Rita Black is a certified clinical hypnotherapist
with fifteen years experience using hypnosis. Her specialties are smoking cessation and weight loss.
You can always call us Toll Free: 877 221 7251
Our offices are conveniently located on Wilshire Blvd. near La Brea in Los Angeles. Please call 877-221-7251 for an appointment or enter your information at right and we will contact you.
Difference between intended and typical results:
While hypnosis is recognized as one of the most effective methods of smoking cessation there is no guarantee that hypnosis will work for you. Some people are not hypnotizable, and for others the addiction to nicotine may overcome the unconscious suggestions to quit.
How does the smoking cessation work?
The smoking cessation treatment involves about a half-hour tactical coaching pre-talk, where Rita will explore the triggers and unconscious beliefs that are keeping you, specifically, addicted to nicotine. Then there is a one-hour hypnosis session where she will make suggestions to your unconscious mind that will help you in your effort to quit smoking. If after this session you go back to smoking, you are invited back for a reinforcement session.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is difficult to define exactly, mainly because no one knows for certain what a person feels and thinks when hypnotized. During hypnosis the patient is relaxed but not asleep, which allows the mind to be more receptive to suggestions.
Can I be hypnotized?
Most people can be hypnotized, but you cannot be hypnotized if you do not want to be. There are some mental illnesses in which hypnosis should not be done.
Will I "feel" hypnotized?
Most patients cannot tell for certain as there is no special feeling. Many patients will not know they are hypnotized unless certain indicators are pointed out.
Is hypnosis safe?
No state license is required for hypnosis and anyone can legally say that they can do it, however hypnosis should only be done by a licensed mental health professional. I recommend a practitioner with advanced training in hypnosis, certified C.Ht. Without a mental health background hypnosis can be dangerous.
While hypnotized a person will not do things that he/she really does not want to do. If left alone the patient will come out of the hypnotic trance within a few minutes, or simply fall into a natural sleep and then awaken normally.
Fees and Number of Sessions
While I'm not the cheapest hypnotherapist on the block, my fee is affordable. If needed, a back up session will be provided free of charge. Results for other problems are not always immediate and I do not encourage people to think of hypnosis as a magic bullet.
Additional information
Stage hypnosis is different from hypnosis in psychotherapy – it is not magic nor does it employ illusions. Hypnotherapy is used for medical and emotional purposes, not entertainment.
The American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Dental Association all recognize the use of hypnosis.
Risks of Hypnosis
Hypnosis is considered a safe complementary and alternative medicine treatment. Adverse reactions are rare but may include: headache, dizziness, nausea, anxiety or panic, and creation of false memories. Using hypnosis for age regression to help you relive earlier events in your life can be especially hazardous. It may cause strong emotions and can alter your memories or lead to creation of false memories.
You can always call us Toll Free: 877 221 7251
Side Effects of Hypnotism published by Brookside Center for Counseling and Hypnotherapy
by Maurice Kouguell, Ph.D., BCETS.
Numerous mild side effects occur during a hypnotic induction and at times these mild reactions might also occur following a post hypnotic suggestion.
Dr.Thurman Mott reports "numerous mild side effects occur during inductions". These are usually not reported and have not been studied systematically; however, although they do occur usually during the first induction, they might be expected to reoccur with psychiatric patients. The most common of these side effects during the induction could be the increase of anxiety frequently related to fears of loss of control and excessive crying and sobbing. At times patients feel dizzy and develop various degrees of nausea during the induction. Spontaneous regression to a traumatic event or period of life, although rare, does happen.
In my own practice, one of my clients during an interview, went into trance with her eyes open and relived spontaneously an earlier sex abuse experience. Most of the side effects can usually be alleviated quickly by discontinuing the induction or by proceeding with the induction and usually the side effects will disappear as the hypnotic state deepens. An appropriate technique should be applied.
The concern of symptom substitution was one danger of hypnosis reported by many practitioners. Symptom substitution currently, because of the better training of hypnotists, has been replaced by symptom modification which then permits the patient to retain the symptom if it is dynamically important to do so.
Inadvertent Suggestions
Patients under hypnosis tend to accept suggestions concretely, if not literally and this might result in adverse reactions which may come as a surprise to the therapist.
For instance, Crasilneck and Hall in their text Clinical Hypnosis: Principles and Applications, discuss the case of a burned patient. While working on improving the patient's nutrition, the patient was given the suggestion that he could eat everything on his plate. One day the patient became ill and vomited on his plate and was later discovered eating the vomitus.
Masking physical pathology could also be a very delicate outcome of hypnosis where the patient has pain because of a physical condition and is now completely controlled by hypnosis. The reason for the physical discomfort is now totally overlooked thus creating other problems. Dr. Fromm, in her book Values in Hypnotherapy: Theory, Practice and Research, describes hypnosis as a state of decreased vigilance resulting in a vulnerability which involves dangers if a patient is in the hands of a poorly trained incompetent therapist using hypnosis." She states, "Most of the complications related to hypnosis occur when hypnosis is misused and these complications may be prevented by the following:
1. Hypnosis should be performed by a trained person
2. Avoid authoritarian symptom removal
3. Use uncovering techniques cautiously in borderline or psychotic patients. Hypnosis may be a useful technique with severely disturbed patients but should be used only by well-trained therapists.
4. Never use hypnosis to treat a condition that you would not be qualified to treat without hypnosis. Hypnosis has the potential of facilitating treatment in many clinical areas.
5. Accurate diagnosis is necessary for treatment to be started.
6. It is a myth that hypnosis is not a beneficial intervention with psychotic or borderline patients, however certain guidelines and caution should be observed. These are patients have fear of loss of control; fear of closeness and fear of giving up their negative self-Images. It is important In working with such a population to use hypnosis In a manner that facilitates feelings of self-efficacy and self-control.
7.Patients may be taught self-hypnosis to reduce anxiety and give them a sense of mastery and self-control and strengthening procedures are generally beneficial and hypnosis may also be employed to foster insight."
8.Hypnosis must be used permissively, allowing patients to determine when hypnotherapy is used. Guidelines and methods for working with severely disturbed patients are discussed by Murray-Jobsis in Clinical Hypnosis: A Multidisciplinary Approach and by Baker in A Hypnotherapeutic Approach to Enhance Object Relatedness in Psychotic Patients in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 29.136- 147.
In summary, hypnosis, when properly used, is one of the safest tools in the healing profession. As clinicians using hypnosis to help with treatment we need to be aware of the adverse effects when hypnosis is misused. It is necessary for any organization and any training program to promote not only the teaching of safe hypnotic techniques but also the restrictions of the use of hypnosis to the areas of competency of the practitioner.
As health care professionals in the public eye we work with habit control frequently, it is not safe to assume that anyone coming for smoke ending or weight loss is simply coming with that symptom alone. Anyone we see for hypnosis is coming with a whole baggage of attitudes, difficulties, adjustments reactions and so on. Some assessment technique needs to be used and I will take the liberty here to suggest to the reader becoming acquainted with my books Human Figure Drawings: A Screening and Evaluative Tool in Hypnosis and DAPTH: Accessing the Unconscious in the Practice of Hypnosis and Counseling which are both simple and accessible in this regard.
Call Rita Black C.Ht.
1 877 221 7251
Here at my office on Wilshire Boulevard, or wherever you may be, I am 100% committed to your success becoming a non-smoker for the rest of your life!
Sincerely,
Rita Black
Smoking Cessation Expert, Rita Black C.Ht.
Rita Black C.Ht.
