It doesn’t have to be “New Years” to begin a new year! Maximizing your client’s birthday in your hypnosis work to help your clients achieve their goals.
By Brenda J. Titus, CH
As human beings, we operate in cycles. Many of these cycles effect entire groups of people or an entire region at the same time- the cycle of the school year, the business or fiscal year, the turning of the calendar, the waxing and waning of the sun and the moon’s energy. When we think about beginning a cycle, we think about the opportunity to start fresh, to begin anew, full of promise and potential. What better time to overcome unhealthy patterns or habits, to gain insight into our life’s purpose, and to set personal growth goals than at the beginning of a cycle?
Taking this a step further, what better time to assess our progress than mid-way through a cycle? What better time to reflect and celebrate accomplishments than at the end of a cycle? You can maximize some of the work that you do with your clients by utilizing their birthday as their own personal “new year” to establish their own personal growth cycle.
Your client’s birthday becomes an ideal time to focus and maximize the cycle of goal setting and achievement because it is more personal than the calendar new year or any other cycles that they experience. While traditional cycles, such as the turning of the calendar year, impact everyone in one way or another, your client’s birthday is largely unique to him or herself. It is personal because it is their very own, shared with few other people in their life, so unlike other holidays or cycles, the client generally does not have to share it with anyone else, providing an opportunity for the client to focus on their own personal goals and desires rather than focusing on the needs or expectations of others.
Before we can assist our clients in laying the foundation for the future, we must work with them to clear away misperceptions of the past. As a 5-PATH® Hypnotist for the last 7 years, I have had many opportunities to assist clients in overcoming painful experiences and misperceptions that are associated with their birth and their birthday. There have been clients who regressed to the womb where we learned they developed fear of entering into this lifetime, there were clients who experienced traumatic birth, including near death experiences at this crucial moment in their lives. I have seen others who have developed a sense of loss or abandonment at birth due to separation from the mother or a twin. I have worked with several clients who became confused at the moment of birth merely because the event was new or different, and they were surrounded by a great deal of attention that they did not understand. All of these clients developed misunderstood fear and sadness later on in life which were resolved nicely through hypnotic age regression at the soul level or at the moment of birth.
While some clients developed misunderstandings or misperceptions in the womb or at birth, others developed them on a birthday. A child who put all of his or her energy into their big day that didn’t turn out the way that they expected can develop misperceptions that can carry on undetected for a lifetime. Think of the child who doesn’t feel loved throughout the year, but on their birthday they get a taste of buttercream frosting for the first time and they associate the sweetness with love and attention, or the child who makes a scene when they don’t win the party games or don’t receive the gifts that they had their heart set on, or the child whose feelings got hurt because certain people didn’t come to their party.
These thoughts, feelings, and beliefs may continue to be reinforced as the client unknowingly replays these old scenes year after year as he or she re-experiences similar themes during adult birthdays. When these thoughts, feelings and beliefs are uncovered in age regression, the hypnotist can not only help the client clear away misperceptions about the event, but they can also assist the client to forgive themselves and others who were involved in these events. As the past is cleared away, the hypnotist can help the client create a future where the birthday can be reclaimed as the client’s own special day.
A very important thing that we do in our sessions is to help the client create a vision for the future, a future where they have made the changes that they came to us to make. One technique to help clients establish this vision and create the expectation of their success in achieving their goals is hypnotic age progression. When we place the client into their likely future in age progression, we are doing two very important things. First, we are double checking our work to see if the client is developing a new outlook for their future based on the work that we have done, and second, when the client shows us (and themselves) that their thoughts and beliefs are changing, we are able to encourage the client to create an expectation of success for their future.
I utilize age progression in nearly every session that I do. I will begin with a small jump into the future, taking advantage of a known event where the client can test themselves before their next session, then we will move to a few weeks down the road, and ultimately months or even an entire year into the future. I will often take advantage of this opportunity to visit the client’s next birthday as part of their age progression, especially if any issues regarding their birth or their birthday came up in any of the work that we have already done. This is where your knowledge of your client’s birthday can really come into play in helping them proclaim their own personal new year and establish a cycle for growth and goal achievement.
Once you’ve established a positive association with their birthday for your client, you can establish a process for ongoing work with them focusing on future goals. In doing this, you work with the client to establish their birthday as a time of reflection, of goal setting, and of celebrating accomplishments, while establishing benchmarks throughout the year to reinforce the goal.
In this model, you can incorporate a variety of techniques to assist your clients. Visualization and direct suggestion, as well as higher wisdom or soul work and age progression will help clients set goals and create the expectation of success, while age regression and forgiveness work will aid when obstacles prevent clients from making progress. As the client’s birthday approaches, your focus will be on reviewing the year that has passed, the accomplishments, the challenges, and the lessons to be learned from the year. This is a great time to celebrate the year that has passed and to begin considering goals for the coming year. Three months into the year, it is time to work with the client on clearer, more concrete expectations for what their goals look like and how they will achieve them. At the mid-year point, the client may need some extra inspiration or energy to see their goals through to the end, while three-quarters through the year, it is time to determine where to put the most energy for the best outcome, potentially letting some things go, as the birthday approaches once more.
Working with ongoing clients where your focus is on goal setting and achievement through the year based on their birthday provides an opportunity to integrate quarterly visits with clients to aid in their progress. This kind of process is great for both the hypnotist and the client. For the hypnotist, it is a benefit because it provides an avenue for regular ongoing clients rather than a glut of “New Years Resolution” clients in January. For your clients, this provides a great opportunity to carry forward the work that you have done with them as they take time for regular reflection and review of their goals, to work through any obstacles, and to gain inspiration to see their goals through.
Are you interested in learning more about Age Progression and working with Annual events in your sessions? I will be presenting at the National Guild of Hypnotists Annual Convention to discuss these topics.
Session 11042: Age Progression Friday, August 9 at 4pm
Session 22114: Achieving your goals in your personal new year! Saturday, August 10 from 11am-1pm
