Cal: Hello, everybody. Cal Banyan here, Cal Banyan's Hypnosis Etc. and I've got Erika Flint back with me, and I'm really excited, because she's come up with a couple of good ideas we're going to be covering over these next four videos. And in this video we have right now, is going to be Part One of really talking about hypnosis as an insight process, because if you're just doing direct suggestion hypnosis, it tends to wear off, and it's not insightful, and it's hard to be life changing. At the very most, you can change habits, maybe make people more relaxed in situations, but when you get into using insight work, then you get permanent change, and a real "wow" factor to your hypnosis sessions.
Well, with no further ado, let me introduce Erika Flint, she comes to us from the Silicon Valley computer profession where she has been a computer programmer, and engineer, and professional problem solver, and now she's decided to work with the greatest computer mind, and that's the human mind.
And I'll tell you what, she's almost…as this comes out she's going to be about one year in the profession, and she's gone from zero to going to full-time any minute now. And she's caught my attention as a rising star in the profession, and so that's why I have her here with me. And, let's see, is there anything else I want to do? She just finished our Week of Power class, and is qualified to become a Banyan Hypnosis Certified professional hypnosis instructor trainer. How are you doing?
Erika: Hi, Cal, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. It's great to be back, and that Week of Power was really amazing. Very inspirational. And that kind of got me going with this topic today on inspiration and insight. So, let me tell you everybody about you. So, Cal Banyan is a hypnosis celebrity, but not just because of his fame in the profession, and the hundreds of hypnosis training videos he has produced to date, but also because of the books that you've written too.
So, one of my favorites "The Secret Language of Feelings" that I give to almost all of my clients, making him an authority on the subject of hypnosis, and hypnotherapy, also appeared on television and radio programs promoting his books, and promoting hypnosis. And he's the person experts in the profession of hypnotism go to for hypnosis that works, and I know it works. I use it with my clients in my office.
As a matter of fact, as soon as I took the 5-PATH class last year, I felt ready to see clients. So, that's when I really felt like I could go out, and put that sign up on my door. Figuratively, right, I put my ad on Google, and got some clients to come in.
He's also the trainer of some of the very best in our profession, and he's still teaching, and speaking, and seeing clients, and making public appearances teaching. Like I said, I just saw him a few weeks ago in The Week of Power, and he's had a profound effect on me in my profession, because I did feel ready to see clients. And it's great meeting you, Cal, and I'm really happy to be back here to ask you more questions, and learn more from you.
Cal: It was a pleasure having you in class. I'm going to ask a couple questions real quick. What surprised you the most about the live class you attended?
Erika: Oh, my gosh. Let's see, the sheer amount of information that was delivered. I just really felt completely…from the moment we started to the moment we ended, you really used every single moment of time for something valuable. And so, I was really surprised, and partially I guess I shouldn't be surprised because I've worked with you, so I know that you produce very great work.
But, the previous hypnosis class that I had taken, they didn't use their time very well. So, a lot of time was wasted. I learned so much, just, even though I had already taken the class once, via the DVD set, I still learned so much in this class. There's always so much to learn, there's so much to know, right, and you can only pick up so much at a time. So, that was great.
Cal: Thank you very much. Was it useful to have that online option, because you took it live online?
Erika: Right, yeah. live online was really important for me because I wanted to be there in person this time, and I just couldn't, because of scheduling conflicts that I had already made commitments. I couldn't actually travel to California to be live with you, and it was great. There were three other people live online, and it was a great experience. I felt like I was really there, and the learning was, I think, just as great as being there. I mean, of course up here in Washington State, I'll take any opportunity to go down to California where the sun is, but I had to be here, so that's all right. It was good.
Cal: Well, you missed out on all the goodies that Maureen buys, and brings in, because if you could see the class they're eating cookies, and pastries, and probably everybody gained five pounds that week.
Erika: Well, yeah, and I was eating some stuff on my own, Cal, so don't worry about me. I got some sugar stored here in my office.
Cal: Cool. Well, thanks for that review. So, let's do it.
