Category: Hypnosis

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Hypnosis

Hypnosis for Pain: Reclaiming Comfort Through Mind–Body Medicine

By Bruce Eimer, Ph.D., ABPP

Chronic pain is one of the greatest clinical challenges in modern healthcare. It strains the nervous system, erodes emotional resilience, disrupts functioning, and often leaves patients feeling discouraged after years of unsuccessful treatments. As clinicians, we meet individuals who have tried conventional medical procedures, injections, surgeries, medications, physical therapy, and yet continue to suffer.

The good news is that pain is not only a physical phenomenon—it is also profoundly influenced by the brain, the mind, and the meaning a person attaches to their experience. And this is precisely where hypnosis excels.

For decades, clinical hypnosis has been one of the most underutilized yet evidence-supported methods for treating chronic pain. It is recognized by the APA, the NIH, and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis as an effective, ethical therapeutic modality. Yet many clinicians have never received proper training in how to use hypnosis competently and confidently.

That gap is exactly why I created my video course,
“Hypnosis for Pain: Principles and Practice.”

The course introduces clinicians to the science, the art, and the clinical methods of using hypnosis for pain management—so you can begin integrating it into your practice immediately and safely.

But before I talk about the course, let me share why hypnosis matters.

Clinical Hypnosis: A Missing Link in Pain Care

Chronic pain is not simply ongoing tissue damage.
For many clients, it becomes a neuroplastic loop shaped by:

  • Sensitized nerve pathways
  • Heightened attention to pain
  • Fear-avoidance behaviors
  • Emotional distress
  • Learned pain responses
  • Autonomic dysregulation

Hypnosis works directly with these mechanisms.

Here’s what hypnosis can do:

1. Reduce pain intensity

Through sensory modulation, dissociation, and hypnotic analgesia.

2. Dampen autonomic overarousal

Helping the brain shift out of fight/flight and into parasympathetic calm.

3. Interrupt fear-pain loops

Allowing patients to move, breathe, and live with greater freedom.

4. Improve mood, sleep, and coping

By strengthening resilience and reducing secondary suffering.

5. Empower patients

Providing tools they can use outside of session.

These are not placebo effects or temporary distractions—they are measurable changes in neural processing, attention, and pain perception.

For clinicians trained in hypnosis, the benefits stretch even further: greater therapeutic rapport, more efficient sessions, and a powerful ability to help clients regulate their nervous system.

Why I Developed This Course

After decades of treating chronic pain as a psychologist, hypnotherapist, and pain specialist, I saw the same pattern again and again:

Clinicians want to help their patients with pain, but don’t feel equipped.

Many tell me they would use hypnosis if:

  • they understood the principles
  • they knew how to introduce it ethically
  • they had confidence in evidence-based techniques
  • they could see demonstrations, scripts, and real clinical applications

This course was my way of answering that need—clearly, simply, and practically.

“Hypnosis for Pain: Principles and Practice” gives you a structured introduction not just to what hypnosis is, but how to use it with chronic pain patients starting immediately.

What the Course Covers

✔ Foundations of Pain Psychology

Understanding acute vs. chronic pain, central sensitization, neuroplasticity, and the emotional/cognitive dimensions of pain.

✔ What Hypnosis Is (and Isn’t)

How trance states work, the science behind hypnotic analgesia, and myth-busting common misconceptions.

✔ Core Hypnotic Skills for Pain Relief

Including:

  • Inductions
  • Deepening methods
  • Analgesia techniques
  • Glove anesthesia
  • Pain transformation imagery
  • Sensory modulation
  • Ego-strengthening
  • Posthypnotic suggestions

✔ How to Structure a Pain-Focused Hypnosis Session

Step-by-step session flow, assessment considerations, and tailored scripts.

✔ Demonstrations and Case Examples

Real-world applications and clinical conversations that model best practices.

✔ Safety, Ethics, and Professional Guidelines

How to practice within scope, obtain informed consent, and integrate hypnosis with existing treatments.

