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Understanding Fibromyalgia and Its Impact Fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and tenderness in localized areas, significantly affects millions worldwide. The exact cause of fibromyalgia remains unclear, yet it is understood to involve a combination of genetic, neurobiological, and psychological factors. This complexity often makes fibromyalgia challenging to manage with traditional medicine alone. This condition may also cause fatigue, mood swings, depression, and irritable bowel syndrome. Millions of people worldwide are affected by Fibromyalgia - a condition that affects 2-4% of the population. It is more common in women than it is in men, and the ratio between them is usually 9:1! Fibromyalgia (FM) is the most common type of rheumatic disorder and affects about 2-4% of the population. It predominantly affects women with a ratio of 9:1 female to male FM sufferers. Alongside pain and the above issues, FM can also lead to cognitive issues. It is hard to diagnose fibromyalgia, and some of the symptoms are not clear. This disease has many possible causes, and there is no single known cause for all cases. Chronic pain from Fibromyalgia can be very difficult to manage and can have a detrimental effect on your ability to live a normal life. It is known to affect your family life, physical ability to work, and relationships with friends and coworkers. This is because it can be hard for some people to understand Fibromyalgia or the constant pain that is experienced by those who live with it. How to Manage Fibromyalgia and Stress Without Losing Your Mind Many patients with chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia and stress often feel powerless to manage their symptoms. They may experience sudden mood changes, pain that moves around the body, or trouble sleeping. However, there are options you can take to alleviate your pain and reduce your stress. Clinical Hypnosis can help to alleviate your pain and reduce your stress without visiting a doctor or taking medication. The Role of Clinical Hypnosis in Pain Management Clinical hypnosis has emerged as a valuable complementary therapy in the management of fibromyalgia. This approach utilizes guided relaxation, intense concentration, and focused attention to achieve a heightened state of awareness or trance-like state, where patients can explore thoughts, feelings, and memories they might ignore or avoid under ordinary circumstances. Hypnosis for fibromyalgia pain relief has been shown in clinical trials over time and has been found to be effective at reducing pain levels. Mechanisms of Hypnosis in Alleviating Pain Hypnosis helps modify the patient's perception of pain by altering the way the brain processes pain signals. A hypnotherapeutic session typically involves the following steps: Induction: The hypnotherapist guides the patient into a deeply relaxed state. Suggestion: In this state, the therapist introduces suggestions for pain management, such as visualizing the pain as a controllable element. Deepening: The relaxation and suggestion phases are intensified to reinforce the patient’s control over their pain. With the right help, you can use hypnosis to learn how to control the pain that you are feeling. You will learn how to use your mind in order to deal with the pain. Pain can be a difficult and upsetting experience. It's not good for you in any way. But the good news is that it's possible to learn how to control the pain that you are feeling. You will learn how to use your mind in order to deal with pain. Hypnosis has been used for many centuries to help sufferers of chronic pain and is a useful method for those who are coping with fibromyalgia. Clinical Hypnosis can be a powerful tool to give the client the opportunity to explore feelings and emotions that they may be feeling in relation to their condition and the pain that they are experiencing. Hypnosis can promote deep relaxation during the sessions. This can lead to decreased levels of stress hormones and increased levels of endorphins which promote feelings of well-being and euphoria. With hypnosis, many people have been able to control their pain and use it as a tool for healing. Many people believe that fibromyalgia usually starts following a traumatic or stressful experience. It can be beneficial to explore the root causes and address mental stress, using hypnosis as a treatment. By addressing these symptoms and the mind's role in controlling them, hypnosis makes managing their condition a lot easier. By being aware of their feelings, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed and give yourself time to figure things out. This in turn leaves them more optimistic about the future which can have a significant impact on their overall well-being. Hypnosis is now recommended by many doctors as a viable treatment for pain management. University of Iowa researchers studied what happens to the brain during hypnosis. In a hypnotic trance, researchers observed chronic sufferers of fibromyalgia. In particular, the area of the brain that is responsible for 'feeling' pain showed reduced activity. This suggests that hypnosis as a treatment actually has a physical effect on the brain. Clinical Evidence Supporting Hypnosis for Fibromyalgia Several studies underscore the effectiveness of hypnosis in reducing the symptoms of fibromyalgia. For instance, a randomized controlled trial highlighted significant improvements in pain intensity, fatigue, and sleep quality among fibromyalgia patients undergoing hypnotherapy, compared to those receiving physical therapy alone. Clinical Hypnosis can help to enable you to retrain your brain and control the pain. Together we can use hypnosis to reduce or eliminate, the chronic pain you are experiencing now. We would be happy to guide you in the right direction today. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

