In general, parents look forward to the time of life when the “nest” is empty, but for many parents this time can be extremely upsetting. When a person’s purpose in life has revolved around the well being of a child for 18 years or more, there are many challenges to letting that younger person leave the family home. It’s not unusual to see parents come to the therapist’s office with feelings of anxiety, sadness, loneliness, depression, and abandonment when a child leaves for college, the service, or a new life in a faraway place. 
 
This article on the Psychology Today website describes what is called “Empty Nest Syndrome.” While it isn’t a clinical condition subject to a diagnostic classification of its own, it is very real, for the reasons already mentioned. When a parent comes to a therapist with issues that arise when a child leaves the family to pursue an independent life, the therapist’s task is straightforward. It consists of helping the parent to see how this transitional period will lead to a time when they can be freer and driven more by their own needs and desires than they have been by those of their child. 
 
While talking through the issue might be enough for some clients, it’s possible that many of the emotions the empty nester experiences are echoes of traumatic experiences from the past. For example, a child getting ready to leave home could remind a man of being seven years old and losing his father to cancer. Or, a woman might recognize the feeling of being left behind that results from the child’s moving away as a recapitulation of a teenage relationship where the love of her life simply “dumped” her, left town, and never looked back. 

While cases like these are quite common, it’s difficult to help clients understand these connections, or even to become aware of them. Yet, identifying past issues that make the experience of Empty Nest Syndrome even more painful than it might normally be can help clients recover more quickly. 
 
Hypnotherapy offers clients the opportunity to draw parallels between the feelings they have about being left by their children and emotions that surrounded traumatic or troubling events in the past. All too often, people who go through trauma don’t take the time to process the emotions they had at the time. Difficult emotions that are linked to distressing memories remain in the unconscious mind, unresolved.  
 
When these memories are triggered by an event in present life, the emotions come up whether the client wishes them to emerge or not. This can cause more severe manifestations of the issues associated with Empty Nest Syndrome.  
 
Hypnotherapy uses age regression to allow the client to get in touch with present feelings, and go back to an earlier time in life, where the source of the feelings lies. While in this regressed state the client is able to: 
identify past traumatic events 
process the emotions around those events 
state what the event made them believe about themselves 
see how this old conclusion about the self influenced behavior 
offer healing to the parts of themselves that were harmed by the trauma 
reframe the old way of seeing the self 
create affirmations stating what new behaviors will replace the old 
This is how the boy who lost his dad or the teen whose love left forever can transform “I feel abandoned, therefore I am not important, and I always feel left alone” into “I may have been abandoned, but it wasn’t my fault. I am important, and I create my own meaningful life.’ 
 
Naturally, old conclusions, old behaviors, and new versions of these will vary from one client to the next. When they make these perceptions and come up with affirmations of their own, they are empowered to see the idea of being “abandoned” differently. 
To make sure the client gets a chance to fully make the connections between current feelings and past issues, the therapist can invite the client to see the Empty Nest Syndrome as being a new opportunity. The child will be allowed to grow, and the parent can also continue to evolve. The power of regression in hypnotherapy allows clients to get to their real, underly8ing issues and make sense of them far faster than what is possible with talk therapy alone. 
 

Wouldn’t you love to be able to provide this kind of “magic” to your clients? Fortunately, learning hypnotherapy is convenient and easy when you enroll in the Six Day Training and Certification Program. Offered entirely online, the program allows you to study from your home or office environment.  
 
Your instructor will present didactic material that covers hypnosis, hypnotherapy, and how hypnotherapy is used to help clients resolve issues ranging from addiction to sexual abuse and eating disorders. You’ll. also learn how to unlock the seemingly enigmatic connection between the mind and body, and help clients overcome blocks to their mental and physical health. 
 
The Wellness Institute employs experiential learning as an integral part of the program. You’ll get a chance to try your hand at being a therapist twice during the six day course. You’ll also get to experience healing of your own when you act as a client for one of your peers. As an observer, you’ll get a closer look of how the therapist and client work together. Your peer-to-peer sessions will be supervised by certified Advanced Clinical Heart-Centered Hypnotherapists™ who will offer support and feedback. 
 
Once you finish the Six Day Training and Certification Program, there is more you can do to learn and grow. Our Advanced Internship Program sharpens your skills and deepens your own healing. The Personal Transformation Intensive™ Leadership Program qualifies you to lead powerful group sessions with your clients and potential clients in your community. You can continue your journey with The Mentorship Program, where those who teach or simply want to delve even deeper into their own healing continue their work with Jungian techniques, including dream work and developing a relationship with the inner visionary. 
 
The Wellness Institute has been on the cutting edge of hypnotherapy training and the application of sophisticated psychotechnologies for decades. Don’t miss your opportunity to become part of this worldwide network of enlightened professionals, and learn how to help your clients to heal faster with hypnotherapy. 

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