The goal is not to overwhelm clinicians with theory—it’s to give them practical, actionable tools that can be used with chronic pain patients starting the very next day.

Who the Course Is For

This program is ideal for:

  • Psychologists
  • Licensed mental health clinicians
  • Clinical social workers
  • Professional hypnotherapists
  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Physical and occupational therapists
  • Any healthcare provider interested in mind–body approaches

No prior hypnosis experience is required.
The course starts with fundamentals and builds to clinical application.

Why Hypnosis Belongs in Your Clinical Toolkit

Every clinician knows the frustration of watching a patient suffer despite doing everything “right” medically. Hypnosis offers another path—one grounded in evidence, physiology, and the human capacity for self-regulation.

When used skillfully, hypnosis can become:

  • a pain-relief tool
  • a nervous system reset
  • a coping strategy
  • a resilience-building method
  • a pathway to improved functioning and quality of life

Most importantly, it gives patients a sense of agency and self-efficacy—something chronic pain often strips away.

If You’re Curious to Learn More

If you’ve been thinking about expanding your therapeutic skills…
If you work with patients who live with chronic pain…
If you’re simply curious about integrating hypnosis into your practice…

My course, “Hypnosis for Pain: Principles and Practice,” is a clear, accessible place to start.

It isn’t a high-pressure sales pitch disguised as education.
It’s a thoughtful, clinically grounded training created to help professionals like you feel more effective, confident, and prepared to address one of the toughest challenges in healthcare.

Psychologists who complete this course will earn 16 CE credits.  

Bruce Eimer, Ph.D., LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor Continuing Education for psychologists. Bruce Eimer, Ph.D., LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

If you’d like to explore it further, you can read more about the course and see whether it resonates with your clinical style and interests.

Categories
Hypnosis

How Hypnosis Helps People Quit Smoking: Why One Session May Be All You Need

By Bruce Eimer, Ph.D., ABPP

Quitting smoking is one of the most challenging lifestyle changes a person can make. Nicotine hooks the brain quickly, and emotional habits can keep someone smoking years after the physical addiction fades. Many people try to quit with willpower alone—sometimes dozens of times—only to feel pulled back by cravings, stress, or old routines.

But there’s another way to quit that doesn’t rely on sheer willpower.
A method that works with your mind instead of against it.

That method is clinical hypnosis.

For more than four decades, I’ve used hypnosis to help people break destructive habits, reduce chronic pain, and reclaim control of their lives. Over the years I have refined and streamlined a hypnotic approach that is especially effective for smoking cessation—an approach so reliable that I recorded it and made it available to the public as Dr. Eimer’s Best One-Session Stop Smoking Hypnosis Program.

Instead of stretching the process across multiple sessions, this program helps most motivated clients quit in a single focused session, with tools they can continue to use for long-term success.

Let me explain why this works.

Why Hypnosis Works for Smoking Cessation

Hypnosis is often misunderstood. It’s not mind control, sleep, or a trick.
Instead, hypnosis is a focused state of awareness that allows you to:

  • calm the nervous system,
  • heighten imagination,
  • bypass automatic resistance, and
  • create powerful behavioral change.

For smokers, this opens the door to three key shifts:

1. Changing the Automatic Smoking Response

Smoking becomes a conditioned reflex—stress → smoke, coffee → smoke, driving → smoke.
Hypnosis helps interrupt these loops and install healthier alternatives.

2. Rewriting the Story You Tell Yourself

Many smokers quietly believe:

  • “I need cigarettes to calm down.”
  • “I can’t quit.”
  • “I’ve smoked too long.”

Hypnosis helps rewire these beliefs at the subconscious level, making quitting feel natural, achievable, and empowering.

3. Strengthening Motivation

Hypnosis amplifies the inner reasons a person wants to quit—health, family, finances, freedom—so the desire to stay smoke-free becomes stronger than cravings.

