I am not sure if there are more pills to cure disease or if there are more actual diseases in the world at this point. One thing is for certain, all of us at one time or another has taken some type of pill for some sort of symptom. We don’t even have to have an actual disease or illness, merely a symptom to reach for that little pill bottle. We take pills when our head hurts, when we can’t sleep, and we feel nauseous. There are not just aspirins now, but aspirins for backache, headache, arthritis, migraine, joint pain, muscle aches and the list goes on. We even take pills to get ourselves to do what we want to do but are just unable to like: losing weight, quitting smoking, or sexual compulsiveness.  We take pills when we have low energy or if we are too hyper. We even take fertility pills if we want to get pregnant or sexual enhancement pills for better sex. We take pills to control our OCD or any other undesirable condition that we may suffer from.The list is endless and I will bet for any symptom, there is a pill somewhere to make it better. And it makes sense to us for why suffer through life if we do not have to with all these annoyances.

All of these methods of “fixing” ourselves are legal and accepted in our society today. We don’t think twice to reach for an aspirin if we have a headache or a sleeping pill if we cannot sleep. Do we ever wonder why we are getting that headache or if there could be a reason behind the constant stomach pains or need for internet porn? We don’t think twice of giving our child a pill for that ADD or learning disability he or she might have. In fact  we feel we are helping our child to do and perform better by giving him or her a pill to overcome their “disability” or inadequacy.

Do we ever stop to think what that little pill might be doing to our bodies and our minds? Our minds start to learn to rely on these “helpful” synthetic chemicals, such that we know if we get a headache, relief is just a pill away. Or if our stomach gives us agita, relief is just a plop, plop or fizz away. But is this how we really want to go through life, with synthetic man made chemicals to correct for life’s twists and turns. Our bodies become a vast wasteland when we think of how old we will live in relation to how many grams of chemicals we toss into our bodies and that excludes all the chemicals we ingest from food processing and other means of pollution on a daily basis. It is very rare that any of us in this polluted and fast paced hectic world today does not suffer from some sort of “aliment” be it high blood pressure or headaches. The list is just too long to even think of. And even if we don’t suffer from any particular symptom, we  take something to prevent getting the symptom in the first place such as pills to boost our immune system.

Would it not be better if we could allow our minds to help in controlling our bodies?  Would it not be better to allow our minds to heal our bodies naturally? This can be done through hypnosis. Through the art of hypnosis one can stop smoking, learn to relax enough that they no longer need a pill to wind down, or help get them to a better state of mind to have more energy without having to take that stimulant, to be able to focus more or eat less. Whatever the desired result, hypnosis can assist your mind in allowing your body to do what you want and desire for it to do naturally.
The Physicians Desk Reference is a huge book, and it contains hundreds of pills, drugs and medicines all designed to make our lives better. I question the fact that these drugs always improve our health. In many cases, they are needed.  In many cases maybe they do improve our health. In all too many cases, not only are they not needed, but there is an alternative that is not as easily reached for in our society because it is not as advertised or drummed into our minds as much or as easily as reaching for that pill.

Hypnosis is thought of as an alternative medicine. Alternative medicines are not always thought of as our first line of defense when we have a health issue. You will not find hypnosis in CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid. We tend to automatically reach for the easy and quick fix, that pill. Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of the underlying cause of the symptom be it a simple headache to insomnia. If these symptoms and ailments are chronic and bothersome on a regular basis, and if you have just had enough of treating the symptom and want to treat the cause to prevent the symptom, perhaps hypnosis is a possible alternative to simply popping that pill.

Hypnosis can help you conquer just about anything that you might want to take a pill for, and there are no side effects. Taking one pill for one symptom sometimes causes another separate symptom for which you take another pill. With hypnosis, there are no side effects, and you will deal with the issue at hand not creating any others in the process. You will overcome what it is that ails you from sexual compulsiveness to drug addiction to insomnia without creating any other issues in the process. Taking too many aspirins can cause an ulcer. Isn’t it better to deal with the headache, before you get that ulcer? Isn’t it better to allow our bodies own natural chemicals to do the healing? Our bodies have the natural ability to produce the chemicals we need to live the comfortable lives we want, we just have to know how to access them, not to be found in a bottle or in CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid.

Note: Hypnosis for medical issues is to be used in conjunction with your medical professional. Referrals from medical professionals are required under the law of most the states in the United States and many other countries for your own safety.

Article written by Donna N.

If you are like me you have the tendency to avoid change like the plague. You wonder how the people that thrive on change do it, for some people do love changes in their lives.
Whether you love it or hate it, fact of the matter is change is a good thing to have occur in our lives.

