready to change your thinking and your feeling and your doing around your weight, call me! (425) 564-8608. I AM the Best in Bellevue and Seattle, too, for that matter. Discover hypnosis for helping with obesity!
“How do I find a good Seattle Hypnotherapist?” I’m a Team Member representing the professions of hypnosis and NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming on a popular internet forum board. I’m often asked for advice on finding and choosing a hypnotist. Someone who’s “the real deal,” and not an unskilled fly by night.
Yes, the true, skilled, passionate “this is my life” successful hypnotists are out there. This is how you find them. Word of mouth is great, but failing that, you’re going to be looking at the internet.
Focus on the focus. It’s all comes down to a person in my profession’s focus and primary goal. Is it about marketing ploys and making money, or is about the joy of developing a skill set and making client successes? When you look at a person’s web presence, and/or meet them face to face, you’ll be able to notice the difference. I call it puff vs. passion.
Here’s a direct quote from a hypnotist visiting my forum board who said his goal was marketing himself for “truckloads of clients”: “I WANT MONEY AND LOTS OF IT. I WILL TRADE MY WIFE FOR MONEY. I WILL BETRAY GOD FOR MONEY. I WILL SELL MY KIDS. I HATE CLIENTS AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THEM. I WOULD EVEN GIVE MY MOTHER A PHOBIA AND CHARGE HER A “TRUCKLOAD OF MONEY” TO GET RID OF IT. I DON’T CARE.”
This attitude disturbs me greatly. Hypnosis is a helping profession, and people with such a money grubbing focus shouldn’t be in it. It’s not about the “dough re mi” for me. It’s about doing something worthwhile, and making a difference in people’s lives. I figure that the financial rewards are a given, if I devote myself to the pursuit of excellence and helping people achieve their goals and their potential.
This guy quoted above: I’m sure he’s hired a good SEO (search engine optimization) person to help him get ranked high on Google–because that’s what it’s about for him. Or he’s paying for Google ads.
Here’s a tip: Ignore those paid ads. In my opinion, many times those listings at the top of the google pages which are highlighted as “paid ads” tell me the person is either brand new and/or not very good. The real deal people rise in those listings as an “organic search” because of the substance and quality and CONTENT of their website. My listing is organic.
Here are a few more clues to find a serious professional hypnotist vs. an unskilled hypnotist.
Certifications. I know it’s difficult for the lay person to know the difference between “printed this in my basement” certificates from newly created fake “professional orgs” vs. the real trainings that a professional would have from respected sources. Here’s a clue, the number and dates of certification. A dedicated professional keeps learning, and would have a variety of trainings under their belt. Studying a website, do your research on the hypnotist’s credentials.
Check out the organizations listed. How long have they been around and continuously active? Are they national? International? How many members, tens vs. thousands? I’m a member of the NGH (National Guild of Hypnotists). We have been around since the 1950’s–it’s the oldest and most well respected professional organization for hypnotists in the US. If they are hyping an NLP certification, find out if it’s through Dr. Richard Bandler or John Grinder or Steve Andreas. Those are the originators of NLP. Other “schools” (some legitimate, some a joke) offer far lesser versions of this power. The real deal people have paid the training bucks and spent the time honing their craft. And continue to do so.
Testimonials. How many, and in what form? Do they ring true? Do they contain details? Real clients don’t sing praises in generics, they tell stories.
Does the hypnotist share their passion and their interest in hypnosis on their website through a “blog?” Does it seem to be a real blog or a fake blog? Does it have any original content, or just recycled stale articles written by somebody else that may or may not be on topic but have some keywords in them for the search engines? Do they create it themselves, or do they just pay some outsourcer $5 for silly entries like “What is a hug?” How frequently do they post? A blog (like mine here) is another indicator of passion. I LOVE hypnosis, I LOVE my blog, and I love writing and sharing my passion with you.
More things to examine to find the perfect Seattle hypnotist. How long has a hypnotist been in business. If you can’t find any history, that’s a red flag.
Are they registered with Washington State Dept. of Health as a professional hypnotherapist? To do business in our state, that’s a legal requirement.
Are they an Accredited Business with the Better Business Bureau? This shows a dedication and commitment and adherence to ethical business practices. If they are with the BBB, what is their ranking? Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP is an accredited business with the BBB, with an “A” ranking.
In any profession from auto mechanic to teacher to doctor to hypnotherapist, there are the “real deal” professionals and the also-rans. “How do I find a good Seattle Hypnotherapist?” Here’s one last tidbit to help you. TRUST YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND. I recommend meeting your prospective hypnotist face to face. Intelligence shines. Passion shines. Trust your gut as to whether or not this person can help you. If anything feels “off,” run for the door.
Hypnosis works. Best in the hands of a skilled and passionate and professional practitioner. They’re out there. Me, for example. My husband, Michael, for another. Call us and meet us, check out our credentials, judge for yourself, and find the best hypnotherapists in the Seattle area.
Here is another story. 🙂 A client came in to enhance her business success. Her problem? A feeling of not being “good enough” or “smart enough” — in a nutshell, a lack of confidence. She found herself feeling anxious and unable to speak up during business meetings–even when she had valuable things to say.
I found out what she wanted instead. We began the work. Suddenly, she burst out angrily at me:
“Why are you laughing? You’re trivializing my problem.”
I answered her: “That’s right. I am. And so will you. It IS trivial. Ridiculous, in fact.”
That’s what we want to create! A “problem” so small and trivial that you can’t even see it or experience it. When she feels more confident and “good enough,” in fact, there is no problem. It dissolves.
