Changing the Program
"A Fresh Start with New Hopes" Hypnotherapy Clinic wants to teach that silent voice in your head a new language.
Story and photos by Donna Clayton Lawder
"Hypnosis is mostly what people think it's not " says Sandra Bogacka with a laugh. Bogacka, owner of A Fresh Start with New Hopes Hypnotherapy Clinic in Silver City, goes down the list, debunking one myth after another.
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Sandy Bogacka of A Fresh Start with New Hopes Hypnotherpy Clinic has
been professionally treating clients since 1994. (Photo by Donna Clayton Lawder) |
No, someone under hypnosis is not in a deep sleep. In fact, a hypnotic trance brings a state of deep concentration, a condition of increased awareness and ability to focus—that's one of the reasons we can make deep and lasting behavioral changes that are "suggested" to us while hypnotized.
What about surrendering one's will? Doesn't the subject become the helpless pawn of the hypnotist? You know, clucking like a chicken or doing other embarrassing things in front of a laughing audience?
"Oh, that's Hollywood," she says with a smile and dismissive wave at the very idea, "and unfortunately, those ideas persist." Under hypnosis, she insists, the individual is completely capable of making decisions. Being hypnotized will not cause a person to do anything against his or her beliefs.
"And another one is that being able to be hypnotized is a sign of a weak mind," Bogacka says. "In fact, intelligent people make better hypnosis candidates. The more intelligent and imaginative they are, the better." There are some people who cannot be hypnotized, she allows, and ticks them off on her fingers—individuals with an IQ below 70, folks who are rip-roaring drunk, and "smarty-pants types," as she calls them.
"You know the kind. They have to prove me wrong. They want to show that they cannot be hypnotized," she says in an exaggerated deep-and-serious kind of voice, "and so they have to stay totally in control." As a result, the "smarty-pants types" cannot relax enough to be brought into a hypnotic state.
The hypnotic state, or trance, is a natural one, Bogacka says. And whether we know it or not, whether we call it that or not, we all have experienced it.
"You go through it at least twice a day, every day—when you wake up and when you go to sleep," she says.
As we enter or leave sleep, the patterns of our brain waves change. Researchers have identified the four levels of brain waves as beta, in which we are fully awake; alpha, the stage in which we are beginning to awaken or to cross over into sleep; theta, the early stages of sleep; and delta, or deep sleep. For most people, hypnosis occurs in the mid-alpha state. Someone under hypnosis, Bogacka says, is fully conscious and aware of his or her surroundings. Being hypnotized simply enables the individual to partially set aside the conscious mind and narrow the attention span down to one thing, just as one does when starting to go to sleep.
This is also a time of "hypersuggestibility," when the open, focused mind is more able to receive suggestions, Bogacka says. This would be when Bogacka would suggest not eating the chocolate cake, or picking up that cigarette, or even getting angry when your mother says this or that. Simply put, hypnosis is a programming technique, a way of working with the mind when it is in a relaxed, altered state of consciousness to get the subconscious mind to work with the conscious mind—to stop a pattern of overeating, say, or to stop smoking, to stop thinking negative thoughts about oneself or even to eradicate pain.
That being said, however, Bogacka is quick to point out that it's not all that important to understand why or how hypnotism works to bring about a desired change in behavior.
"I've had people say they don't know if they want to be hypnotized because they don't understand how it works," she says. She leans forward in her chair, in a humorously conspiratorial way. "What's that?" she asks, pointing to the wall. It's a light switch. "I ask them, 'Do you really know how that thing works? Do you fully understand how it turns on the light?' " She pauses and sits back.
"Of course, they say 'no,' they don't really understand the mechanics of how a light switch delivers electricity to something."
She widens her eyes dramatically, comically. "So then I say, 'Oh! So you don't use electricity!' " The client at this point either gets the message, or goes on to protest.
Bogacka continues, "So, I just ask them, 'If you're not afraid to turn on a light switch, even though you don't fully understand how it works, why are you afraid to use hypnosis, just because you don't understand how it works?' "
She smiles a warm smile, eyes fairly twinkling. Her warmth is charming, her humor disarming.
