One of the analogies I’ve come up with to compare hypnosis to therapy, is that of surgery versus a topical treatment. Some medical conditions can be treated in a variety of ways, either externally or internally. Surgery is often faster, but it is also more invasive....
Rewrite Your Past
We all tell ourselves stories to get through the day. Sometimes we tell ourselves there is a God in heaven who loves us. Sometimes we tell ourselves that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we're not good at physical activity. In reality,...
A Manifesto for Better Hypnosis
I've written in the past about ways in which therapy and mental health can improve (although I've since tempered my language to be more nuanced and less aggressive - the power of personal growth, yo). Here, I'd like to explore ways in which the hypnosis industry could...
Pain and Effortlessness
When working with clients, I often encounter a seeming paradox. On one hand, I encourage them to experience discomfort in a very overt and direct way. I sometimes describe myself as an “emotional pain tolerance coach”, essentially supporting clients as...
The Thing of The Thing
There is a sneaky part that hides behind everything you are trying to work on. It’s a variation of the thing itself, and it can be the hardest to notice. Take for example, anger. You’re working on your anger, and every time you mess up, you get furious at yourself....
Single Session Therapy: The Case for Brief, Intermittent Sessions
I have long known that my therapeutic approach with Navya has been rather unconventional. I typically let clients book with me when they want, by giving them a link to my scheduling calendar. There is no assumption as to how frequently they will return to see me. I...
Preventative Psychology
For much of its history, psychology has focused on solving emotional problems. It started with Freud, and his hilariously cynical goal to convert his clients “from hysterical misery to common unhappiness”. Even more optimistically minded people like the jovial Carl...
The Case for Decentralized Psychology – DePsy
One of my many interests in life is the world of finance. While many people’s eyes gloss over as soon the talk of money comes up, I love personal finance, economics, and understanding the complex and creative ways in which money makes the world go around. One of the...
We Need to Rethink Mental Health Training
There is an acute shortage of mental health professionals in the world, even as more people than ever before need help. Why more people are needing it may be a combination of factors, such as the world being more stressful, but I like to think that a lot of it is...
Life Hack for Empaths
As an empath, this is one principle that I wish I had learned earlier: Experiencing other people’s pain or suffering can be disheartening, and if you’re highly sensitive you’re constantly coming into contact with it. It can be very disempowering as it...
No Leaps of Faith
Two of my heroes, who greatly influenced my methodologies and even the name of this brand itself, have not had the impact they deserved to have. I am not making judgements about their happiness, or about them fulfilling their potential. But I think what they have to...
The Only Way Out is Through
We spend so much of our life avoiding discomfort. And it’s fair, because there is always a level of discomfort that is unbearable, and there were times in your life – particularly your childhood – where avoiding discomfort was the best thing you could do to survive....
The Heart of Darkness
The foundational point upon which my practice is founded upon, is that life is suffering. This is a basic buddhist idea, one that states that being born guarantees suffering. It starts with the pain of being shoved through a much too small hole, and continues to...
Failing Others, Coming Home
My biggest fear is other people's suffering. It was the first day of processing during my Ayahuasca ceremony, realizing that all that pain I was feeling was in response to other people, but not actually other people. This gave me some control back, these were still my...
Righteous Indignation: How Therapy and Hypnosis Can Improve
My father once told me that he only assumed a leadership role after he realized that "everyone else was incompetent". Although this is obviously a generalization, I relate a lot to this sentiment - to the degree that I'm a leader, I'm a reluctant one. I'd much rather...
Behind the Smile
When I came out about my traumatic upbringing and emotional struggles as a child and teenager, I was frequently met with disbelief by many people who knew me back then. "You were always such a happy child!" and "You had the biggest smile!" How could it be that someone...
Freedom vs. Safety
I have long known that I exist within a contradictory dichotomy: an attraction to both freedom and safety. (I use safety and structure interchangeably here, because to me structure creates a feeling of safety) I think others may relate to this as well, but I’ve always...
Consider Death
In my hypnotherapy practice, I tend to attract a certain kind of client. These clients and I share a strong propensity for laughing at the darker sides of life – finding humor in death, suffering, and absurd voices that live in our head. My sessions tend to be highly...
To Heal, You Must Die
An issue that often goes unnoticed in the process of healing, is the loss of the many selves that we've built up along the way. Being legitimate victims of life's circumstances, if we identify as such, still comes with certain benefits. For example, the excuses you...
Learning to Live
I have been practicing caring for my inner child for many months now, focusing on providing it with the basic emotional needs I knew it needed but had never gotten. A sense of being held, of being ok, of feeling contained in compassion, of validation and safety. As I...