Let's face it,  no one wants to need the services of a therapist.  Talking to a complete stranger about intimate details of our lives is anything but enjoyable.  Sometimes therapy works, and most of the time it does not.   Most of us therapists never persue training outside of continuing education and graduate school.  We are content just practicing and using boring talk therapy.    Don't get me wrong, talk therapy has it's place, but consider the alternatives.   

What I want to particularly talk about is how alternatives to talk therapy can put lives back together without spending thousands of dollars on copayments and fees to have someone just stare at a clock waiting for your time to be up.

I have said this before, and I will continue to say it. Almost every person I see falls into two categories.  Depression or Trauma(Anxiety).   Depression can easily be treated with standard talk therapy, and benefits from what about to say. Trauma, on the other hand, does not seem to respond well to traditional counseling, and needs other solutions.   

For those inidividuals suffering from trauma help arrives in the treatment of either or both EMDR and clinical hypnosis.  For those interested in how either of these treatments work, check out the other pages on this site.  What's cool, if anything can be cool about trauma, is that once we identify a cause of the truama, and treat it, everything else seems to fall back in line.  Literally what this means is that once the initial trauma is desensitized, anything else that was problematic returns the the pretraumatic state.  I have actually seen victims of rape and other heinous acts return to their lives in a little as 30 minutes.  Even after a follow up the next week, there are still no signs of anxiety, stress, nightmares, and flashbacks.  For those suffering from multiple traumas, we have to tackle each trauma inidvidually from smallest to largest. The results are the same. 

I know this sounds too good to be true. Let me tell you, that I have done of 2800 sessions using EMDR and probably close to 1000 using hypnosis(I learned hypnosis later in my career), and I can not begin to describe th joy I get when I see someone who has suffered for years finally recieve freedom from the chains of mental oppression.

Till next time friends,

Justin

1558-G Union Road
​Gastonia, NC 28054

As a practitioner of hypnosis, I am never shocked to see the positive applications that hypnosis has on my patients.   I have watched countless times as people come into my office riddled in pain, and leave completely pain free.  The mind is incredibly powerful. I have seen hypnosis turn addicts sober.  As long as the mind is willing, anything can happen.  This is why I want to talk about alcohol abuse and how hypnosis may be able to help.

The current course of treatment is a person addicted to alcohol will go into a  multi day detox center and then enter some form of outpatient treatment.    I read somewhere that an alcoholic trying to quit will quit a total of 10 times before finally quitting for good.  I think the same holds true for most addictions.

This is where hypnosis comes into play.   When a  person is truly ready to quit drinking,  hypnosis is able to address underlying traumas that lead a person to tip back the bottle.  I have always said that there are two types of alcoholics.  The 1st being someone who just likes to be drunk, and the 2nd is someone who is struggling with unresolved pain and trauma.   I find 2nd to be significantly more prevalent.    With hypnosis, we can finally put to rest the desire to drink by giving the subconscious mind another avenue to release stress and pain.  Depending on the mind's readiness to change, true and lasting change can be seen between 1-3 sessions.

As always, hypnosis is not a magic pill.  It requires a true desire on the individual's part.  If you or someone you love is ready to make a lasting change, please give us a call.  

Best Wishes.


Bright Hope Counseling Center

The answer is "Maybe, Yes, and NO."  If I had a nickel for every person that told me that counseling did not help to resolve their traumatic past and memories, I would be able to retire to the beach yesterday.  I always ask the person why they decided to give me a try.  The answer is almost universal,  "You helped my brother, friend, cousin, neighbor, etc."  It is not that I am any better than the other therapists around;  it is because I do not believe that one size fits all.    

Quite frankly, talking about a traumatic past sucks.  It often times will retraumatize the person telling the story.  What good does that do?  Absolutely nothing.  That it why I answered, "no"  when addressing the title to this post.  Most therapist think talk therapy or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) works for almost everything. This is what I call the one size fits all approach to therapy.  As we have seen, this is not the approach to use.