What she didn’t yet realize is that the work was already unfolding and being successful…we were working on confidence building. The presenting problem: she was unable to speak her mind. Yet, suddenly, here she was speaking her mind, to me. Loud and clear. Yay!
I’m remembering an episode of Star Trek. (I LOVED that show.) In it there was an alien creature which fed on negative emotion. The more angry and violent negative emotions it could generate in the people around it, the stronger it got. When Kirk & Spock et. al. started laughing (with the help of Dr. McCoy and his “laughing gas”) well the monster weakened and decided to leave.
Here’s what clients begin to understand via my work with them: A problem is not REAL. It is conjured in the mind and body. It is merely a frame of mind, a way of thinking. And that is very, very subject to change. A problem can be reframed to the point it is un-conjured. That’s what we do in my office.
When the woman left, she commented that her breathing felt easier. We tested her new responses. She thought the previously “anxious-making” thoughts, and anxiety was a no-show. Her body language had changed, as well. She was speaking louder and sitting taller. Her eye contact was more direct. I notice these things. Confidence seeds sprouting all over. I guess it really was a trivial non-problem after all, wasn’t it?
“You is amazing!” — says Lucky Larry, an animated character of my acquaintance. He waves his arms, a beautiful chorus sings behind his words, and he congratulates the winner: “YOU is Amayyyyzing!” Hey, I take wisdom anywhere I find it, even if it’s grammatically incorrect. Today I told a client about Larry and his words: “You is amazing!” Yes, she is.
Client had a limiting (and ridiculous) belief: “I’m not smart enough.” Sound familiar to any of you out there? Well, with Neuro Linguistic Hypnosis processes, we healed her of that notion, past present & future. Ripped every shred of it out of her life. She also had held a secret fear of future dementia, which runs in her family. Goodbye to that idea. In our work, we innoculated her brain against future dementia, as well.
Reconnecting someone to their own brilliance and power. Safeguarding a brain! Sounds like a worthy way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.
“Limiting beliefs.” That’s hypnosis jargon for any thought, idea, sensation which makes a person feel bad and holds them back from their goals. “I’m not smart enough.” “I’m not good enough.” “I can’t do it.” “It’s too difficult.” “I’m not worthy.” Limiting beliefs suck. If you’d like yours to be removed and replaced with more useful beliefs, we can do that!
You know what the biggest challenge in my work is? It’s not helping people with nicotine or alcohol or sex “addiction,” or genetic obesity” or a prevailing sense of anxiety, or “chronic” insomnia, or twitching or nail biting, or any number of problems which SEEM insurmountable.
It’s DOUBT. It’s a mindset that keeps problems in place. It’s the “I can’t.”
Why do I slather this blog and my websites with client testimonials of success? It’s to challenge doubt.
However, doubt doesn’t have to be a negative thing. What if we could flip doubt on its head and begin to doubt the problem? Doubt the staying power of the problem. Doubt the potency of the problem. Doubt your own mental limitations on having the life you want. When you change your thinking in this way, you change everything.
Hypnosis helps you adopt useful beliefs. Like “I can! And it’s easy.” What you believe becomes true.
I successfully install the RIGHT doubt, the one that moves you to success. If you would like to stop doubting yourself and your capabilities and begin to doubt the problems in your life, and thus end them, hypnosis works!
One of my first hypno-mentors asked me to consider this: “How much joy can you stand?” He let me know that hypnosis would change my life. Yes, it has!!
Hypnosis is a tool to maximum joy, maximize success, maximize the happy celebration called life! Effective immediately, and until further notice, I encourage all of you to begin celebrating the moments of your life more and more.
Disbelieve the negative suggestions fed to you every day. I’m going to share a personal story today. 🙂 Medical stuff. I had a cut on my “great toe” (big toe). It got infected. Not so great!!
I went to the doctor to check it out. Man, that woman bombarded me with negative suggestions. I have an ear for limiting beliefs and negative suggestions. That’s my work. This Doctor spewed one negative, damaging idea after the next. Such as: It may never heal. Toes heal very slowly, if at all. People take antibiotics and it still doesn’t heal. We may need surgery to remove the toenail. Your toe considers your toenail a foreign object. She also suggested to me that the current state should be painful when I told her it wasn’t.
WOW!! I’m listening to her, sitting in the examination room being bombarded with essentially a message called: it won’t heal. Is that a good message to hear from a doctor? Hell, no. If I took that on board, unconsciously, and believed it, then no, it wouldn’t heal. Luckily, I blocked her suggestions and fed in my own.
Of course it will heal. And perfectly. I used self hypnosis to focus my mind on healing that toe. Guess what, a week later, and it’s perfectly healed. And, of course the antibiotics helped! (Contrary to the messages that Doc was TRYING — and failing — to feed me that even those wouldn’t help.).
Really, when I think about Doctors and their negative suggestions (telling your mind what to do and what SHOULD happen in a way that leads to a bad outcome) it’s frightening. On the extreme end: you have xx months/years to live. If your mind takes that on board, you will die on schedule. If there are such a thing as “evil hypnotists,” that’s doctors who unknowingly spew messages of illness, doom, gloom, dismemberment, and death.
Your body creates what you believe to be true.
Hypnosis is a way to “talk to the brain” and instruct it in what you really want. I wanted a healthy toe. I’ve got one. Time to go for a walk.
Hypnosis is everywhere. It’s an everyday piece of our experience (we go repeatedly into and out of trance every day) however, we don’t always recognize it. I had a hypnotic experience on Sunday. It’s called looking at TULIPS! Michael and I went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
Rows upon fields of bright color. From a distance, beautiful. Up closer, beautiful. With your nose two inches from a blossom, beautiful. Tulips are hypnotic. Anything which brings an emotional change into your heart and body, that’s hypnosis. Tulips are pleasant hypnosis. Joy hypnosis.