So, it's almost Spring now. How are your New Year's Resolutions panning out? Making New Year's resolutions may seem like a good idea and may seem fairly harmless. When it comes to releasing bad habits and behaviors, it is actually much easier to look forward to the coming year with excitement, rather than putting unnecessary pressure on yourself to make a change “after the holidays”. Let me help you reset yourself up for success this Spring. Also, focus on mindfulness and awareness, and releasing some of the self-criticism you may be experiencing. "So often in these times of stress, we tend to really focus on what's wrong and what is unknown and what we need to worry about". Looking forward to releasing the stress may be a much better idea. Let's make this a positive change now, and moving forward, let's call this a New Year's Re-Solution. Let me help you Master Stress in Your Life. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

What does that mean, "Become a former smoker"? You're probably saying to yourself that you just want to quit smoking (again). What's the difference between Becoming a Former Smoker and just quitting smoking? The answer is that there is a big difference between depriving yourself (quitting) and getting something BETTER. Becoming a Former Smoker implies that you are getting something better in return, and not just quitting something that you've been doing 100s of times a day, and that is puffing on a cigarette that you probably don't even want any longer. So, what are you going to get by leaving that unwanted habit behind? Well, you're probably going to live longer, so it's not the money you'll save (do the math). The grass is greener on the other side. You're going to FEEL better. So much better, like taking a deep breath for the first time in decades, climbing up a flight of stairs without getting so out of breath. Smelling the fresh air and getting your sense of smell back. You are going Feel better. That's what you're going to get. Improved circulation Sense of smell Lower heart rate Lower blood pressure Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

In the simplest terms, stress is a demand placed on your physical body or your mind. Stress can be triggered by an event that makes you feel uneasy or nervous. Anxiety is the feeling of fear or worry. It can be a reaction to stress, or many times felt by people that find it difficult to identify the source of stress in their lives. Chronic stress, which persists over a long period of time, can be overwhelming. Both anxiety and stress and can produce both psychological and physical symptoms. Common physical symptoms include: stomachache muscle tension headache rapid breathing fast heartbeat sweating shaking dizziness frequent urination change in appetite trouble sleeping diarrhea fatigue Emotional symptoms as well as physical ones. feelings of impending doom panic or nervousness, especially in social settings difficulty concentrating irrational anger restlessness People who have stress and anxiety over long periods of time may experience negative related health outcomes. We have noted before that we take about 20,000 breaths a day. As mentioned, we must transform our default breathing pattern to be deep, rhythmic and smooth, to best deal with stress. We will help you employ breathing practices that can produce instant stress reduction and improve energy levels, mental clarity and emotional balance. During private sessions, Hypnosis will be used to help re-pattern the unconscious breathing constriction reflex that occurs under stress. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

The immune system is now thought not to be separate and independent from the central nervous system. Furthermore, there is a connection between the brain and the immune system. Hypnosis may be utilized in the treatment of clients with auto-immune disorders. Clinical Hypnosis has also been used to help clients resolve allergy issues. Some scientists have described Autoimmune Diseases as “internal allergies”. Allergies involve an unacceptable immune response toward something external to our body, such as a type of food, medication, or some other external source. Autoimmune Disorders involve unacceptable immune responses internally. Studies have shown that the use of hypnosis can improve the function of specific parts of the immune system. Resistance to disease can go up, reactions to allergens can go down. The autoimmune attack can be stopped using specific imagery designed to reprogram the immune system, as well as relaxation. During private Hypnosis sessions, we can help you to learn relaxation, imagery, and self-hypnosis techniques. These techniques will be designed to help balance the immune system and develop control over many related autoimmune diseases. Teaching self-hypnosis empowers you to use hypnosis in all aspects of your life, for the rest of your life. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

