The Subconscious Solution: How Hypnotherapy Can Transform Your Habits w/ Ethan Reis
Most of what we do runs on autopilot, guided by the subconscious. So what happens when you learn how to work with it on purpose? In this episode, I sit down with hypnotherapist Ethan Rees to unpack how hypnotherapy helps rewire the brain, calm the nervous system, and make behavior change actually stick. We explore the science behind hypnosis, the truth about suggestibility, and how working beneath the surface can help you build a healthier relationship with alcohol and yourself. Okay, Ethan.
Speaker 1:Thanks for coming on today.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Excited. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. This is something I think a lot of people are really interested in. Some people have heard about it, but they might not know a lot about it, and that is hypnotherapy. And you're gonna bring some of your expertise, inform everybody here, and maybe at the end, they might think this might be a path for them.
Speaker 1:So let's get started with the beginning. How did you first get into hypnotherapy?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was actually a client. I went for hypnotherapy to fix things that were going on with me. My first introduction was just for nicotine. I finished college and wanted to stop vaping.
Speaker 2:And then I went and saw a hypnotherapist. She put me through the program, and it's I have not touched nicotine since. But the bigger introduction is couple years after that, I was suffering from really debilitating chronic pain, dysfunction in my eye as a result of a concussion. A lot of depression came from it and I was in a place, a really difficult, dark place where I was unable to recover and I really didn't see any path forward. I reached out to my hypnotherapist from the nicotine.
Speaker 2:I said, hey, can you just hypnotize me to be happy? And she started to well, as we spoke together, she started to paint this picture of what was actually going on in my life, which was there were all these outside factors that were causing a lot of stress. I was resisting a lot of stuff going on. I was unwilling to process it. And, really, what was happening was my nervous system was so messed up that I was not in a position to feel myself.
Speaker 2:So after two sessions of arguing with her about how my issues are in me, I started to accept what she was saying, and at that point, I saw incredible healing changes. I've been working in the field since.
Speaker 1:It's such a good story. I mean, it's the same route that I took that we're having this conversation too because I saw firsthand. I lived it. I went through it. I experienced it, and so did you.
Speaker 1:And I I love when those stories start there and progress because no better perspective is to be put in the shoes of the person that you're trying
Speaker 2:to help.
Speaker 1:So I love that, like, that's where it started for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I agree. And, also, like, just speaking of what you just said, and I don't know if it's your experience, but usually when people come to hypnotherapy, they've tried other modalities. There's a level of, like, really desperation. So the fact that if they're coming in such that fragile desperate state to be able to truly empathize and to say, I understand, and I know you can get through it because not only I've seen it with people, but I've seen it with myself too.
Speaker 2:That's really special. And I'm sure that's something that you're able to talk to people about that it worked for you, and it could work for other in your experiences. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Absolutely. So so you had these issues once in college with nicotine. The other was with debilitating pain and basically desperation to get through some of these difficult times in your life. And so now on the flip side, you're the one helping other people that might be in the same shoes.
Speaker 1:But for anyone that might be listening, I think most people are beyond the understanding of parlor tricks and shows where somebody gets hypnotized on stage. Right. You know? And, I'm reminded of, like, that nineteen fifties movie. I think it was, like, Flubber where he eat a potato, I think, and he was told it was an apple or something like that.
Speaker 1:So But but for anybody who doesn't know from the movies or whatever, like, can you explain what hypnotherapy actually is?
Speaker 2:So that is real. You can make someone eat a potato and think it's an apple.
Speaker 1:No way. Okay.
Speaker 2:The thing is and it's kind of I'll say it's the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy, which is what we see on TV and on stages, it's hypnosis. Right? You're doing you're using the power of suggestibility to do cool tricks. And it's possible, but, I mean, a little behind the scenes is they are calling people up on stage who they know are suggestible. They do tricks.
Speaker 2:They might scratch their face and see who else in the audience can scratch their face mirroring them. Right? There's, like, suggestive tendencies. So those are the people that can do the crazy stuff on stage. They're very suggestible and they also kind of want it.
Speaker 2:That's not what hypnotherapy looks like. I always say that if someone can eat a potato and don't think it's an apple, it shows the power of hypnosis. But that's not my process. So for me hypnotherapy is very similar to it's a powerful guided meditation. So you're gonna be laying down or sitting with your eyes closed, rhythmic breathing, listening to my words.