The festival runs through April 30th. If you’re in the Washington area, I recommend it. Here are some joy-making photos I took last weekend.
Michael and I are fond of Redbox, renting movies from a kiosk for about a dollar. Last night we rented a strange, but good one. “Another Earth.” It’s about alternate universes and the intertwining of lives and how life can change in a heartbeat.
There was one scene in particular that was “very NLP.” 🙂 The heroine of the movie was sharing a story about space travel. Now, I don’t know if this story in the movie is “true” or not, but as it unfolds, it’s massively hypnotic and indicative of the power of the mind. I’ll share it with you. 🙂
She told the story of the first astronaut in space, confined inside a tiny little capsule, basically a cupboard in space. He’s all alone. He has a tiny porthole/window through which he can see the stars. He’s also the first person to see our Planet Earth from an outer space perspective. The blue against blackness, the curvature. The exquisite beauty.
Our astronaut journeys to the cosmos, captures the information he has been sent to capture, and now he’s coming back home. He’s in the middle of his ride home, and a loud slow ticking sound emerges from the control panel. Like a tapping. Like a ticking. He can’t identify the source. Everything seems to be functioning perfectly, yet the sound continues. He can’t figure out how to turn it off. Tick…tick…tick…tick…tick…tick. Endlessly. It moves from a question to an annoyance to a larger annoyance. He sits in the tiny space, listening for hours upon hours to tick…tick…tick…tick…tick…tick, to the point it becomes an absolute maddening sound that threatens his sanity. Like water torture. Drip…drip…drip, only it’s tick…tick…tick. He’s sure he’s about to go insane!
He has days left in the capsule and no way to stop the sound. It continues. “Noooooo! make it stop!!” He’s on the verge of absolutely losing it. Tick…tick…tick. Tick…tick…tick.
Finally, in a moment of desperation, he decides that the only way to survive is to fall in love with the sound. To transform the sound in his mind to something enjoyable, beautiful even. He focuses his mind. Suddenly, the ticking is music, it’s music to his ears. Lovely, haunting, beautiful music, an appropriate backdrop to the stars and glow of the earth out his porthole window.
He rides home in a state of utter bliss.
I like this story!! It’s true, in that WE control how we interpret our world. We choose how to understand and react to anything. I once lived in an apartment near a very busy street, with constant traffic noise. It was bothering me! I decided NOT to be irritated anymore and to not even notice the sound. And it vanished. Not really, only to me. No longer an irritant.
My dad snored. To me it was a hideous sound. To my mother, it was a sound of comfort. “He’s home, he’s safe, he’s with me.” We can make our world what we want. It’s all in the interpretation, which we control in our minds.
The mind is amazingly powerful. That’s what hypnosis does, it’s a tool to focus the mind more powerfully and more effectively. We all use hypnosis every day, whether it’s formally induced or not. We can change our perceptions, our perspective, our thinking. And that changes everything. How we feel, and what we do behaviorally in the world.
It’s all moveable furniture!
Happy Sunday to you, find some time to create a moment of enjoyment Your mind can do that!
Warm Regards,
Connie
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My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, in addition to being mega-uber famous, is a nice guy. Very nice guy. After conducting intensive seminars, he also makes time to make himself available for his students. He’ll answer questions people are too reticent to ask in class, he’ll pose for photographs, and he’ll autograph any of his dozens of published books. I did all of those things with him, including asking him to sign a copy of one of his books for me, “Frogs Into Princes.”
He kindly did. He wrote in my book, “Connie, find your power.”
I was and am thrilled. “Find your power.” Dr. Bandler gave me a direct suggestion. Yay! I’m doing it. I made a photocopy of that page, cut out that sentence in Dr. Bandler’s distinctive writing and stuck it under my acrylic desk blotter at Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP. I look at it every day, and I remember to continue to find my power more and more.
Dr. Bandler IS NLP, he is co-inventor of it, and named it. What is NLP? Neuro Linguistic Programming is the study of successful thinking, it is a type of conversational hypnosis that creates positive changes fast faster fastest. It’s been called “hypnosis on steroids.” I live it. I love it! I use it. I teach it. It’s the basis of my personal success, as well as all the positive changes my clients have enjoyed, and the clients of my students as well.
“Find your power.”
I use social media, primarily FaceBook, not as a search engine optimization gimmick (as some local hypnotists do) but because I think it’s fun and a wonderful way to share and connect. I mentioned on FaceBook about Dr. Bandler’s directive sitting under my desk blotter. Someone posted in reply criticizing Dr. Bandler–thinking it was a negative comment about me. “Why? Is it lost? That implies you don’t have power.”
If someone says to you “find your keys,” does that imply you don’t have keys? No, it means you have them and you want to get them in your hand so you can use them to turn on the car and get going! I think “find your power” means connect with your power, grow your power, and the premise there is, you have power. I know I do. I know we all do.
One of the presuppositions of NLP is that we, every one of us, do indeed have infinite resourcefulness and power. Everything we need is already inside us to create change in ways that we find useful. NLP, it’s a methodology of continued empowerment. If you don’t like where you’re at, you choose and do something else!
Thank you, Dr. Bandler. “Find your power.” It’s an ongoing joy-filled process, and I’m working on it!
How to you like the new look of my blog? I wanted a new “Fall Into Change” banner, as I LOVE this time of year and the colors of autumn leaves. This is my time of year.
Pumpkin Pie Overdose?
