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.

Sometimes in our lives, no matter how good things are or how good we are, we are challenged, challenged sometime by things we would never had expected to happen to us. I have been challenged by alcoholism.

However, things really did not begin this way. Actually I was seeking help for panic and anxiety attacks. My doctor suggested I see a professional to help me work out what was causing these problems. So, I found my first therapist, who I saw almost every week for two years, she proceeded to do nothing more than make things intensely worse.

I sought a second therapist (PHD); she also assisted in making my downward spiral worse.

By the time I was seeing my third therapist I had started drinking. My drinking, caused mostly by low self-esteem, feelings of rejection and anger, prominently caused by these professional people, so called therapists.

Finally, I sought my fourth and last therapist (PHD), after all my experience in therapy, now we are talking, five years I spent in her care, four years of no improvement at all, in fact, things became even worse. During those years with her, I endured three detoxes, and one hospitalization for a suicide attempt. I would not consider this improvement. Improvement finally came during my last year of therapy with her, however, it did not stem from her help.

I had read an advertisement in a local newsmagazine about Suzanne Kellner-Zinck and Dawning Visions. I kept this add on my desk at home for several weeks. I read it and re-read it many times; this was an advertisement promoting help for people with many kinds of addictions. I was more than extremely skeptical, after all my experience in therapy with these PHD professionals, (and at this time I am “still” in therapy), and still feeling extremely desperate for some sort of real help, someone who really cared, and someone who will not create these professional walls.

So, I called Suzanne. In two months with Suzanne’s help and her wonderful hypnotic abilities, I experience more improvement, much more than in ten years of therapy, with these “professionals”. Suzanne has a unique ability to understand you, more than you understand yourself.

Two years later Suzanne is always there for me, willing to help.
Just call, talk to Suzanne and hear for yourself, as I did, to someone truly devoted to helping YOU.

Jean C., Woburn, MA

Are you feeling stressed with less energy than normal and perhaps feeling that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach? It almost feels as if you know that you need to do something, but you are not sure exactly what and everything else that you have been doing up till now hasn’t helped to alleviate any of these unwanted feelings that you have in your body.

If you fit this description at all it is probably because when you take the time to think about it there are too many demands on your time and money because too many people want something from you. It doesn’t really matter what, the fact is that you are tired, sick of spending money on things you may not need or want and just have a desire to be free of all of it. Perhaps you are soothing yourself by drinking to much alcohol, spending too many hours at the office because home is worse than work in your mind, or maybe you are spending money you don’t have for things that you know you don’t need… but it feels better to shop, doesn’t it? Maybe you are eating too much and even worse you are eating junk food, even though you know it makes you feel worse doing so, or maybe even perhaps you have decided to go get massages to relax you- it was innocent in the beginning, but now you are being “pleasured” by the lovely “massage therapist” and though it feels good in the moment you feel badly about yourself after the fact….but you can’t help yourself, because nothing else makes the negative feelings go away…but you know that it is only a temporary fix, and yet a temporary fix is better than no fix at all because you think you are losing your mind.

When most people feel this way they will go see are mental health professional who in most cases will write a prescription for some medication to help deal with the negative thoughts and behaviors. While this can help in some cases, it is not a cure. Just ask the folks who have been on medication for years that do in many cases feel better and yet if they were to stop their medications would most likely have their symptoms return.

The other problem that I personally have with medication as the cure-all of our 21st century manner of treatment would be the long term effects of the medication on the patient who is ingesting it. Keep in mind that your body has to detoxify the medication either through your liver or kidneys depending on the type of medication that is being used. Over the many years that most patients are kept on these very strong medications, damage to these life giving organs can and does happen. I had it happen in my own case with long term use of lithium for mood disorders and though the medication did its job, I found after over ten years of use it was starting to slow down my kidney function. This became apparent in the deforming of my thumb nails which were telling me that something was not right in my body. After 24 hour urine collection, it was discovered that my kidney function was not operating at the normal levels. In my case it was caught before permanent damage occurred. However, one always has to ask themselves if the treatment is worth the possible harm. In my case the lithium was a potential life saver, for most of the time I was taking it. My situation changed drastically when I learned how to do NLP and how to apply it to myself to conquer the bipolar for which the lithium was prescribed. Of course this was a shock to my long term psychiatrist when she noticed after 10 months of seeing her without being on medication of any sort, that indeed my bipolar was no longer in evidence. Everything was fine and that bipolar did not need to be what she was taught in her psychiatric training to be a “life long illness”. Since March 12, 2004 I have not been on any medication for my bipolar and since January 5, 2005 I have not needed to be under psychiatric care. Yes, medications do indeed have their place, and that place is necessary in far fewer situations than or allopathic world of today is willing to believe.