Speaker 2:What hypnosis is for me and for most hypnotherapists is guiding you into this safe, peaceful state. And what happens when you go into that state following the correct cues is heart rate variability will change, your brain waves will change, and your brain, your nervous system, heart, all these things are actually in a position to take in new information. We have all of these defense mechanisms and techniques in our life that make it so we want to stay in place. Homeostasis, right? That's what it's known as in the cells.
Speaker 2:That's a factor in us as a complete entity as well as a human. So there's all these things that want to keep us in place. The state of hypnosis is so relaxing that we're able to bypass those resistances and actually implement new things, release old things, and then reinforce these new preferred Does that make sense? God. Questions?
Speaker 1:No. That makes total sense. And, yeah, getting into a place where you feel safe absolutely is necessary to make breakthroughs, and I think there's different mechanisms that can get you there, and that's this is one that we're talking about. So you mentioned one thing in there, and that is suggestibility. And that is, like, somebody's you know, you could tell me the actual term for that, but but suggestibility as in who can be hypnotized maybe easier.
Speaker 1:So before we go down this rabbit hole, where where do you see, like, as far as how many people can be hypnotized in a ratio, you know, in a room of one you know, 10 or
Speaker 2:something like that. Suggestibility isn't who can be hypnotized. It's how they are hypnotized. Everyone can be hypnotized. If you think of the stage hypnosis show, every single person in that audience can be hypnotized with hypnotherapy.
Speaker 2:That being said, only a small percentage of people are suggestible directly to the sense that it would work for stage hypnosis. So in the first session, when I work with people, part of it is asking specific questions that tells me their suggestibility, meaning not if they're hypnotizable or not, but how do I have to do it? Some people you could say you're getting sleepy, and they go, okay. I'm getting sleepy. Sometimes I have to ask someone, what what does sleepiness feel like for you?
Speaker 2:And then they infer, and they start to go in their mind to think about sleep. Next thing you know, they are actually feeling those those symptoms of sleepiness. Right? So that is suggestibility in the sense of do you have to infer, or can you be direct?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay. So what I wanna know, you know, since we're on this topic of, you know, the stage hypnosis. So in hypnotherapy, are people fully in control compared to being hypnotized on stage?
Speaker 2:Yes. Now that being said, you're also completely in control on the stage hypnosis. If you went up there completely unwilling to do it, it wouldn't work. You there's a part of you inside that really wants to cluck like the chick bark the dog, thinks it's cool and silly and wants to see what it's like. You are, to some extent, giving yourself permission to be hypnotized.
Speaker 1:Got it. Okay. So you definitely have to go into this willingly. It's not like something that if you don't believe it's gonna work, it's probably not gonna work.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah. And that's a bigger that's a bigger well, so when you are paying for a session, you are motivated to create the change. Right? So it's more of something I'll see with parents where a parent will say, like, my kid is vaping or drinking, and I wanna stop that.
Speaker 2:And that's a little trickier because then it's really I you need the participation of the person receiving the hypnosis. So if the kid wants to quit vaping, excellent. But if he doesn't, it's much harder.
Speaker 1:Okay. So you talked a you talked a little bit about, like, high level of what's going on in the body, in the mind, in the brain. And what is it about hypnotherapy? Is this one of those things that you should pursue as, like, when traditional therapy and other modes of, like, maybe coaching aren't working? Or is this something that, like, if you're called to, this is a good first step potentially?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I it's a great first step. It's also very effective when you've gone through other modalities and you have an understanding of what's going on. Right? The people who I see that come to me and say, I've seen a therapist and I know this, this, and this, but I still can't make the change.
Speaker 2:You know, that's just putting us a couple steps ahead. Right? There's less diving in and exploring what's going on and why they know that already. So but it it really it really doesn't matter. It could be for anyone.
Speaker 2:The the difference between, I'd say, hypnotherapy and traditional talk therapy is with talk therapy, and I'm a big advocate for it. I've done it myself for times. It's good. But talk therapy, you're discussing the issue, and maybe you come up with a plan of action. Right?
Speaker 2:But that's where it stops. We only have our conscious mind is like 12% of our brain's executive function, and the other half is the subconscious mind, and that goes to the work of hypnotherapy. That's why we have decisions and that doesn't lead to the actual actions that we take. So we say we're gonna do something and that follow through is lacking, that's when hypnotherapy is gonna be affected. If you want things in light to add, to eliminate, to change, and you can't make that change, hypnotherapy is the place to go.
