Can Hypnosis Help You Heal, Let Go, and Feel Calm? - Colleen

Gentle hypnosis is a guided relaxation technique that helps people create positive life changes by working with the subconscious mind. It is commonly used to support emotional healing, reduce stress, shift limiting beliefs, and help release unwanted habits. In a calm, focused state, the mind becomes more open to positive suggestions that encourage healthier thinking patterns and lasting personal growth.

In this episode, we explain how gentle hypnosis works and debunk common myths about hypnosis, including misconceptions about control and awareness. I also share my personal testimony after experiencing hypnosis with Colleen, what the session felt like, and the changes I noticed afterward. This conversation offers clear insight into how hypnosis can support healing, clarity, and lasting change.

Connect with Colleen Gill,  Certified Hypnotist

Colleen Gill Hypnosis

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The background music is written, performed and produced exclusively by Melissa Turri.
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Transcript

Naming The Tender Middle

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What happens when we're no longer at the beginning, but we're not quite at the breakthrough either? On the Healing and Sharing podcast, we often talk about transformation, but today we're gently leaning into the middle, the space that can feel uncertain, tender, and quietly heavy. It's the part of the journey that doesn't always have clear answers yet holds deep meaning. Colleen and I are part of the same local community, and I want to share something close to my heart. A dear friend of mine was trying to navigate a difficult season with her child. After working with Colleen, she came to me one day and excitedly said, everything changed. The relationship shifted in ways she never expected, and she truly believes healing began through her work with Colleen. I've also had the opportunity to experience hypnosis with Colleen, focusing on grief. Not only the grief of physical loss, but also the grief that comes when we lose a role, an identity, or a version of ourselves we once held tightly. Those losses can be subtle yet deeply felt. I'm excited to introduce Colleen Gill. She is a board certified hypnotherapist and wellness professional who helps people reduce stress, release unwanted weight, and gently shift unhelpful patterns without relying on force or willpower. She offers hypnosis sessions and wellness programs on Florida's Treasure Coast and works with clients worldwide via Zoom. Colleen, thank you for joining me here today, and welcome to the Healing and Sharing Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Hi Jen. Thanks so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Personal Hypnosis Experiences On Grief

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Absolutely. I am so excited you are here too. I think as women, we crave different ways to heal because traditional talk therapy doesn't work for everyone. Or maybe they need a combination of different healing modalities to reach the point where they want to be in their journey. So I have had the pleasure of doing a one-on-one session with you, but then I also had the pleasure of doing a group session with you via Zoom called Burnout to Balance Strategies for Daily Calm. And I can tell you, everybody else on that Zoom call, I think felt as relaxed and calm as we could. And when you asked the question, who wants to go take a nap and who now is full of energy, like I was both of those things.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Wonderful. That's the goal.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, it was fascinating. I was like, wow, and yeah, I did not take a nap. I ended up being very productive, but it definitely shifted how I went into the rest of my Sunday with that calmness aura around me. So thank you. Awesome. You're so welcome. And um, what I said in the introduction is that I wanted to share my experience with you um one-on-one to let others know what it was like from my perspective. Because part of this conversation is also going to be you going over the facts and the myths that are associated with uh hypnosis sessions. So I am excited to share what my experience was like you. Um, Colin number one has a very soft-spoken voice. And before we got started, she explained again, like I just said, what hypnosis is and what it is not. Prior to our meeting, we discussed what it is that I wanted to talk about, what topic was important to me. Somebody may want weight loss, whatnot. Mine was actually a grief and loss. I started to realize that as I dug a little deeper into myself and redefined what loss is, because it goes beyond just losing a person, there is loss in um losing a job, uh, losing your identity, losing your ability to maybe speak to a family member. Those were types of emotions that I was carrying inside that that grief. The session was remarkable. And what I really appreciated is continually as we were in the session, she reinforced to think about these emotions in a calm and peaceful way. So this was not like you were supposed to go and relive these emotions. When we were finished, uh, I told her from approaching it that way, it was almost like having a safe space, which made it more comfortable and more of a gentler process and not having to feel all of the gazillion emotions that can become overwhel overwhelming, you know? It was it was great, very gentle.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Right, wonderful. I'm glad you had that experience. It's really important to me for people to not relive old traumas because we don't have to go through those difficult situations again and feel those feelings in order to heal from it.

