Episode description

Hypnotherapy is a type of mind–body intervention in which hypnosis is used to create a state of focused attention and increased suggestibility in the treatment of a medical or psychological disorder or concern.

Our guest – Pooja Sethi is a clinical hypnotherapist working with the Australian Hypnotherapy Association (AHA) and helps people get rid of stress, depression, anxiety, & any  other bad vices.

She runs a Facebook group for lifting the spirits of women. All wonderful divas are welcome to join group, search – InspirationalDivas.

As part of her business coaching, Pooja also runs certification courses on SAFe and Agile technologies.

More info on:

https://www.facebook.com/PoojaBharatS/
Instagram – @poojabharatss
Website – www.poojabharat.com
Email – [email protected]

Transcript

The following transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:00:19] Hello and welcome to another episode of Stories of Community Resilience on three triple Z. I am Chris MANIKA Batra and today or tonight, depending on whichever part of the world you are listening to us from, I’ll be talking about the essence of hypnotherapy. How does it help us in our lives? How does it help us in moving on from our lives and how does it help us in general? But before I introduce my guest, as always, I would like to begin the show by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which I’m meeting today, the people of the Kulin Nation. I would also like to pay my respect to the elders past, present and emerging. On that note, I’m joined by Puja Sethi, who is joining us from Sydney. Puja is a clinical hypnotherapist working with Australian Hypnotherapy Association to help people get rid of stress, depression, anxiety and any other bad habits they might have. She runs a Facebook group for lifting the spirit of women as well, and all wonderful divas are welcome to join the group, which is called Inspirational Divas. And last but not the least, as part of their business coaching Puja also runs certification courses on Agile technologies. She and her husband Pooja are committed to serving us to be our best. On that note, Puja, Very good afternoon. How are you doing?

Pooja Sethi: [00:01:32] Hello, Chris. Good afternoon. I’m doing very well. Thank you so much for having me with you on this chat.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:01:39] The pleasure is always mine, Pooja. Thank you and thank you for bringing up such a relevant topic to the community. So let’s start head on first. The first thing that I want to know from you is to our listeners. What is the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy?

Pooja Sethi: [00:01:54] Okay. Yeah, that’s a very good question, Chris, because every time I see one client or the other, this is a common question I face. Like, what do you do hypnosis with me? How would it relate to the hypnotherapy? Is it a therapy or not? So that’s a very good and very valid question to start with, right? So hypnosis is considered a state of mind that involves focused attention and heightened awareness, and it occurs naturally to all of us. For example, when we are reading a book, maybe we are daydreaming, we are driving our car. How many times you have noticed that you are driving the car and just on the verge of taking a turn? You miss that turn because we go in that altered state of awareness of driving the car and we forget to take that turn. And that’s the focused mode is called the hypnosis. That’s a considered state of hypnosis When we are focused on one action, right? You naturally enter into this hypnotic states all the time, maybe various times throughout the day as well. Yeah. While hypnotherapy is a state of mind, which is using the hypnosis in the therapeutic treatment in this state, a qualified therapist will guide you to be in the trance like state of relaxation, and your hypnotherapist will make the suggestions based on the problems that you or the client have given them, and it will enable you to make the changes and your desired level on a deeper state of deeper state of trance and relaxation. Right? So that’s the basic difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:03:35] Thank you. Thank you for spelling that out so clearly because as you mentioned, a lot of us common men, we are very confused with what these terms mean and what is the best alternative for my approach. So thank you for spelling that out. But moving on, Pooja, you know, I’ve heard this a lot in the South Asian community and maybe other than South Asian community as well. There’s a process or a phenomenon called the past life regression. So when when when people conduct or when people go for getting their past life regress, is there any scientific evidence about past life regression? Or if there is not, then how do you kind of provide an relationship between the past and the present?

Pooja Sethi: [00:04:14] Yeah. Okay. I’ll answer this question by asking a question. Have you ever met anyone like you feel like, Oh, I have seen you somewhere or have I have a feeling that I have. We have met before. Like maybe we knew each other in the past life or some time back, but you don’t remember them in the current state, right? So those are the those are the states or the memories that are related that may be related to the past life regression. So past life regression therapy exist to help people explore lives that has gone by. But does it work? And is it even a good idea to begin with? And what the experts and spirituality have to say? There is a lot of conversation and the research on the back of it. And you know what? This is a this is a field which is still under a lot of research. And we as a hypnotherapist readily recognize that the mind may generate spectacular results at certain time. So we as a therapist have recognized the benefits of going into the lives previous past lives, but at the same time, they may be considered as the fantasies or fiction word for the for the scientists, because research has not proven this to be working, working or backed up by the science. Right. But because we have done it as an altered state of, um, altered state of relaxation. So as a hypnotic process, we believe that it is working and it’s, it’s separate memories is just, uh, you know, populated all the time. And we don’t, it’s not backed up by science, but it is still working for your physical and behavioral problems, right? So I would in essence say it is not entirely backed up by the science, but there exists a community of people, hypnotherapist, uh, researchers who have backed up with their experiences, that there is a vehicle that exists in order to alter your current conscious mind, to let go of your problems, physical or behavioral, whatever it is.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:06:37] Absolutely. All right. Thank you, Pooja. That was very that was very clear explanation. I also needed it on some personal level, but thank you. And then the next part that I want to know is which are on an average, when you meet your clients, what does the average success rate of hypnotherapy?