Why a One-Session Program Is Often Enough

Most smokers already know they want to quit.
They don’t need weeks of therapy—they need:

  • a powerful reset,
  • a clear mental shift,
  • and tools they can use immediately.

In a one-session format, the mind stays highly focused on the goal without dilution or distraction. With the right hypnotic sequence, the mind can accept new suggestions quickly and effectively.

Over years of clinical practice, I refined a structured approach that consistently helped clients quit in a single meeting. That’s why I created Dr. Eimer’s Best One-Session Stop Smoking Hypnosis Program—to make that same method accessible to anyone who wants to quit for good.

What’s Inside the Program

The one-session program guides the listener through:

✔ A motivational pre-talk

Understanding how hypnosis works and why quitting becomes easier in this state.

✔ A deep, rapid hypnotic induction

Calming the mind, relaxing the body, and opening the doorway to change.

✔ Targeted anti-smoking suggestions

Designed to:

  • eliminate cravings,
  • decondition smoking triggers,
  • strengthen confidence, and
  • reinforce the identity of a nonsmoker.

✔ Post-hypnotic tools

Including a mental “stop signal,” breathing methods, and automatic craving-control strategies.

✔ A built-in reinforcement component

So listeners can deepen and maintain their smoke-free mindset.

This approach draws on my years of work in clinical hypnosis, cognitive-behavioral therapy, pain psychology, and addiction treatment—all distilled into a single, empowering session.

The Real Goal: Freedom

People don’t quit smoking just to quit smoking.
They quit to get their life back.

They want:

  • more energy
  • clearer breathing
  • better health
  • confidence
  • freedom from cravings
  • freedom from guilt
  • freedom from spending money on something that hurts them

Hypnosis helps you reconnect with that version of yourself—the one who’s been waiting beneath the habit all along.

Who This Program Helps

This program is ideal for adults who are:

  • Ready to quit now
  • Tired of feeling controlled by cigarettes
  • Looking for a non-pharmaceutical, mind-body approach
  • Open to hypnosis and guided relaxation
  • Wanting a faster, more efficient path to becoming a nonsmoker

If someone is ambivalent or not yet ready, the program can also help build motivation.

A Soft Note for Readers Who Are Curious

If you’ve been thinking about quitting, know this:
Your mind already has the capacity to become smoke-free.

Hypnosis doesn’t impose anything on you.
It awakens what’s already there—your strength, your determination, your desire to live freely.

My one-session program was created as a simple, accessible tool to help you tap into that inner capability. Many people have used it to quit painlessly and permanently.

If you’d like to learn more, you can explore the program and see whether it feels right for you.

Best Stop Smoking with Hypnosis Program
Categories
Hypnosis

Relapse Prevention for Alcoholics | Delray Beach, FL

Preventing drinking relapses can be challenging, but there are strategies and steps that can significantly reduce the likelihood of a relapse for someone struggling with alcohol addiction. Here are some tips:

  1. Identify Triggers: Recognize and understand the triggers that lead to drinking. Common triggers include stress, certain social situations, emotions, or specific environments. Avoiding or managing these triggers is crucial.
  2. Build a Strong Support Network: Surround yourself with supportive friends, family, or a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Having a network of people who understand and can provide encouragement can be invaluable.
  3. Seek Professional Help: Consider therapy, counseling, or rehabilitation programs. Professional guidance can provide coping strategies, address underlying issues, and offer ongoing support.
  4. Develop Coping Mechanisms: Learn healthy coping mechanisms to deal with stress, anxiety, and emotions. This could include mindfulness, exercise, hobbies, or relaxation techniques.
  5. Create a Relapse Prevention Plan: Work with a therapist or counselor to develop a detailed plan outlining steps to take if faced with triggers or urges. This plan should include specific actions to avoid relapse and strategies to cope if temptation arises.
  6. Practice Self-Care: Focus on physical and mental well-being. Regular exercise, a balanced diet, adequate sleep, and stress management techniques can improve overall health and resilience against relapse.
  7. Make daily gratitude rituals: For example, every morning upon awakening, list 10 things you are grateful for.
  8. Avoid Tempting Situations: Stay away from situations or environments where alcohol is readily available or where you might feel pressured to drink.
  9. Stay Engaged in Recovery: Attend therapy sessions, support group meetings, or any ongoing treatment recommended by professionals. Continuous engagement in recovery efforts reinforces commitment and provides ongoing support.
  10. Learn from Relapses: If a relapse occurs, it’s essential to view it as a learning experience rather than a failure. Identify what triggered the relapse and use it as an opportunity to strengthen your relapse prevention strategies.
  11. Celebrate Milestones: Acknowledge and celebrate achievements, whether small or significant, in your recovery journey. This can help boost motivation and reinforce your commitment to staying sober.

