Clear your MIND

Elizabeth Jones-Boswell was able to give birth without pain medication and, she says, without pain. Susie Cicchetti learned how to improve her public-speaking skills in time for a big job interview. Mary Knox found the courage to cope with the end of her 17-year marriage. And all three Spokane women say they couldn’t have done it without hypnotherapy.

Forget what you know about hypnosis from TV, movies or stage shows. Clinical hypnotherapists won’t make you cluck like a chicken or dance the hokey-pokey.

You won’t be put into a deep sleep. In fact, you’ll remember everything you said and did during the session.

“Hypnosis is not a sleep state; it’s an awakening state to the power within you,” says Jayne Helle, who has been a hypnotherapist in Spokane for 24 years.

Hypnosis works, therapists say, by tapping into the subconscious.

“Most of the issues people are working with aren’t created from their conscious mind,” Helle says. “Most of the issues people are working on — their fears, their stresses, their insecurities, their self-doubts, their emotions — come from the subconscious mind.”

Hypnosis, she says, “gives you the opportunity to go into the subconscious mind and change the program, just like you can on a computer.”

Cicchetti started seeing Helle a few years ago, mostly for help dealing with her stressful job.

Most recently, she sought help preparing for a job interview in which she would have to speak before a panel.

“You get in front of people and, for me, there’s a type of a block,” she says. “It’s hard for me to talk about myself … She hypnotized me so my answers were clear and precise.”

Hypnotherapists generally access the subconscious by helping patients settle into a deep state of relaxation.

In Cicchetti’s case, Helle begins by having her take three deep breaths. Then she helps her imagine warmth spreading from the bottom of her feet up through her whole body. To reduce stress, Helle tells her to visualize a boat rowing out to sea.

“I don’t even know how it works, but it works,” Cicchetti says.

Wanting to quit smoking or lose weight are the most common issues that bring people to hypnotherapists. But therapists say they help overcome a variety of problems, both mental and physical, including stress, chronic pain, phobias, depression, poor self-esteem and others.

Patients should seek out certified hypnotherapists. Pay attention to word-of-mouth for good recommendations. Some insurers will pick up the tab for hypnotherapy. Otherwise, expect to pay between $50-$100 for a 60- to 90-minute session.

Hypnotherapy has drawn criticism over the years for producing “false” memories.

Therapists and patients must remember that the subconscious accepts everything as fact, says Judy Ward, who founded the Hypnotherapy Institute of Spokane in 1995.

So Ward is careful to point out that memories that surface during hypnosis may not have actually happened.

“We cannot guarantee that it is true,” she says. “A lot of people didn’t know that and a lot of people got in trouble.”

Many hypnotherapists are also traditional counselors, trained in using talk therapy to help their patients.

But Spokane therapist Kathy Jo Avery, certified in both psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, says she sees much faster results in her patients who undergo hypnosis.

“The body has its own innate wisdom,” says Avery, who’s also a registered nurse.

She works with cancer patients, to decrease the nausea and lack of appetite that come from chemotherapy. She also helps those patients cope with the fears of cancer’s recurrence.

“I’m not doing anything. They’re doing it,” she says. “I teach them the tools.”

Through hypnosis, Knox found that she had the inner strength to deal with the stress surrounding her divorce.

“I felt like I could do this myself and I just needed somebody to give me the right tools to sort of use my higher mind to get centered and confident,” says Knox, who would have celebrated her 19th wedding anniversary today.She chose hypnosis over traditional counseling because she was wary of using anti-depressants or other drugs.

“I don’t really think you need to go through stress and all those things and use drugs,” Knox says. “I really don’t believe in it. I don’t like the possible dependence, thinking you can’t do it.”

After just a couple of sessions with Helle, Knox says she could better manage the situation.

“It was almost instant,” she says.

Mikki McReynolds, who has been a hypnotherapist in Spokane for four years, has helped dozens of women deliver babies without pain medications.

She meets with pregnant women and their partners for five or six two-hour sessions and teaches them “hypnobirthing” techniques.

“The big key to it is the practice,” McReynolds says. “You can’t expect that if you don’t practice you’re suddenly going to have this technique down.”

McReynolds teaches breathing and relaxation. But she also shows her students how to practice “glove anesthesia,” a way of using the mind to numb the body.

“Fear causes tension causes pain,” McReynolds says.

Jones-Boswell, 46, a Pilates instructor, had never used pain medication during her three previous labors.

But, she says, “they were fast and furious and painful, very painful.”

So, when it came time to deliver Joseph two years ago, Jones-Boswell decided to try something different.

She learned hypnobirthing from McReynolds.

When her labor stalled and doctors wanted to administer contraction-inducing drugs, Jones-Boswell resisted.

“I put in my own natural Pitocin (the drug to produce contractions) in my mind’s eye,” she says. “I felt no pain and I heard everything around me. But I was unaware of any contractions … It was like I was looking down above everything and watching the labor go on.”

Soon, her contractions intensified. Her son was delivered after just a few pushes.

“It was beautiful,” Jones-Boswell says. “It was the most amazing birth.”