Convincing Some Doubters

Yesterday, Robin and I were invited to give a presentation to a home care provider company which is considering partnering with us. The care providers themselves are subjected to a stressful working environment (it's part of the job...), therefore they can benefit from the stress reduction techniques that we offer. The clients for which they are providing care, who are experiencing many issues, from anxiety to pain management, may also benefit from the hypnotherapeutic techniques.

I was told that there would be a few "doubters" in the group, so after showing the Pre-Talk entitled "The Truth About Hypnosis," which is the PowerPoint presentation shown to all new clients, I did an impromptu hypnosis demonstration right there in the restaurant. (It was convenient that our group were the only people in the restaurant.) Robin asked one of the male waiters, a young man of about 18, if he would like to be hypnotized. He immediately accepted the offer.

After establishing that I'd never before met this person, and that he'd never been hypnotized before, he made himself comfortable in a big chair, I sat down next to him in another chair, and used a "quick" induction technique to let him enter a hypnotic state (commonly called a "trance") in about 2 minutes. After having him test his eyelids, and establishing that he could not open them no matter how hard he tried, his hypnotic state quickly deepened. I then demonstrated a few things with him, such as having him forget the number 7, "gluing" his hand to his leg, having him feel as if he was in a very cold room (he was shivering), having him open his eyes and give a detailed description of a clock on the wall (which did not exist), and finally, asked him to stand up and shake someone's hand, but he couldn't walk because his right foot was stuck to the ground.

After bringing him out of the hypnotic state he described feeling "euphoric" while in trance. When asked what his thoughts were when he had tried to open his eyes but couldn't, he said he was "shocked." As for when he couldn't lift his hand from his leg because it was "glued" there, he said that was very strange, and that he'd tried very hard to lift his hand, but couldn't.

After the demonstration there were no longer any doubters in the group. Robin and I were deluged with questions about various issues which hypnotherapy may address, and everyone was in agreement that our services would be very beneficial for both the care providers and their clients.