The key takeaway I share with my patients in recovery is that you need to be for something as opposed to be just against something. It will not stick if you promise that you will NOT drink because….You need to be for yourself – your health and wellbeing (mental and physical), your relationship with God, and your purpose in life. Everyone has a purpose!

Remember, recovery is a journey, and setbacks can happen. It’s essential to stay committed to the process and seek help and support when needed. Each person’s journey to sobriety is unique, so finding what works best for you and staying committed to your goals is crucial.

For over 30 years, I have helped thousands of people in drug and alcohol recovery to live a clean, content, and sober life. If you would like to learn more about my practice, or would like to schedule a free consultation appointment, visit us online or call our office today at (561) 377-1039.

Dr. Eimer proudly serves patients in West Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Wellington, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Parkland, Coral Springs, Hallandale, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and surrounding areas.

Eimer Blog Entry 12-15-23

Copyright © by Bruce Eimer, Ph.D

Categories
Hypnosis Hypnotherapy

Past Life Regression Therapy

Even as we enter the first century of the new millennium, people both inside and outside of the hypnotherapy profession still hotly debate the topic of past life regressions.

Two major religions believe in past lives (Buddhism and Hinduism). In addition, while most Christians  believe that we only live once, as of 1997, Elizabeth Clare Prophet stated that there are 28 million Christians who believe in reincarnation (Prophet & Prophet, 1997). According to Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles, Judaism also accepts reincarnation.

A very significant percentage of the world’s population accepts the concept of living more than once. That makes the topic very relevant to hypnotherapists around the world. And as a hypnotherapist, I am asked frequently by clients and potential clients to facilitate a Past Life Regression with them.

I have facilitated many Past Life Regressions, and many of my clients have learned important lessons from their experiences. I am reminded of a recent client who wanted to resolve his anger issues. He regressed to a previous life in which he had been a woman who was raped and murdered. This woman had led a very wild life and had been very promiscuous. In another session, he regressed to an ancient life in which he had been a neglected prince who was murdered by being buried alive.

After each of these regressions, we examined what lessons he needed to learn from these previous lives. When he recognized that he was born into his current life to learn these lessons, he was more able to connect the dots in his understanding of his present anger.

Call Dr. Bruce Eimer at 561-377-1039 to learn more about experiencing a Past Life Regression or PLR session. You can also visit Dr. Bruce Eimer’s website, www.BruceEimer.com, or take a course on Hypnotic Regression Therapy at www.HypnosisCE.com.

Categories
Hypnosis

Is Regression Therapy Valid?

Do you know anyone who is uncomfortable getting on an airplane? Over my years of practicing professional hypnosis, most clients who saw me for the fear of flying experienced the success of overcoming the problem rather than simply learning to fly despite their anxieties. In fact, some of them became frequent flyers, logging tens of thousands of miles.

Find the cause

The reason is that instead of simply trying to suggest the problem away, I use Hypnotic Regression Therapy (aka Regression Hypnotherapy) to guide the client back in time during the session in order to discover and release the core cause of the fear of flying. Numerous clients seeing me for other problems over the years have also enjoyed success as a result of hypnotic regression therapy; yet in recent years, a number of hypnosis professionals have hotly debated the topic of regression hypnotherapy.