Speaker 1:Got it. Yeah. So if we're breaking things down, like, basically, there's one set of self work where you're processing and working through problems, but you might not necessarily, like, lead to next steps on that. Like, you're working through issues. And then you have on the other side, maybe we'll put it in the category of behavior change where you might need to uncover some of those those issues to work through.
Speaker 1:However, it's still also tied to next steps and changing things within your life. Like, ways so you would say that hypnotherapy is very well matched for, like, behavior change?
Speaker 2:Yes. For sure. And I would say there's also, like, powerful therapeutic work that can be done in hypnosis. So it's behavioral, yes, but the bigger question is why do
Speaker 1:we do the way we
Speaker 2:do it. And that is something that you could dive into with traditional therapy, could also use hypnotherapy for. Our sessions are about an hour and forty minutes of it is talk therapy and twenty minutes of hypnosis. So there's a lot of time to explore those things. But even identifying, oh, I had a bad childhood and that caused these behaviors in my life, that doesn't necessarily get it to stop.
Speaker 2:Right? We still might have to release. We might have to go deeper and have maybe a conversation with ourselves, with our past self, whatever it might be. And those are other hypnotic modalities that we can use to help create change.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you you talked about our past self. So let me dig into that a little bit. Like, are there things that, like, you're stepping into hypnotherapy that will come about in regularity that maybe you had no idea that you were stepping into a dress?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, if someone, the best example for that would be ADHD. Where some people with ADHD have a chemical disbalance in their brain, brain, right, that causes that.
Speaker 2:But a lot of people, ADHD is a learned If we go through life, especially as a young child, and we are not the happiest with our environment, maybe it's our parents fighting, maybe school's really difficult, but it's safer emotionally to escape and to associate. Or if we, fail early in life, it's safer to procrastinate than to take action and potentially fail. Right? So these are the you could have no idea that this is the cause of your ADHD behaviors, and, really, it's just this learned behavior for your child. So, yeah, it's we really have to dive in with everyone and explore the true reason of what's going on and why.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, sometimes when you do that, I I liken it too, and there's different ways to do this, and this seems very relevant here with hypnotherapy. But, like, we always wanna take things, like, head on, like, so to speak, break the front door down. And sometimes there's ways to looking at things differently where you simply just walk around the back and the the door is open on the backside. And that'll, like, open up everything that you've been trying to do and also create change.
Speaker 1:Whereas we've, like, all our lives, we're just pounding against this thing and trying to make it work or maybe through willpower. I've gotta change this one thing, but maybe there are other things that you need to change that will indirectly cascade into change in the ways you really want to change.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So you said willpower. I mean, I tell everyone the conscious mind contains logic, reason, willpower, decision making, and analysis. And one of my mentors said those are the things that you have until you need to use them, and then they're gone. Right?
Speaker 2:Like, we have willpower in decision making until it's time to stop to put the drink down or it's time to put the cigarette. Right? And then it's gone. So these things we have, but the conscious mind is, as I said, really 12% of the executive functioning and the actions that we take in life. And the rest is the subconscious mind, and it is determined by our past associations, our experiences in life, and how we determine them to be safe or unsafe.
Speaker 2:And, generally, we develop behaviors in life that make us feel the most comfortable. So for someone with ADHD, procrastinating or dissociating feels comfortable. For someone who drinks, drinking feels comfortable. Maybe it's boredom or maybe it's guilt, an emotion that they don't wanna sit with. Right?
Speaker 2:So we do something to feel better. And that's what I'm learning is how every human on Earth is built, is our past experience is determined the way we act in life. And it's okay as soon as we learn how to work with it. Right? And then we can work against these changes.
Speaker 2:Right? Find vices that are healthier, like breath work as opposed to drink or smoke. Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Totally. And, you know, when you talk about willpower or, like, agency, I mean, those are finite resources that we have as in to say they will eventually run out at some point. So we have to go deeper than that and have alternatives and backup plans and and also a mindset shift. But I wanna get into hypnotherapy as it relates to the show and alcohol.
Speaker 1:But beef before we do, let me ask you, is there any science that you could pull or cite or studies? Not in detail, but some things that hint to, hey. This stuff actually works as it relates to behavior change.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So there are so many clinical research articles nowadays, and I'm happy that I'm a hypnotherapist in 2025. I'm not, like, 1995 because there's less of it's more accepted now. And even someone who might not believe it, there's evidence that I can show. So there is constant research and studies done on every single presenting issue in hypnotherapy.