I was reading an article about Thanksgiving, and about PIE in particular. America’s love affair with pie. Apple pie, pumpkin pie, rhubarb pie, you name it. Blackberry pie. The pie council conducted a survey about America’s pie habits, who likes what and how often. I read a shocking and startling statement, right there in bold ink:
“1 in 5 Americans have eaten an entire pie by themselves.”
Wow. Pie is homey, pie is celebration, but a whole pie??? Was it in one sitting, I wonder… Wow. Sounds like overindulgence.
If you’re one of the 20% of Americans with that kind of eating capacity and proclivity, and if you also have packed on any extra pounds by way of pie overdose…guess what? Hypnosis can help. I can help. Hypnosis works! My company is Mindworks Hypnosis and I’ll get you back on track to healthy eating faster than you can imagine.
If you’re worried about overindulging this Thanksgiving, think about this: Hypnosis for weight loss and weight management. It’s what I do. It’s what I know. It’s my own story as well, although I have never eaten a whole pie. Check out the before and after picture of me! This is how I know hypnosis works, I’ve used it.
Hypnosis works for weight loss.
I was fond of those little individual Hostess pies–lemon in particular. Haven’t had one in years, and that’s a good thing.
If you need pie protection in advance of November 24th, I can help! Absolutely yes. If you want to be satisfied with one piece, we can do that. I you want none, we can do that. If you want to be motivated to go exercise on Black Friday, we can do that. Tell me what you want, and I’ll help you do it.
I’m so excited. Today is a day of FUN, and learning. Those are one and the same thing in my book. 🙂 Michael and I are taking advantange of a rare opportunity to learn today from one of the best hypnotists in the US, Don Mottin of the National Guild of Hypnotists. He’s in Seattle offering a course in client-based weight loss.
National Guild of Hypnotists
Now, hypnotic weight loss is already my expertise, but you can ALWAYS learn more, fine tune and enhance skills. Michael and I are members of the National Guild of Hypnotists, the oldest, and best recognized Professional Organization for hypnotists in the US, and as such we have a committment to continuing education. This is a piece of that!! Learning more. Yay!
I don’t settle for good, I want to be the absolute best hypnotist I can be. Learning is a never-ending process, and a never ending joy. Last year Michael and I attended two of Don Mottin’s live training courses: Rewiring the Brain For Stroke Survivors and Pain Management–all full of useful ideas that I have incorporated into my work. More learning with Don = more excellence for me, and better results for my clients. That’s what it’s all about.
Pearls of wisdom.
We just had Halloween (one of my favorite holidays). Here is how I see learning. It’s like trick or treating! (Honestly, some programs I’ve spent money on are a trick, not a treat!) Don is a treat. He’ll be offering up a basket of cool ideas like a basket of gems and pearls. I prefer a basketful of ideas to a basketful of snickers and M&Ms and jelly beans. The currency of excellence here is creative imagination, not sugar. I’ll take some!!!
We do get a newspaper delivered to our home, but I don’t look at it. Michael likes the feel of paper, the tactile experience of reading a newspaper. I get my news on the internet. Which seems easier to me, more immediate, and doesn’t feed the landfill.
Here’s an article I read today which I’d like to share with you. It’s good advice. It’s about how to stay sane in a stressful work environment. (I’ve had plenty of those over the years, when I worked for other people before I found my life’s calling.) Here’s the article, on yahoo: Seven Tips to Stay Sane at Work.
In a nutshell, it’s telling you to adopt specific FEELINGS which assist you in maintaining sanity in the face of stress: calm, humor, dissassociation (feeling separate), empathy, positivity. Good feelings. Wonderful ADVICE. But HOW to DO all that? How to create and capture states of mind/body in yourself and use them when you’re not feeling them?
That’s where hypnosis and NLP shine! Because it’s absolutely true. Changing how you feel changes how you think and how you experience life, how you interact with others, and what you do behaviorally. We can all change our lives by feeling how we find it useful to feel. That’s NLP’s bread and butter. It’s called anchoring. Finding the positive state in yourself, growing and expanding it, and then capturing for future use.
The article doesn’t tell you HOW to feel calm. I can. How to maintain calm when Joe at work is doing his best to get under your skin. I can. We’ll set you those stimulus responses in your body so that they flow automatically. Where stress used to trigger negative emotions, it won’t. This is what I do. And I love it.
If you’ve got stress, and want to FEEL differently, like this article advises, but haven’t a clue how to DO that…let me help. 🙂 And remember, Michael and I are offering an event just for stress release on December 10th called “Banish Holiday Stress.” You’ll learn anchoring, and more. More info is here:
I found this pic today, and it’s so perfect. As a metaphor, and an idea. Yes, it’s now. And it’s now again. Wait. Wait for it…tick, tick, tick, tick…now it’s now again. Grab ahold of NOW. It’s time for change.
Smokey Robinson is one of my favorite singers and songwriters. He wrote a song I really like called “More Love.” (Good title, good idea.) Some of the lyric goes: “Let it be soon. Don’t hesitate. Make it now. Don’t wait. Open your heart and let my love come in, I want the moment to start when I can fill your heart with more love, and more joy than age or time could ever destroy….” Smokey knows what’s important.
This could be a hypnosis song. Let the joy come in is right. Joy attached to positive and long-lasting change. Hypnosis opens a life to joy and a myriad of other good feelings. Good stuff. Do it now.
Wishing you a joy-filled now.
Warm Regards,
Connie
What does a military strategist and a skilled NLP change worker have in common? Answer: A LOT!!
