I was watching a video of deprogrammer Dr. Steven Hassan who spent about 2.5 years in the Moonies back in the mid-70s from the age of 19 to 21. He was speaking about his experience of being so totally brainwashed by the group and how he finally made his way out of it. So happened it was being in a terrible automobile crash and falling asleep at the wheel due to forced sleep deprivation that got him away from the Moonies for a couple of weeks allowing his family to step in to get him deprogrammed.

We are living in a time when there are many people out there brainwashing us – hypnotizing us – yes I used that word – in negative ways because we allow our minds to be accessed by them. We listen to the negativity all around us, to people who are in power constantly lying about what is going on forcing our brains into a state of believing that which is and never will be real through their constant repetition.

I worry in these days of AI that false statements being placed in someone’s voice that one never said, false visual presentations again pretending to be something that isn’t will be creating a world that is so corrupted by the unreal that we humans will not be able to discern what is real and what is not. For this reason, I do not use AI, have no interest in it, and will probably lose some business as a result of it. However, I would prefer to use my own words to state my own truths than rely on something that has nothing to do with me helping me to write whatever I may be putting out there into the world.

We need to ask ourselves what it is that we are doing with our lives as Steven asked himself as he became a psychologist to help those in the profession better understand the means that were used to bring people into these cults.

I know for myself, having gone through the mental and physical health issues of my younger years, that do not use that which I learned from the healing process to help others would be a waste of all that I had been through.

Life is short. We all have our own journey to live and with that journey, there is something we have to offer that is larger than ourselves to make the world better for having been here.

My question to you is simply this: What are you doing with your life that is of value to others based on that which you learned the hard way – by having to live through it all to receive your learning?

This was a question that was asked on Quora and this is how I answered it:

You know the reason that I never pursued getting a license to practice mental health, was because of the co-dependent manner in which too many therapists operated.

There is no reason for people to feel compelled. to continue with therapy as a life-long pursuit unless someone has an illness that requires it such as experiencing psychotic features or needing someone to make sure their medications are still doing the job and not causing physiological harm over long-term use. Therapy is supposed to help you to learn how to take care of yourself when life’s situations arise.

However, it seems like Americans feel the need to always have someone with whom to put their trust because they can’t seem to be the type of people that can make their own decisions, too many things triggering them (including too many in the health care field) and too many that just can’t give up the old stories they tell themselves about their past. By the way, I have the same issue with life, health, and business coaches that expect their clients to forever renew their programs.

Let me tell you something: One can NEVER have a ‘present’ or create their future the way they want. it if they are constantly dragging. the problems of their past into their present.

I am a hypnotist and Master Practioner of Neuro-Linguistic programming having found these modalities after being not just underwhelmed but also very upset with the way my mental health clients were treated by my bosses in the supported housing programs I worked at as an unlicensed counselor back in the early 1990s. I wanted a holistic way to help my clients get past their past and live their lives based on what they wanted their lives to become. I knew this was possible because I had done it myself – but even more so, if you look at the people who have had to leave their countries because of war, famine, or political strife, with nothing on them but the clothes on their backs and somehow in a foreign country they have created businesses and become successful. One needs to ask why it is that some are capable of doing this, and others never can see an end to endless support from another.

I was in therapy for 14 years overmedicated to the point where my kidneys started slowing down, and that is when I found the hypnotic arts thank God I did because now my life is based on being healthy and flowing in the directions I want it to be – instead of taking toxic medication and constantly having to see a shrink. No thanks – independence is a much better way to live and that is what I want for all my clients they can certainly do as you are doing seeing their psychologist, psychiatrist, mental health counselor – whomever for the rest of their days because to me that isn’t a life, it is a co-dependence and an unhealthy one at that.

My clients do call for ‘tune-ups’ when they need them and that is usually 1 session because that is all they need to clear out whatever was bothering them. However, my goal is to give them the tools and techniques so they can take care of themselves as their live into their purpose on this planet as we all have one if we choose to focus on that instead of what is wrong with us and our lives.

Thanks for the question.

This was a question that a person on Quora asked with which many clients will identify. Here is how I answered it:

This is an excellent question because there are many clients/patients who do feel uncomfortable talking about their thoughts and feelings. Some of these people are not uncomfortable speaking about their issues but are cut off from their thoughts and feelings.

Having worked with many people over the decades I have been in mental health I find it can be helpful for such clients to keep a journal and write down their thoughts and feelings and then share them with their therapist. In this way one can get out what is going on inside them in a way that is less uncomfortable and still receive guidance around those areas that require it – the reason one would employ a therapist to work with one.

There are some people who are cut off from their thoughts and feelings and writing can be one way to access them so long as the writing is done without thinking, just allowing the thoughts to flow across the page as they come out allowing the content to show itself after some time of writing.

I know that when I have had certain clients who were given the chance to just write about their thoughts and feelings it was amazing how much content they were able to come up with making their sessions a lot more productive – transformative in many cases.

Thanks again for this question on behalf of those who are dealing with the same issues.