Introducing our Contributor, Anne Shuman Urban, BA, CH, CPHI

I am quite happy to introduce one of our contributors. Prior to opening her practice in Delaware, Anne Shuman Urban, BA, CH, CPHI worked at our center as a hypnotherapist, where she saw hundreds of clients a year for a vast array of issues. In 2003, she left our center to return to the East Coast to co-found Delaware Hypnosis Partners, LLC with Beth Keil, BSN, CH.

In addition to being a gifted hypnotherapist, she is an inspiring life coach and an experienced HypnoBirthing Childbirth Educator who teaches expectant mothers how to use hypnosis for a more comfortable, peaceful, and often pain-free birthing experience.

She is now proud to offer Professional Hypnotherapy Certification trainings which include intensive training in 5-PATH™ Hypnotherapy and 7th Path Self-Hypnosis&reg:.

Her credentials include:

• Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies (BA)

• NGH Hypnotherapist Certification (CH)

• BHC Advanced Hypnotherapy Certification in 5-PATH™ and 7th Path Self-Hypnosis&reg:

• Aim for Excellence Certified Coach- HypnoBirthing Childbirth Educator(HBCE)

• BHC Certified Professional Hypnotherapy Instructor (CPHI)

Anne can be contacted directly at delwarehypnosis@yahoo.com, or you can visit her web site at http://www.delawarehypnosispartners.com.

On the Radio and Confronted by the Myths of Hypnosis while “Off the Air”

Today was my day to be on the Pat Miles Show. It is always such a joy to be on her show. What I like best is answering the callers’ questions. I think that the fastest hours that I have ever experienced have been the hour segments that I have done on her show. Thank you Pat for having me!

Cal Banyan & Pat Miles on WCCO Radio 830 AM

But that is not exactly what this entry is about. I have to admit that I am still a bit surprised when intelligent people talk about hypnosis in such uniformed ways. This probably comes from hanging around with hypnotists.

Let me tell you what I mean, and how it happened. In addition to Pat Miles and myself, there were two other guests on the show. On Mondays she is joined by two others who chat along with the guest. They are John and Mike. These two guys were both great fun, but in between segments, while the ads were running, I had the chance to chat with these two guys. I was surprised at their comments and questions about hypnosis. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have been, but I just have to admit…

I think it was John, who told me that he had used a guided visualization process to help him prepare for a sporting event. He went on to say that he knows that it wasn’t real hypnosis because he never felt like he "lost control" or "went unconscious"! Hmmm, I suppose you have to blame Hollywood. Unfortunately, that is where most people "learn" about hypnosis, and most of that "information" just isn’t true.

So let me set the record straight, just in case you didn’t know, hypnosis is best understood as being a state of heightened suggestibility. That is it. It is not sleep. It is not like being unconscious. You never lose control. What does hypnosis feel like? Hypnosis doesn’t really have a "feeling" to it. If the hypnotist suggests to you that you are feeling relaxed and you go into hypnosis then you will feel relaxed, but relaxation is not required for hypnosis. If you are in hypnosis and the hypnotist suggests that your body feels stiff and rigid "like a bar of steel" then your body won’t feel relaxed at all, but rather it will feel stiff and rigid.

In fact people can do just about anything in hypnosis that they do in the regular state of consciousness. They can walk, talk, cry, yell, hit, fall asleep and even lie. (Nope, hypnosis isn’t a truth serum either.)

For more information about what hypnosis and hypnotherapy are I suggest that you check out the following pages on our website:

• What is Hypnosis?

• What is Hypnotherapy?

Just doing my part to help educate the masses,
Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com

Hypnosis on WCCO Radio 830 AM

I am excited to tell you all that I am going to be on the radio again on Monday! I will be on WCCO Radio 830 AM, at 10:00 am (Central Time). The show is hosted by the wonderful Pat Miles. The topic will be using hypnosis to quit smoking. I cover many topics of interest relating to hypnosis.

For those who don’t know already, hypnosis is a great way to stop smoking. When working with a properly trained hypnotherapist the cause of you inability to stop smoking can be neutralized! Yes, you can quit smoking without gaining weight or being “edgy.”

I’ll write more on this topic at a later time. For more information right now go to,
http://www.hypnosiscenter.com/stop-smoking-hypnosis.htm

Here’s to your health!
Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com

Good Bye to Singapore for Now–Thanks for the Memories!

Graduates From The Hypnosis Center, Inc.’s NGH Hypnotherapy Certification Program Click on this link to see the new NGH Hypnotherapy Certification Program Graduates. Congratulations to you All!

It’s about 11:00 PM in Singapore and in a few hours I’ll be boarding a plane and head off back to Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN in the good ol’ USA. Of course I look forward to getting home back to all the old familiar things, but I always treasure my time in Singapore.