Here’s my goal in the work I do with clients: strategic change, elegant change, fast change, helping clients get the most bang for the buck, finding the key strongholds of the problem, and taking them out in strategic, rapid fire sequence. Using imagination, strategy, and fire power to win “the war” against the issue at hand.
My “strategic change” blitzkrieg is a different approach than traditional “talk therapy” counselors. They’re all about discussion, about rolling around in the muck, accentuating and revivifying negative thoughts and emotions over and over and feeling bad. Metaphor: A counselor would want to figure out WHY an unwashed person smells so bad, uncover the origins and chemistry of body odor and what the person did to create it, whereas I would say: You smell bad. Take a shower. And I’d show them the shower, and even turn it on for them.
Let's TALK about it: Pig rolling in the mud.
Talk therapies: It’s not about movement, and it’s not about change. It would not be unusual for a person to see a counselor for YEARS on a particular issue. To me, that’s absolutely ridiculous. RIDICULOUS! Unconscionable, really. Is it about the money, about milking people for money? There’s no way in hell change takes years. It takes minutes. That’s the firepower of NLP and hypnosis.
And I’m always working to increase my personal firepower! To increase my arsenal of weaponry. How? I am continuously learning more, and becoming more and more skilled, mastering the work of hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, conversational hypnosis, energy work, and more. It’s a different focus than some hypnotists.
Some of my colleagues spend their money on marketing guys to help artificially pump up their web presence and SEO (Search engine optimization)–one guy pays someone else who is not even a hypnotist to write his blog and the posts are insipid!–you know where I spend my money? On learning, on live trainings with the best of the best! To become better at the work I do. To me that’s massively more important and I believe leads to true and legitimate success. My arsenal is knowledge and skill, not fluff and puff.
Another hypnotist friend of mine (and he’s wonderful and I love him) tells clients: “it will require at least three sessions and possibly six before results start to show.”
Frankly, that’s not good enough for me. No way. I expect some level of positive results to show after a single session with me, and complete success on any specific issue in at MOST four sessions. What happens though, is that an array of issues are interlinked (for example confidence and self esteem and weight loss), and all of that is sorted through in around four sessions.
One of my clients yesterday used this phrase describing his desire to quit smoking NOW: He wanted “One and Done!” It’s not always possible to complete the work in a single session depending on the person and his situation, but in his case, we did that for him. “One and Done!” Many of my clients experience this!
Am I better than my friend who takes up to six sessions for a change to appear? Apparently I’m more skilled. And I know what makes the difference. It’s the NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (my specialty) is what makes the difference. It has been called “hypnosis on steroids.” It’s faster than traditional hypnosis. More powerful. It’s the BIG GUNS in my arsenal for your strategic change.
I enjoy being a military strategist. Every day is different, and every person is different, and I get to use my creativity and fire off the big guns. Yay! Take that smoking! Blam! Take that, overweight! Blam! Take that, fear! Blam! A talk therapist will not take the stronghold. A hypnotist reading a script at you will not take the stronghold. I can. Let’s do it.
Warm Regards,
Connie
Connie Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of NLP
I offer hypnosis services for weight management, and periodically I get asked questions about “bariatric hypnosis.” I’d like to answer those questions here and explain why I believe it’s ill-conceived, not likely to be successful, and something that I would NEVER do to my clients in a million years.
“What is bariatric surgery?” It’s a variety of invasive medical procedures that involve the slicing and dicing of the human body to artificially create a reduction in stomach capacity, fraught with all the pain, dangers, and complications of surgery, plus the aftermath of nausea, vomiting, dehydration and potential malnutrition, with dubious longevity or long term benefit. What’s the point of all this? To achieve weight loss. (Hint: there’s an easier way!)
The goal: physically creating a situation wherein you’ll eat less–because you can’t physically eat. That removes choice, doesn’t it? And it fails to address whatsoever the core unconscious issues that lead a person to obesity-inducing behaviors–those remain, even after surgery. It doesn’t change feelings, thoughts, beliefs, it’s an artificial and unpleasant restriction on behavior. I like choices for people. What is bariatric surgery? A limiting of choice and just plain dumb.
What would it be like if there were far simpler ways to achieve and maintain a healthy weight? Ways that are pleasant, natural, non-intrusive, and encourage healthy choice? That in addition make a person feel good, not just about their body, but their whole life?? Feelings of high self esteem, accomplishment, power, joy, and so on?
Well, we’re all in luck, because there are such ways, when skillfully delivered. They are called Hypnosis and NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (a specialized high-tech hypnosis, which is conversational in nature). These things, when used with artistry and creativity and skill, lead a person to a healthy weight naturally. With surgery, there are still cravings that are present yet denied due to artificial restrictions. With hypnosis and NLP, there are no cravings period. Gone. Which sounds more appealing? To me, that’s the definition of purgatory, wanting and wanting and being unable to have. After bariatric surgery, suffering an eternity of feeling deprived? NO, THANK YOU! That’s like dieting.
Hypnosis is not dieting. It’s life change. Changing how you feel, and how you think, and what you do, and even what you believe to be true. Changing your life. In ways that are useful. No scalpels required.
Unless you are a bariatric hypnotist. Dumber. A bariatric hypnotist chooses to engage in a process of hypnotic change work which involves the client undergoing the aforementioned bariatric procedures hypnotically, while in trance. Trance is meant to be a pleasant experience, not something horrific!! They have au de operating room, ether smells, and sound effects of being cut open so that the person will experience it all as real, and the body respond accordingly. This idea disturbs me greatly. A true hypnotist (one who has had legitimate training and was paying attention and has a modicum of intelligence) has tools to help, that don’t create an artificial fix. Bariatric hypnosis isn’t a “fix,” it’s another f-word, followed by an e-d.