The "maybe" answer comes from therapists who have experience with trauma, and have had some success treating it.  This usually happens from therapists who are trained in different techniques besides CBT.   They are what I call the eclectics.    Generally, these therapists are fantastic in what they do.  They assume their approaches can handle most anything.  They use a wide net of counseling techniques to see what actually catches and works.  Help normally comes with these therapists, but it may be slow because trauma is not their passion. 

In our practice, we specialize in trauma. For myself, I live and breathe this type of work.  I get the greatest joy in seeing someone smile for the first time in years.  Little makes me happier than here someone who has a night's sleep free of nightmares.  We use non-traditional techniques such as EMDR, hynpnosis, Visual Coding Displacement Therapy, and EFT to rapidly reduce symptoms.  I have addressed these approaches in other posts.  I know, it sounds like hocus pocus, but trust us, it works. Most of the therapists in our practice know how to use these techniques and you will be referred to a therapist that does.   What we usually see is relief in one session, and full resolution in under five.   Every situation is different,  give us a call, and talk to us.  We are not about wasting your time or money.

YES!!!  Hypnosis works, and it almost always works quicker than traditional therapy.'

I do a lot of marketing on Facebook.   At least once a week, I get some heckler trying say that hypnosis does not work, and that people are wasting their time.   I have two things to say about these accusations.

First, hypnosis works when a person is ready and willing to make a permanent life change.  Same is also said for counseling, coaching, mentoring, etc.  I have personally witnessed hundreds of people whose life has been changed for the better because they decided to undergo hypnosis.    I have seen anxieties eliminated. Panic attacks vanished, and life long traumas wiped away because of hypnosis.   To say it does not work is an absolute farce. 

Second,  those hecklers are absolutely right that hypnosis does not work.  I have always said that hypnosis is an art form. Just like there are horrible therapists, there are horrible hypnotists. Like counseling, hypnosis requires the client to play an active role in treatment.  The therapist and/or hypnotist acts as nothing more than a nonjudgmental guide.  Because all hypnosis is self-hypnosis,  the hypnotist must be able to guide the person into hypnosis to allow the transformation to take place.   Without this, hypnosis does not work. 

Oh, and for the record,  there are only three types of people that can not be hypnotized.   1.  People who refuse hypnosis.  2.  People who are too developmentally delayed to comprehend what is being done.  3.  My lovely wife; she just laughs at me.   Everybody else can sit back and enjoy the break and ease the mind.

Chest hurts, heart starts racing, the sudden fear of imminent death, and the world around starts to close in.  Sound familiar?  Panic attacks are some of the scariest experiences a person can endure.   Sometimes they only last for a few minutes, and others, last for hours.  They seem to strike at any moment for whatever reason. They can debilitate a person to point of them never leaving their house, and when the thought of leaving happens, severe panic ensues.

Panic attacks leave the sufferer feeling absolutely helpless.  Yet, I am here to declare that hope and healing is possible.   With the right therapist, relief from panic attacks can come sooner than most people think.  Below is a list of treatments that I have used with individuals to  help rapidly resolve their panic.


1.  Hypnosis - Clinical hypnosis works wonders for the rapid resolution of panic attacks. Contrary to urban myth, I can not make a person do anything without their consent.  In other words, there is no barking like a dog or quacking like a duck. Anybody who wants to experience hypnosis will be able to be hypnotized.  With hypnosis, the person enters a relaxed state where the subconscious mind becomes active. Once active, the mind is open to suggestions that allow the person to overcome the effects of panic attacks.   What happens is that over time, the frequency and intensity is drastically reduced.  For most scenarios, this is my go to method. 

2. EMDR - This is a form of therapy that rapidly  resolves traumatic experiences in patients. EMDR can be used to treat panic attacks as they are happening to help the brain become desensitized to  the stressors that cause the sudden onset of attacks. For frequent panic attacks, this seems to work best.

