Nicholas Pollak

When my wife recently had home improvements done, the changes were upsetting because I run my hypnotherapy practice from home. I make sure everywhere in a client’s sightlines is tidy. Coincidentally, my first client of the day had found that doing things by rote is a problem. It also is an issue for me.

Clinical hypnotherapy, which I have been practicing now for 23 years, is an amazing tool to help anyone create vocational or avocational changes. Clinical hypnotherapy helps you to overcome challenges of stress, anxiety, nervousness, fears, phobias, panic attacks, overeating that causes unwanted weight gain, smoking, insomnia, lack of self-esteem, shyness, sadness, anguish, grief and more.

People visit a hypnotist for all manner of reasons. One gentleman spent three years in weekly sessions with a psychiatrist but left disappointed because the therapist had not helped him. The gentleman was uncommonly successful. A surgeon, he had started, managed and sold two medical companies before he was 50, his present age. Recently this father of three went through an amicable divorce. Within two minutes of sitting down with me, he was ...

I have been receiving calls for procrastination, asking if hypnosis would help a procrastinator. One woman called while I was in a session. She gave me her number so I could call her back within an hour. I did. The call went to voice mail. I left a message. I telephoned twice more. I did not leave messages. Three days later, she called. She apologized. This delay was symptomatic of her procrastination. She says many days she sits, stares, does nothing.

A client told me today she appreciated the vignettes I told. At 87, she understands a world my parents had taught me a lot about. This knowledge helped me to establish a wonderful connection with her. I was able to use these amazing stories of overcoming tremendous obstacles as motivation for her difficulties.

I have mentioned before how powerful hypnosis is for those willing to try, how effective it can be when conducted via Skype. NPR recently carried had a five- minute segment on how web therapy is becoming popular, in particular amongst those 35 or younger.

Hypnosis cannot make you do something you do not want to do, not anything you wouldn’t do in a waking state. A gentleman recently called me to help his girlfriend quit smoking. It was no surprise to me when he called again to cancel. Something had come up with her children. He said he would rebook. He has not. He wanted his girlfriend to stop smoking, but, she came up with excuses. More than two months later, we can conclude she did not want ...

Patience is a virtue. Virtue is a grace. Grace is a little girl who never washed her face. How little patience we have. You have noticed how people are in a hurry. Those much more aggressive seem to have no patience. They will push past you going through a door, cut in front of you in a line. Their look says, “You are doing wrong. I’m not.”

Sometimes my clients are disappointed when they feel the hypnosis they have undergone is not working for them. They stop coming. A lady who had vestiphobia (fear of wearing clothing.) stopped coming after her third session because she believed ...

A 43-year-old woman asked me to resolve several matters on her life, starting with her apparent memory of having been abused as a child. It was a therapist she had been seeing for a year who suggested she had been abused. She had not. The therapist unfortunately was among those who believe all issues stem from childhood. Concluding her reactions to relationships were not normal, he leaped wrongly. The client refused to accept ...