From my experience fighting the inevitable changes that life has to offer you is a waste of time and energy. By learning to flow with these changes I have been able to create some opportunities which I wouldn’t have otherwise.

In the recent past I found my self in an unbearable living situation. I was not happy there for many different reasons, though comfortable in the routine that I had been living for the past 14 years. It was so hard for me to leave the comfort of that routine, that I made up all sorts of excuses as to why I should not make the move. The longer I resisted the change the more reasons I made up to not make the move putting things way out of proportion. Eventually I came to realize that I could not continue as things were After the move I realized that the negativity that surrounded me in the old place created the fear in me that I would not be able to afford my own place. That the people I was living with wouldn’t be able to make it without me and a lot of other excuses to keep me in that negative environment that was oh so comfortable for the misery that it brought to me.

Now that I am in my new place I have found a sense of empowerment that I never thought I could realize, the most important of these being that I can overcome my fears and found strength that I never knew that I had, along with an inner calm. I know that if I didn’t make that change things would have continued to destroy me. As a result of the move all sorts of wonderful new opportunities have come my way that I never could have realized had I stayed “stuck” in the resistance to that change.

As we go through life, change is going to come up whether or not we want to deal with it. If we continue to ignore these changes long enough they can create enough stress to ultimately kill. Changes that come up that may seem negative to us, can if we look at them from a different perspective become that which frees us, from what is creating the habits and behaviors that are actually harming us.

It is when we ignore our bodies call for action that all sorts of health issues arise. Some people choose to smoke to release their stress, some people over eat while others will drink, drug or gamble while still others have depressive thoughts or issues relating to anger. It doesn’t really matter how the destructive nature displays itself. What matters is that you listen to what your body and mind are telling you to address and then to address it.

To grow we must embrace changes in our lives. If the change we pursue starts out positive and turns out to be negative, we need to turn that negative into a positive, learn from it and then release it. (see the “Forgiveness” December 2009 newsletter).

I believe that all negative changes can be turned into positive changes with the right frame of mind. Getting to that frame of mind isn’t always easy, especially if one is in the midst of a negativity.

Hypnosis can help you transition through life’s difficult changes by dispelling the overwhelming feelings that created the resistance. It teaches you how to deal with these situations in the future allowing for a much better quality of life.

I had a client who contacted me very upset because she had been free of abusing alcohol for fifteen years, and yet because of her housemates picking it up, she found her self once again, using it to rid her self of unpleasant thoughts. She was under the care of a psychiatric nurse at the time, who was told of her thoughts of not wanting to be alive. In my client’s mind that was not unusual for she had those thoughts every day from the time she was very young however, she wasn’t going to act on them, they were just present. She would have shared that piece of information had the nurse allowed her to, but no, instead the cops were called forcing her to go for a psychological evaluation. Because she had no plan and no desire to commit suicide, eight hours after the event began, she was released to go home – around midnight when she had to be up for work by 4:30 AM to begin her shift at 6 AM. It was with this in mind that she was searching on the internet for some other form of care to help her to deal with the alcohol abuse for she felt totally disrespected for the way she was treated by this psych nurse who never even allowed her the chance to tell her the whole story.

On the internet my client googled “help for alcohol” and Dawning Visions Hypnosis came up, never thinking that hypnosis would be an avenue to help her with this particular problem.

When I first spoke to this client on the phone I had to know that she was really interested in beating the problem for alcohol abuse can be one of the more difficult issues to be worked with. She was very clear that she wanted it out of her life because she could feel herself being pulled to abusing opiates as she had done in the past if it was not under control. One behavior would in her case lead to the next. She didn’t want to lose her job that she loved and had held onto for the past 34 years and so she was motivated to do whatever it would take to rid herself of her problem.

If my client was not clear that there were a variety of ways to treat addictions she does so now. She realized through our work together that the treatments that she knew of through AA and therapy really didn’t get to the root of the problem. In fact in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous it is taught that once you are an addict you are always an addict. What this presupposes is that you will always be ill, never allowed to be anything other than that label, which she found depressing and unhelpful. Not only that but by not going to the “cause” of the problem there is a potential for the relapse and/ or death from overdose. Therefore using these treatments it is reasonable to say one is never rid of their addiction even when clean, it is always lurking inside waiting to bust out in her opinion.