Erika: All right. So, what I wanted to do, because of that class I was really inspired. Part of that class, what we do is we spend some time learning 7thPath Self-hypnosis, and learning how to teach our clients 7th Path Self-hypnosis. And so, through the process, we go through some self-hypnosis ourselves. And so, I had my own insights during this process, and I felt for myself, "Hey, this insight is really the key to helping clients make lasting change."
So, I went back through some of my client sessions, just thinking about, “Well, what some of my clients really had some profound insight that really stuck with me?†And so, I wanted to talk about a few of those, and just share with those so that we can see how this insight therapy really helps your clients make permanent change in their lives.
So, but before we get started I just want to mention you've done this before. There was an episode with Meredith 281 that you did on insight therapy, you also did one 287 with Elronn. So, there are a couple background episodes that you've done on insight therapy. So, after you're done watching this one, you can go back and get more information on those episodes as well, which I highly recommend.
So, what I love about insight therapy, and how you describe it, Cal, in the one with Meredith, is that it's an "a-ha" moment that a client has during a session that changes everything in an instant, and the changes are permanent. Like you said, it's different than the direct suggestion that might only last a few days, right?
Cal: Well, yeah. See, this is what's really exciting about 5-PATH and 7th Path, is they're both insight approaches. I come from the psychology background, and I have an understanding of this, and this is the deal. You have the subconscious mind where habits, and beliefs, and emotional responses are generated, and stored, and over time the subconscious mind starts off very impressionable, like wet cement. Imagine someone is making a sidewalk outside, or a patio, and the cement is wet, and you could write your name in it, or you could write anything you want in it. “Johnny loves Suzie 2014,†and it stays there.
Over time, we become more firm and solid, in our beliefs, our behaviors become more entrenched. So, when we do things like age regression work, or forgiveness work, what happens is, if done properly, the client experiences insight. This is most easily understood with age regression. So, we go back in time to the initial sensitizing event, and then we do what's called The Informed Child Technique, and we tell the child who's about to have the life changing event, the initial sensitizing event, that causes them to think a certain way, believe certain things about themselves or the world, and to start generating emotions that are congruent with that.
But, the problem is in most ISEs, the perception is not correct. It's this little three, four, five-year-old child that gets this belief. So, we go back before that event, and we give them insight. It's the hindsight of the adult, and the child goes, "Wow." Now, what happens is that we run them through the ISE again with this new belief, this new knowledge, and this "a-ha" that happens. It causes the subconscious mind to go into a state of impressionability again, like wet clay.
And what happens is what we can do is we'll have the child make statements. Like, I'll say, "Put an end on this. I’ve changed, because now I know, and I changed because now I feel," and when the endings on that changes how they think and how they feel, and it writes that into the soft clay.
Then, when we move them back to this time, then the subconscious mind goes back into that firm, hard, state of mind, and hold locking in those new beliefs that those new feelings, and then what we're going to do, and I talked about this before also, is the segue.
And what we're going to do is once we've got the client through the insight generating process, be it age regression, forgiveness work, parts mediation work, or whatever, then we will repeat to the client, "Now that you know this," whatever it is that they now know that they didn't know before, and, "Because you now feel this," whatever the new feeling is, like going from fear to confidence, from anxiety to calmness, these kinds of things.
And now that you feel that, you're going to be able to accept these suggestions more powerfully than ever before. And I bind these new suggestions for what they came into and the insights that they have just achieved in the session. And so, that causes us to go so much more powerfully than direct suggestion hypnosis, or compounding hypnosis, that kind of thing. Is that what you wanted to know about?
Erika: Yeah, I think that was a great overall description of everything that I kind of wanted to touch on today. From my angle, what I want to do is share a story about one of my clients. So, let me get started with that, and we can see how this is applied, and understand it at an even deeper level.
So, let me just set the stage here. I have a weight loss client, okay, and at this point in the session, she's you know second or third session. I think we're doing some forgiveness work with her. And during this session, the client indicates that she's still feeling bad about something that has happened to her when she's a teenager, and so we end up doing some age regression right in the middle of this session.