The whole mindset around this “work” disturbs me. The other day I got a mailing soliciting bariatric hypnotists. The language appalled me. It read: “Calling All Hypnotists Seriously Interested in Helping The Morbidly Obese Client Rejoin The Human Race.” Oh!! Really? Those with weight problems are not human? What are they? Aliens? Hey, just a guess, but this does not sound like a compassionate or empathetic point of view. I guess if you’re going to cut them open, it’s easier to do if you think of them as nonhuman. Maybe it’s like dissecting lab rats.
Bariatric surgery? Dangerous, dumb, dubiously effective, and not necessary for successful weight loss. Hypnotic bariatric surgery? In my opinion, that is exponentially dumber, and absolutely wrong-minded–what a waste of a powerful and positive tool for life change–hypnosis. I KNOW how people successfully lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. And I know that they don’t require surgery to do it. Now…how do I know?
Because I’ve lived the transformation from fat to fit, and maintained it for 5 years. Without being sliced open, in reality or in my unconscious mind. Hypnosis and NLP, used properly, are all you need! Here’s what I’ve accomplished:
Before and After.
And I help others to achieve and maintain a healthy weight as well. Here are some comments from some of my successful weight loss clients:
“I have been committed to lose weight for my health for years. However, the actual first step was almost impossible. So before I tried more radical methods, I thought I would try hypnosis. Connie Brannan, and Mindworks Hypnosis worked wonders. The day after my first session, new behaviors emerged and became habits. The amazing thing is – it was so easy.
Late night cravings – gone.
Drinking 8 glasses of water/day – new habit.
Portion control – easy.
A real desire for healthy foods – a new habit.
Feeling full with the right amount of food – a new feeling.
Neuro Linguistic Hypnosis works and fast. I have been losing a consistent 2.5 pounds per week. In the first six weeks, I’ve lost 18 pounds and counting.” –Cynthia Sullivan, COO of a local Bellevue company, Bellevue, WA Update: Cynthia has lost 50 pounds now! 🙂
“Hi Connie,
Just wanted to thank you again for your wonderful help. I’ve lost 40# in 4 months, and I feel confident that I’m going to lose at least 40 more. It’s truly remarkable what a few easy sessions with you have done for my life.
As a health care worker, I’ve always known healthy diet and exercise were key to losing weight, but I never seemed motivated to seriously make those long term lifestyle changes. I grew so obese that I even considered surgery. But the risks scared me, so I decided to try calling you instead. Even after one session, everything changed. I found myself craving healthy foods, appropriate portions, and daily exercise. My sweet tooth and chip obsession disappeared overnight. My self esteem skyrocketted. I finally knew I could conquer my lifelong struggle with my weight. It’s been months since I’ve seen you and yet I’m still right on track with my goals. Hypnosis is easy and it truly works. You’ve changed my life. Thank you!” –E, Seattle, WA.
“The choices aren’t hard anymore.” — Anonymous client, Duvall, WA. (She lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks.)
“Thank you, Connie! The work we have done together has truly changed my life. I have found “my happy” and am now on the journey to a stronger, slimmer, healthier me.” — Kelly, Renton, WA.
“I’ve lost 8 pounds in 12 days!” –Don B., Issaquah, WA.
“It’s amazing! I’ve lost 17 lbs in 3 weeks. I’m happy! I’m sleeping like a baby. My stress level has decreased. I’m making very healthy choices. (Before my last session) I was dancing in the shower, couldn’t wait, eager to come see Connie. She’s guided me to opening my gate to freedom.” –Julie, Mercer Island, WA.
“I will have you know I’ve lost 30 lbs. Girl, you are my absolute idol!” –Lisa B.
“I’m not so glued to the food!” Liz, Redmond, WA.
“I don’t crave ice cream at all now! Or chocolate. I am in shock!!!”– Saliha B., Issaquah, WA.
“Dear Connie: Thank you so much for working with me to help me lose weight. I had just one session, and the positive effects are nothing short of amazing! The cravings that so plagued me are just gone! I feel better and have more energy and just feel more positive since I am not constantly telling myself no. I did not realize the energy I was expending either refusing certain foods, or feeling bad after having eaten them! I cannot wait for our next session. I wish I had found you earlier as I would have saved myself so much grief and disappointment. Thank you for sharing this life altering experience with me.” –Fondly, Monica Anderson, Bellevue, WA.
“I love hypnosis…my knee cracking, painful problem is GONE. I feel a foot taller. I feel thinner. I feel lighter. I feel like a superstar!…Go see Connie! She’s magical!” — Nicole, Seattle, WA.
“I’ve been loving the results and new freedoms from my first round of NLP: 10 pounds gone, much less stress in my life, and I’m saving a ton of money at the grocery store. Yay me! People have been asking me what’s up with the changes and I send them your way.” — K. Dolan, Seattle, WA
“I experienced the most wonderful shift regarding my weight. You said something during the hypnosis that has allowed me to feel much more in touch with my true desires and beliefs about my weight. I feel the change and it has a wonderful ease about it. So I just wanted to let you know and to tell you how much I appreciate your work!” –C., Bellevue, WA
“I lost 4 pounds the first week since our hypnosis session!” –Ms. J., Woodinville
“I’ve lost 3 pounds in the past week since our session. I no longer feel the need to clean my plate.” –Marilyn H., Seattle, WA.
