PTSD Treatment: Interview with Hypnotherapist, Laura King

Many people will be quick to tell you that any given treatment doesn’t work for everyone. To which I say, No kidding!

Swapping healing stories doesn’t suggest we are all on the same path and will get the same results. It only suggests, This helped me – have you tried it?

In the spirit of that idea, I'm about to explore the option of hypnotherapy in-depth here because it is the one and only modality that brought me ultimate relief. Psychotherapy, CBT and the information processing therapies (EMDR, EFT, TFT and TAT - all of which I'll cover next week) alleviated some of my symptoms but didn't wholly eradicate them. Is that because my healing process just took longer? Possibly. Could hypno have worked earlier in my healing journey without all of the other work I did? Maybe. The truth is, we just don't know where or when healing is going to come. I believe it's achieved through a sort of cumulative effect and we have to keep trying until we hit the right combination.

Hypnosis, if administered by the right person to a subject in the right frame of mind, can be a powerful tool. Below are some questions I asked Laura King during our pre-treatment interview process, and then in more depth after I saw the results of our work together. They shed a little light on one therapist's motivation to heal, plus why and how hypno can help a willing subject.

What is your background in hypnotherapy?

34 years ago hypnosis saved my life. After 3 attempts at suicide my parents decided that the conventional therapy and drugs just were not doing it. They had heard about hypnosis and researched it and found one of the pioneers in hypnosis, Dorothy Gates. She saved my life. Since then I have used it to overcome many of life’s negative events. I now realize my experience with so much turmoil prepared me to become a hypnotist so I would know how to help in a lot of situations. Through my own successes with hypnosis I can guide someone through with confidence that what I do works because it worked for me.

What made you decide to become a hypnotherapist?

I always thought that after raising my children I would work with my mentor and promote her and her products, but 9 years ago she passed away. I came home from the funeral and asked my husband what was I going to do for the next 50years of my life. He told me to do it! Go be a hypnotist, he said. NO way!, I thought. I didn’t like my voice recorded, couldn’t even speak in front of my 9 year old girl scout troop, and just knew I could not go into a room alone with strangers, especially men. Well, I went to hypnosis school and I tell everyone I was hypnotized to do it all!

What was the education process to become a hypnotherapist?

I went to the Omni Hypnosis School in Deland, Florida. It was the best experience of my life. I learned that I had been taught most of it from Dorothy and that I was on the right track. Going to school there opened my life up to the possibilities of helping people. Using the techniques and learning all the areas that hypnosis can help changed my world.

What is your professional approach to hypnotherapy?

I am a professional hypnotherapist and life coach. I follow all the regulations that are required by the state. Plus, I choose to follow the code of ethics the National Guild of Hypnotists has us follow.

What is your approach to the therapist/client relationship?

My approach is about educating my clients about what their brains can do. I must say that 90% of what I do is teach about the brain.

What is your philosophy about hypnotherapy and using it as a tool for treating trauma?

With every person who walks into my office I find out what their thoughts are about life. How do they see life or believe life should be... or any would-a, could-a or should-as. From there, how would they want life to be different? What are their desires?

Many PTSD experiencers have trouble giving up enough control to submit to hypno; how can we make that easier for them?

First , we must straighten out that no one really submits! All that hypnosis requires is that one just allow oneself to relax. I have never controlled anyone, nor can I.

In your book PEFECT ENOUGH you say that hypno only works if the mind is prepared to accept it, that it cannot work if the mind rejects or does not care about the suggestions. What can a prospective client do to get his mind in the right place?

I find the most important thing to do is to want to be healthier or happier. Habits that have been formed to keep one from getting healthy are just that--- habits! So with hypnosis habits are easy to change, as easy as they were created.

(Photo: Laura King)