Now, in this case the client had been made fun of, and picked on, by some people who used to be her friends. And so she felt ashamed, she felt rejected, she felt betrayed, and so using the Informed Child Technique, which you just talked about so I won't go into it, but the adult child, or the adult, then, is able to give this information to the child. Now, through this information, this is what I thought was so wonderful for this client, instead of feeling ashamed, picked on, and rejected, she realized that she took the high road. She was kind. She was a loving person, even at the age of 13 when somebody was picking on her, she didn't turn around and do something back to those people.
And that was a moment of insight for her, because instead of feeling that rejection, and betrayal, feeling unloved inside, she felt a sense of pride, and hope, and love inside that she's always been a good, kind, good person, a loving person. And just in that moment, that changed everything for her. Like you said, Cal, what we moved to next was, "I’ve changed because now I know I've always been a good person. I’ve changed because I feel loved, and good. I feel good about myself. I feel proud about the way that I handled myself, even at such a young age."
And that's the type of thing that can really shift somebody's perspective, and really help them fill in everything. It kind of has the domino effect, right? Everything just kind of falls into place when you have this insight. And she left feeling so great that day. And she even told me she had been thinking about it even after that. It was really impactful for her, so I think it really stood out for her even beyond just that session.
The reason that it stood out to me is that you have a lot of clients that report the same type of thing, right? Feeling like somebody is being mean to them when they're younger, picking on them, making fun of them, and the insight this client offered, I just think, is a really positive spin on something that, on the one hand it could've been feeling bad at the time, but taking a second look at it, right? Using insight therapies, now she comes away with a completely different experience. What do you think about that, Cal?
Cal: Well, that's what I do every day. I mean that's what the 5-PATHer does every day in session, and you give these life-changing moments to our clients. And we just manufacture them over, and over, and over again. When the light goes on, everything changes. They cannot think, feel, or behave in the old way because they see themselves, and they see the world from the new way. And as a result, it’s funny, because they might feel calmer, but yet stronger at the same time. So, we always endeavor to find that life-changing insight. And it's really easy to do when you know what you're doing, right?
Erika: That's right, and I love that calm strength. I love using that technique, or using those words with my clients. And that kind of brings me to a next kind of question I guess I have for you, because one of the questions that I asked…this is kind of maybe a sub-component of insight therapy, some of the questions that might help you as the therapist asking some of these questions, and getting some of the insight out of your client.
So, one of the questions in this case that I asked the client was, “Would you do it any different? Okay, would you do that any different?†And in this case, the client said, "No, I would do it exactly the same way. I wouldn't be mean; I would be nice." And so that's the type of question, "Would you do it any different, knowing everything you know now?" That type of question can help people make that shift.
So, another question that I've asked that I've seen this happen before, and then I want to get your input, Cal, another question is, "What if the same thing happened to somebody else. Would that be fair?" Okay. And when people start to look at what happened to them from a different perspective, which also helps them gain that insight. Now, Cal, do you have any other questions that you like to ask clients that help shift that perspective, kind of like I said a sub-component of the insight therapy work?
Cal: Well, yeah. One of the things that...as you're talking about is I'd say is, "Wouldn’t it be nice if you know then what you know now?" And they say, "Yes," and I say, "Okay, well, what is it that you wished you would have known then?" And I'm talking to the adult aspect, and then I have them transfer that information to the child before they go through the event. But, also, another thing is let's say we do an age regression, and we're regressing back, time tunneling on the feeling of fear. And we go back, and we find the ISE that there's fear, but we also find that they're angry.
Like in the videos that I show in class, Loretta, she is angry, and she picked up fear from her mother, who was just a non-functional mother. She was a woman that really didn't care for her children in the way the needed to be cared for, leaving them alone when they were very, very young in the house, and that kind of thing. And that, among other events, generated this insecurity and fear inside of her. Now, we had to generate a new perception based on what we know. And what one of the things we know now is she gets to grow up. She never gets kidnapped, or she doesn't get killed, or any of these things, because of her being left alone. And we can give that information to the child, but also, she is angry.
