Aaron's Personal Transformation

Hypnotherapy involves much more than hypnosis. In fact, hypnosis may not even be the most important part of the transformational process. 

I wasn’t really planning to become a hypnotherapist, or even looking to change careers for that matter, when Deb began her training through the Institute of Interpersonal Hypnotherapy (IIH), but my exposure to the school through her experience motivated me to join her on this life-changing journey. If you’ve read her story, you know that she went to a hypnotherapist to experience the process for herself prior to enrolling in the program, and what I witnessed was an enormous change in her self-confidence and a driving desire within her to use hypnotherapy to help others overcome issues that they might be facing. The excitement she felt was contagious.
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But the IIH program does more than just prepare students to hypnotize clients. It really encourages deep thinking about spiritual and meaning-of-life questions. Matthew Brownstein, the school’s founder and an exceptional hypnotherapist in his own right, has a long biography that includes writing several books and founding many companies and organizations. Yet, for the purposes of this discussion, it suffices to say his study of religion and the world’s great wisdom traditions pervades the school’s courses and can’t help but have an effect on students.
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One of the more important concepts presented in IIH courses involves seeing clients as “perfect, whole, and complete,” and I couldn’t agree more with that notion. Everyone who comes to us has some issue they need help with, but that doesn’t mean that they are broken or somehow less worthy of love and respect than anyone else. The fact is that many of the problems each of us faces in our lives are the result of emotions and beliefs that we hold about ourselves and others, which were instilled in us at a very early age, often before seven years old. What hypnotherapy does is help us change those emotions and beliefs, allowing clients to leave a session feeling much better. 
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Perfect, whole, and complete.
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I did not feel that I had a lot of problems when I started the IIH program. My life has been mostly trouble-free. I had a loving family and grew up in a stable home. I did not have a lot of worries as a child and did well in school. I had a lot of friends and was fairly popular. Yet, what I realized during my IIH training is that I really hadn’t developed a vocabulary to express many of the emotions and feelings that existed within my subconscious mind. There were events and relationships that played out in my early childhood that influenced my beliefs about myself and others. Those beliefs were not necessarily true and often carried negative connotations in my adult life.
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One example is that I had developed a scarcity mindset from those early years of my life. I have always been very cost-conscious, which, for the most part, has served me well in avoiding debt and managing my finances, but it has also caused a lot of stress, not only for me, but also for my family. Constantly worrying about money is not healthy, especially when the concern is really unwarranted.
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During practicals, which are the practice sessions conducted near the end of each of the five IIH training modules, students perform hypnotherapy on fellow students. One of my peers worked with me to dive into the fundamental issues behind my scarcity mindset. She helped me re-frame the underlying emotions and beliefs, and I left the session feeling much better. I now look at the world from a completely different point of view and no longer worry about money the way I used to. I have been liberated and feel free to lead a healthy and abundant life as far as my finances are concerned.
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This is just one example of what hypnotherapy can be used for. There are so many other possibilities, many of which are even more life-transforming. I hope you give hypnotherapy a try and see what it can do to affect positive change in your life.

- Aaron Larson