Hypnosis Offers New Way to Alter Unwanted Traits

Brooke, 32, is a prosperous Tustin business owner who hadn’t had much luck dating men until she tried a new approach: hypnosis.

“Before hypnotherapy, I chose all the wrong men. I always went after the ones who didn’t want commitments or who gave me a bad time.”

After a few sessions with Irvine hypnotherapist Joanna Aten, Brooke saw an immediate improvement. “It has been about six months since I finished my sessions, and everybody who knows me has commented on the difference.”

Brooke says she started dating a man who treats her exactly as she hoped someone would. “In the past I wouldn’t have given him the time of day; he was too nice. But from my new vantage point I can really appreciate a good man.”

Hypnosis is a method of suggestion or persuasion that is most commonly performed by a facilitator (the hypnotherapist) who helps alter unwanted behavior. In 1958, the American Medical Assn. endorsed hypnosis as viable medical treatment; nevertheless it was received with widespread skepticism until the late 1970s and 1980s when it gained respectability.

“Hypnosis induces an altered state of consciousness which is achieved when a person is in a relaxed state,” says Aten, a licensed, certified and registered hypnotherapist who makes house calls because many of her clients are busy executives. “Clients told me that they found it easier to relax in their own environment, and they liked being catered to, so it made sense to accommodate them.”

Aten is convinced that anyone can reprogram themselves through hypnosis. She regularly works with clients who want to increase motivation, self-discipline, self-esteem and prosperity, to undo negative behavioral patterns or to improve professional skills such as sales ability. “I recently worked with a top real estate salesman who had been in an eight-month slump and he needed some help to get back on top.”

Gail’s boyfriend had given her an ultimatum: “Stop smoking or we’re through.”

A smoker with a two-pack-a-day habit, she had tried to stop before, but always went back to the pack. She quit, but not by doing it “cold turkey,” attending a stop-smoking clinic or taking medication. She visited Aten and stopped smoking after four sessions.

Did Gail stop smoking and Brooke stop dating wrong men because of hypnosis, or because they were motivated and would have made the change on their own?

The desire to change is crucial to altering any negative behavior, Aten says, but hypnosis gives people “permission” to change. She says the mind is open to suggestion in a relaxed state. “The subconscious mind doesn’t analyze, it simply takes in suggestions and plays them back, and, since very young children seldom question what they are told about themselves, it explains why they respond so strongly to early negative--or positive--programming.”

Years of negative programming can be reversed. “Any behavior that is learned can be unlearned.

“Some bad habits and behaviors are self-programmed, as with smoking or overeating. Other mind-sets such as low self-esteem, fear syndromes or excessive shyness, are programmed into us by other people, usually during childhood and perpetuated by ourselves through life,” she says.

A typical session begins at the client’s home or office where all phones and other distractions are put on hold for the one-hour session. The client sits in a recliner or lies on a couch and listens through the headset as Aten’s message is transmitted through a microphone while being recorded.

“This method shuts out extraneous noise and promotes greater relaxation, increasing receptivity,” she explains.

Step one is the induction phase, or “lullaby.”

“They listen to a 10-minute tape of progressive relaxation suggestions. . . .”

When this is accomplished, therapy begins.

“I speak through the microphone to the client, and, because the message is taped, they are able to listen to the tape over and over again when they are alone.

“People who have witnessed stage or theatrical hypnosis are afraid that they will do something against their will,” says the hypnotist who reassures clients that losing mind control is impossible. What kind of suggestions does the individual hear? “Let’s take self-esteem. I reinforce their infinite value, telling them that they deserve the very best, and I direct their subconscious to change their behavior in a way that will create the desired reality.”

Hypnotherapy is boosted by the client’s repetitious use of the recorded audio cassette, Aten says. “They continue to listen to the tape once we’ve finished all the sessions. This enables them to become their own therapist. It takes the average mind 21 days to respond behaviorally to these suggestions and affect a change,” she adds.

The hypnotherapist promotes short-term therapy and says that most clients--those who want to stop smoking or score high on a test, for example--require only four sessions at a cost of about $225, but admits that more stubborn problems such as compulsive overeating or lack of self-esteem frequently require extra sessions.