March, 2024 | Bruce Eimer Ph.D. LLC

Practicing hypnotherapists often see clients who have been to multiple therapists without attaining adequate resolution of their problems and symptoms. Many prospective clients continue to be troubled by persistent anxiety, depression, shame, and anger despite having been in therapy for years. Some continue to relive past trauma. Others suffer from troubled interpersonal relationships. Could a more intensive form of therapy provide a better opportunity for resolving their recalcitrant problems? In this article, I shall explain a particular form of hypnotherapy that I have been practicing successfully for years with carefully selected patients who presented with these types of persistent complaints. It is called Concierge Hypnotherapy.

The language of the subconscious. When nothing else is working to bring about desired changes, hypnosis, when employed skillfully, can often facilitate the change of dysfunctional behavior in therapy (Zarren & Eimer, 2001). The reason clinical hypnosis makes change easier is that it addresses the Subconscious Mind (aka the Unconscious Mind) where resistance to change resides. This part of the mind has only one concern – that is survival! The subconscious mind only feels; it does not think. The subconscious mind encodes and stores information literally, and it does not have the same type of memory system as the Conscious Mind (Ewin, 2009; Zarren & Eimer, 2001). If your subconscious mind does not feel the need to support a behavioral change, it will not support the change.

Conflict between the Conscious and Unconscious Mind. Very often, I see people who consciously want to change a habit, such as smoking or eating the wrong foods. The problem is their subconscious does not know that (read “feel”) change is necessary and desired. This creates conflict and conflict creates more stress. To facilitate the desired change, the hypnotherapist must use hypnosis in a language that the patient’s subconscious can understand and accept. Then the subconscious can get the message, and it will collaborate with the conscious mind to facilitate the change.

Opening the “doorway” to the subconscious. I explain to new patients:

We need the cooperation of our subconscious mind to change deeply engrained behaviors and habits. When we get this cooperation, it makes therapy briefer and deeper. With your permission, we will use hypnosis to open the “doorway” to your subconscious mind so that bad ideas that have been operating unconsciously can be effortlessly replaced with good ideas. Hypnosis is the language of the subconscious mind. Therefore, hypnosis with your cooperation makes it feasible for me to communicate with your subconscious in a form it can understand.

Ideomotor signaling to confirm acceptance of suggestions. I use ideomotor signaling to obtain confirmation that the patient’s subconscious accepts the need to make a particular change, and that it is willing to allow me help the patient make the desired changes. This makes changing much easier.

The “answer” lies within. I tell patients:

All hypnotherapy begins with the assumption that the answers to your problems and the keys to resolving your bothersome persistent symptoms lie within you. The objective of hypnotherapy is to discover a better solution within you, and to interpret this information in a way that makes sense to both parts of your mind – your conscious and unconscious (or subconscious). This information is then used to resolve the problem and implement the solution.

Concierge Hypnotherapy. This is a one-on-one intensive service that is designed to initiate the changes that will allow the patient to be successful in making desired changes sans “resistance”. It is a personalized individual therapy service in which I schedule extended sessions with the patient over several consecutive days. This provides the time necessary to do the intensive therapy work of uncovering and resolving the root causes of the patient’s persistent unwanted emotional reactions and behaviors. Concierge Therapy might be indicated if a patient suffers from treatment-resistant and persistent anxiety, depression, troublesome shame, post-traumatic stress disorder, and/or chronic pain. Because it involves long sessions over several consecutive days, Concierge Hypnotherapy is not covered by insurance. It is a private pay arrangement that is paid for at the time of service.

Is Concierge Hypnotherapy right for a patient? I have patients answer the following ten yes/no questions to get a better idea whether Concierge Hypnotherapy is the appropriate treatment for them.