Narcotics Anonymous and Alcohol Anonymous teach that all addicts are powerless over their addiction which my client takes exception to. She says that it may feel as if the addict is not able to control their behavior, however it is a conscious decision to take that drug or drink that alcohol even if is seems like you are in a fog and uncontrollable.
To be rid of these demons the work has to be done on a much deeper level. to discover what makes a person want to alter their feelings to the point of sometimes wanting to feel comatose and non-functional. NA and AA were not for my client personally, because she absolutely hated going to meetings listening to other people share about how miserable they were and all the problems they were having. To put up her hand to spill her guts and speak went against her private nature. Many addicts are sensitive and have a hard time expressing feelings much less coping with them.

When she came into to see me I gave her a different way to view her world. I suggested that if she didn’t want to abuse drugs or alcohol she would need to change the way she was currently thinking and living. At the time she was sharing a house with a couple she had met many years ago in NA, both were clean for 15 and 20 years respectively. However, what became evident a couple of years ago was that though they were not using, they still had the minds of addicts. They were manipulative and not very kind people even to those with whom they were friends. They did what they wanted and rarely, taking her needs or feelings into consideration though she was paying her share of the bills. She did a lot to help out around the house, and yet was treated disrespectfully and could never understand why.

Through our work together it became evident that she was confusing being “loved” and “cared” about with being used and abused, because these people did in fact tell her that they “loved’ her. Because of her back round she never felt loved or appreciated by her parents and so when this couple asked if she would be willing to purchase a house with them and to help them raise the child that was due, she jumped at the chance to be in a family that wanted her. The only problem was that it wasn’t about love, it was more about how much she would be willing to do to help the house run smoothly and care for their son.

She has through our work been able to understand that if one is loved, one feels good about the relationship, as she has developed with their son who is now a teen ager. She has always been there for him, to all his sporting events and doing those special things to let him know that he is a special person in her heart. He never used or abused her and appreciates all the things that she continues to do to make his life better so he doesn’t have to deal with what she did growing up. However, this too needed to be put into perspective because a teen is able to do things to take care of himself and will need to as he grows up.

She has finally moved into her own place, the household is going to have to run without her and she will finally be able to heal from the hurt and negativity that was making her feel so unwanted – though she has not needed to use in a very long time and is able to stay away from alcohol realizing that to be human feelings are necessary along with how to deal with them.

What my client learned was that if she changed her thoughts she could change the biochemistry of her mind and therefore was able to deal with her life without the need to self-medicate any longer. In fact she has gotten fairly good at finding other ways to cope when she is feeling down, yet she has also been able to let go of the life long depression that created the need to do the self-medication by realizing that if one thinks and acts as a non-depressive, depression is no longer a part of life.

I suggest that if you have issues of substance abuse you find a hypnotist who knows how to do neuro-linguistic programming with success in the field of addictions. Given the fact that substance abuse untreated can be devastating it is necessary to know that the person with whom you are dealing respects this fact and will work with you until the job is completed which really should be over the course of at least two years to be sure that the work done was successful. It is also useful to have your hypnotist work with a licensed practitioner to make sure that your treatment is being done in a manner to foster your health and well being.

Your mind is a powerful tool in creating health and the best thing that you can do is to learn how to use it to your advantage.

It was about one year ago that I met Suzanne.  I had just fired my last therapist in a series of at least 12 over a thirty year period. The very last therapist I saw suggested I see a psychiatric nurse for possibly a new med, one that I maybe hadn’t tried yet. You see for over thirty years I had been depressed, not really wanting to live, not really wanting to die. It was like being suspended in purgatory-(compared to being in heaven now.)   Continue »

After my hypnosis session with Suzanne I was able to stop smoking without a craving immediately. In fact even having people around me smoking does not bother me. I am amazed at how a simple hypnosis session has helped me change my life. I feel more healthy and energetic. Thank You Suzanne, Wayne S,Lowell.

I have most recently been working with a woman who has been battling alcoholism for the better part of 30 years. She is a very bright woman who at times feels as if she is not so bright, because in her own mind, if she were she would be able to live a normal life without this particular problem and all the other problems it creates.

I would gather that most of you realize that most people who drink to excess would prefer not to, however they are uncertain as to how to stop. Also, it clear that once a person goes over their tolerance level their body is in fact “addicted” to the substance, meaning that without it, they will suffer withdrawal symptoms which commonly begin six to eight hours after sudden withdrawal with the greatest intensity after ten to thirty hours, subsiding in a few days. The most common symptoms are tremors, nausea, dry mouth, sweating, weakness and depression. In about 5% of cases the high fever accelerated heart rate, agitation, and hallucinations of delirium tremens, DT‘s, begin after about the second day after withdrawal.(Harvard Medical School, Mental Health Review, Alcohol Abuse and Dependence by Grispoon, M.D. and Bakalar, J.D, No. 2 Rev.)

