The idea of the mind-body connection isn’t new. It was only when the scientific revolution of 300 years ago or so fragmented our senses of being into various parts that healers stopped treating the mind and body as a whole. The word psychosomatic exists to explain ailments that are as much of a product of mind as they are of body.

There’s no intention here to imply that people who have real physical ailments have manufactured their symptoms in their head. However, noting the connection between mind and body can be quite effective in the treatment of our clients. This is especially true when it comes to helping clients to heal from trauma.

An article from Positive Psychology entitled Exploring the Mind-Body Connection Through Research asserts that healing can take place by getting in touch with the connection between the mind and body. Stephen Porges’ research and writings on Polyvagal Theory revolutionized the way therapists viewed the mind-body connection. Therapists have begun to pursue new ways of working with the mind-body connection.

One of the most difficult aspects of treating trauma can be guiding a client to retrieve unpleasant memories from the conscious state. The mind has ways of tricking people into either forgetting difficult incidents entirely, or suppressing them, letting them be filed under the dismissive idea of “it was no big deal.

As it turns out, the body stores memories that may not be retrievable by working with the brain alone. Often, the mind and body have a sense of disconnect, particularly when the body has a deeply-seated, difficult memory in need of processing. When the mind and body are brought together, the client is able to identify these memories, process them, and heal any emotional damage that might have taken place. How can we bring the mind and body back together?

There are many ways to reconnect the mind and body. The Positive Psychology article mentioned above lists several, including body psychotherapy, mindfulness therapy, meditation, and most pointedly, hypnotherapy.

In hypnotherapy, the client is brought into a relaxed state, where it can be easier to discern the messages coming from the body. The client might come in with a presenting physical symptom that leads to the discovery of a traumatic experience, or the body may resonate with a memory the client has already identified as a point to be healed. Once the client reaches a relaxed state of mind, where the communication between the conscious and subconscious portions of the mind is facilitated, work can begin.

The client is invited to give a pain, a sense of discomfort, or even an ailment, a “voice”, and then to express what the part of the physical being wants to say. From a statement such as “I hurt!” or “Why don’t you take better care of me?” the client can then begin to get in touch with emotions underlying the experience.

The therapist encourages the client to express this emotion, using Gestalt techniques. The client is then taken back to another time where the same or similar feelings came up. This can bring the client back into a traumatic experience where, guided by the therapist, it becomes possible to work with the body signals once more, and process the underlying emotions.

Old conclusions about the self and previous decisions about how one “needed” to behave can be identified and reframed. Healing takes place when the client realizes the body was holding a message that helped to uncover the issues that needed to be resolved. Later in the Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy® session, the client has a peaceful reconciliation with the innermost parts of the psyche.

The client’s inner healer is brought in to affirm what the client has experienced, and symbols, colors, words, and phrases are elicited to create a resource state for the client. The client can then bring up these pleasant feelings, and work with any residual discomfort that might be still in the body.

It often takes the autonomic nervous system, especially, to change course from “flight or flight” to “relaxed and appropriately alert.” The client and therapist can work with this over time in order to complete the healing process. At the end of the session, the client is urged to thank the body for the message that was received, and to affirm a greater commitment to caring for the issue that was brought forth.

While other methods of working with the mind and body can be effective, hypnotherapy is the most comprehensive and thorough way of helping the mind and body to heal. Fortunately, while hypnotherapy is extremely powerful, it isn’t difficult to learn and master.

If you want to be able to work with your clients’ innermost issues and help them get relief safely and effectively in a short period of time, enroll in the Wellness Institute’s Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification program.

In this program, you’ll learn about the differences between hypnosis and hypnotherapy, and be taught how to conduct powerful hypnotherapy sessions through demonstration as well as experience. You’ll not only get to act as a hypnotherapist; you’ll get to participate as a client and an observer as you work with your peers and Advanced Certified Heart-Centered Hypnotherapists who volunteer to support the program.

All teaching is done live and online, so you can participate from your home or office without losing the opportunity to interact and present questions you might have in the moment. You will learn much more about the mind-body connection, as well as other issues that are addressed by the program, including:

● codependency

● addiction

● sexual abuse

● eating disorders

● childhood development and behavior

● relationship dependencies

The Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification Program will also teach you how to use hypnosis for clients who do not necessarily want or need to work with age regression. You can also learn how to use hypnosis with your clients with our two-day Introduction to Hypnosis course.

Perhaps the best aspect of all, when it comes to studying hypnotherapy at The Wellness Institute, is how much personal transformation and growth you will experience as a therapist.Once you have finished the Six Day, you will qualify for our deeper levels of training, including the Advanced Internship, Personal Transformation Intensive Leadership Training, and Mentorship.

The Wellness Institute offers a unique program that will help you become even more compassionate and caring as a therapist as you help to make your clients whole.

Contact our enrollment specialist to arrange a telephone meeting if you have questions about the programs. You will be guided to the program that is most appropriate for you.

Classes are filling up fast, so enroll in:

The Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification Program 

or 

The Introduction to Hypnosis Course 

today!