The regression therapy controversy

The controversy did not come out of thin air. Hypnotic regression therapy enjoyed high popularity for a number of years during the latter half of the 20th century; but even before the end of the 1990s, it became the subject of considerable debate. Genuine concerns are at the heart and core of the controversies. Here is a brief summary of the arguments for and against the use of regression hypnotherapy.

Those who use regression often assert that it is very useful in helping the subconscious discover and release the cause of a problem, and that effective use of hypnotic regression therapy often achieves lasting results. Those who oppose the use of hypnotic regression techniques usually state one or more of the following reasons for opposing its use: (1) the risk of false memories and/or (2) the belief that clients do not need to experience abreactions (emotional discharges) while remembering unpleasant experiences from their past. Occasionally a third reason is posted, criticizing hypnotherapists who use regression with almost every client.

What is a hypnotic regression?

Imagination is the language of the subconscious. Inside your imagination, you have total power and total freedom to be anywhere you wish and to do anything you choose. In addition, we can use the imagination to move through time as well as space.

During a hypnotic state, moving back in time inside the imagination is called a regression. Many hypnosis professionals use regression to guide a client back in time in order to discover the cause of a problem. Sometimes people simply wish to remember details about an event. There are also forensic applications of hypnotic regression techniques as used in police investigations to solve a crime.  While the subconscious does make a record of everything we experience through the five senses, emotions can alter our perceptions, resulting in inaccurate memories. So hypnosis professional who use regression techniques must be careful!

A primary reason for the skepticism regarding regression is that many therapists  over the years have formed preconceived opinions regarding the causes of problems before hypnotizing their clients, and then proceeded to use regression to validate those opinions. This is inappropriate leading. It is a major cause of what we call “false memory syndrome,” which means that a client may believe false perceptions to be facts.

I will write more about Hypnotic Regression Therapy in future posts to address the value of this form of therapy and the caveats. If you want to learn more about Regression Hypnotherapy, go to Dr. Bruce Eimer’s website: www.BruceEimer.com. Also, you can check out our book, The Art of Hypnotic Regression Therapy. If you would like a free initial consultation, or you would like to book a Hypnotic Regression Therapy session, call Dr. Bruce Eimer at 561-377-1039.

Categories
Articles Hypnosis Weight Loss

Hypnosis for Weight Loss: “Mind Over Platter” | Boca Raton, FL

Have you tried every diet known to man and woman only to give up after suffering too much deprivation?  Have you dieted and failed to lose your desired amount of weight?

The problem with diets is that deprivation goes with every diet. And no one wants to suffer deprivation.

I have been helping people lose weight successfully using hypnosis since 1995. I designed a three-session program that can help you lose weight in a safe and healthy manner using clinical hypnosis. My program is NOT a diet. It is a program that installs a new mindset called “Mind Over Platter”.

What is “mind over platter”? The answer is that it is a change in mindset that makes it easy and natural to refuse junk food and to refuse to overeat. As a result, you only eat what you need to be healthy and strong.

The fact is that diets deprive. On the other hand, hypnosis helps you decide because your subconscious mind is reprogrammed to make healthy food choices consciously and unconsciously. Hypnosis takes the stress out of weight loss. With hypnosis we take the loss out of weight loss and in its place, we substitute win.

So, stop hoping you will lose weight. Start winning your battle with food which is really a battle with yourself. A battle with your cravings.

In addition to three one-hour hypnosis sessions, you will get the audio recordings of your hypnotherapy sessions. Call me (Dr. Bruce Eimer) to find out more: 561-377-1039. Or email bruce@bruceeimer.com

If you would like more information about hypnosis for weight loss, call Dr. Eimer in Boca Raton, FL at 561-377-1039 for a free consultation or visit www.bruceeimer.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Dr. Bruce Eimer Ph.D. proudly serves Boca Raton and all surrounding areas.