Like many dedicated practitioners, I live and breathe the virtues of my work. The more I practice hypnotherapy the more I believe in it. And speaking of believing in the power of it, a funny thing happened on the way to the market this morning or, I should say, when I exited the market. As one of those dedicated practitioners, my automobile has door signs advertising my hypnotherapy practice extolling the many applications for its use.  As I approached my car from the market a friendly gentleman nearby saw the sign and exclaimed, “Used hypnotherapy 11 years ago to quit smoking and haven’t picked up a cigarette since!” Delighted, as always, to hear a testimony to the power of this healing modality of change, I had a short, pleasant chat with the gentleman that I did not even have to hire to exclaim the power of hypnotherapy.As I continued motoring along eager to get my defrosting fish home to a waiting freezer, I was pleasantly reflecting on the grocery store parking lot conversation.  While awaiting a traffic light to signal permission to cross a neighborhood intersection, a woman making a right turn, stops in mid turn with eyes yearning for me to roll down my window. I immediately thought, as I gestured towards my car armrest to retrieve a handy business card, “Gee my lucky day, two people in a row responding to my car sign.” I took her cue and hurriedly rolled down my car window as the closing window of opportunity before the traffic light changed beckoned. The woman, with a scowl that would make Ebenezer Scrooge proud, steels her gaze on me and pronounces emphatically with an unidentified accent, “Hypnotherapy does not work because I tried it! Hypnotherapy should be outlawed in the United States!”   With that personal declaration, the woman, clearly not interested in a rebuttal as her point in stopping traffic had dutifully been served, zoomed away.  At that moment the traffic light changed as if on cue, and I muttered out loud, “Hmmm, guess she doesn’t want a business card,” as I returned it to its station in my automobile.

These two successive incidents do not reflect that hypnotherapy sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, nor do they indicate that it works for some people and not for others.  In reality, everyone is susceptible to hypnosis, in fact, everyone goes in and out of states of hypnosis every day – we are just not aware of it because, as laypeople, we are unfamiliar with what a hypnotic state is outside cursory, misleading demonstrations seen on television or in stage shows.  The practice of hypnotherapy is the clinical use of a normal human occurrence applied therapeutically to change your life.

What these two contrasting incidents highlight, however, reminds me of a statement I once heard, “There are no incurable diseases – only incurable people.” Broadly speaking (please note that context), when engaging sound practices and approaches (as therapeutic hypnosis is) the “cure” can only be as effective as the person’s willingness and receptivity to its efficacy.  Many individuals unconsciously like being the exception or contrarian to everything in their life. These individuals wear their stubbornness as a badge of honor, unconsciously resisting any form of aid or support. These individuals relish proving something wrong for the sake of it and look forward to opportunities to do so.  I suspect anyone who stops traffic to make a comment without interest in a response perhaps has this unconscious agenda undermining most well intended efforts.

My philosophical take regarding individuals with this undermining motivation is that the agenda serves them – not benefits them, but serves them – until it doesn’t.