In a first session, we will spend a few minutes talking so I can get a sense of what it is you would like to shift. I will also tell you a bit about what I would like to do and see if you have any questions.

Sometimes we will do conversational change work where you will sit in a chair with your eyes open. I will walk you through an exercise and we will talk throughout.

Other times I will invite you to lie down, close your eyes, and enter a deeper state of trance. We will still be communicating throughout and you will be able to pause any time.

In either case, the work we do feels like a guided meditation or visualization that is personalized for you.

As the client, you have total control. As the author Melissa Tiers explains, it’s like we’re in a car, and you’re the driver with the destination in mind, making all the choices. I hold the map, navigate, and offer some shortcuts. But you turn the wheel. 

No. Hypnosis is a physical experience. Somatic. Embodied. It’s not just about the mind. We use language, sound, and poetic tools like repetition and alliteration to help you access your senses and emotions, which are the gateway to trance. While your body is typically in a resting posture during trance, it can feel very active and alive, like in a dream. Hypnosis is a whole-body experience. 

Hypnosis can be very restorative for burned out brains and frazzled nervous systems, as the experience can feel easy, relaxing, and restorative. But it isn’t usually passive. And it can be an emotional experience for some. We talk and interact throughout. My most successful clients engage in at least six sessions and take the initiative to integrate our work into their daily lives between sessions through short and sweet little exercises. You are more than your willpower, but your agency still has an important role to play. 

Similar to a long drive, you are present and aware in every moment, but may arrive at your destination and feel like it went quickly. Many people drift in and out of sleep which is not a problem at all. On the contrary, the state between sleeping and waking is a very helpful state to be in. If you like, I can record the session for you to listen to again later.

Hmm. I think this depends on your definition of magic.

YES: If your definition of magic is making intention real by discovering unexpected pathways, then you might like to think of hypnosis as magic, or related to divining, prayer, or spell work. For many, it can also be an expansive, spiritual, and emotionally meaningful experience.

NO: It might feel like magic, which in and of itself can be helpful, but it all boils down to neuroscience. Hypnosis utilizes a narrow state of focused awareness known as “trance.” Trance is an everyday phenomenon that we can experience while exercising, playing the piano, watching a movie, washing the dishes, meditating, and more. Since trance puts our brains into a receptive state (our brain waves literally change), it’s an effective inner landscape in which to lay down new neural pathways and initiate positive shifts. This is why everyone from professional athletes to pediatric hospital wards use hypnosis. See above for articles and journal research on the scientific validity of clinical hypnosis.

No. I am not a psychotherapist and I do not diagnose. Hypnosis is not a replacement for therapy (though it can be a wonderful complement.)

That said, people often come to hypnosis as a last resort, and can find relief by working with the same old problem in a new and refreshing way. This doesn’t mean that talk therapy isn’t working. It means we can benefit from having a rich, varied, and effective tool kit for change. Hypnosis can be one of your tools. 

I love your stories. I also appreciate helping you shift them. So, in contrast to talk therapy, you may find me interrupting your words and asking you to feel into the sensations that come with the stories, instead.

I honor the folkloric traditions of trance work – historical and contemporary – across numerous cultures, from India to Benin and beyond, and right here on Lenape land.

Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis did not come to life alongside magic shows a few hundred years ago. (Dr. Mezmer, who inspired the word mesmerize, spawned an arm of hypnosis in the 1700s that came to be known for stage hypnosis, manipulation and control.)

I have great appreciation for the humanist influence hypnosis and contemporary psychology have had upon each other since then, where my studies have been centered, and my learning has focused on the approaches of Milton H. Erickson, Melissa Tiers, and my teacher Shauna Cummins.

Personally, I also identify with the folk Pagan, Celtic and Wiccan traditions of hypnosis, wishing, and spell work. But I particularly like to harken back to the first known example of hypnosis taught to me – the dreaming temples of Ancient Egypt. They were the hospitals, mental health clinics, and healing centers of their time.