After working in the hypnotic arts for over seven years now, I can tell you that the reason that most people get ill has more to do with how you allow others to control you, than anything else. It is amazing that this idea is very rarely ever spoken of in the psychological literature. The specialist seem to believe a pill of some sort or cognitive behavioral therapy is the answer to most anything. I am here to give you a much more practical outlook on this whole situation.

The fact of the matter is that you are not “losing your mind” and there are reasons for acting and thinking and feeling in the way that you are currently. To make this very simple it is because you are allowing others to run your life for you. Yeah, we all want to get along with people and have friends and not have our significant others or our kids drive us nuts, or worse our parents and yet most times it seems to be easier to either ignore the problem or do something that will sedate us for a while to just get a break from it all.

The reason you find yourself in this situation is that your unconscious mind “runs” you whether or not you are aware of it and this is what makes it so difficult to stop doing the things that you want to stop and to do the things that you want to do. My guess is that if you were able to do the things the way you wanted you wouldn’t need to be reading this article. With that in mind do understand that the only way to reprogram your unconscious mind to receive the results you desire is to work inside the unconscious mind. This is what hypnotists and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioners assist their clients to do. It really doesn’t matter what the effect is, it is the “cause” that matters. In my experience in this field it always goes back to having your “boundaries” being over ridden by someone in your world, either when you were young or later on in life, perhaps some love interest cheating on you. The way to “STOP” your boundaries from being over ridden is to “STOP” allowing the people in your life to over ride them.

Now, that may sound easy enough to do, however do realize that most people with significant problems be they emotional or physical (as in having an illness) are allowing their boundaries to be over ridden ALL THE TIME and the way that you know this is because every time you have an interaction with someone and it results in your feeling something negative either emotionally like feeling anger, quilt or hurt or physically (in this case do see a physician to rule out physiological issues or to learn about what needs to be treated with the hypnotic work) because your body is letting you know in a different way that something is not working for you, your boundaries have been over ridden.

The good news is that there is a way to stop this unpleasant cycle of behavior, no matter what form or forms that it takes for you. That way is TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR OWN LIFE BACK in a manner that is workable for everyone involved. It isn’t that complicated really; however there are more humane and ethical ways of doing this than most of us would be able to figure out on our own.

Using the power of you unconscious mind to first of all understand why it is that you are allowing yourself to feel miserable and then relearning that you are worthy because of the magnificent person you really are. Once you have regained a sense of self, you can indeed learn how to enforce the boundaries that help you feel safe and respected. In most cases
it will be quick and easy to reclaim your life your happiness and sense of fulfillment.
Here is what Laura in Boston, Mass. had to say about our work together:

Prior to working with Suzanne I found myself binging at night, half
asleep unable to control my behavior. In fact, I felt that way about
most of my life – as if there were a part which was continuously
sabotaging my efforts. I had many types of therapists over the years,
some of whom were reasonably helpful, but even combined they were
nothing compared to Suzanne. The fact that I am no longer night-eating
or overeating, and the fact that I am no longer so angry and stifled, are
merely examples of my new reality: I’m on my way to being truly free.
Suzanne was able to clear all the causes of my problems in a few weeks.
I had no idea the results would be this phenomenal.”