Now, we don't automatically try to remove every unpleasant feeling in an age regression, and for her a tremendous insight is I would ask her, okay, she says, "I'm angry," or she says, "I'm mad," actually, because she's just a child in the regression. And I'll ask the child, "Is it unfair that she leave you alone, or is it fair?" And she says, "No, it's not fair," or I could say another word. In other words I would say, "Is it right for her to leave you alone like that?" And she would say, "No.†And according to what we know in the book, The Secret Language of Feelings, anger comes from the perception of "not fair" things being not fair.
So, what I'm getting to here is the insight here that we generated was not one that would remove the emotion, but actually since the emotion, anger, was based in reality, the fact that her mother was letting her down and doing what was not fair, it's like an unwritten contract between every mother and child. The mother is supposed to watch out for the child, keep the child safe and secure, and care for their needs. And if she's not doing that, the child realizes mother's not doing what she's supposed to do. The child can become angry about it, and that was the case with Loretta.
And what we then do is we validate the anger, "Of course you're angry. Anyone in your situation would feel angry. Feel the anger." And that was just a huge insight for her, because sometimes our clients feel bad about feeling bad when the emotion that they're having is proportional to what's going on, it's accurate with what's going on, and it's not harmful. They didn't go out, get angry and kill somebody, or something like that. And so, when they have normal healthy reactions like that in a situation we want to validate the emotion. And that was a tremendous insight for her, which as a result was very empowering. How was that?
Cal: Absolutely. Good.
Erika: So, one thing that I just wanted to mention here, you talked about, Cal, how this kind of changes a reorganization in the mind, right? And so I just want to mention quickly that I often have clients––and I said this a moment ago––but when they have this moment of insight, they're still feeling things days later. And they'll mention that to me. And so, Cal, this type of thing sticks with them. Now, the change can be permanent, but they're still actually feeling it inside days later. Have you seen that with your clients too?
Cal: What kind of feelings are you talking about?
Erika: So, they're actually feeling almost a real great, and deep shift in who they are. A very significant change. So, waking up in the morning and they have this feeling inside, this light feeling, right? This wonderful feeling inside and how that kind of tends to go away a little bit over time. The changes are permanent, but they have this feeling inside, this confidence, this wonderful feeling.
And I've had a couple clients mention to me, "You know what? I was feeling so good for so long after that session, and really thinking about that insight, and really thinking about those changes." And so, I think it's common for clients who go through this insight therapy to have this real shift in feeling too, and that stick with them.
Cal: Well, as you're saying that, what I think is going on there is this new feeling of confidence, or feeling of strength. It's new to them, and then over those coming weeks it normalizes. Not that the feeling changes as that they kind of what they call habituate to it. They get used to feeling better. And so, now, on the other hand sometimes when they go through something like this, the mind, and the nervous system has to go through a great shift. And that can be draining for a day or two also, but they'll get back that energy in the long run. They'll feel better, and gosh, I've never had anyone complain about, "Gosh, I feel so good."
Erika: Right. That's a really good point, though. I think you're right. They haven't felt that confidence. They haven't felt that, and so they're getting accustomed to it, and it feels really good. So, thank you for pointing that out, Cal. So, that's about it for today, of what I wanted to talk about. Now, next time we're going to continue talking about insight, and go in deeper into some other aspects of insight therapy, and how it can help you with your clients receive, and feel, permanent change in their lives. And I'm going to share another story with you from one of my clients, and their insights.
Cal: Very nice, Erika, thank you so much for bringing up the topic, being here, and my partner in this podcast. And I just want to tell everybody, hey, I'm going to put a link below to information about the current, up-coming, 2014 National Guild of Hypnotists Convention. Brenda's going to be speaking. Erika's going to be speaking. Celeste Hackett is going to be speaking, and I'm going to be speaking.
And I'm going to be doing a two-day, post-convention workshop certification program on Age Regression. So, I want to meet all of you there, and maybe I'll see you in class. We've got one coming up in July, and we've got one coming up in October. Links are around here somewhere. All right, that's it. Cal Banyan signing off.