Speaker 2:And I said earlier I'll send them to you so you can upload them with my information if people want to really dive into it themselves. But generally hypnotherapy has been proven to be equally effective or more effective than the general practice. So when we're talking about pain management, generally hypnotherapy has been highly effective for people who, have contraindications with pain medication. So you just had surgery and you can't take opioids. Well, hypnotherapy has been proven to be really effective.
Speaker 2:So that's an example post surgery.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask you this because I already know if I say, is hypnotherapy effective when it comes to changing your relationship with alcohol and behavior change? But let me ask you a little bit of a different one, and that is how does it actually work in practice? Like, what's being rewired as it relates to alcohol?
Speaker 2:Right. So, I mean, everyone's relationship with alcohol is a little different, but I I think one thing that's probably unique is or not unique is common with everyone is we feel something and we go to the drink. Or we feel something so we keep drinking. Or we right? Like, there's it's a the relationship with drinking has to do with certain thoughts or certain feelings in the body.
Speaker 2:And that is something that can change in hypnosis. There are, and I was just saying this earlier with the client, there are stressors in life and there's stress. The stressors are uncontrollable things, traffic and taxes and things that objectively can cause stress in life. But the stress is our response to it. That is the hypnosis and hypnotherapy work, which is changing how we respond to things.
Speaker 2:Just because we're bored or we feel a certain emotion or we have a thought we don't like does not mean we have to go and drink. Right? And in fact, the so that's one thing. And then another thing is creating space between the impulse and the act. Right?
Speaker 2:It's easier to say, I'm not gonna drink. It's another thing to actually create space when you feel that pull versus doing. So, usually with alcohol, the first thing we work on is the nervous system, is how are we responding to stress and light, and to what extent are we using alcohol to change that feeling, and how can we use other things, breath work and hypnotherapy, to regulate the nervous system. And then once there's I consider that to be like the roots. And then we can go into the branches and the flowers.
Speaker 2:And so for this, the branches and the leaves are the drinking. So there are tools like a hypnotic anchor, which helps create a pause mechanism in between that impulse center. There is then work we can do going into your inner child. Right? Maybe this is really deep rooted.
Speaker 2:Maybe that maybe you as a child never learned how to process emotions. Right? So we have to go in and provide that foundation. One thing that I will never do is just eliminate the alcohol. That is very and and that's the case for alcohol, drugs, smoking.
Speaker 2:Like, we're using those things as coping mechanisms to feel better. And we can't just eliminate them because we need to learn alternatives. If I take away alcohol and that's the only thing someone knows, why are they not gonna go to smoking or drugs or something else? Right? So it's regulating the nervous system.
Speaker 2:It's learning new techniques, replacement, and healthier behavior techniques, and then releasing and letting go of the original, which is the drink. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yes. A 100%. And, you know, I love that you said that. It's like, there aren't it's not prescriptive. It's not saying this is what you have to do.
Speaker 1:It's opening a space for somebody to realize what they're doing and then in their own time with intention, of course, be able to change that behavior instead of, like, cutting it off, which is, you know, and said here is that that could cause another seeking of a maybe an unhealthy coping mechanism. So you can't just slice it off and just expect it to go away. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's one of the harder things that's starting with hypnotherapy, which is people think it's like this magic tool. I snap my fingers, and they're never gonna drink it. Right? Or they'll hate alcohol. And that's not, a, that's not how I work, and, b, I don't like, I say we're gonna create lasting changes.
Speaker 2:To me, that's not a lasting That could be great for two weeks until someone dies or you lose your job. Right? Until something happens in life where you need to have, a tolerance for discomfort as opposed to just going to the vice. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know what I I think probably some people might be wondering, and I know that I would be as well. Like, for example, like, when I was over drinking and overdoing it, I'd always be like, why am I doing this? It's not like I had a good childhood. No trauma like, no capital t trauma.
Speaker 1:I had a good life. You know, I was successful. Like, why was I turning to this one thing? And I you know, the only thing I could really turn to is like, hey. It's it's the only way I could say it's quitting time.
Speaker 1:I'm bored. And I kept thinking, like, it must be deeper than this. Like, why would I have this issue that's so strong in my life without a really strong answer as to why it's happening? Yeah. Are you seeing, and sometimes there just isn't an answer to that.