You may have a different presenting problem than Laura’s, however, if anger, depression, anxiety, self-loathing are any part of how you feel currently, you too can be freed of these negative feelings, usually in one weekend of intensive work up to around a month later if you were to work with me. This really depends on how quickly you personally integrate the changes. Please note that If you have a lot of weight to lose (more than 30 pounds) or have medical issues that complicate your case, it will take longer to receive your results, however, you will FEEL MUCH BETTER on your way to reaching your goal, and that means you will have given yourself a MUCH BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE and don’t you deserve that much?

Do understand that if you are looking for a competent person to help you with these issues I would suggest that you find someone who is a Master Practitioner of NLP and Time Line Therapy ™ if at all possible because these techniques allow for much quicker results than straight suggestive hypnosis. You can contact the American Board of NLP or The Time Line Therapy ™ to get a referral to someone who practices almost anywhere in the world. You can find them through contacting the Tad James Company, Inc. Just google them on the internet or call: 888-440-4823 and they will be happy to connect you to the boards for a referral to a competent practitioner in your area.

Hypnosis and NLP have managed to turn my whole life around and know that it can do the same for you so long as you are willing to make the investment in yourself that will be required to do the work.

I recently received news that a very dearly loved and respected uncle of mine passed away. In this particular case it was a matter of when, not if, given the man’s age, 94. He was one of those people who had done amazing things all through his life, yet was as humble as anyone could ever be. I will never forget the visit to his home I made with my ex-husband many years ago. As my uncle was showing us around his house, my ex excitedly pointed to a photo that was taken of my uncle and his older son along with President Kennedy. Being a person who lived in the state of Massachusetts all his life, this was an incredible thing to see, because President Kennedy was one of his own on top of being the President of his country. My uncle worked in the State Department of the United States government for many years and was posted in various countries throughout his service so it was not a real surprise that the President of the USA might have had a picture taken with him at some point during his tenure. I will certainly miss never being able to speak with him again, but there is not a loss here that will create any sort of issue for me. Unlike a few of my clients who have had some serious situations occur because of the losses they suffered.

A few years ago I had an 18 year old come to see me. She has having some difficulty with her hockey coach and they were going into their finals of the season. Normally this kid loved her hockey and did very well, but with the negative comments she was receiving from the coach, her desire to play had diminished as did her performance. Interestingly enough, during the first session as I was doing the work regarding the hockey situation, her mother who was invited by her daughter to sit in on the session, wrote a quick note to me asking if I could help her to deal with the loss of four of her close friends within the last few years. I nodded “yes” to her mother later on finding out that one of them used to be on her daughter’s team before her passing. In this particular case I had the young woman work on one loss at a time. While in a trance state, I had her go back to the last time she saw the person alive, and to tell me what went on at that time. Then she was asked to go back to when she heard of their passing and tell me where she was and what she was told by who about that person’s passing. From there she was asked to bring up the wake and just experience what she experienced, the funeral next paying particular attention to what was said in the eulogies and finally the grave site and anything that was said their about the person who passed away. She was then told that the person was always going to be a part of her because of the close relationship that they shared. It took about 15 minutes for us to go through each of the friends she had lost totaling an hour of work. Understand that teens are particularly quick while working with hypnosis, adults may take a longer period to accomplish the same thing. When my client came back for her follow-up a week later she felt very much relieved of her losses. She told me that she felt her hockey friend was with her each time she was on the ice playing. She reported that this felt very comforting to her. About a week after her second appointment I received a clipping from the local newspaper sent by her proud mother reporting that she was one of the star players who won the hockey championship for her school. I want you to notice that the young woman came in for increased hockey performance, and yet the more important work was a secondary issue that came up. This young woman wrote a very moving testimonial which is posted on this website under the name of: Alexandra D. You can find it at the bottom of the Home web page.

