Using The Power Of Your Mind To Heal Your Body - By Guest Blogger Craig Meriwether

I became a Hypnotherapist after being fascinated with the idea that you can give someone a sugar pill, a saline injection or even perform some fake surgery or give someone a fake treatment, and a certain percentage of those people through their belief that they will be healed will get better with a substance that has zero healing capability. Their body’s automated healing abilities take over and create the exact chemicals within their own physiology equal to the substance that they think they're taking. That is the placebo effect. 
 
So, the big question is, is there a way to tap into the placebo effect and mobilize our inner resources for healing without having to be tricked with fake medicine and procedures? ​

Can you teach a person to relax the mind and body to the point where you can tap into the body’s healing response and change their state of being? 
 
This is where hypnotherapy comes in.
 
One of my favorite sayings is: 
 
You don’t choose between a program and no program.
You choose between a conscious program and an unconscious program.
 
If you’re not consciously working your program,
You’re being worked by your unconscious program.
 
The thoughts that consistently run through your psyche and the emotional state you find yourself in over and over again is training your mind and body. You are programming your brain to turn the thoughts and feelings you are having on a weekly or even daily basis into automatic mental and physical habits, even if these thoughts and emotions are unintentional.   
 
The reason hypnotherapy works so well with fears, stress and anxiety is that the main foundation of hypnotherapy is moving the body and mind into deep, natural relaxation. 
 
By moving the body and mind into the relaxation response (parasympathetic nervous system) -where the body and mind are in balance and homeostasis, and where the body should be 90% of the time – by moving into the relaxation response the body and mind move out of the stress response (sympathetic nervous system) where it should only be about 10% of the time when your safety and survival are truly threatened. By moving into the relaxation response the body and mind can start the healing process and you can "reprogram" limiting beliefs, fears and anxiety.   
 
And, again, practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent, and what you make permanent becomes your subconscious programming.
 
However, hypnotherapy doesn’t give you control over anything you’ve never had control over. 
Hypnotherapy simply gives you a way of accessing what you’ve always had control over and never took the time to access or train. You’ve always had the ability to access your subconscious mind, to take responsibility for your emotions, actions and beliefs, but you’ve never had the training to do it. 

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About the Author
 
Craig Meriwether practices Integral Hypnotherapy — the adaptive, client-centered and collaborative approach to healing. Craig is a trained Clinical Hypnotherapist and a Certified Medical Support Specialist having completed 500 hours of classroom style education in this comprehensive methodology at the prestigious Hypnotherapy Academy of America, North America’s premier hypnotherapy training institute, taught by leading experts in the field and physicians.
 
Because Integral Hypnotherapy is adaptive and emphasizes collaboration between client and therapist, its healing possibilities as an effective adjunctive therapy are extensive.
 
Integral Hypnotherapy is the ONLY style of hypnotherapy that has been scientifically validated through a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study, which found it to be an effective, and in many cases, “superior” form of therapy. Based on a 4 year, 3-million-dollar NIH funded study treating Overactive Bladder Syndrome (Urgency Urinary Incontinence). 
 
It is estimated that only 5% of hypnotherapists have the 500 hours of classroom style certification training in hypnotherapy that Craig does. Unfortunately, the vast majority of hypnotherapists have only 80 to 200 hours of training, many through correspondence courses online, with little or no clinical skills supervision.
 
Craig Meriwether CHT-CMS
Clinical Hypnotherapist
Certified Medical Support Specialist
 
Arizona Integrative Hypnotherapy 
http://AZIHT.com
 
(928) 699-7349
craig@aziht.com
 
 
QUOTES FROM LEADING MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS & PSCHOLOGISTS
 
“I found that many complaints – smoking, overeating, test anxiety, public speaking phobia, and chronic physical pain – responded more dramatically to hypnosis than to other forms of psychotherapy I was using.”
 
Dr. Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., Psychologist
Faculty at Harvard Medical School
 
________________
 
“I’ve recommended hypnotherapy to help ease chronic pain, lessen the side effects of chemotherapy, alleviate symptoms of autoimmune disease, and counteract anxiety and sleep disorders. 
 
“Hypnotherapy can also be used to improve performance skills, as a form of analgesia or sedation for medical and dental procedures – even to stop hemorrhaging in accident victims. 
 
“In general, I believe that no condition is out of bounds for trying hypnotherapy on.”
 
 
Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D.
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Director Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the
University of Arizona College of Medicine
 
________________
 
“People think hypnosis is a means of taking away control, but it is actually a means of enhancing control, over perceptions such as pain, anxiety, habits, stress. I teach my patients to use it for themselves to address the problem they are dealing with. It is a powerful treatment extender.”
 
 
Dr. David Spiegel, M.D.
Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at
Stanford University School of Medicine