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ENTRANCING THERAPY
Hypnotism
Video
By HOLLY SCHOENSTEIN
If you’re willing to believe in it, hypnotism may help your problems
Not everyone is open to the process, and because of this, some cannot be hypnotized.
YOUNGSTOWN — Focus on the swinging pendulum. Succumb to the soothing voice.
Relinquish all control. Leave your fate to someone else.
Hypnotism. Will it make you quack like a duck or act like a model on a runway?
Will it make you do embarrassing things that you can’t remember later?
Perceptions of hypnotism — the trancelike state that resembles sleep — keep some people from witnessing what others swear is real and life-changing.
City resident Sheri Rektor was skeptical of hypnotism when she made an appointment with certified clinical hypnotherapist Auggie Ruggiero at the Youngstown Hypnosis Center. She had tried to lose weight and keep it off through various programs, and she wanted to try one last thing before succumbing to weight loss surgery.
“I have tried every single diet there ever was; I am an expert dieter,” Rektor, 57, said. “I would lose weight and gain it back. And it’s all because I’m an emotional eater.”
After a series of sessions and several months later, Rektor has lost 30 pounds.
Dr. Harvey Kayne, clinical director of D&E Counseling Center in Youngstown, said the popularity of hypnosis has declined.
“Right now hypnosis is very, very out, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful for some people,” he said. “If you look at the literature, I’m sure you’ll probably find that hypnosis is about as effective as anything else, but not superior.”
Because specific treatments have been developed for certain problems, fewer practitioners have been using hypnotism, he said.
Ruggiero admits that not everyone is open to the process, and because of this, some cannot be hypnotized.
But over the span of his career, he claims he has helped hundreds of people resolve issues ranging from weight loss, drug addiction, alcoholism and sports performance.
“I’ve been doing this for 18 years [on and off], and I’ve helped a lot of people,” he said.
“I don’t take any credit for their personal success; I don’t take any blame for their failures. I simply give them a shovel and tell them where the gold is buried,” he said. “They can simply disregard my suggestions, or they can dig for themselves.”
Seventeen-year-old Kayleigh Torres of Austintown has had a fear of doing back handsprings ever since she failed to stick the landing in a gymnastics class when she was 7 or 8. Although she wasn’t injured, she said she was “freaked out” after the fall.
As she entered high school, cheerleading became a significant part of her life. To make the varsity squad at Austintown High, she needed to successfully do the tumbling move. But her anxiety held her back.
After a friend suggested that she see a hypnotist, her mother found the Youngstown Hypnosis Center and made an appointment. “Before I got hypnotized, I would never do [a back handspring] by myself,” she said. “I would take about 10 minutes to work up courage and would have to have two people spotting me. But with every class, I became more confident.”
Although most of his clients complete the process in three sessions, some run into extenuating circumstances, such as identifying additional problems for which they choose to seek more treatment. Ruggiero does not guarantee his clients won’t experience the same problems again in the future.
And as most of his clients pay for their sessions out of pocket because insurance companies typically don’t pick up the bills, he tries to resolve their problems within that time frame.
The hypnotist said about 90 percent of the time, he charges $180 total for three sessions. If a client can’t afford that, he works with them.
Believing in hypnotism did not come immediately for Rektor or Torres.
“I was very skeptical because I didn’t understand how something like that could work,” Rektor said.
“I still feel very much in control, which is not something I had before,” she said. “Before I didn’t have the strength to pass foods by, and now I do.”
But she still has 100 pounds to lose.
“I have a lot of stuff going on in my life, and normally I’d be eating to get myself through this. And I’m not. It’s amazing,” Rektor said.
She is concerned that the lasting effects of the sessions will fade but comforts herself by knowing she can go back for more.
And although each back handspring Torres does is not perfect, she at least has the confidence to try.
“I believed in it. Some people think it’s all fake, but it’s not like what some people think it is,” she said.
Torres believes that as long as she keeps doing back handsprings, then her newly found confidence won’t wear off.