3. Flooding -  The concept of flooding is controversial.   Many therapists like what it can do, but it taxes the emotional threshold of the patient.   Flooding literally means what it says.  The panic attack sufferer will place themselves in a situation that instantly causes an attack, and the more frequent a person is placed in that environment, the quicker the recovery.  Imagine the brain is like a computer that is frozen.  What flooding does is press the reset button, and fixes the error.  I like the idea of flooding, but to convince the patient is another subject altogether.

4. Psychotropic Medications -  I am not a big fan of psychiatric medications.  I believe that they have their place in a person's treatment.  Generally speaking, psychotropic medications work.  They are, however, not permanent solution.  The more permanent solution is actual therapy.    Psychotropic medications in conjunction with therapy is also helpful.
​

As a therapist who gave up doing traditional therapy for a career in hypnosis, I am always shocked to see and stretch the boundaries of what hypnosis can and cannot do for my clients. In order for me to say what it does, I first have to state what it is not. 

I think that one of the biggest reasons why it is not used in more mainstream therapy is that there is a belief that hypnosis does not work, and is nothing more than strangely packaged snake oil.  Most universities do not teach hypnosis. So if they do not teach it, then why learn it.   Second, a significant amount of people believe that hypnosis is a form of mind control.   Even a popular Christian website, GotQuestions.org says that hypnosis is a form of demonic mind control. Probably, the biggest misconception is the question of whether or not I can be hypnotized.  I tell everyone that there are only two types of people that can not be hypnotized. They are the ones that refuse, and the ones who are too developmentally and emotionally delayed to understand what I am saying.  Everyone else can be hypnotized to some degree.  Lastly, when someone is hypnotized, they do NOT feel any different, and at no point is control ever lost. Since all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, if any suggestion is given by the hypnotist that goes against  person's will, the individual will either ignore the suggestion or instantly come out of hypnosis.

So what can hypnosis do?

Hypnosis is not the panacea of therapy. It is not the end all be all.  However, it is only limited by the client's subconscious mind. Simply put, if the mind can conceive it, then it can become a part of a person's reality.  To date, below is a sampling of what I seen accomplished with hypnosis.

Stress Relief

Smoking Cessation

Bad Habits

Phobias

Anxiety

Weight Loss

Addictions

Public Speaking

Panic Attacks

Pain Relief

Insomnia

Co-consciousness with D.I.D. Patients

Streff Syndrome Drastically Improved with D.I.D. Patients

Resolution of Trauma.

Learning hypnosis is simple. Therapists already do the majority of hypnosis by leading clients through a guided meditation or imagery. They thing which is missing is a few steps called convincers, inductions, deepeners, and finally anchors.  To pick up these skills, do a simple YouTube search for hypnotists demonstrating the technique. 
​

We have all had sleepless nights.  For many, those sleepless nights turn into days and even weeks. Often times, patients will complain to me about about racing thoughts clear into the evening.    Insomnia can be caused my many things, but the most frequent causes are unresolved trauma, stress, and anxiety.  Our practice is well suited to handle most of cases of insomnia.   

We treat insomnia not as core issue, but as a symptom of something bigger.    If insomnia is psychosomatic, meaning it is not due to a medical condition, then treatment can occur through a few methods.  First, hypnosis does wonders for a person by teaching them to clear their mind and they can actually relax enough to sleep.  I have had numerous patients tell me that after they were hypnotized that they went home and had the most restful night sleep.   Ultimately, the goal is for me to teach the person how to hypnotize themselves so the insomnia resolves completely on its own. 

For the rare individuals who cannot be hypnotized, I use more standard techniques to identify the source of the insomnia such as an underlying trauma.  In most cases, once the trauma is resolved, the anxiety and insomnia go away.  Treatment will take a little bit longer, but it is still generally well received.

When you are ready to make an appointment, feel free to contact us or make an appointment online.  ​