Once upon a time, I was someone who walked away from doing psychotherapy in order to offer neurofeedback. I focused exclusively on neurofeedback and electrical brainwave optimization, and I like to think I built significant expertise by being so single-minded.

Then, one day, I had a conversation with a physician. This doctor was treating one of my clients. We had consulted several times together, and on this day, the doctor gave me marching orders: I was to help this mutual client/patient stop smoking. This doctor is a charismatic healer type, and when I got off the phone, I realized that he hadn’t cared one bit about the fact that I told him neurofeedback is not considered a smoking cessation tool. All he cared about was the fact that this smoker needed to stop smoking and was unwilling to use the pharmaceuticals in the doctor’s tool chest to achieve this goal. Therefore, it was on me. How that happened still puzzles me.

The stop-smoking thing stumped me.  How was I supposed to achieve what a doctor could not?

Later in the afternoon that same day, a thought came to me: I’d heard of hypnosis helping with smoking, so perhaps that was a path to pursue. I started searching online, and eventually, I ended up finding a woman in Maryland who advertised herself as a hypnotist who helps others stop smoking.

I called her, and over the course of our conversation, I realized that this might, indeed, be a very good option for my client. I passed along the hypnotist’s information to my client. He was extremely skeptical, but he also knew I cared deeply about his well-being and wouldn’t pass along a suggested referral unless I thought it was worth his time.

He called to learn more. He chose to make an appointment.

The next time I saw him after that hypnosis appointment, he’d been cigarette-free for a few days. This was after just one hypnosis session. He had two more appointments with her, just to reinforce that he was now a non-smoker.

It was stunning to me that after smoking for over two decades, this person who wasn’t even sure he really wanted to stop smoking had actually stopped smoking.

Everyone involved was thrilled—my client, his doctor, his family, and I.

Soon thereafter, one of this client’s family members advised me that I should add hypnosis to my skill set, because it was pretty darn cool. She was almost as adamant as my client’s doctor had been.

Because I respected this family member, I thought about the advice. Then, because I was so utterly shocked at this amazing transformation, I called the hypnotist who’d helped my client. She and I had a long conversation, and she encouraged me to get trained.

So, I looked around and found that I really liked the idea of 5-PATH hypnosis. I trained. I got certified. I joined the National Guild of Hypnotists. Then, I continued to train some more. In fact, when I finish writing this blog post, I’m going to be listening to an online hypnosis class on dream analysis. There seems to be no limit to the learning possible in this field that I’d ignored or dismissed for most of my life.

Now when I do hypnosis for others, I find myself continuing to feel the amazement and magic that I felt when my client stopped smoking, even though smoking cessation is one of the few behavioral change goals I’m not interested in offering my clients.

I have always felt a sense of awe when someone doing neurofeedback training begins to make changes to his or her brain. It is incredible to watch the human capacity for learning, change, and transformation at work, and I haven’t grown tired of watching people change. Now that I have added hypnosis to my skill sets, I have a second sense of awe that can happen in the course of a work day. It’s pretty cool, and it is one of the reasons I love my work so much.

If you’re considering hypnosis, give me a call. I may talk your ear off due to my passion for the subject, but you’ll end up in a place where you’ll have information to help you decide one way or another whether it’s something you want to do.