Dump the Garbage, Make Room for Glitter

“As you continue to breathe and go inward, you notice that you are getting very relaxed,” the hypnotherapist said as she guided her client into a deep state of trance. While Hannah had been a hypnotherapist for seven years, she had spent her lifetime helping people rewrite the scripts to their lives. In junior high, she was like Lucy from Charlie Brown, with friends seeking her out during lunch period for advice. One even told her, as an adult, that she had saved her life.

           On this particular day, Hannah’s client was returning for another issue. They had successfully worked together in getting Barbara to stop smoking. Now Barbara was here to work on something even bigger; it was time to leave her husband Tim. For fourteen years she had stayed, hoping the abusive language and demeaning behavior would stop. She stayed because of their two children. But recently, she had an “ah ha” moment and knew she had to take her kids and leave.

           “I want you to imagine yourself in a beautiful place in nature,” Hannah said. “The sun is shining, the weather is perfect, and you notice the beautiful clouds floating gently through the blue sky.” She could see Barbara really relaxing deeply. Getting people to go deep within allowed them to connect with the subconscious mind, which directs our automatic behavior. People get into behavior and though habits and find it hard to change because the subconscious wants to keep us doing the same things. It falsely believes that is how we will stay alive. Hypnotherapy is the opportunity to change those automatic behaviors.

           Before taking Barbara into the hypnotic state, Hannah talked with her at length about what the issues were, what the resolution would look like to her client, and how her life would be different as a result of making the change. All those things would now go into the hypnotic suggestions, along with an anchor, something Barbara had a deep connection to.

           “You know how on every Tuesday morning you take your garbage out to the curb for pick up. It is easy for you to dump your garbage and allow it to be taken away. It feels good to be rid of things you no longer want or need.” Hannah noted that Barbara was fully in the hypnotic state. “Once you dump the garbage, you notice there is some wonderful space in your life. Room to stock up on glitter for your crafts. In fact, once you dump the garbage, you notice how much sparkle and color there is in your life.” A tear slowly fell from Barbara’s eye. Hannah wrote in her notes that the client had experienced a release.

           The session continued until Hannah counted up. “One, two, three, four, five, and wide awake.” 

Barbara slowly opened her eyes. “That felt great,” she said. “My headache is gone.”

Hannah responded, “That’s wonderful. I did not even know you had a headache when we started. Remember, you did all that yourself. I just guided you. Anything you want to share or ask?”

“The part when you talked about watching the clouds change shape and float into different positions really was beautiful. It made me feel like change can be easy and wonderful, natural really. After that, I don’t remember much,” Barbara replied.

“Well, as you know, whether you remember or not, your subconscious registered everything I said. Those suggestions will grow more deeply over the next few days. As you fall asleep at night, replay the imagery of the changing clouds that you remember. That will help your subconscious focus on the suggestions as you sleep,” encouraged Hannah. “Shall I put you on the schedule for next week?”

“Yes,” said Barbara. “I am sure as I go through this big change there will be other things to address.”

Hannah scheduled Barbara, collected her payment, and walked her to the door. Barbara left with a calm confidence and Hannah was looking forward to hearing about her progress. Hannah was so pleased she had been able to study hypnotherapy. While she had always been good at helping people find their solutions and path forward, hypnotherapy made that skill so much more powerful. She had clients that quit smoking, lost weight, slept better, stopped biting their nails, overcame a phobia of flying, and so much more. It was a true joy to help.

In addition to becoming a certified hypnotherapist through a reputable institution, she also was certified as a health educator, coach, and advocate. Since much of what people come for help involved health, she felt it was important to have that background as well.

The next week, Barbara arrived for her appointment. “Well, I did it. I dumped the garbage and made room for some glitter. Pure gold!” She was so excited for taking this step.

“That’s fabulous,” replied Hannah. “I guess you remembered the other suggestions.”

“Yes, I did what you said. Thought about those clouds. It all came back. I can’t believe how comfortable I felt asking Tim to leave,” Barbara mused.

“How did he respond?” Hannah asked.

“Oh, you know. He was nasty. Called me names and all. Told me I was selfish. But then he said he could find someone so much better than me and he was glad to be free from, how did he put it, ‘your nagging, bitching ass’,” Barbara chuckled. “You know, that protective bubble you put around me really worked because I could care less when he said those nasty things. I was just so relieved he left.”

           “So, what do you want to work on today?” Hannah asked.

           “Well, as much as his words bounced off me this time, I know I have a lot of anger towards him. I don’t want to hang on to that anger and I don’t want it to influence how I talk about him to our kids. You know, I want to protect my children and at the same time, I don’t want them to feel caught in the crossfire or like they have to pick sides,” replied Barbara.

           “That seems like a great goal!” Hannah exclaimed.

           Hannah continued to work with Barbara for several more sessions and from time to time, over the years, Barbara returned for help with other goals. Hannah always felt blessed that she had this wonderful method for helping people make profound changes.

           The telephone rang. “Hello, this is Hannah Jones, certified hypnotherapist. How may I help you?”

           “I hope you can help me,” the voice on the other end of the phone said. “I have to do a presentation for work next week and I am so nervous, I can’t sleep.”

           Hannah smiled. Of course she could help with this! Hypnotherapy made it easy to leave old habits and behaviors behind. As a matter of fact, she once hypnotized and entire public speaking class so they could leave their anxiety behind and deliver speeches confidently.

           “Yes,” she said, “I can help you with that. Your days of being a nervous speaker are soon to be over. Through hypnotherapy, you can dump those anxious feelings and really sparkle during your presentation.” Hannah smiled, made the appointment, and hung up the phone. She then turned off the lights, grabbed her garbage to put in the dumpster behind the building, and took out her car keys, glittery red keychain and all.