Okay, now that we've got your attention, let's address a few reasons that might not have occurred to you when it comes to maintaining your desired body weight. We will then get into a bit more detail on each one. You may not be enjoying your food. Yes, that is very possible. This may be the biggest (pun intended) help that we may be of to you. We want you to enjoy what you eat. Every bite of your food. Every moment of the meal. When you are consciously aware of every bite, you have the opportunity to really enjoy the experience. How can this lead to weight loss? Most people that overeat aren't even aware that they are overeating. This is called Mindless Eating. Many times people don't enjoy eating because they are not even aware of what they are "shoveling" in their mouths. They may be mindlessly eating when watching TV, driving in the car, or on the telephone. Think about it. Have you watched a TV program, and then asked yourself, "Did I really just eat a whole bag of potato chips?" Someone else does the cooking. Hmmm, cooking sounds like a hassle. "When's dinner going to be ready?", you may be asking someone. Food preparation is a great exercise (there's the "E" word again) in becoming aware of your food. Besides, we want you to enjoy your food, and cooking a meal can be a gift to yourself and your loved ones. Someone else does the shopping. Yes, it's a lot quicker to call in a takeout order compared to getting in the car, etc., but once you start to enjoy cooking this will be fun. In fact, try going to the store and buy the food for just one special meal that you will be preparing. You'll be surprised by the results. You only eat twice a day. If you took the same amount of calories and spread them out over 3-4 meals, your body would burn off significantly more calories. This is because your body will slow down the "calorie burn rate" when you skip a meal. One of the many ways that Clinical Hypnosis can help you release unwanted weight is to help you stop the mindless eating that you may have difficulty with. We want you to think about your food and enjoy it. Furthermore, you may also have subconscious triggers that "remind" you to eat when you're not even hungry. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation. The Weighting is Over

There are many ways we can look at life. Forwards, Backwards, Up, Down, Sideways. We can also spend some time thinking about what has happened in the past, or what may happen in the future. All of these thoughts are healthy, important, and can be tremendously fulfilling. We certainly need to plan for our futures. A well-rounded life is abundantly desirable for most of us. So how can we balance all of these perspectives and still live in this gift we call the present? We can apply Mindful Hypnosis techniques to maximize the benefits of mindfulness and open that present. Remember that the brain is a muscle and it needs to be exercised. We want you to enjoy the present moment to the fullest. We will work together on helping you love yourself, and help you control the "mind-wandering" thoughts about unhappy past events, as well as worry about the future that has not even happened yet. Mindfulness, or present moment awareness, can easily be combined with Hypnosis. It can help you be less reactive to negative thoughts. Mindful Hypnosis is also used to release negative habits and emotions. Our goal, together, is to create lasting subconscious changes. We will focus on new responses, thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, and feelings. One of the many ways that Clinical Hypnosis can help you is to help you make changes at a subconscious level. Many people try to make changes on their own and may find the results temporary because those changes were merely done at a conscious level alone. We will work together to help your mind react positively, and automatically, in specific situations. Enjoy the Gift that is the Present. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