I had another client in her 30’s, who was having difficulty sticking to her running schedule to keep her in shape and at the weight she desired. She just didn’t have the motivation she used to and was fairly certain it had to do with the loss of her parents, both passing within months of each other. She had a very good relationship with both of them and had a difficult time moving on. I used a different technique with this woman being that she was older and as such needed to do some deeper work. While she was in a hypnotized state I had her imagine the parent that she wanted to work with first was in a place that was comfortable for them to talk to one another. From there I had her have a conversation with the parent and tell that parent everything that she ever wanted to tell them. She may have already told the parent some of the things, and that was okay. From there the parent was to respond to what she said and that lead to a loving hug. At that point I had her bring in all of the positive attributes of that parent into herself as she was still hugging the parent. When she felt that the process was completed she was to let me know. The last step was to see how the parent was doing on the other side. When this was done, she could see the parent was doing quite well and was there for her. We did the same exact thing for the other parent. With this accomplished the session was finished. She came back for her follow-up and reported that she felt much better and was now able to stick to her running schedule.

There were other clients that I have worked with that had terrible relationships with their parents and never made up with them before they passed. In these circumstances it is even more important to have the healing done in order to release the pain and any negative behaviors that may have been created as a result of that pain. I had one gentleman who was very angry with his father and never had a chance to say “good-bye”. He created all sorts of bad habits as a result. It was most moving when he realized how much he really truly loved his father and just never allowed himself to feel that before. He broke down in to tears of joy when he realized his true feelings. It was as if a whole new person came to life with that understanding. He was able to let go of an alcohol abuse issue and find himself a position that better suited him.

If you are a person who is feeling the loss of someone who was close to you and especially if it is controlling you in some negative fashion, do see a hypnotist to assist you to easily allow the person who was lost, to become an asset in your life. While assisting people in their grieving process I have come to understand that life is so much easier once you learn what you need to from that loss. This is some of the most inspirational work that I do with my clients and is almost always a surprise to them in terms of how they feel after the process is done.

Recently I have moved from a place that I lived for the past 13 years to a smaller apartment. Now, any of you who have gone through this process can understand the concept of clearing out all the stuff that you no longer need. As hard as this exercise may be, there is I believe a harder one that many of us have difficulties getting through. This would be in the area of reviewing the relationships that you have in your life. I bring this up because I have realized that there were some relationships that I had that were not very healthy for me, others that needed to be reformatted so that I felt that I was receiving the attention that a caring long term relationship should have and releasing others that were not of any use and in some cases creating a negative energy that was not welcome.

Many of my clients find themselves in similar situations where the people with whom they are spending many hours of their time are a drain on them. It feels as if you are not getting heard or receiving the sort of attention that you feel you deserve and it hurts. It happens at work when your boss is giving you negative feedback, instead of assisting you to aspire to be the best that you can be. It happens in primary relationships when you feel taken for granted or worse, abused or ignored. And it can happen when you are in friendships where you feel that you are putting a lot of effort out, and not having it returned in like kind. In the more serious cases, you may feel used and abused by these “friends” or family of yours.

When we feel that we are not being heard or respected by those with whom we interact, sometimes we create interesting ways to deal with it, unconsciously of course. For instance if you feel your boss is unsupportive of you, you may create behavior that is counter productive to your job situation like showing up late, becoming antagonistic, or not being all that productive. If it is in your primary relationship you may decide to get your needs taken care of outside the relationship. If you are hanging out with people that drink and you have an issue in that area, you may find yourself once again getting drunk, for that seems to be what you need to do in order to fit in even though for you drinking leads to sabotaging yourself which brings feelings of failure.

The great motivational speakers all give the same advice of being aware with whom you interact, for that is what you will become. You need to think about the people with whom you choose to associate carefully. Over the years people can change. If you are growing you too are changing. Perhaps it would be useful to clear out all those individuals that are creating issues inside you and figure out if they are helpful or harmful to your sense of self. If this is an issue that you do not feel that you can handle on your own, perhaps working with a hypnotist will help you to understand exactly why you are choosing to stay in relationships that are keeping you from growing and feeling good about yourself. I know I had to get some assistance from outside myself in order to better understand how to deal with these influences on my life, creating a healthier way to live, for it can be difficult to really confront in an objective way. Your unconscious mind can assist you in better understanding what you need and want in each of the relationships From there it is easy to reconstruct the relationships feeling good about those with whom you give the ability to influence you.

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.