Hypnosis and the Bullied

I'm always looking for new ways to apply what I do to other avenues. Not only does this make my business more profitable, but it allows me to serve a greater portion of the community. I was working with a teenager on anger, recently, and was talking about how we change others by changing ourselves, when I realized that some of these same hypnotherapy techniques could be applied to bullied kids in order to strengthen them and make them less prone to further victimization.

Let me back up. There's a theory that we can only change ourselves, not others. Fundamentally, that's true. However, when we change our own behavior, we change how those around us respond to us; that changes them. So, technically, when we change, others change, and those around them, and the ripple spreads. (Fellow therapists, that makes us so important to the ecosystem of the pond, even if we only help one fish.) I was talking to a teenager about anger and how people hold themselves when they're feeling anger - tense all over, with a certain posture and steely gaze. If you no longer hold yourself that way (through letting go of resentment and by letting things roll off you that previously induced anger), people won't respond to you as if you are angry.

To draw the parallel, if you were to scan a classroom or school hallway and look for the kid you think is most likely to be bullied, we could probably come to some agreement that he or she would be slumped in posture, head low, eyes downward, somewhat isolated from others, and so forth, in characteristics. It wouldn't matter the body structure of the child, nor the personality of the child, but on those factors alone, we could identify a "target." The confident child that exhibits direct eye contact, stands tall, walks briskly, and has an easy air about him/her is not going to be the first target. So could we get a group of kids together who have been bullied in some way and teach them to stand and walk and gaze differently? Certainly, and there is research that says this is being done in anti-bullying campaigns. No harm in that. But if these kids are still internalizing both the trauma of what happened (which is often re-experienced in the mind of some kids, and which resonates with a lot of adults) and are taking in new stimuli as harmful, it won't stick.

Thus, if we can take a group of kids and make it so they are free of that old harm and whatever happens next they take in as simply data and let it roll off them without attaching greater meaning behind it, they will automatically hold themselves differently, and it will stick. Subsequently, others will respond to them differently. Put that kid in an environment where no one knows him/her and they will get a whole new set of peers, and the peers they already have will notice a change, even if they can't pinpoint it. So, yes, hypnosis for bullying. New adolescent group coming very very soon! Stay tuned to my Facebook page for more information.

Precise Trauma Treatment - Guest Blog by Tara Dickherber

This month's guest blog is by Tara Dickherber. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Life Coach, and Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist. She is also the Executive Director of the Institute for Survivors of Sexual Violence, a non-profit organization that provides free hypnotherapy for clients who cannot afford treatment and training for therapists working with them. Tara practices in St. Charles, Missouri and can be reached for appointment at 573-754-0348. 

Precise Trauma Treatment

I have found that, in my 4+ years of blogging, that I am sometimes inspired by the craziest things, and sometimes those crazy inspirations lead to some cool posts. Well, this week was no different. I went to the mailbox, found a mailbox full of junk mail and headed back into the house. As I quickly scanned the "junk," I saw this title on a newsletter from a local hospital: "Precise Tumor Targeting." I thought, well that's exactly what a Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist does with trauma. We target it, clear it, and update the mind.

When I say something like that to a potential client, it's typically followed up with this question: "Well how do you do that?" For me to explain how would take a very long time. What stands out more for me about how I do it is that I (and all other RRT therapists) have an understanding of the human mind that leads us to be able to target and clear those traumas.

Let me give you a quick and dirty understanding of the human mind. First, we have a subconscious mind, which makes up the majority or our mind, and then we have a conscious mind, which is really kind of small compared to our subconscious mind. Both are powerful and amazing things. However, they work very differently. Subconscious mind is the multi-tasker; it controls our breathing, blood flow, all of our emotions, all of our behaviors, and a some of our thoughts. This part of our mind responds well to symbols, stories, and metaphors. Conscious mind can do one thing at a time for a short time. It's rational and logical, kind of like Spock from Star Trek. 

 
When something traumatic happens, we can think of it as having left an imprint on our subconscious mind. (Yep, that's the emotional behavioral part of our mind.) How that traumatic event effects us is usually not logical. Yet knowing that helps me better understand what has been going on for my clients. So then, a facet of our subconscious mind gets lost in that traumatic event and doesn't realize anything else has happened since. It then begins creating emotional reactions to that event in an effort to motivate us to get something to stop. Like if someone let their dog out to go potty on a rainy day and that dog ran out into the road and got hit by a car the owner's mind is creating guilt to get him/her to stop from letting the dog out. When I see how the mind is responding to the previous trauma, I laser in on that imprint and the emotional reactions from it to then clear the trauma and thus update the mind to today and now. 

 
Thus, it's precise trauma targeting and treatment.

As I said before, this was a quick-and-dirty version of how the mind works. To fully explain Rapid Resolution Therapy and why it's so effective would take me days. The best way to understand is to just to experience it. We have 200+ Certified Practitioners across the United States and even a few in Canada. To find one near you just check here.


Be well. Be happy.
Tara S. Dickherber, LPC
Certified Rapid Resolution Therapist®
Executive Director of the Institute for Survivors of Sexual Violence™
www.mylifecoachtara.com

Guest Blogs

The newest feature is Guest Blogs!

I would like to feature a new blogger each month.

If you are interested in submitting a few paragraphs for my blog, please contact me by email here. Also, if you have a blog you love that you think I should read, let me know!

Topics should be relevant to some aspect of:

• trauma
• therapy
• mental health
• hypnotherapy
• Rapid Resolution Treatment
• hypnosis
• testimonials