I’ll be taking home so many memories with me as I go. Among them will be memories of how my new students found their way to their seats, all of them strangers, except for one couple from Indonesia who decided to take the course together. I love those first few moments of class because I know that it is a beginning of a fantastic adventure that each student will take on. And, I know that it will be a journey that they are likely to never forget.

It is so exciting for me to see the looks on their faces as I begin the course off with the first few hypnosis demonstrations using one of their classmates, and then tell them that tomorrow they will start hypnotizing each other. Hearing the news, they are stunned and excited at the same time. Every day builds in intensity and excitement as they learn hypnotic techniques and begin to master each one. It is a difficult class, and I know that they will be proud to have completed it.

One of the greatest thrills for me as a teacher for this course is the fact that I know none of them have any idea how powerful the experience is going to be for them. Each one of the students will be touched, challenged and changed by the course. The greatest surprise for most them will be 7th Path Self-Hypnosis™. It is a very special kind of holistic, mind-body-spirit self-hypnosis. Many of the students will be moved to tears during the course as the learn each of the Recognitions (7th Path Suggestions). Each one of the Recognitions are specifically “tuned” to resonate with the issues that have held them back, and the use of the Recognition will set them free to be who they really are. I know they will like, even love who they will find.

Now the course is over, and I have more memories. Memories of the last time we all got together, joined by many of the graduates of the courses that we conducted here before. It is so wonderful listening to their stories of helping others using 5-PATH™ and 7th Path Self-Hypnosis™. I am particularly proud of those who are using these techniques to help children, and those with chronic illnesses. I loved hearing the stories of how some of our grads have taken 7th Path Self-Hypnosis™ to other countries, for example Japan, Malaysia, India, and Australia.

It gives me a special kind of satisfaction knowing that because of these courses, here in Singapore and back in the USA, others are being helped, 24 hours a day because our grads are using these tools.

For now I am saying “good by” to Singapore, but I’ll be back in December of this year. In my heart I know that the end of each course is not an end at all, but rather a beginning!

Thank you Singapore for being so wonderful to me,
Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com

Get Serious about Your Hypnosis Practice!

Right now I am in the middle of teaching a National Guild Hypnotists Hypnotherapy Certification Course in Singapore. It is great to have the opportunity to come to Asia and represent the NGH as I do.

Here is a photo of me with the famous Singapore Merlion in the background, which was taken on Sunday which is a day off during the course.

When I returned to class on Monday, a student asked me how long after I graduated from my NGH Certification course was it before I began practicing professionally. The students were stunned to find out that I graduated from my certification course in March of 1996 and began working professionally in July of the same year! They wanted to know how did I go into practice so soon? I thought, heck if I didn’t have to find a place for my office, have a construction company come in and build it out for me, and then furnish the whole thing I would have started sooner!

When I said that, they asked why I wasn’t afraid, and I told them that I was afraid, but I didn’t let that stop me. You just have to decide that you are going to go through with it and then work like crazy to make your dream come true. Now we have one of the largest, if not the largest private centers dedicated exclusively to hypnosis and the teaching of hypnosis in the world.

Here are some tips for those who are thinking about getting serious about going into practice as a professional hypnotist or hypnotherapist:

1. Get the best training that you can. Make sure that the training will enable you to work with many different kinds of issues. This will give you the widest client base and greatly help you get your practice off the ground.

2. Learn from a school that teaches you a system of hypnotism and hypnotherapy so that you can learn a system rather than just trying all kinds of things until you get it right.

3. When you choose a trainer make sure that he or she offers training support materials. Yes, you can learn hypnotism and hypnotherapy in 100 hours of training, if you have a perfect memory. The rest of us need to study the material and having a good set of manuals, tapes, CDs and videos to review will be invaluable.

4. Make sure that the trainer that you choose will offer the following kinds of support: phone support, email support, email support group, marketing support and office set up support (i.e., all the forms that you will need to set up an office along with a system for running the office).

5. Make sure that part of the training includes some marketing tips, and to do this you need to make sure that the instructor has been successful at marketing his or her business.

6. Right after you graduate from the class, go over all of the materials that were provided in class. Really study them and rehearse the scripts and techniques that you learned in class.

7. Get a yellow pages advertisement. This can be expensive depending on the size of the ad and the population where you live. But I believe that unless you are a PR wizz then it is a necessity!

8. Get a web site. Make sure that you put your photo and location on the web site with all your relevant credentials. Make sure that you site contains a FAQ page so that you can tell you potential clients about hypnosis and yourself.

9. Do really great work and you will receive client referrals. This is one of the best ways to let others know about your work, and it is also the cheapest.

10. Last but not least, make sure that you are operating legally before you start! It would be a shame if you received all the right training, and then found out that you cannot practice where you live. For details about whether you can practice in your state contact an NGH Chapter near you. Go to http://www.ngh.net/ to learn more about locating a chapter.

While you are at it visit our Free Hypnotherapy Articles page and click on Article #27 to learn more about marketing using a web site, yellow pages and client referrals.

Cal Banyan
www.HypnosisCenter.com