Bogacka says she has been using hypnosis, not knowing that that was what it was, since she was 10 years old. "I called it meditation, or 'settling my mind.' It was something that calmed me in the midst of chaos," she says.
She has been professionally treating clients since 1994. Most of her clients are 30 years of age and older, more women than men. The top two reasons people come for treatment, she says, are to stop smoking or to lose weight. After that, reasons include improved self-esteem, memory enhancement, fears and even pain management, which she does only with a referral from a medical doctor.
"I need to know there is no undiagnosed underlying problem, because hypnosis will take pain away," she says. She tells the story of a hypnotist who eradicated the abdominal pain of a young client, not knowing the pain was being caused by a case of appendicitis.
Bogacka says the first thing she does with any potential new client is a thorough screening.
"If they are not motivated or ready to change their behavior, I can't help them with hypnosis," she says. "I don't want to waste their time or their money, and I want them to be successful, after all." She does not take insurance; clients pay up front for their treatment package, a part of them investing in themselves, she says.
Once the client is deemed to be a good hypnosis candidate, Bogacka outlines a program for him or her. The client's reason for coming determines the treatment plan. Smoking-cessation treatment, for example, usually involves three hypnotherapy sessions. "Even if they feel totally cured after one session—and that happens—I insist that they come for two more sessions, just to reinforce the change," she says.
Weight change/management programs involve more sessions, and Bogacka has devised two levels: the "Cadillac" and the "economy" versions. In the obviously costlier "Cadillac," the client gets weekly session for six to eight weeks, monthly follow-ups for six months, and around 10 "classes," which are more informal sessions for reinforcement and to which a client can bring a friend. The economy version simply has fewer meetings of each type, and is appropriate for some individuals.
Bogacka gives a "Stay With It" guarantee, as well. "I do not give refunds," she says firmly, "but I want it to work." To that end, she offers follow-up and reinforcement sessions, to make sure the client's behavioral changes stick.
The process of being hypnotized is very simple and comfortable, she says. She goes to a small room at the back of her office and points out three chairs. The client will sit in the large, overstuffed recliner, she explains. The lighting is low. Bogacka will sit in one of the other two chairs, near the client's feet or near the side of the big chair, sitting off to the side of the client.
Clients whose active minds are giving them a difficult time, distracting them from relaxing and focusing on one thought, are instructed to gaze at a blue light bulb up high in the adjoining room. Staring at the light fatigues the eyes, forcing the client to relax and let go, Bogacka explains.
Then her soothing voice will take the individual into the alpha and, possibly, theta states, coaxing his or her mind to behave in a new way, to think a new thought when certain situations arise. At the conclusion of the session—typically 60 to 90 minutes—Bogacka gently brings the client back to a state of full awareness and wakefulness.
"They often stretch like this," she says, throwing her head back, slightly arching her back, arms overhead. "They report feeling good and relaxed. Sometimes they can't believe how good they feel. I call that the 'wow effect.' "
She notes that a 20-minute hypnosis session is equivalent to the rest one achieves in a two-hour nap.
And even though people come to her with lifelong patterns they want to change—habits like smoking, for example, that they may despise and want to kick—she doesn't want their hypnosis experience to echo or embody that struggle.
"I want them to have a good time. I want them to feel happy and relaxed here," Bogacka says. She gives the analogy of a lake. Looking down from the bridge, one sees the surface, perhaps choppy with waves from the wind. But going below the surface, she says, things get calmer. Less jostling, less struggle, less being tossed around.
And down deep, the water becomes motionless, serene.
"That's where we go," she says in a soothing voice. "That calm place. That's where I take them."
A Fresh Start With New Hopes Hypnotherapy Clinic, 1625 Silver Heights Blvd., Silver City, is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m.; outside hour arrangements possible. 388-1605, www.afreshstartwithnewhopes.com.
Donna Clayton Lawder is senior editor of Desert
Exposure, and
is proud to
say that she is very easily hypnotized.