Interested in working with me?
I look forward to it! Please visit www.gshypnosis.com to learn more about my private HypnoCoaching sessions, corporate retainer options, and speaking fees.
Interested in finding a hypnotherapist near you?
When choosing a hypnotherapist, please make sure the person is certified with a minimum of a 250-hour program from a reputable instructor within a reputable association, such as IACT (www.hypnosisalliance.com/iact/iact_find_a_practitioner_form.php), NGH (ngh.net/referrals/request-form/), or IHF (hypnosisfederation.com/directory-user-listing/).
Additionally, a number of the students who graduated at the top of their class from my Grace Space Hypnotherapy School offer phone sessions and can work with you from anywhere in the world. If you would like to work with a hypnotherapist who was personally trained by me, you can book your sessions by visiting www.gshypnosis.com.
Interested in becoming a certified hypnotherapist?
There is no other way to say it: becoming a hypnotherapist is incredibly rewarding. Whether you would be adding the skill of hypnotherapy to an existing practice or launching a brand-new career, I commend you for your interest in helping others Close Their Eyes and Get Free! Grace Space Hypnotherapy School is my 250+–hour certification course that includes both online and in-person components. At the time of writing this, my students hail from all over the world, including the USA, Germany, Estonia, Costa Rica, and the Cayman Islands. Upon successful completion of all coursework and exams, my students are certified by IACT (the International Association of Counselors and Therapists), among other associations, should they choose to register with more than one. I look forward to seeing you in class! For more information, visit www.gshypnosis.com.
On Sobriety and Addiction
I want to take a moment to revisit what we discussed in Chapter 10 about addiction. Consider how learning to play an instrument may be anything but joyful in the moment when you’re learning a new scale, but the ability of being able to create music for the rest of your life is a source of endless joy. Taking six shots to celebrate something might seem fun in the moment, but it’s going to suck later on. Not just the next morning, but when the body, liver, skin, and brain begin to break down from all that poison over time. Take a moment now to examine your regular behaviors and ask yourself whether your habits tend to favor long-term joy or long-term pain. If you’re leaning toward long-term pain, read on.
A lie we’ve been told repeatedly is that alcohol is fun, less dangerous than drugs (as evidenced in the fact that marijuana is illegal in most states and yet alcohol is sold at my local farmers’ market, the movie theater, and Chuck E. Cheese) and that life without alcohol is “boring” and “uncool.” Except for that, according to the NIAAA, globally, alcohol misuse is the fifth leading risk factor for premature death and disability. Among people between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine, it is the number one leading risk factor for premature death and disability.1
There are two reasons I’m spending time on this: (1) I believed the lie; I spent over $1,000/month on alcohol in NYC (albeit not that hard to do even without an issue, when a martini is $14); I danced all night, went to parties in lofts, had scandalous stories to tell later… in short, I get it. I wanted to be cool and I believed for a long time that drugs and alcohol were a mandatory part of that persona. (2) This book is about freedom, how to get free from the things that are holding us back from living our best life. If you have a sneaking suspicion that alcohol, or any other form of addiction, is keeping you from living your best life, please know that you’re in good company and you can break free from this.
The good news is that fewer people are drinking—sobriety is becoming cool! My friend Andrea Rice wrote an article called “It’s Hip to Be Sober”2 that went viral; Google it—it is an awesome and inspiring read. In summation, if you’re regretting your decisions after a few glasses of something, on any kind of regular basis, before you even hope to see a smidgen of what hypnotherapy can do for you, I lovingly suggest that you hop on the gravy train and get hip with sobriety.
This does not mean hypnotherapy can’t help you achieve sobriety; it can! But investing in hypnotherapy because you want to stop biting your nails or lose weight when overindulging is still on the schedule eight days a week is honestly just not the best use of your time or money. My advice? Switch your priorities around, break through the addiction first, then the sky is truly the limit.
Need help? You’re not alone. According to the NIAAA, approximately 17 million adults in the United States aged eighteen and older had an AUD (alcohol use disorder) in 2012. Adolescents can be diagnosed with an AUD as well. Visit www.niaaa.nih.gov and www.aa.org for help today. While alcohol was my primary vice, this section applies to anything you may be abusing: food, drugs, credit card limits, and so on. Google support groups for your particular vice and prepare to learn how good it feels to be truly free.