Hypnotherapy for Filipino Women: Is it Effective?

Afraid that your therapist will make you quack like a duck? 

Hypnotherapy is using the tool of altered deep state of relaxation, called Hypnosis into a therapeutic process to achieve healing, clarity & deep insight not easily achieved in the traditional single-approach like talk therapy. 

Why hypnotherapy with Filipino women you may ask?

Let me get into that in just a few blinks, I promise. I just want to make sure I give good ‘ol talk therapy a little stroke.

Traditional therapy has helped many,  to change their minds, their habits, heal their wounds and reframe their limiting beliefs.

I cannot fully claim that I don’t use talk therapy at all because for one, I don’t do sign language and two, words DO matter.

Therapy should not be more painful than the original issue you came in for. But  it can be very frustrating to be told that the finish line to your healing is no end in sight. 

Imagine running a marathon not knowing if you’re running a full or a half-marathon from the getco. 

Am I close enough? Do I have a ways to go or only a few yards away from the yellow finisher tape that had been the focal point for my your every step?

IS HYPNOTHERAPY EFFECTIVE?

Studies show that hypnosis can be an effective treatment for depression, anxiety and other stress related disorders. 

In addition, months and years of sit-down therapy can be trimmed down to  shorter-term therapy. Every person is different so the term short-term value is relative. But, the point is you won’t have to score gray hair before you can graduate from seeing your therapist. 

A psychotherapy study published in American Health Magazine revealed the following recovery rates:

Hypnotherapy bypasses a lot of the chit-chat that happens in talk-therapy. Mind you, talking is a good thing especially for some of us, Filipino women who have repressed our self-expression in exchange to obedience & loyalty. 

In deep trance, you can easily remember imprints of the past that gives you access to your old story. It’s like watching an old movie in your mind & landing the premium front seat where you can hear, see, and notice everything.

By accessing the REAL scoop of the past, you activate your power to heal because when you’re able to reconcile old stories that no longer serve you,  you are no longer at it’s bondage. From there, you can rewrite your own story to the one that TRULY belongs to you.

Story Therapy: Watching Your life Transform.

STORY THERAPY 

In having the experience working with Filipino women & women of color in general, I find that the therapy of relying on talking  (as in talk therapy) does not always do justice to stories untold.

 In fact, I find that the easiest stories to tell are the ones told by elders & cultural bearers. Stories we’ve absorbed as our own as soon as we started slurping our first pancit (Filipino noodle). 

Unknowingly & without our permission, these stories become our dominant story. 

Story Therapy is an approach in therapy that I created using the science & art of story-telling, using metaphors, & hypnotherapy to uncover the treasure map to your OWN Story, the one you were meant to breath life into.

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As a Filipina Psychotherapist raised in the Islands (Philippines), I long to search for an approach that serve the individual aspiration & the cultural needs of Filipino women. I wanted to provide a safe place where clients can move as quickly or a slowly to uncover their preferred story.

I also feel that a prescribed approach to doing therapy/counseling/coaching even before you’ve listened to a client’s story is a service that may serve more the practitioner (therapist/coach) over the client. So, I work on a framework rather than a prescription & I tailor it to the one person that comes my way.

Research has found that it is the highly experienced therapists who ascribe to eclectic approaches (Norcross & Prochaska, 1982, Smith, 1982). Conversely, when therapists tend to be inflexible in their approach, using the same approach in all their clients, there is evidence that destructive effects are much more likely to occur (Lieberman, Yalom, & Miles, 1973).

For a 20 minute complimentary consult about Story Therapy, drop me a message here.

MYTHS ABOUT HYPNOTHERAPY

 In an older post,  Filipino Misconceptions About Therapy , I talked about how culture plays a role in stigmatizing mental health & how our perceived notions about therapy can stop us in our track to our own healing.

If there are many myths attached to traditional therapy, hypnosis may give you a bang for your buck. That’s because in history, stage hypnotist have used hypnosis for entertainment. You’ve seen those shows, right?  Where someone starts jumping up & down and coo-cooing like an itchy chicken. Or someone says, that they cannot be hypnotize and suddenly they lie flat on their side with a quick-witted snap. 

I must admit these shows can be quite entertaining. That’s because they were meant to entertain.

Big difference to hypnosis used in therapy where the ultimate purpose is insight, clarity and/or healing. So, you can take a deep breath knowing that no amount of finger snapping can make you forget your name. At least, not the type of hypnotherapy that most healing practitioners use.

ha…..(sigh of relief).

HYPNOTHERAPY FOR FILIPINO WOMEN

If you’ve mustered enough courage to seek out a therapist and there’s little to no movement to your healing despite being in therapy for months, consider changing your course.

If it feels like pulling weeds each time you see your therapist & the weeds keep coming back in the days between sessions, take heart, it’s not you. It’s possible that the style of therapy & approach is one that doesn’t suit you. That’s ok. 

For a 20 minute complimentary consult about Story Therapy, drop me a message here.

Don’t be afraid to asks questions. Find a therapist who can make you feel heard & seen.

It doesn’t mean you have an awful therapist (i hope not) it just means, you don’t have a good-match therapist which is crucial to any therapeutic relationship whether you’re hiring a coach, a consultant or a counselor/therapist for that matter. 

I find that many Filipino women are great storytellers and yet the stories they tell themselves are usually not their own. Interestingly, they don’t even know this or thought this was not the problem. 

One of the root causes of depression and anxiety in non-clinical  terms is not being able to follow your heart’s desire. I know it sounds cheesy but its true.

Think back at the age of 5 through 11 and reminisce-

 what you were good at?

 What do you like doing without an  adult  telling you that  shouldn’t be doing that very thing?

It doesn’t mean that you need to make this desire you’re profession but it may be worth revisiting & see if it still makes your heart sing. For example, you may be a nurse now but at 6 years old, you remember spending hours dressing up your paper dolls. Perhaps, spending some time cultivating this love in a form of drawing, sketching, or using your hands with crafts is an act of giving your parched soul a drink.

It’s incredible of how many people feel better by finding the story that belongs to them & that includes staying true to their heart’s desire.

To some people treasure hunting for this desire is no-sweat. For many of us whose stories have been buried in & within the stories of their loved ones, the treasure hunting takes more effort. 

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Final Thoughts

Hypnotherapy is an incredible medium to heal, clarify and free yourself to the person & story you were meant to live.

Unlike, stage hypnotists, therapist trained in hypnotherapy aren’t rewarded by entertaining its client/audience. My reward as a Psychotherapist using the tool of hypnosis is serving as your guide  to help you link stories of the past to your present, freeing you to a phenomenal now & the future.

The power of hypnotherapy lies in bypassing the thinking-mind to get to the root cause to your issues: what’s keeping you up, stressed & standing in your own way. 

If you have any more questions about hypnotherapy or story therapy, send me a message here. 

Sa uulitin,
Roanne