“Thank you for working with me. My eating habits have changed and I’m full much sooner. I haven’t weighed myself, but I haven’t done that in years. My clothes feel better!” –Sheri Parker, Topeka KS
“I haven’t had a donut since I last saw you (3 weeks), which is a MIRACLE!!” — Nichole L., Bellevue, WA
“It’s been 3-1/2 weeks, and I’ve eaten no junk food or candy! None. I’ve never done that before in my life! I’m impressed!” –Jeff J., Seattle, WA.
“I’ve lost 12 pounds!” — Naomi V., Mercer Island.
“It’s amazing. I’m such a different person from who I was. I’m happy, confident, very positive. People around me are noticing and commenting. Best of all, I’m not so hard on myself, I’ve learned to say nice things to myself. I’m so much happier. I feel like I can do anything.” — K.J., Renton, WA.
“Connie, I can’t begin to thank you for the ways you’ve made things better for me. I originally sought out Mindworks as the result of a glowing recommendation from a trusted friend and health professional in an effort to curb my neurotic eating. Connie was wonderfully professional and patient with me even when I lost confidence in myself or the process. I was able to dramatically reduce my nervous/neurotic eating, let go of self-loathing thoughts, gain some peace with difficult parent relationships and feel so much more hopeful and positive about the direction in which I was headed. I absolutely plan to return to do a little more mental house-cleaning and have recommended her so several others.” — Bree, Seattle, WA.
“I went to MindWorks for weight loss but ended up getting so much more out of my sessions with Connie. I have reduced stress, increased confidence and put past dysfunctional relationships in the past. Connie is a warm, caring, professional. The work we have done together has absolutely changed my life. I highly recommend Connie / MindWorks.” –Kelly, Seattle, WA.
“I cannot even begin to say all I want to say about Connie and the work she does at Mindworks Hypnosis. I’ve worked with Connie on a couple different occasions, and she has changed my life completely. I went to her for my lack of energy and enthusiasm for working out and losing weight. I’ve lost 50lbs and am now 10lbs from my goal!” –N, Seattle, WA.
“I was so happy to find Connie. Over the past 50 years I have spent thousands tracking down my constant, and health damaging weight problem. I talked until therapists felt we had gone as far as possible and still weighed over 250 pounds! (and growing) Three short treatments from Connie and I have been losing between 15 and 20 effortless, happy pounds a month. My Life has totally changed for the better. Folks don’t even recognize me from the back! She is a REAL LIVE miracle worker.” –GG, Redmond, WA.
I could go on… Do you get the idea here? Ethical hypnosis performed by skilled and creative hypnotherapists and by credentialed, Licensed Practitioners and Master Practitioners of NLP works for weight loss. It’s natural, pleasant, non-intrusive, and makes your whole life better. Why consider anything else?
“Tahooo, tahooo, a merry note!” That quote is something Shakespeare-ian that Michael likes to say, but it’s also my imagination of an owl’s sound.
Owls! My office is just south of downtown Bellevue, a minute beyond the land of skyscrapers and cityscape, but you wouldn’t know it from the views out my window. You’d think you’re in a woodsy park. Or, as a colleague recently called it: “An enchanted forest.” It’s a very wetlands. The ducks and squirrels and rabbits are constant companions, but look who came to visit me this week, also!! A giant wild owl.
He was magnificent. Dark gray, and sat in the tree right outside my office window most of the day. You couldn’t miss him–I think he was two feet tall. Riveting! Beautiful. Magical.
I’ve never seen a wild owl before in the flesh/feather, only zoo owls and stuffed ones in nature museums.
I love my office! There’s a peaceful and warm energy there. And so much green. To me, this setting epitomizes LIFE. Fresh, green, changing, alive, growth, movement, joy. I wonder what that owl thought, sitting there watching me do hypnosis with my clients. He looked relaxed, sleepy even. Maybe the hypnosis bounced out the window and he could feel it, too. 🙂 He probably felt very comfortable, because that’s what hypnosis brings to a person. Much the same list. Comfort. Life, growth, movement, joy, movement in desired directions.
It’s nice to love what you do and where you do it. 🙂
Have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, everybody!
Love, Connie
Connie Brannan, CHt.
PS: I thought of a pun. It’s groan-worthy! 🙂 Hypnosis for “owl” of your positive changes.
The ducks love me. And, rightly so! 🙂 My office is in the most beautiful location, trees, water, fresh, green, lush, and…sinking. It’s a wetlands. And it’s wetter than usual. We’ve had some flooding.
What used to be the tenant office parking area for my building is now part of a giant mud puddle, or as I call it, “the swamp.” While it’s harder for us humans to scrounge for parking spaces, the ducks and other wildlife love it! And the ducks love me.
I feed them. Duckbread.
Yesterday I was walking to my office by way of the swamp, and in it were 7 tiny baby ducks, several adults and one “half-pint” sized duck. I see them every day! Those are “my ducks.” 🙂 They were all hungry, apparently. I had made a special trip to the Orowheat bakery thrift store (again) here in Bellevue to get a big package of bread for the ducks, and now…feasting time. Duck frenzy. A happy frenzy.
It is so cute to see those baby ducks eating. And the happy sounds! 🙂 One thing I’ve noticed about ducks, though, they stop eating when they’ve had enough. I’ll be tossing out the breadcrumbs and they’ll be scarfing them down, then suddenly they’re swimming away, totally disinterested. Done! Time to preen, time to sit in the sun. The rest of the bread gets picked up and whisked away by the giant crows that also live in the area.
These ducks look VERY healthy.
What a good lesson for humans, too. Stop eating when you’ve had enough. In fact, that’s part of the “Naturally Slender Healthy Eating Strategy” I help install in clients during hypnosis. NLP studies excellence and “what works.” I help people take on the unconscious patterns of naturally slender people–and my clients become slender. It works! Goodbye, bored eating. Goodbye, stress eating. Goodbye, I have to finish my plate eating. Goodbye, I see it so I have to eat it eating. Hello, healthy eating. Hello, in-tune-with-the-body eating.