Are you one of the one-third of Americans that get less than six hours of sleep each night? The last year has been stressful for many of us. Being sequestered in a confined setting had been a new experience for so many people, as many parents were not prepared to homeschool their children, let alone cope with the loss of many enjoyable indoor and outdoor enjoyable pastime activities. Many times, stress and anxiety can lead to insomnia and sleep problems. Furthermore, lack of proper rest can contribute to stress. That being said, How Are You Sleeping? Please look over the image below. Ask yourself if you are experiencing any of the following: Sleep deprivation can affect both the central nervous system and your immune system. A lack of sleep prevents your immune system from building up its protection. Your body needs infection-fighting antibodies and cytokines. It uses these to combat foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses. Sleep is also necessary to keep your central nervous system functioning properly. Your ability to concentrate and your emotional state are also at risk. So, are you counting sheep to get to sleep, or would you rather unplug and get a good night's sleep for a change? Read on... Should you be hypnotized to improve sleep? In actuality, you must become De-Hypnotized. With Hypnosis you can de-hypnotize yourself from the trance of everyday life, and then you can release the worry and stress that you may be clinging to. With my Good Night to Insomnia program, you can retrain your brain, to move from one level of sleep to another, and eliminate the worry and anxiety so you can stay asleep. We will work together on the power of your subconscious mind to foster deep and natural sleep. And when you become tired your body will automatically begin the natural process of relaxing for deep rest, sleep, and recuperation. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and how can Hypnosis help me gain control over my Digestive System? IBS affects the lower GI (gastrointestinal) area, which includes the small intestine, large intestine, and colon. People with IBS may experience chronic diarrhea, constipation, and in some cases both. Our minds have come into focus as an essential aspect of getting relief from irritable bowel syndrome. Behavior, lifestyle, and the way a person responds to stress can greatly affect symptoms. Common symptoms include: Abdominal pain, cramping, or bloating that is related to passing a bowel movement Changes in the appearance of bowel movement Changes in how often you are having a bowel movement Has your Doctor suggested, or do you feel, that you may have Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Did you know that Hypnosis Can Help You Gain Control over your Digestive System? What is known is that there is a "brain-gut connection". There's a very good chance that your brain may be "misfiring" and might be misinterpreting normal sensations in your abdomen as pain. Hypnosis can help reduce the sensitivity of the nerves in your abdomen by acting on the central nervous system through a series of hypnotic suggestions. As a Certified Hypnotist, I specialize in helping people with these complex connections and associations, including the biochemical interaction of the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, many of us have felt that we've been caught in a perfect storm of uncertainty, loss, worry, and social isolation. Furthermore, more than 42 percent of people surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in December 2020, an increase from 11 percent the previous year. Our collective anxiety is an amalgam of our individual anxieties. If you feel as though you've experienced increased anxiety and depression during the pandemic, you're not alone. Anxiety can also be described as “concern’s ugly cousin.” Concern contains enough fear to motivate prudent, diligent, calm action to avoid or mitigate a perceived future challenge or threat. Anxiety, on the other hand, fears fear. It’s feeling fear now while anticipating a fearful thing in the future. It’s feeling multiple layers of fear that then causes physical and psychological overreactions to anything that appears to validate the fearful future. The Quarantine Effect? A study of more than 64,000 people found more than 31 percent reported to be experiencing anxiety and 34 percent say they experienced depression. When access to social support was severely limited, and concerns about employment, health, and finances became very real, our usual coping mechanisms were pushed to the limit. Our self-image, self-worth, and self-confidence, were tested over and over again. Overall, the loss of social connection caused by lockdown measures has been one of the biggest challenges to many peoples' mental health. We have found that people who reported feelings of loneliness during the pandemic, were nearly five times more likely to experience high levels of what they feel was anxiety. Other key factors were not feeling safe at home, and having a job impacted by the pandemic. It's a vicious cycle: With anxiety, someone fears the future more and more, which creates more anxiety and likely creates a self-fulfilling prophecy related to those fears. It’s a vicious cycle that no drug will ever solve. We call these Fear-Based Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. In anxiety, we operate out of our instinctive, fight-or-flight nature that protects us from lions, tigers, and bears. We become LESS capable of intelligent, calm, prudent action because our instinctive nature – the caveman or cavewoman inside us – is ONLY focused on what’s going to jump out of a tree and eat us NOW. The Caveman Inside Us For the caveman, there is no such thing as time. Time is merely a construct of the higher mind. Only "now" exists for the caveman. What we fear might happen in the future incorrectly signals to our inner caveman that this (fear of the future) is actually happening right NOW. That’s why we feel fear in our bodies now in the form of physical stress…not just in the future. That’s why anxiety holds multiple layers of fear. Anxiety can lead to many adverse consequences like panic attacks, insomnia, phobias, gastrointestinal disorders, impaired immunity, strained relationships, lowered self-esteem and confidence, weight gain, addiction, and more. When the whole world is transfixed on that future fear, this anxiety dynamic becomes collective anxiety. We then, collectively, operate out of our lower natures that lead to dis-ease and frantic, chaotic, over-reactive, fear-based, divisive, tribal, narrow-minded, and selfish and unproductive thinking and behaving. The Solution? The solution is not as difficult as you might think. It only appears that way when you approach it the wrong way…like with pharmacology or coping with substances, or worse, ignoring it and hoping it will go away. The best, most prudent, intelligent reaction to our current “concern” is to strengthen your immunity. Stress, anxiety, and their consequences weaken the immune system. Calm, happy, balanced, grounded bodies have stronger immune systems. We would be happy to guide you in the right direction today. Call us anytime at 925-215-4017 for a Free Phone Consultation.