Mission

Coaching & Hypnosis FAQ’s

What is the difference between coaching and therapy?

Generally speaking, coaching is more focused on helping you achieve your future goals, while psychotherapy tends to have more of a past and present focus. ... The focus in psychotherapy is more on healing from the past and understanding how it is impacting you, while the focus in coaching is more on getting you to where you wish to be next. I do take a very holistic approach to coaching, as do all the coaches on my team, so we may go over past experiences still. However, we do so with the intention of transformation and empowerment. If I believe you will benefit more from a therapy modality, I will refer you to a therapist during our free alignment call. What’s important is that you get the support that you actually need.

Can I just do one session?

No. My coaching program has been developed to provide you the kind of life changes that last. To create lasting change, new habits and awareness must be built over time and repetition. This typically means that one session will only give you the tip of the ice burg. I don’t like to provide any type of service that doesn’t actually work. This is why I use program options to help you achieve just that. Please check my services page (1:1 coaching with Leah) to see details. This way you are actually seeing results rather than wasting your time and money on one-off temporary fixes.

Do you work with teens?

Yes. I love working with anyone, especially teens while they are learning and shaping their own unique identity. This is such a pivotal moment in life that has the capacity to really set a young person off for a healthy start in life. My teen clients have seen amazing results and feel much more confident and emotionally mature by the time they complete a program with me. We work with age-appropriate topics that actually matter to them (school, home life, friendships, self esteem, self expression, identity, etc.)

What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis involves either putting oneself into a trance or being put into a trance by someone else. In such a relaxed yet highly focused mental state, people become more open to learning new skills and fresh ways of thinking.

Is Hypnosis Weird and Dangerous?

Hypnosis is an ancient method of healing, managing pain and enhancing performance, with a history going back to ancient Egypt. There is nothing strange or sinister about what is, in fact, a perfectly natural state of mind we all experiences several times each day. Every time you focus down your attention, you enter a kind of hypnotic trance. Whereas ‘normal awareness’ can involve being aware of many things, and the mind ‘hopping around’, a defining characteristic of the trance state is a single or limited focus of attention such as when you are reading, working or playing a computer game. During this state time seems to get distorted. Another good example is when you drive from A to B in what seems the blink of an eye with no memory of how you got to your destination! The most accurate description of the hypnotic state is a ‘parallel awareness’. The hypnotized person knows who and where they are, but is also strongly focused on internal realities such as sensations, memories or imagination. Therapeutic hypnosis is a peaceful, creative and productive state of inner absorption. The lack of anxiety or every day ‘reactive’ responses, and the ability to control emotional responses and create new connections allows new learnings, abilities and potentials to develop. Definition “Hypnosis is an education and communication process by which the conscious mind and the unconscious mind agree”.

How Easy is Self-Hypnosis?

The short answer is extremely easy. We enter a hypnotic state easily and naturally whenever we become fully focused on what is relevant and important to you in that moment. It is common for people deeply absorbed in some pursuit, for example, to ‘zone out’ as they update their mind with the fresh information. In this trance state, which psychologists term ‘flow’ they become ‘lost’ in a world of their own with no awareness of time passing. You go into a hypnotic state when daydreaming, absorbed in an exciting movie or commuting by car along a familiar route, while meditating, praying or even exercising. Jogging has been described as ‘meditation on the move.’

How is coaching and hypnosis used during the program?

Hypnosis is an aid to bringing about desired new ways of feeling and behaving rather than a treatment in itself. By going into a trance, either through self-hypnosis or by being guided into one, you become more responsive and open to the form of change being proposed. Hypnosis used in conjunction with coaching positively enhances the effectiveness of the program and can reduce the number of sessions clients require. Not all clients need guided visualization or hypnosis so these types of sessions are used only when applicable and if the client feels ready and comfortable. Otherwise, traditional coaching is the main mode of the program.