Read more: Exclusives, Health, Local
Be sure to check out Christina's blog about her experience here.
It's been dismissed as a bag of tricks. Nothing more than mere entertainment, but many people seek it as a cure for a lot of different things: Chronic pain, addictions, bad habits…some athletes even use it to get out of slumps.
Fox 21's Christina Salvo underwent several weeks of hypnosis to see if it could cure her of her phobia of snakes.
Q: Dr. Neuger "So what are your goals for today or for our time together Christina? What do you hope to accomplish?
A: Ideally, to be free of this phobia. To be in the same room as a snake. To be able to look at a snake without getting a panic attack.
Q: Would you like to hold a safe snake?
A: That would be wonderful, but honestly I'd consider that a miracle.
After establishing my goals for our hypnosis work Dr. Neuger explains what a hypnotic trance is.
"It's a natural state of mind that everyone is capable of, but maybe aren't aware of. For example when you're driving up the road and realize you don't know what the last couple miles of road looked like that's a hypnotic state. Anytime you've had some pain and got so involved with doing something for a period of time its like you forgot about your pain, that's a hypnotic state. Anytime you've been involved in athletics and been in the zone that's a hypnotic state."
My first step is learning how to enter a hypnotic state to access my unconscious mind.
"The unconscious mind is a huge reservoir of knowledge, strength and ability," said Neuger. "We typically are disconnected from our unconscious, but hypnosis is a way to access that."
There are no pocket watches or pendulums used like you see in the movies. The whole process is not much different from meditation. I am fully awake and aware of what is going on around me the entire time.
In my second visit I get my first message from my unconscious mind, an image of a snake lunging at me, then slithering away. What was the message? "You can get over this, you can do this."
From there each session is a step toward knocking down the road blocks of anxiety and fear. The things keeping me from facing my phobia.
After two one hour sessions a week, for three weeks my photographer decides he thinks I'm ready to see a snake. So at the end of my final session Dr. Neuger asks me if I think I am ready to see a snake.
I nod my head yes, unaware that they made arrangements to have one there. So I take a deep breath and they bring it in. After some tears of joy and disbelief I walk towards the terrarium and put my finger on the glass. I am calm and relaxed. I just accomplished my first two goals! But we still went to the pet store a few days later to get the final heart rate reading, which at its highest was 102 beats per minute and at lowest 99 beats!
But could I accomplish my third goal. The goal I believed was impossible? Yes! Tuesday night Mountain Air Reptile Rescue & Sanctuary brought in a baby corn snake for me to hold.
For a more complete discription of the hypnoic experience you can check out Christina's blog about the entire experience!
Contact information for: Gary J. Neuger, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist
422 E. Vermijo Ave., Suite 305
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
(719) 219-6220