Colleen’s Path To Hypnosis

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yes. By the time I was done, just like Sunday, I felt lighter, I felt excited. I couldn't wait to tell you about how I was feeling. I couldn't wait to share it with everybody here listening today. I highly recommend a session with Colleen. Her information will be in the show notes of how you can contact her. Um, and like I said, she does do this via Zoom. And I did both of my sessions via Zoom, and it was perfect. So yeah, highly recommend it. But but all of that being said now, let's introduce Colleen and let her tell us a little bit about herself and what brought her to helping others the way that she does.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Thanks so much, Jen, and thank you so much for your rave review. I'm so glad that you felt found it valuable. And um, it's something I'm really passionate about. Um, hypnosis is something I've actually been interested in since I was about 10 years old. Um, my grandmother was suffering with lung cancer at the time, and my mother was her caregiver. My mother was a smoker and really wanted to quit smoking and really had a difficult time, despite having the ultimate motivation of watching her mother suffer and be dying from lung cancer so terribly, and she did not want to put us through that kind of thing. So, as a last resort, she ended up going to a hypnotist and she walked in a smoker, she walked out a non-smoker, never smoked again, didn't even have temptations or cravings to smoke. And my 10-year-old mind was absolutely blown away. The power your brain and your mind has to make these changes and how hypnosis can help you make changes that previously felt impossible before. So I went on to study research and was very interested in hypnosis, studied psychology in college, went on to work in the psychology and human service field after, unfortunately, college did not teach me hypnosis. Um, I kind of put that to the side for a little bit and worked in some different helping fields. I always had a burning desire to help people make important changes in their lives. And I've worked with populations from infants all the way up to elderly. I used hypnosis myself throughout the years to make a lot of really wonderful changes, like losing weight, natural childbirth, confidence in public speaking, and to stop drinking, because I found myself stuck in the habit of having that glass or two every night of wine because that was my stress relief and my coping mechanism that I learned from watching my parents and from hearing in society that that's what you're supposed to do to unwind and relax, and just found myself kind of stuck in that pattern. Um, and it left me feeling exhausted and not productive and not motivated. So I think after that happened, I just felt like I have to share this with the world. This is just an incredible powerful tool for people to make positive changes in their life.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

What was it like the first time you were hypnotized? And do you remember what it what your intention was? What you wanted to work on?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

The first time I experienced formal hypnosis was for a weight loss. I just I found it amazingly relaxing, empowering. It made me feel like, why do they not teach this in school? Why are we not aware of this power that we have within us? Um, I wondered why my mom didn't go back for hypnosis for weight loss herself because she struggled with her weight and she had such positive results with smoking. I don't know if she just didn't realize it was an option or what, but um, that kind of propelled me to move forward and get a hold of my weight, my wellness, and motivated me to live a healthy lifestyle rather than be on that roller coaster of on a diet, off a diet, lose 10 pounds, gain back 20 pounds of deprivation, of you know, feeling like I had no control. That motivated me. But yeah, hypnosis, I just found it incredibly empowering, relaxing, just amazing. And how many years now have you been licensed? I've been licensed for about two years. I pursued formal certification for that because I really wanted to help people in a professional way and not just as a, you know, a side casual kind of, hey, I can help you with that kind of thing. I said, you know, this is something I really want to turn into a full-time career because it is so special. And I've always wanted to have a career that I love, that I feel passionate about, and that I feel so satisfied that I'm helping people and making a difference in their life. And I've found that with hypnosis, no matter how many times I see people make these big changes, it astounds me at how powerful it is.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

There are many people who are curious about the hypnotism, the healing modality that you offer. But there are so many myths out there and fears, and our fears will prevent us from moving forward. But today we want to dispel those myths so that if somebody is curious, they are more comfortable picking up the phone and saying, Okay, Colleen, I'm ready, help me. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I think that TV and Hollywood, you know, have done a poor job in displaying what hypnosis is to people. So people have misconceptions when they see different movies portraying hypnosis in a certain way, cannot get stuck in hypnosis. Hypnosis is simply a state of focused concentration, and it's a natural state that we go in and out of all day long. When we watch a movie that really absorbs all of our attention, and we find ourselves crying in reaction to a movie or jumping scared from a movie, that part of our brain that knows that it is not real is moved to the side. So that's the conscious mind, and the unconscious mind is fully immersed in that as if it were real, and your body is reacting to that. That's hypnosis. When you drive home and you get to your driveway and you have no recollection of how you got home, your unconscious mind is what took over that task of driving home. So that is a form of hypnosis we call highway hypnosis. But this is a natural state, and we do self-hypnosis every day when we tell ourselves the same things over and over again, a lot of which are limiting beliefs that we have about ourselves. I'm not a good public speaker, I'm not good with technology, you know, I could never do this, I could never do that. That's a form of self-hypnosis. Many people fear that hypnosis is some kind of loss of awareness or control, but hypnosis is actually a process that allows you to take back control of the parts of your life that may have seemed beyond control before, like habits, behaviors, emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Our brain automates our behaviors. So we just get stuck in these patterns of doing the same thing day in and day out. And a lot of our unconscious beliefs are not accurate and they're not helpful because we developed them as a kid. So hypnosis helps move that conscious, critical mind out of the way so you can make changes in your unconscious mind, kind of like updating a software program to get rid of the glitches so you can do what you want to do.

