Hello. My name is Susan. Dunlop. I am an internationally certified hypnotherapist trained in the U.S. and Canada. I have nearly two decades in hypnosis practice in the U.S. and England. My days are spent hypnotizing people for phobias, anxiety, grief, trauma, relationship issues, addiction (the list goes on). I also do a great deal of past life regression, which is my passion. All hypnosis ultimately involves growth, leaps of self-love, and the re-envisioning of a life. My point is… all hypnosis, in the end, is spiritual. It all involves becoming Love. Accepting that one is a soul with creative choices, free will, and responsibility for creating one’s life. My clients are – in my view – courageous and determined individuals who take action to reject victimhood (by one’s childhood, by abuse, by substances, by negative thoughts) and to become the heroes of their lives.
Like many of you, my life has been rich and varied and challenging. I’ve raised children, moved all over the world, run for bomb shelters during a war in Israel, had a husband in the World Trade Center disaster. I’ve been divorced, and moved to new countries knowing no one in order to create a new life. I have a lifelong passion for metaphysics. I have an M.A. in mysticism. I was an actor/director in regional repertory theatre. All of this, everything I have ever been or experienced, each shift in my life, has led me to my vocation as a hypnotherapist.
Hypnosis is about change. Changing the way we think in order to create fulfilling, joyful lives. After all, some things just seem to happen to us in life… car accidents, ill health. We lose spouses, jobs, youth, wealth, loved ones… The only thing we can control is our attitude to what happens. Our thoughts and actions. IT IS OUR THOUGHTS, NOT THE CONDITIONS OF OUR LIVES, WHICH DETERMINE THE QUALITY AND OUTCOME OF OUR EXPERIENCE ON THIS PLANET. We can choose to be victims of our self-limiting thoughts and fears (and to blame the world) or we can choose to be the creators of our lives. Hypnosis is a tool for the latter.
I am passionate about my work. I deal with the human mind and human spirit… with human possibility. My work consists of the application of simple, time-proven techniques in the science of the subconscious mind. It is fascinating and rewarding.
No one really knows how hypnosis works, although everyone will try to tell you they know. Ultimately, the human mind and spirit are mysterious. We know more about the planet Mars than we know about the mind, much less the mind/soul connection. In hypnosis, we bypass the conscious mind, and address the subconscious mind where all our thought and behavior patterns are lodged. Like gardeners, we identify the weeds and pull them up… all those negative, fearful thoughts. And we plant new healthy thoughts and behaviors. We refocus the mind on that which is creative, life-affirming, meaningful, empowering, beautiful. In the first session, lots of people don’t even think they were hypnotized. That is because hypnosis is a state of focused higher awareness, not unconsciousness! The subject is awake, aware and in control. She is more in control that in her daily life. It is not her fears, her upbringing, failed relationships, losses or ego in control. It is her higher, best self.
Anyone who wants to be hypnotized can be hypnotized. Anyone who does not want to be hypnotized cannot be hypnotized. All hypnosis is really self-hypnosis. You COULD say that I have never hypnotized anyone; I have just taught an awful lot of people how to self-hypnotize!
In my experience, the foundation, the heart of hypnosis – what renders it transformative – is love. The great bulk of my work is midwifing self-love, love of life, in my clients. I work in the mysterious, starlit country of the human mind/spirit, in which imagination is more powerful than willpower, in which the future can transform the present, and from the present we can rewrite the results of the past. It is a country in which a thought can shape a body and determine the course of a life. Hypnosis is an art clearly informed by scientific discovery and technique, yet it remains an intuitive and interactive process of the exploration and illumination of human possibility.
Hypnosis holds up a lantern to show clients a new way of seeing themselves and the world. The light streams down the paths of your life for you to see the beauty, the meaning, the love. In hypnosis, you recognize yourself. Remember yourself. Without all the oppressive layers of fear and loss and ego. You feel home, you feel loved, and you begin to love yourself and your life. Most people don’t want their hypnosis session to end! They tap their courage, their purpose, their potential for joy, for fulfillment. So you see… when I say that fundamentally hypnosis is all about love… I mean it!
Does hypnosis work? Yes. For those who have decided to take responsibility for their lives, yes! But it is not a magic wand or a miracle drug or mind-washing. It is a tool, a tool like any other, to be wielded with discipline and intention. IT IS MIND TRAINING. It is not a passive process, but rather entirely active. Hence, hypnosis is not for everyone. It is not for those who prefer to remain victims of misery. It is not for those who are comfortable in their small, hopeless box. However, in the hands of someone committed to CHANGE, hypnosis is a dynamic tool for breaking out of negative, self-defeating, repetitive thought and behavior patterns. It is a tool for profoundly creative action. But, just as learning to build a house takes work, so does training one’s mind to build a healthy life. YOU do it. The hypnotist is your guide.
Who are my clients? Often, they are people at the end of their rope. They have tried everything else. Hypnosis is their last hope. People with chronic pain. Chemo patients. People with PTSD, phobias, anxiety. People suffering with relationship problems, addiction, nightmares, eating disorders. Actors, athletes, musicians, businesspeople. The best hypnosis subjects? Children, teenagers. Artists of any persuasion. Meditators. Anyone with a good imagination. Intelligent people! Those in trauma. In other words, just about anyone can be a great hypnosis subject! YOU CAN BE!
