Episode Title: “Chaotic Suggestions”

Intro: In this episode, Tracy interviews Dr. Liz Slonena PsyD of “Dr. Liz Listens” YouTube channel. Dr. Liz  describes the work she does helping people calm mental and emotional chaos through hypnotherapy, and how she helps people attain success in their lives using the power of positive suggestion.

1. Introduction to the power of suggestion by Tracy Kenela
   • Negative Suggestions: “Bad Boy” or “You ought to be ashamed of yourself”
   • Positive Suggestions: “You’re very creative” or “I like the way you’re doing that”
   
   

The way you view yourself or the conclusions you make about yourself in early childhood can affect the decisions you make as well as your behaviors. The goal of hypnotherapy is to use the power of positive suggestion to reprogram any negative conclusions you’ve made about yourself in the past so that you can improve any problem behaviors you have in the present.

1. Introduction to Dr. Liz Slonena, PsyD, of “Dr. Liz Listens” Your Zen Within | Relax with Dr. Liz - YouTube
   • “There are no accidents!”
   • Pain and suffering can be transforming
   
   
2. The ways we can do Hypnotherapy to Calm the Chaos of their Minds:

• Overwhelmed, overstressed people who want to stress less and live more
• Mindful Hypnotherapy helps, and you can do it anytime and anywhere

Process:

1. Do a thorough, holistic assessment to get a firm diagnosis
2. Clarifying “You’re not crazy” you are just experiencing anxiety
3. Present them with evidenced-based therapy choices for treatment, such as CBT, ACT and EMDR
4. Integrate Hypnotherapy to any of the above treatment choices
5. Hypnotherapy helps you relax and bypass the hyper-critical frontal-lobe, which makes it easier to transform and change

“Hypnotherapy plus an evidence-based therapy often outperforms the evidenced-based therapy alone.”

• It could involve a regression, which is going back in time to the original source of pain
• It also could involve a body response to the trauma (abreactions and / or going into a shock state)
• Positive Dissociation is a wonderful opportunity to practice mindful noticing, without judgment, what is going on in the body, following what is going on and watch it move through the body
• Traumatic reactions are the ways in which mind and body try to protect you!
• It takes time to work through “stuck responses” in hypnotherapy

1. More thoughts on using Hypnotherapy to move you toward successful healing

• Tracy: When pain shows up in areas of the body such as the throat, Hypnotherapy presents people with an opportunity to speak their truth or actually have a conversation with someone such as a parent, ex-spouse or an abuser. Once the energy is released people feel so much better!
• Liz: Hypnotherapy allows you to use “chair work” while you are in an altered state of consciousness so that you can develop creative ways to toward a successful resolution to a problem. Hypnotherapy and chair work can also help you make a tough decision.

• Tracy: Hypnotherapy helps people slow down and getting more clarity on what they are struggling with. When you take the time to think slowly and with a purpose and guidance, you often get more clarity and resolution.

• Liz: We all have inner wisdom, and have the answers inside, we just need to slow it down, listen, and let the answers come out. Hypnotherapy helps us use our creativity and imagination (like a child would) to develop solutions for success in their lives.

1. Trauma and Hypnotherapy

• Trauma from childhood or adulthood cause the mind and body to hold pain
• Over time, the trauma wounds can be triggered through a variety of situations
• Traumatic events often involve negative / unhelpful suggestions
• Healing old traumatic wounds involves a regression to an earlier traumatic time, and
• Unwanted behaviors such as overeating can be traced back to traumatic events / emotions
• Hypnotherapy can help you revisit these events and emotions and resolve them comfortably

1. The Perfectionist Mindset

• The perfectionist mindset: “I need to fix it” or “I need to do it perfectly”
• “Perfectionism is the pursuit of Death” (It’s impossible to attain, so you’ll die trying)
• Understand and “lean into” the perfectionism (What does perfectionism look and feel like?)
• What sort of purpose is perfectionism serving? (mainly, to keep us safe from criticism)
• You can choose not to pick up the sword of perfectionism….you can try a Kevlar vest
• Flexibility is the solution to perfectionism
• You can try asking your perfectionism to take a step back if it’s not serving you well

1. Final Thoughts on Chaos during COVID-19

• It’s okay to not feel okay right now
• Give yourself some permission to take a break
• Liz demonstrates a simple mindfulness practice that can “anchor” you, and help you settle into stillness and let go of any chaos.

Resources from Dr. Liz:

YouTube:    Your Zen Within | Relax with Dr. Liz

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.lizlistens/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrLizlistens

Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/DrLizFacebook

website: www.drlizlistens.com

email: [email protected]

Listen to Calming the Chaos!

Main podcast website: calmingthechaos.libsyn.com

YouTube (Videos): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qISnLR8T4g-bSDu-pW9LQ?view_as=subscriber

YouTube (Playlists): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qISnLR8T4g-bSDu-pW9LQ/playlists?view_as=subscriber

iTunes and Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/calming-the-chaos/id1489271578?ls=1

Podbay: https://podbay.fm/podcast/1489271578

HubHopper: https://hubhopper.com/podcast/calming-the-chaos/102122

Visit Tracy’s Website at www.lokahicounseling.com

Email Tracy at [email protected]

Tracy also created a mindfulness CD called “On This Day.” This CD teaches you how to practice mindfulness in less than 10 minutes throughout the day. Practicing mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress and increase clear thinking in times of chaos.

You can purchase the CD on Amazon at http://bit.ly/onthisdaycd. or in digital format at https://music.apple.com/us/album/on-this-day/1209386067

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Thanks for listening, and take care!