1	Treatment-resistant chronic pain. Do you suffer from persistent physical pain, or other bothersome physical symptoms, for which no specific medical cause can be identified, or which have not responded to appropriate medical treatment?	YES	NO
2	Disturbing physical symptoms. Would you like to free yourself from disturbing physical symptoms that have persisted despite appropriate medical treatment?	YES	NO
3	Old emotional burdens. Are you carrying old emotional burdens you have been unable to let go of despite previous therapies?	YES	NO
4	Treatment-resistant anxiety or depression. Do you suffer from treatment-resistant anxiety or depression that has not responded to psychiatric medications or therapy?	YES	NO
5	Persistent post-traumatic stress symptoms. Do you suffer from intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares, sleep disturbances, or other distressing symptoms associated with a past traumatic experience?	YES	NO
6	Unwanted self-defeating behavior. Do you engage repeatedly in unwanted self-defeating behavior?	YES	NO
7	Need to know why. Would you like to understand the hidden reasons for your self-defeating behaviors?	YES	NO
8	Inability to stop an unwanted habit. Have you repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to stop smoking, lose weight, or recover from an addiction or unwanted habit?	YES	NO
9	Inability to develop healthy habits. Have you tried unsuccessfully to develop healthier behavior habits?	YES	NO
10	Readiness to change. Are you motivated to work collaboratively with an experienced therapist to rapidly achieve the results you have been after?	YES	NO

Your results. If you answered YES to at least two of Questions 1 through 9, and you answered YES to Question 10, then participating in Concierge Hypnotherapy with me is likely to be very helpful for you. Permit me to explain a bit more…

What is necessary for clinical hypnosis to be used effectively in therapy? The therapist must know when and how to use this “power tool”. This is how I explain it to patients:

The “when” is the time you recognize that you need more intensive therapy than you’ve been getting and . . .

You know what you need to do but…
You cannot seem to do it so…
You become discouraged because…
The work feels too hard and…
You wish there was an easier way…
There is an easier way. It is Hypnotherapy.

The “how” is the hypnotic application of the right clinical treatment strategy in a form that communicates to your unconscious mind the true necessity of the changes you want to make. The effectiveness of the hypnotically delivered treatment depends on several factors:

Your motivation to make the desired changes.
A good therapeutic relationship with your therapist.
Your therapist’s skills in using clinical hypnosis and delivering the appropriate treatment for your problem.

Essentially, there are two approaches to Hypnotherapy:

Direct Suggestion In Hypnosis (DSIH) is often effective for alleviating simple habits. I explain:

With this approach…

I assist you in entering a focused state of relaxed absorption – a state of mind in which the critical factor of your mind is suspended and in which selective thinking is established.
Then I give you individualized suggestions in a form that your subconscious understands and accepts.
The effectiveness of this approach depends on the nature and complexity of your problem.
It also depends on the effectiveness of the treatment strategy that I formulate after learning about you.
It also depends on how “on-target” my hypnotic suggestions are.
Unfortunately, many problems are not simple, and to resolve them, it is necessary to find the root cause.

Hypnoanalysis is the technique that I use to find and address the root cause. I incorporate Regression to Cause along with Reframing (Ewin & Eimer, 2006; Hunter & Eimer, 2012). This type of intensive work often requires multiple extended sessions which are best scheduled over several consecutive days (i.e., Concierge Hypnotherapy).

Attachment and Vulnerability. We humans are social creatures. Interpersonal relationships are the fabric of our existence. From birth on, we formed attachments with our caregivers to get our basic needs met. As we developed, we continued to form attachments. Unfortunately, many of us grew up with caregivers who, because of their own issues, could not meet our basic needs for a secure attachment. Repeated efforts to cope with insecure attachments and unmet needs often create dysfunctional relationship patterns which are repeated throughout life. This perpetuates a state of continued internal threat (aka a “fight or flight” state of arousal). This causes a variety of troubling psychological and physical symptoms secondary to…

Continued wear and tear on the body and mind.
Repetitive use of dysfunctional behavior patterns in problematic situations.
Formation of negative self-evaluations
Increased vulnerability to stress and further trauma.

