Frayda Kafka... Hypnotherapist, Kingston

Most of the smokers who come to me for hypnotherapy have decided to take charge of their physical and emotional lives. Smoking is just a part of it. They're looking at their lives, trying to find ways to empower themselves and grow.
For people who have made such a decision, hypnosis does whatever they think it will. The change for them begins before they come to see me — when they become aware that they are victims of their own conditioning and want to reprogram.

In hypnosis, people can get very quickly to that still, quiet place, deep inside, which allows them to look with some detachment at the way they've been living and the changes they want to make. Some people do come looking for an outside magical power: They are often successful at the one specific thing they've chosen to work on, but there's not any significant carryover.

For each person the hypnotic state is unique. People usually report heavy, numb, relaxed sensations — but not everyone. A few people leave their bodies. What's different in every case is the head trip, which doesn't stop when you're hypnotized. Hypnosis lets you observe your head trip without judgment. and that gives you a new perspective; it can pull you out of your lethargy, give you energy.
Fear can be totally debilitating. Under hypnosis, people can free themselves of fear. It's different for everyone and very complicated. That's why it's so important for the hypnotist to understand and be able to work with the psychology of the individual, to find out what this person is really asking for. You have to be willing to let go of your assumptions.

I'll give you an example. A woman who'd worked successfully with me on a smoking problem later brought her husband to see me. He had liver cancer. I knew he was not going to live very long. He was on pain-killers, he wasn't sleeping, his central nervous system had been affected, he was in deep fear. He wanted to use Simonton visualization techniques to cure his cancer. What I saw was that his fear was out of control. He was a very beautiful man, a jeweler; his wife loved him very much. Psychologically, they were not very sophisticated people. They needed to take charge of his dying; they needed to do it together, and to relax.
Part of being in charge is to let go — and hypnosis is the perfect tool for that: for pulling it together so you can let it go. The most powerful symbol anyone can use in the hypnotic trance is one's own breath, especially if your deepest fear is of losing your breath.

I saw the client with liver cancer three times only. For his birthday he invited all of the healers who had helped him to a dinner at the Canal House. He died the day before. At his funeral, every woman in the place was wearing his jewelry.
Hypnosis can be used for healing in many, many different ways. You don't have to count down from twenty and go into an unconscious state. Self-hypnosis is an every day occurrence, a state you can and do go into any time, anywhere. You can learn to utilize this natural occurrence in positive ways, to affect every aspect of your life. It can be as simple as one breath and a visualization, imagining a blue sky, a dollar sign, a handshake, or a sunrise — all in the space of four seconds, repeated several times a day.

Hypnosis can reverse certain illnesses like diverticulitis, colitis, angina, migraines, hypertension, circulatory disorders, asthma, chronic pain — any illness in which stress isa factor.

People very often are unconscious about their bodies: They are aware of a malfunctioning only when their symptoms become extreme. Hypnosis gives them an awareness on a subtle level. They become aware of symptoms sooner. Instead of feeling mastered by their illness, they now have a tool that lets them confront the illness and do something about it.

Hypnosis gives power to the individual's own healing abilities by reversing negative feelings to positive, by opening energy blocks and letting the energy flow.