Harness the power of the subconscious mind

Originally published in Taos News

We are already in April. Time flies, indeed. And many people are revaluating their New Year’s resolutions— quit smoking, exercise more, and eat healthy food are among the top ones.

How many are staying with them?

Sometimes, they just slip away. But it doesn’t have to be so. Besides getting a support group (or just an accountability partner) and keeping a journal so you are accountable to yourself, there are other resources.

Taping the power of the subconscious mind is one of them, says Melissa McNulty, a certified hypnotherapist, life and nutrition coach.

Taos Hypnotherapy

McNulty started her own business, Taos Hypnotherapy, in March 2014, with the main goal of helping others navigate roadblocks in their lives.

“We all go through challenges—I have gone through my fair share,” she said. “We want to change, but sometimes it can feel as though something is holding us back. I utilized hypnotherapy to quit smoking and I have worked through various other emotional and mental perspectives.”

For McNulty, hypnotherapy is “magical.”

“Working with the subconscious mind really helps you change when you are feeling stuck,” she said. “There is so much we don’t know yet about the brain and it is such an incredible piece of machinery. According to neuroscientists, the subconscious brain makes up ninety-five percent of our lives…so ninety-five percent of what we think, feel, and do is subconscious. Which is why we sometimes want to make a conscious change and then we experience resistance, making the change challenging and sometimes unattainable.”

But hypnotherapy, she says, helps overcome such challenges.

“The change brought upon through hypnotherapy comes from deep within and is lasting,” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of my clients change significantly after a session with me. There have been many people that tell me how a session with me changed their lives and helped them get unstuck so they could attain their goals.”

A session with McNulty

A first session usually takes from two and half to three hours.

First, McNulty asks clients to fill out a form about their goals for the session. They discuss together the emotions associated with the outcome.

“There needs to be willingness and readiness to change,” she said. “If you come to quit smoking, you have to want to quit at a conscious level, or else it will not work.”

Then they talk about what the client’s journey is going to be like.

“For some people, releasing old patterns and issues means visualizing themselves throwing away the contents of a heavy backpack,” she said. “For others, it means sitting by the ocean and seeing their burdens disappear in the waves. It’s all very symbolical, but the emotional journey is different for every person and I tailor it to their needs and choices.”

As the session progresses, she works on a script with the suggestions she will offer the clients, using their very own words.

“This is important,” she said. “People usually respond better to the phrases they use in daily life, not to somebody else’s words.”

Auriculatherapy: healing through the ear

Before beginning the hypnotherapy session as such, McNulty performs auriculotherapy, which is similar to reflexology—only that it stimulates areas on the outer ear instead of the feet.

“I use it to reach various points in the body that are connected to emotions,” she said. “For example, the lungs generally hold grief so, by pulsating the lungs and moving the chi, grief has an easier time being released.”

She uses auriculotherapy in combination with aromatherapy to get people deeply relaxed.

“This way, they are more susceptible to accept positive suggestions to the subconscious mind,” she said.

McNulty points out that hypnotists can’t make anybody do crazy things—for example, bark like a dog.

“A hypnotist cannot make you do anything against your wishes, ethics and morals,” she said.

Nutrition: not a one-size-fits-all

As a nutrition coach, McNulty does not tell her clients what they “should” do or eat.

“I assess where they are in their health as well as their willingness to change their diet,” she said. “Then I educate them on healthy choices. I help them to create a plan of action, taking one step at a time, with a larger goal in mind. Once they have a plan, I hold them accountable for their goals and help support them through any weakness in their shift.”

It is important to recognize that, in nutrition, there is no one-size-fits-all plan.

“Every person is different and whereas some people do best on a Paleo type diet, others do better with a raw diet,” she said. “The right food for an individual depends on the person’s physiology, age, disposition, and environment, and a variety of other factors. Sometimes these factors change throughout the months of a year.”

In any case, she recognizes that, for many, dietary changes are challenging.

“I emphasize taking one small step at a time because one small step is better than overwhelming yourself and giving it all up,” she said. “I also teach my clients how to cook healthy and delicious meals and to make their favorite treats into healthier and tasty options.”

Nutrition coaching can also be combined with hypnotherapy to help people who are addicted to emotional eating to heal and change their habits.

“I recommend that, if someone wants to lose weight, that they throw away their scale and any fad diet book they may own,” McNulty said. “Making a change in how a person eats for the purpose of being healthy or losing weight requires a deep and lasting change. Fad diets rarely work. People will generally lose weight quick and then gain it back.”

She works with people to not only change what they eat, why they eat, and how they eat but also to change their perspective and mindset so that they create lasting changes.

“It is about feeling good about one’s self, not about the numbers on a scale,” she said.

To find out more about McNulty visit http://www.hypnotherapytaos.com or call 575-921-8234 to schedule a session.