Most of us realize that alcoholism can create many problems with the physical health of the person with it, as well as putting others at risk should they involve themselves in risky behavior such as driving drunk, or having unprotected sex with several partners.

However, from my point of view, as horrendous as the disease of alcoholism is, it is only the presenting problem. Abusing alcohol is the method of choice to self-medicate the individual thus releasing them of the self-depreciating thoughts they experience usually as a symptom of depression. The alcohol will create a decrease in impulse control that can lead to risky behavior.

When the allopathic world, otherwise known as Western medicine is only focused on the need to release the alcohol, they are neglecting the more important aspect to the recovery. Unless it is understood why the behavior of drinking alcohol was created, it will be very difficult to release it for good. One can only release a behavior if there is something else that fits that need is put in its place. This is true of any behavior that needs to be changed. For the alcoholic, it is more important to get them in touch with letting go of the feelings of guilt that are manifested as a result of anything hurtful they may have done either to themselves or others. Second, they need to figure out what they can do to that is productive and fun for them to do instead. Once they are feeling better about themselves, it becomes much easier for them to be able to focus on the positive that life can offer as they get reconnected with those who love and care for them.

Hypnosis is a wonderful way to get to “the cause” of the problem as well as to figure out what other behaviors would do well to replace that of drinking alcohol. I have found interestingly enough that my clients do not go through any of the demerits tremens that is common because of the ability of the unconscious mind to be told to release the need for the alcohol without any feelings of withdrawal. This is similar to how the smoking cessations clients become non-smokers without any of their withdrawal symptoms either.

My client was able to beat alcohol for several months, but as can be the case with this particular problem, she has relapsed. I believe we understand better now what needs to be cleared for her to leave it alone for good, and with those answers I look forward to the day when she will be able to say quite honestly that there is never a reason that would be good enough for her to go back to abusing alcohol, for the damage it creates in her life is not ever worth going back. In the mean time we will continue our journey together to get her where she has decided she would like to be. Healthy and enjoying her family, the most important purpose that she has found in her own life as she gets back in touch with her painting, bicycling and kayaking with her husband.

If you are looking to get help for yourself or another please find a person who has proven experience working in this specialization. It is best if they have a back round working in mental health, though from my point of view they need not be licensed, but they need to be certified in advanced hypnotic techniques in order to be a safe bet.

A couple of years ago I got a call from a man who was in a very difficult situation: he had gotten himself a criminal record by stealing jewelry from stores in order to feed his drug habit. The only problem was that he was still on the drugs, and could I help him get his life in order? I received a few calls from this gentleman over the years, always wanting to kick his habits and get straightened out but it was too difficult to not do the drugs. Then he called me recently to tell me that not only had he been off the drugs for the mandatory one month I had set. Continue »

I feel that Dawning Visions Hypnosis has helped me deal in a positive way with my past and past problems, and gave me a lot of insight in how to deal with everyday life. I lost my job and any positive outlook on life. Using the tools like “time lines” helped me to let go of my cycles of drug and alcohol abuse and stealing which landed me in jail a few times. Continue »

I had a problem with a sexual compulsive disorder where I would frequently do telephone sex, (then) internet porn which developed into frequently meeting with an escort service. All throughout this process for the last 20 years I could not understand why and always felt guilty afterwards. I finally made the step of seeing Suzanne after I realized that my life was going nowhere because of it. Continue »

A gentleman called recently, asking if I help people with obsessive-compulsive behaviors. I asked him to explain what he was talking about so I could get a better idea of what was going on here. He explained that he was very upset with his never-ending thoughts of needing sexual stimulation and his resulting behaviors. Continue »

I wonder how many of you find yourself repeating the same old patterns that your parents had, patterns that you would rather not be emulating. Perhaps you have not even realized that this may be true for you.

A recent client- a man in his 50’s- was referred to me because he was non-communicative with his partner, and this upset her. She really wanted to be there for him while he was going through a tough time, and she felt that she was not receiving anything in return for her efforts to be supportive of him. Continue »

Wow! My first session with Suzanne accomplished more for resolving deep emotional issues than I had done in six years of therapy. After one afternoon with Suzanne, my depression is POOF — gone! My resentment about chores and work is POOF — gone! All cravings for comfort food and comfort activities (addictive computer game playing, escapist reading) are POOF — gone! Continue »