Before my hypnosis session at Newport Center for Hypnotherapy, Suzi Nance, proprietor and certified hypnotherapist, asked me to choose something to work on during our meeting. I chose what I thought was neutral and potentially universal: frequent night waking with a side of anxiety. I went to her charming office in a historic Newport building on a Monday morning as a researcher, determined to maintain my journalistic impartiality, but Nance’s warmth and disarming intuition as she gently probed for the root of my problem soon had me reaching for a tissue box. She waved away my apologies, recounting a story of a stoic older gentleman surprised to be reduced to tears in her office over yet another attempt to quit smoking. “It happens,” she said with a shrug.
We discussed the information in my intake form – details about my career and family – and Nance, a grandmother of eight, doled out some wise advice and encouragement peppered with just enough four-letter words to break through the formality of our meeting. My carefully constructed walls were demolished. I felt seen.
“Are you ready?” she asked as I moved to a green velvet recliner in the corner of her office. She covered me with a fuzzy blanket – “You’ll get cold,” she explained – then asked me to close my eyes. She led me into a hypnotized state using what felt much like a guided meditation before talking through the suggestions – what she calls a new script for my brain – that we developed together during my intake session. Her voice anchored me in the room while my mind went on a journey. Twenty minutes later, I was present again, deeply relaxed and refreshed.
Nance says that the trance state I experienced in her office is a very normal state for our minds to be in. If something startles you, it’s because it jolted you out of a trance. If you arrive at work without remembering the journey, it’s because you were in a trance with your subconscious firmly in control. Our subconscious mind is where habit lives, and this is the aspect of ourselves that hypnosis taps into.
“When our conscious mind steps back, the subconscious mind takes over,” Nance explains. “In a way, it’s good because if we didn’t have automatic behaviors, we’d never get anything done. Unlike our conscious mind, our subconscious is not judgemental. It just wants to protect us and make life easy. It says if you did something yesterday, we’ll do it again today. And that’s how we get stuck.”
So how does hypnosis help you access that subconscious mind? “Hypnosis simply puts you in a relaxed state,” Nance says. “That’s all it is. And when you’re relaxed, the subconscious is open to a new story if you tell it right.”
Telling the story right is key because the subconscious mind will only accept what makes sense. It isn’t like the movies – no one is going to leave a hypnotist’s office barking like a dog every time they hear a bell ring. But she can help people break bad habits, cope with chronic pain, get over phobias, and like me, deal with stress and anxiety. That’s why Nance spent nearly an hour talking with me before starting our hypnosis session. She wanted to be certain that the suggestions she gave me when I was hypnotized would resonate.
That type of personalized, custom care is what draws many people away from traditional Western medicine, which can sometimes feel very one-size-fits-all, and toward alternative therapies like hypnosis. Julia Collins, owner of Zen Den Newport, embraces personalization and says that it’s her facility’s greatest strength. Zen Den focuses on energy work, specializing in polarity therapy and craniosacral therapy.
“Polarity therapy is pretty unique,” says Collins. “It’s a totally comprehensive system of health based on electromagnetics that’s similar to Chinese medicine in that everything has reflections in the body. For example, if someone came to me with problems in their middle back, I’d work on their kidney system to bring better balance into the body.”
During a polarity therapy session, Collins or one of the other three polarity therapists would apply their hands to a client’s body to receive information about the texture and temperature of tissues before working to move and balance energy within the body. “Think of it as listening through the hands,” Collins says. “We pick the limbs up. We move the client around. We apply soft and moderate pressure or might switch to deep, dynamic pressure.”
If someone goes into a session relatively healthy, they would leave with a sense of mental clarity and feeling at ease, with greater peace and less emotional turmoil. But, Collins says, someone who goes into a session feeling unwell would likely experience a drastic change in their state of being.
Craniosacral therapy focuses on the spinal system and the pressure within it. “The spinal system is a closed system, like a highway for the body,” Collins says. “We gently move the spine to affect the flow of fluid within the system. Craniosacral therapy removes waste and brings fresh nutrients to the area.”
Often, both therapies are blended to meet a client’s individual needs. “Because the two forms of therapy work on all systems in the body, I find the combination to be very effective,” says Collins. Zen Den also offers Thai bodywork, sound healing, reiki, yoga, and breathwork.
As one busy year closes and another begins, Collins says awareness of the physical body is paramount. “Observe your body,” she says. “Take a body scan to see what your body feels like. Take a deep breath. Take a walk. Make the time for little stuff.” Those who want more can book a complementary 15-minute discovery call with Collins to learn about the treatments Zen Den offers. “Even starting with one session and seeing what the experience is like is beneficial,” Collins says. None of this is easy with our packed schedules, but Collins says she believes time is created, not found. “If we want to prioritize something, we have to carve out the time,” she says.
Following both Collins’ and Nance’s wisdom, I carved out some time every day to make a tangible note of all the things on my mental to-do list. That, perhaps combined with my hypnosis session, has made a difference in my life. I won’t say that I’ve slept through every night, but more often than not, I’ve awoken with the sun. Those subtle shifts in my life coupled with the mental clarity that comes with restful sleep has made every stressor easier to face.
123 Bellevue Avenue
NewportCenterForHypnotherapy.com
42 Spring Street, Suite 8A, Newport
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