Sustainable Weight Loss Approach

SPEAKER_00 13:38

So if I come to you for a session in weight loss and we do one session, and then a week later, will I start losing weight? And do I have to visit you again?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Good question. Good question. So if you came, if you came to me to lose weight, we would have a consultation. I offer free consultations, and I never recommend for weight loss a one-and-done session. I do individual sessions for weight loss, and I also do a group program called Rewire to Lose Weight and Feel Fabulous. And it includes six sessions because weight loss is tied to so many different things, right? And you can't just quit eating because eating is a part of our life. So we have to change our identity around food, and we have to not use it as a stress relief tool anymore. We have to change our whole identity around it so that we feel like a fit, healthy individual, and we don't feel like, you know, I'm so fat or all the things that the person has been telling themselves. So there's different factors involved with weight loss. You do start to see changes right from the very first session. It is very, very effective and powerful for weight loss. But I always recommend six sessions to do about once a week for six sessions so that we can work on the beliefs, the identity, the habit changes. When you can change your automatic habits to be healthy habits, that makes losing weight so much easier because you're not white knuckling, you're not feeling deprived, you're feeling empowered, and you're feeling like you're craving healthy foods and craving to move your body, which makes it a whole different, different ball game. And it helps you be successful to keep the weight off. It's not just a temporary, I'm gonna be on a diet for two weeks and then I'm going to eat a gallon of ice cream because I feel so incredibly deprived, right? It's a whole lifestyle change and it is um, it makes it so much easier.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

And so you approach weight loss from a totally different, so you're not there to say, okay, you can have 10 nuts for a snack.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

No. Nope. I am very much of the belief that if you eat health healthy 80% of the time and have your treats about 20% of the time, and it's not a hard, fast rule, you know, and it can vary from day to day, but just in general, overall, if you just focus on eating more healthy food and moving your body more, then you're gonna be successful in keeping the weight off long term. I'm very much against extreme diets and mindset of feeling like you have to be in the gym for three hours to get fit. It's more about the consistency of doing the little things every day that are gonna get you to that lifestyle of being healthy and fit.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Well, that is a very encouraging and hopeful conversation and plan of action. I love it. Yeah, thank you. What do you think has been the most popular goal that women have come to you and said, This is this is what I want to work on, this is where I want to be.

Beyond Weight: Stress, Drinking, Parenting

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Um, well, I do work on weight loss a lot, but I do work on different habits, like I mentioned, drinking. Um, a lot of women, when they hear my story about that, they know that I can relate to that. So they see me to stop, you know, that habit, and we've had excellent results with that. People just are amazed at how something that can feel like an issue that they'll never be able to resolve and never be able to stop thinking about or tempted with can just be a non-issue. Also, do stress relief with every client that I work with, no matter what they're coming to me for, because I truly believe that that helps every single aspect of your life. If somebody can learn some stress relief techniques and some mindfulness techniques, it spills over and positively influences all the different areas of your life. But I will say, you know, book that free consultation because I have heard, you know, all different kinds of things, and hypnosis is really giving you the power to make these changes in your life. It's giving you that focus and concentration and power. So I would say, you know, if it is an unusual request, reach out. We can talk and see if that's something that I can help you with. If I can't help somebody with something, I will tell them, you know, that's not really something that I feel comfortable or skilled in, and I can refer them to somebody else. There's such a variety of different things that it can help with from the stress relief, pain relief, smoking, drinking, any kind of habits. And even, as you had mentioned, helping people with parenting, you know, and that's something that I have a long background in is working with those parents. And it is quite amazing how when you can get parents to approach things from a little bit of a different technique, um, they can get different results in their children's behavior from talking in a certain way, from you know, from positive parenting skills, um, hypnosis can play a part in that and can help you be a better parent. So that's something that I find really exciting and encouraging because it can really help our children who are struggling so much right now in this time. Yeah, and and obviously you help men too. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I do help men too. I do tend to work with women more so, but I also am open to working with men because the the Rewire program is specifically for women, so they feel safe, you know, working in a group together and can support each other and bond without feeling self-conscious with men in that program. But I've worked for weight loss with men one-on-one, for smoking, for different things.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

And this I'm just curious about do you hypnotize kids? Like, is that something the parents consent to, or is that something that's just not allowed in the practice?