Ducks know things. Useful things. And they know that I’m a friend and want the best for them. I want that for my clients, too. If you would like to eat healthier and take on the habits, thoughts, feelings that go along with healthy and result in weight loss and ongoing weight management, maybe it’s time for hypnosis.
Hypnosis for weight loss!
I know whereof I speak. I live the “healthy eating strategy” and it’s a huge part of how I lost 80+ pounds. Now, whether you’ve got 8 to lose, or 80, these tools will reshape your life and body. Call me and find out more: (425) 564-8608. http://www.loseweightseattle.com.
I have a photograph of my dad on my desk. Here it is! I’m sharing it. This is my dad the day he caught a fish–and what a fish!– and won a salmon derby in Canada. That’s a 70+ pound salmon!! In my mind, it was the happiest moment of his life!
Now, of course I didn’t know my dad his ENTIRE life, I showed up when he was around 30. But in my mind, it captures the essence of happy. What do you think? And, thanks to Kodak, it’s captured forever. This moment in time. Framed. On my desk. When I see it, I feel happy, too.
Kodak is cool. Photography, allowing us to capture a moment in time visually, terrific. Well, we have something inside us that does even more than that. We have a wonderful ability to not just capture but recreate a moment in time as well. It’s called “memory.” And it’s not just visual. Not just a picture. It’s got the vibrancy of full-sensory LIFE. Re-LIVING. Our memories capture all of it, sensory rich full-bodied experiences, with movement, scent, taste, breath, energy, sound, emotion, thought, etc. It’s all in there. Captured in our minds and in our memories.
Guess what? This is useful!!
Thoughts are attached to feelings. Memory is attached to all of it. If my dad were still alive, and I asked him to remember that moment, that day he caught “the fish” (as it’s known in family lore), he would re-experience all that emotion you see in the picture in his body now. Just as vividly and richly. He would “get happy.” Guess what? This is useful! 🙂
Our unconscious minds (accessible more than we know) have stored the experience. We can capture it again via memory and use it NOW.
One of the things I do for clients is create good feelings and capture them for specific contexts. In a problem situation, I ask them: “How would you rather feel?” We can do that. Capture and bring those good feelings to where they are useful. If it’s fear, bring calm. You can’t have both, fear and calm operating in your body at the same time. If it’s tension, bring relaxed. You can’t have both, tense and relaxed at the same time. If it’s sad, bring some happy. You can’t be both, sad and happy at the same time. As the old song goes: something’s gotta give! It’s the negative, unwanted feeling which goes. And the positive, desired feeling which stays.
That’s NLP. Simple processes which make that happen. So fast!
And when you change how you feel, you change how you think, and you change what you do.
Have you ever made soup “from scratch?” Adding and blending spices and seasonings, salt, pepper, oregano, what have you, and tasting, adding a little more of this, and tasting, a little more of that, and tasting, until it’s JUST RIGHT. Alchemy happens, the flavors meld and merge in the pot into something brand new, something perfectly delicious. Well, we can do the same thing with feelings. Create new ones. Good ones.
I do this with clients! I’m a master chef and my spices are feelings, and I custom blend new, useful feelings for clients, feelings that advance them in new directions. We even give these new feelings new names. I’m often amused with the names my clients create for them. Two recent examples: girl’s resourceful new feeling a few days ago was called “Yay, me!” and man’s yesterday was “Quiet confidence with a smile.” I like both of those!!
What’s really useful is bringing these designer, resourceful feelings into life to change things. That’s NLP.
It’s a simple process and enormously powerful. To feel good, I mean.
Finding out how to feel good in ways and places you want to feel good is really, really easy. Call me.
My mother often had moments she called “Aha!” moments–when some insight was gleaned and something suddenly made sense to her, or shifted her thinking. She turned these moments into poetry. She was a poet, as well as an artist! 🙂
I just had an “Aha!” moment. My “Aha!” moments turn into stories for my hypnosis clients, and blog entries! Here it is.
I was on Facebook, which I enjoy, when I encountered an unexpected difficulty, an undesired “shift.” I was typing away, and out of the blue my computer keyboard screwed up, and began typing symbols instead of letters. I couldn’t “undo” that weirdness, the shift functionality was ON and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off, and couldn’t finish and “publish” my thought for Facebook. What’s going on? I wondered, what strange combination of function keys did I accidentally touch and activate??
I tried hitting several varieties of keys to undo the problem, alt/caps lock, function number keys, etc. Nothing. It kept with the goofy symbols instead of writing. Then I noticed, there was a crumb, a hardened crumb, somehow wedged in the side of the “shift” key, holding it down.
I brushed it off, and everything worked perfectly again. Sometimes the best solutions are the easiest, straightforward, and overlooked.
The answer is: “yes!” Michael and I have a saying: “If it involves the mind, hypnosis can help.”
Here’s my morning musing. 🙂 My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, says this: “The truth is that reality is built out of consciousness not the inverse. Our imaginations determine what will be real next.”
“How do I find a good Seattle Hypnotherapist?” I’m a Team Member representing the professions of hypnosis and NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming on a popular internet forum board. I’m often asked for advice on finding and choosing a hypnotist. Someone who’s “the real deal,” and not an unskilled fly by night.
He was magnificent. Dark gray, and sat in the tree right outside my office window most of the day. You couldn’t miss him–I think he was two feet tall. Riveting! Beautiful. Magical.