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:06:56] Okay. So as you are asking this question, I would refer to statistics provided by the Forbes. If you ask me, I would say other than the psychotherapy, it works all the time. We don’t do it intentionally and as a part of ethical body, not on the psychotherapist client’s side psychosis clients, but otherwise it works 100%, if you ask me. My personal experience. But from the basis of Forbes statistics, 93% success rate is generated by Hypnotherapists, which is even even more result oriented. When you talk about the problems like have you worked upon the stress related clients? Yes, it works hundred percent for the anxiety problems. Yes, it works 100%. But on an average you can say 93% is the success rates for hypnotherapy.

Pooja Sethi: [00:07:53] Amazing, Amazing. And would you take us through a regular hypnotherapy session? Like for us, common people? Just walk us through what happens when someone walks into a session with yourself.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:08:06] Okay, so what happens during the hypnosis as a therapeutic treatment? Your therapist will guide you in the state of trance, which allows your conscious and the critical mind to enter into the focused attention. It is nothing different than a kind of meditative experience. You will still have your conscious awareness and you remain in control all the time. And that’s the myth I would like to talk about as well. There is a big belief, especially in our Asian communities, you might have heard about it as well, that it is forced to do forced on a person to do anything even without their permission. But in our hypnotherapy, I clearly disagree with this statement and because it involves a loss, it involves a control of your conscious state. No matter how deep and how far you go. Right. It may look like people are being forced into trance, but actually a person being hypnotized is invited to utilize something that already exists in their mind for the capacity to be in the trance. So what happened, To answer your previous question, is you entered into the relaxation state and we can access the incredible resources available to you at your unconscious or subconscious that you may call as well, allowing you to change the programming that has been done to you in the past period.

Pooja Sethi: [00:09:43] It could be past life genealogical or genetic changes. It could be your own experiences that you have built upon and maturity of the people notice themselves that they are able to feel incredibly relaxed. It’s it’s a bit like, you know, pleasant daydreaming experience. Okay. Fair enough. So. So, um, for example, if you have a symptom of anxiety because of some kind of internal conflict, because that’s not under your control, then we have that internal conflict. It needs to be expressed in some way. But before, um, before we go into, uh, you know, expressing it anyway, we started forming all the what if questions. So during hypnotherapy we, we entertain all those internal conflicts in the form of suggestions. Yeah. And give client the suggestions for the safety and security so they feel relaxed in the unconscious level. Yeah. And their thinking skills become active so they can track down the, the internal conflicts rather than going into the overwhelming situation.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:11:02] Makes sense. Makes total sense. Thank you. Pooja, before we let you go, what would be your message of resilience to our listeners?

Pooja Sethi: [00:11:10] Okay. So the first premise of all the therapy, including hypnotherapy, is doing no harm to you or to anyone who is listening this episode. Hypnotherapy is a safe and effective method, arguably the most effective method of helping people to get unstuck. There are no drugs involved. There are no risk of overdoses. There are no side effects as marked on the label itself. So my message to all the audience of this podcast is go for your hypnotherapy sessions or any talk therapy sessions to let go of your internal conflicts, because we all have it. To be resilient in your day to day life, in your activities, in your behaviour, choose alternate therapies rather than, you know, just giving up on the problem. Right.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:12:06] So true. So so very true. And on that note, thank you so much for joining us for such an informative discussion because. We are living in a very crazy time where most of us are dealing through mental health issues, anxiety, stress and most of us don’t know the proper way out. So any of our listeners who have heard us for the first time, I hope you’ve had a lot to take away from Pooja’s experiences, as she mentioned, rightfully in the end. Please do not come. Please do not give up on your problems. Please seek alternative options which are safe for you. And those of you who heard us for a while. I really hope that you like the episodes. For any other information, please write to us. We look forward to hearing from our wonderful audience and listeners. On that note, I’ll be back again with another interesting story of community resilience. Till then, please stay safe and take care of yourself. And Pooja, thank you once again for joining us.

Pooja Sethi: [00:12:58] Thank you, Chris, for having me. Pleasure talking to you.

Chris Mallika Bhadra: [00:13:05] This has been a story of community resilience by three triple zed .