Barbara McIntyre likes to help people. That’s why she pursued a certification in hypnotherapy.
There are “a lot of different things you can do with hypnosis,” she said.
McIntyre recently opened Hypnosis to the Rescue on the Square. The business, located at 121 W. Hickory St., Suite 115, offers people hypnotherapy for anything from stress to anxiety to insomnia.
She is a certified clinical hypnotherapist by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners.
What hypnotherapy does is help people re-experience a situation, McIntyre said. People use their left brain to look at an experience instead of the right brain, which helps them be less emotional about it, she said.
According the American Psychological Association, hypnosis can be used to treat many ailments, including pain, depression, anxiety, phobias, stress, habit disorders, gastro-intestinal disorders and skin conditions. But the association suggests consulting a health care professional before seeking hypnotherapy.
“Some describe hypnosis as a state of focused attention, in which they feel very calm and relaxed,” according to the American Psychological Association’s website. “Most people describe the experience as pleasant.”
Amber Sanders, a local business owner and one of McIntyre’s clients, calls hypnosis a “state of relaxation.”
“You still have control over yourself,” she said.
She used hypnosis to reduce her stress.
“It really helped reduce stress and I could sleep better,” Sanders said. “It helps you to relax and use your mind.”
Sanders said she was skeptical at first. But she was willing to try anything other than medication for her stress reduction.
McIntyre said a person’s subconscious is programmed by everything — even TV advertisements.
People are programmed by their experiences to think a certain way, she said. She helps them change the programming, she said. People have come to her to quit smoking and deal with anxiety, she said.
“Often you go in and find a little more of something that’s causing it,” she said.
She believes it can help with just about anything if people are genuine about wanting to give it a try, McIntyre said.
“With hypnosis you are always in control,” she said, adding that people don’t do anything they wouldn’t normally do.
She meets with clients for about an hour or so before performing hypnosis, she said.
Some people can do one session and be done and others it will take a few more sessions, McIntrye said.
She said hypnotherapy is not part of the New Age movement but that it’s been around for a long time.
It helped McIntyre personally with her sleep problems.
“Hypnotherapy is amazing,” McIntyre said. “It can do absolutely amazing things.”
But hypnotherapy doesn’t replace the need for medical attention, she said.
“Hypnosis is not a type of psychotherapy,” according to information on the American Psychological Association website. “It also is not a treatment in and of itself; rather, it is a procedure that can be used to facilitate other types of therapies and treatments.”
RACHEL MEHLHAFF can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is rmehlhaff@dentonrc.com.
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