Trauma and “Triggers”. I explain to patients:

Few of us have had “perfect” childhoods. Most of us have experienced setbacks in our life. Many of us have experienced some form of trauma at different points in our life. Traumatic events vary in severity. There are so-called “Little Traumas” and “Big Traumas”. Regardless, the experience of trauma creates negative imprints in your Unconscious Mind. These negative imprints predispose you (i.e., sensitize you) to respond repeatedly in dysfunctional ways to situations that “trigger” you. To be “triggered” means the situations bring up disturbing thoughts and feelings associated with past traumatic experiences. When you are “triggered”, you are likely to behave in unwanted ways. What can you do about this?

Changing unwanted feelings and behaviors. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies and Direct Suggestion In Hypnosis (DSIH) frequently are effective for getting rid of unwanted feelings, thoughts and behavior patterns. But, very often, other unwanted symptoms arise to take their place. This has been called “symptom substitution”. When this happens, more intensive therapy is often necessary.

Attachment Injury Resolution Therapy (AIRT). AIRT is an intensive form of therapy that addresses the negative fixed ideas about “self” that the patient’s attachment traumas imprinted in his or her Unconscious Mind. These fixed ideas can be likened to a “psychological tumor” because they spread to different parts of one’s life, creating misery, and giving rise to additional toxic ideas. I explain that I work from the following assumptions:

The original fixed ideas arose in your struggle to survive the trauma of broken attachments.
These negative ideas have perpetuated a state of continued internal threat and made you feel as if your trauma was still happening. The result has been that…
You have felt anxious, hypervigilant, ashamed, angry and/or depressed, and…
You have been repeatedly triggered.
You continued to struggle to survive because…
You were unable to leave the past in the past and live in the present.
This has prevented you from getting better.
To get well, these negative fixed ideas need to be removed, and new healthy ideas need to be imprinted into your Unconscious in their place. Then you no longer will be repeatedly triggered.
In AIRT, to diminish repeated triggering, we work together to uncover your unconscious ideas about what happened to you in the past that sensitized you to react in unwanted self-defeating ways. These are memories which we refer to as your Initial Sensitizing Experiences or ISE’s. I use Intensive Hypnotherapy integrated with other therapeutic techniques to retrieve these memories.
Please note. “Memory retrieval” is NOT like rewinding a tape or video player. The memories retrieved represent your current ideas about what happened to you in the past. They are NOT an exact or factual facsimile.
Once we identify your ISE’s, (i.e., your understandings of the “root causes” of your symptoms), we continue to work together using Hypnotherapy and other appropriate clinical modalities (e.g., EMDR Therapy) to review, reprocess and reframe these ideas. The objective is to clear your Unconscious Mind of bad ideas and replace them with good ideas. This paves the way for changing your dysfunctional behaviors and feelings.

A technically eclectic approach. In summary, in my work, I integrate Hypnotherapy, Hypnotic Regression Therapy, EMDR Therapy, and other techniques and approaches as appropriate (e.g., Parts Therapy, Ego State Therapy, Energy Psychology, CBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

Concierge Hypnotherapy as the solution. Concierge Hypnotherapy is NOT covered by insurance. It is a private pay arrangement that is paid for at the time of service. In the initial consultation, we determine whether this approach will be appropriate and beneficial for the patient. In my clinical practice, Concierge Hypnotherapy has proven to provide the solution that patients with unremitting symptoms have been missing.

References

Eimer, B.N. & Hunter, C. R. (2020). Taming Chronic Pain: A mindful approach for bringing pain relief. Kindle Direct Publishing.

Ewin, D.M. (2009). 101 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Using Hypnosis. Bethel, CT: Crown House Publishing Company.

Ewin, D.M., & Eimer, B.N. (2006). Ideomotor Signals for Rapid Hypnoanalysis: A How-To

Manual. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.

Hunter, C.R. & Eimer, B.N. (2012). The Art of Hypnotic Regression Therapy: A Clinical Guide.

Bethel, CT: Crown House Publishing Company.

Zarren, J.I. & Eimer, B.N. (2002). Brief Cognitive Hypnosis: Facilitating the Change of

dysfunctional behavior. New York: Springer Publishing Company.