Speaker 1:Right? Like, there's no uncover secret in your mind locked away in your subconscious that is driving that. Sometimes it is just a matter of what I said. But in working with people, does that sometimes come up?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's not always this horrible thing that happened in your childhood. Like, these are learned behaviors. Right? And and and these are habits that we develop over time.
Speaker 2:And if you repeat something and you associate and attach emotions, positive emotions, to that thing, then we begin to seek it and repeat it time and time again. So if it's, oh, it's quitting time, I'm gonna pour the drink, and it's fun and it becomes this ritual for you. Well, you've just created a habit. Right? And in this example, well, alcohol, you know, releases chemicals in your brain that makes you feel good.
Speaker 2:So now you are at least initially. Right? So now you are reinforcing a habit that you're building with a chemical Right? So it doesn't always have to be, oh, I had an issue as a kid. It's just how do we go through life?
Speaker 2:How do we reinforce these behaviors to end up? And, yeah, it's important sometimes to identify what happened in the past. I don't work in the past, especially with trauma, and especially with capital t Trauma. It's important to understand that we're acting a certain way now based on what what happened in the past, but we're gonna leave it in the past. We're gonna focus on right now.
Speaker 2:It's that no longer serves you at this moment, and we can let it go. Right? And you're safe in this moment, so we can let it go.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like that a lot. And I like the tie in to a lot of this show is around learned habits, the habit loop, and neuroscience and breaking those things and having awareness and having strategy around it, but also, like, just understanding it at the core. So this seems like perfect plug in potential tool to everything that we talk about here. So I think anybody listening that didn't really have much awareness, some people may have had surface levels, some people might know somebody, and they've already have an understanding or maybe they've even tried it themselves.
Speaker 1:But if somebody listening is interested in in this, what does can you walk us through what a typical session would look like? Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the session's gonna be about an hour. Let's say the first forty minutes is gonna be very similar to talk therapy, but a little more salute solution focused. It's I'd say it's a combination between talk therapy and coaching. And then that last twenty minutes is gonna be hypnosis, and it's gonna be this gentle guided meditation. It's putting you into this relaxing state where the brain's able to open up and take in new information.
Speaker 2:And at that point, you're really just listening to my words and following the cues and enjoying the relaxing feeling. And that relaxing feeling is the main step one, which is regulating the nervous system, showing your body that it's safe, that we don't have to act out of these defensive impulses.
Speaker 1:Will somebody typically walk out and feel like they were in an altered state? Yeah.
Speaker 2:For sure. Usually, people feel incredibly relaxed, sometimes a little lightheaded, very, very calm. The times that doesn't happen are when well, I've worked with people with severe chronic pain who are on a lot of pain medicine, and that sometimes dissociates physically. And I've worked with people who, you know, at a severe level of anxiety sometimes struggle to go into their body. So not everyone feels it the same extent.
Speaker 2:Right? The example I give is, like, I've worked with middle aged, like or sorry, middle America old men who have never considered spirituality hypnotherapy before, and I've worked with, like, a yoga instructor from Miami. Right? And the yoga instructor is gonna go to this, like, floating flying place. She's in the quantum.
Speaker 2:And the guy from Oklahoma might be like, well, it feels like I'm just here. So one thing I do in each session, well, rather the first session, is I point out physiological changes in the body. When you go into hypnosis, your breathing changes, your eyes begin to move in a certain direction. So that's a bit of a proof that it's happening. It's not reliant on that physical sensation that you just described, but most people do feel that.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense as far as some people can drop in easier than others. Are you familiar? And I this might be in the same field or it might be totally different, but have you ever heard of Dave Asprey's forty years of zen?
Speaker 1:No. What is that? So I went to this conference. It was pretty neat. So they had they had it set up with two chairs, and you put an audio on, and, and you put glasses to to eye shades on, and they measure your brain waves.
Speaker 1:And you drop in, you know, theta beta. I I can't cite them because I can't remember what they were measuring. And it's a series of gongs, like long. And it's really interesting. So, like, I do a lot of breath work.
Speaker 1:I do yoga nidra and some other practices. So I I was listening to this, and I'm thinking, I'm in this conference with all these people around, you know, walking by. I'm like, how how much impact could I get from this? But I actually dropped into this thing. It was really weird.
Speaker 1:We can talk on camera because it's off topic, but but it almost it was a totally altered state, and the gong itself almost took on an entity feeling to it interacting with me. But then I had another friend of mine that that was there. He tried it. He doesn't do the same practices I did, and he just didn't have he they measured his brain, and he just did not drop in nearly as fast Right. As I did.
Speaker 1:By no means am I trying to toot my own horn here, but but it was interesting to see, like, the differences just between the exact same experience with measured results, not anecdotal as in us saying that was cool or I, you know, I felt something. So I'd imagine it's probably the same sort of thing for you if you were especially even measure it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, that's why I love hypnotherapy because there are so many modalities that do what you just described in terms of the brain waves. You know, some people are really into ketamine therapy and mushroom therapy is really popular right now. Some people just do breath work and yoga nidra. Some people do the frequencies.
Speaker 2:Right? So all those modalities I just described are meant to put you into this specific state, brain waves, where you're willing to take in new information and create these changes. Right? And that is what happens naturally in hypnosis. Hypnosis.
Speaker 2:So if we were to measure our brain waves, right now we're talking eyes open, we're in beta. If we started talking with our eyes closed, it would be alpha. If we went to sleep, it would be delta. If we were in hypnosis or if you were really in your deep yoga nidra, right, sometimes your mind wanders, sometimes you're great at it, I imagine. Right?
Speaker 2:So measure you, measure me in hypnosis, measure someone doing the ketamine therapy, you would see this sine curve going from theta to alpha, which is the hypnotic state. If you're familiar at all with Joe Dispenza, that's what he considers the manifestation state. All of the work that he does in terms of frequencies to get you. And that's what happens naturally in hypnosis.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah. I love that. And I'm actually reading one of his books right now. It's sitting over on the table over there.
Speaker 1:I'm blinking the other day. Was it, like, unlearning you or what's the forgetting how to be you or something like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I read I read the becoming supernatural one.
Speaker 1:It is breaking the habits of being yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:How to lose your mind and create a new one.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that's I think that was one of his first books. The one I read, becoming supernatural, is a lot of his research because now he runs these events where he's almost like what's the what's motivational speaker who's so famous?
Speaker 1:Tony Robbins?
Speaker 2:Yeah. He's almost like Tony Robbins where he he rents out these giant venues and has these events with thousands of people. And he does what you just described, where he'll play frequencies and will put he will do a group meditation, and everyone will get into that brainwave state. So the book that I was reading talks a lot about his research in doing those courses and the changes that can occur.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That one's on my list too. I've picked it up. It's a little bit thicker than this one, and I saw this on a whim and bought Yeah. Bought it.
Speaker 1:But, it's pretty good so far. I'm not, like, some of the science is, he's really good. I mean, don't get me wrong, but some of the science, I'm like, I'm already bought in, so I don't I'm not the type of person that needs the convincing because I already believe it. Mhmm. You know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And the other book is a lot of the science for sure. Yeah. But it also goes but it's also cool because well, it's good for, you know, the field that I'm in because I wanna know that science so I can then explain it to other people. He has a chapter in that book about how to properly, like, manifest And the science behind it and why it works versus why it doesn't work.
Speaker 2:And that was awesome. And him explaining the science allowed me to create my own method for myself, for my healing, and now things that I can use with my clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. That makes total sense for you. And and I'm bearing with it. I'm just going through it, I'm saying, you know what?
Speaker 1:The it's here for a reason. So I'm gonna, trust the process. So
Speaker 2:I did the audiobook. It was a long book.
Speaker 1:What'd you say?
Speaker 2:The audiobook. It was a long you're right. It's a long book. I listened to
Speaker 1:Probably, like, eighteen or twenty hours or something. Right? Let me ask you. So if somebody comes in to work with you, is there a for expectations, is there a general rule of thumb before you could start to, I mean, I don't think anybody's gonna say, I'm cured, but maybe they are because, you know, you have the nicotine, for example, is shows that you there there can be a success measure there. Is there, like, a typical amount of minimum to give it a chance and then also start seeing results?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's a tough question to answer. I have worked I yeah. So I've seen incredible results in one session. I worked with someone last year who had an outbreak of Crohn's disease, and he had severe pain and symptoms.
Speaker 2:And one session, and he was basically in remission for months after that. Like, that's Wow. That's incredible. And that's one session. So the changes are possible, but I wanna create lasting change.
Speaker 2:Right? I'm not just eliminating the alcohol. We're learning new behaviors and reinforcing. So, generally, you know, let's identify what's going on. Let's break it down.
Speaker 2:Let's learn new behaviors, and let's reinforce them. That is a good outline for four sessions. Six is a great plan for people because, generally, there's resistance. It's not as straightforward as that. With alcohol, I worked with someone maybe six times.
Speaker 2:He was actually with me for OCD and for noises, like chewing, people chewing out loud really freaked him up. And the drinking was a secondary thing where just he would the end of the day, he was drinking every day, and he wanted that to stop. And we worked on it not directly. And I think after, like, three sessions, his alcohol consumption had dropped significantly. And probably at that third or fourth session, his he was at the relationship he wanted with alcohol, which was he felt like he could drink on a Saturday and have one beer and be fine, which is what he wanted as opposed to starting and not being able to stop and doing that multiple times a week.
Speaker 2:He got to that point in just a couple sessions. It depend well, it depends your relationship. The founder of my hypnotherapy school is the biggest advocate for AA or narcotics anonymous. And he says when you're dealing with actual addiction, right, then you want a team and you want professionals. And hypnotherapy is a great tool if you're using it with AA, for example.
Speaker 2:But when you're just talking about shifting the relationship, you can start to see if you're motivated, you can start to see changes quickly.
Speaker 1:Very cool. I love that and incredible to hear those results, you know, whether they're difficult for everybody or not. It sounds like you just, you know, the depth of the issue, the personality, everything. They're just so much nuance. But let me ask you, are there let's say you get to a point where you're really happy with with the outcome of what you've done so far.
Speaker 1:Do you are there, like, maintenance kind of, like, appointments that you make? Like, how do you get long standing change here?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, I mean, I like to end it where if I never see you again, you have tools to continue on on your own. That being said, a check-in session is super helpful and effective. I usually, you know, it's not like traditional therapy where it's just a standing up. We work based on solving this problem and maybe go a couple sessions after to see it's working.
Speaker 2:And at that point, if you want a check-in, that would be awesome. You know, once a month, what's going on? What do we need to tweak or work on? And I mean, honestly, to be in a super relaxed state once a month is like a reset. I mean, that would benefit everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Why not? Of course. We all need that. We all need to get into those states whether whether it's hypnotherapy or whatever, modality that speaks to you.
Speaker 1:So before we go, I wanna ask, you, how do you handle skepticism? Right. So
Speaker 2:part of it is you're paying, and you're here. So So to some extent, the skepticism is not there. There's more skeptics when you're just having a conversation, like, out in public about hypnotherapist. But I'd say half of the energy I spend on the first session is really getting them into a mindset of what this is actually gonna be, which is this is a learning tool. This is going to help facilitate change, but it's not this magic switch.
Speaker 2:Right? Usually, that first session helps show that it works because, as I said, I point out those physiological changes. Like, you can say it's not working until I talk about your you wanting to swallow and your lips getting tight, and that happens. Right? That's kind of an, crap.
Speaker 2:It worked. Where at the end you're in this incredibly relaxed state. That usually gets people to buy in. But really it's just properly framing it. I often with people who saw another hypnotherapist and they say, I wasn't hypnotized.
Speaker 2:And I listened to their experience and they were in a deep level. They just weren't told what hypnosis actually is. So it's really just getting to the level of the client and making sure they understand what this action is and how it's gonna work.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Providing the information, not trying to convince them of anything. And then also, like, there's like, we've covered today plenty of science and studies that that back it all up. So alright.
Speaker 1:Before we go, this has been incredible. I hope anybody here is, like, kinda motivated if they've been thinking about it. But if they wanna reach out to you, Ethan, what's the best thing that, what is the best place they can go to find out more information and potentially if they have questions for you or interest in working with you?
Speaker 2:For sure. So I'll give you all that information. My name is Ethan Riceborn. My website's ethanricehypnotherapy.com. It's r e I s, so ethinreishypnotherapy.com.
Speaker 2:And there you can reach out to me directly. It has a lot of FAQs, my blog, and then my email ethan.rice21@gmail.com. I'll give you my cell phone also. So a lot of different resources to reach out. I also I offer a free consultation.
Speaker 2:So before I work with you, we'll talk, and we'll make sure that it's the right fit, and you have a good idea of the process and the solutions before we even get started.
Speaker 1:Great. I love it. Well, if anybody's interested, reach out to Ethan. Ethan, thanks for taking the time, sharing your information, your expertise, and all you do to help people work through whatever they're dealing with. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. This was really cool. Thanks for having me.
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