Kids, Beliefs, And The Critical Mind

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Oh no, it's definitely allowed. It's not something that I market or pursue really strongly. I love working with parents to help them approach parenting with their kids. And kids are actually so incredibly easy to hypnotize because for about the first eight years, kids do not have a critical faculty in their mind. So basically, everything is going into their unconscious mind unfiltered. And what people say to kids at those ages are is incredibly important and powerful because those are the beliefs that stay in our mind throughout our lifetime and create these beliefs about ourselves. And those are beliefs that I work with people to then get rid of some of those old, unhelpful, inaccurate beliefs. Parents really have a lot of power in helping their kids to build their self-esteem, feel confident, develop those healthy eating patterns and you know, wellness, taking care of themselves, knowing that they're a valuable, capable person, all of those things, they have an incredible influence over their kids. So I am open to working with kids, but I don't really advertise or um market that as much because some parents, you know, might feel a little bit funny about that.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So I no, I understand, but I'm I guess I'm glad I asked the question because growing up it was like, okay, we'll go talk to a therapist, right? That seemed to be like the only option that you had, and that parents were aware that was a resource, right? It's covered by insurance, all that other stuff. But our children today face totally different things than we did. And so knowing that this hypnosis is an option for parents as well.

Therapy, Coaching, And Moving Forward

SPEAKER_01 21:35

It is, and it's so incredibly powerful. Therapy has its place, and I think very highly of therapy. Um, a lot of times, talk therapy can bring up the same issues over and over again. And after a while, it's good to have something like life coaching or hypnosis to make a plan for moving forward. There's that movement. Moving forward term again. But we don't want to stay stuck in the past and stuck in the repetition of going over and over and over again things that have happened to us. We want to be empowered and okay, where do I want to go from here? You know, how can this move me forward? How can I feel empowered? And who do I want to be now? So that's what I love about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

And as somebody who has done years of talk therapy, I understand what it feels like when you have to switch therapists for whatever reason. And then you have to start over, right? You got to start over with all of your stuff. And and many people at that point they'll just stop continuing therapy. If if that occurs for somebody listening, I encourage you to look at other avenues, uh, such as what Colleen does. Like, don't give up. Absolutely. There is something out there to help you. And so our conversation today is to provide you a resource.

Small Habits And The Brain’s Filter

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Absolutely. Self-care is not selfish. A lot of people feel like focusing on self-care makes them selfish or self-centered. But I say when you take care of yourself, you're taking care of everyone you love and everyone who loves you because it extends out. Um, and I think it's essential, not an option. I would say for habit change, because people are always asking me about habit change, very, very important to start small and build from there. Because when you start small, you feel that satisfaction of accomplishing those, you get that habit established, and then you can build up from there. One of my favorite words is reticular activating system. How much fun is that? I just love that words, but that is actually the filter in your brain that is kind of like a social media algorithm. And that is what we are looking for, we find what we focus on, we see more of, right? Just like when when social media notices we're looking at something and all of a sudden we see more and more and more of it, your brain has this reticular activating system, this brain filter, and it sees that you're thinking, focusing, doing something, and it shows you more and more and more of it. So, one thing that can really help that I would love for everybody to give a try is to keep a gratitude journal, whether it's writing it down or putting notes in your phone, jot down about three things every day that you feel grateful for. Feel it in your heart. You know, think about just different things every day. And the magic of that is when you take, you know, a couple minutes to jot down three things that you're grateful for every day, every day you're gonna keep finding more and more things to be grateful for, and you're gonna feel better, happier just from shifting your focus for just that having that little practice and activating that reticular activating system to where you want it to focus.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

All of that is so important, and it all so much ties in together. The the self-care is being intentional and finding that five minutes to sit down and write down those three things you are grateful for. For me, the small steps um with changing habits is a few years ago, I decided instead of drinking my first cup of coffee with half a gallon of creamer, that oh, it my coffee would be practically white by the time. I decided, you know what, I'm gonna drink my coffee black. I found some less acid coffee, right? And I I drink light roast. So I just made that change. I know that just not waking up and putting all that sugar in my body is making a difference. And then a few hours later, if I go out for coffee, then I have special coffee.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Just little things like that. Yeah, those little shifts, they make all the difference. It's those little habits. Like I was saying, I have a similar coffee thing, and I make sure I drink a glass of water before I caffeinate in the morning. Hydrate before caffeinate. And that really changes the way that I feel. And I don't have that dry mouth, you know, and feel half dehydrated before my day is even an hour in. Um, so yeah, those little changes can be so impactful. People feel like they have to do big, drastic things or that they don't have time to develop healthy habits, but these little shifts can be so impactful.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Absolutely. And then with that little shift, when it just becomes normal, and like you said, it's a sense of accomplishment, a sense of empowerment and motivation. And you're like, huh, what else can I find that I would like to change?

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Uh, great messages. I'm loving this conversation.

Letting Go Of The Heavy Suitcase

SPEAKER_01 26:58

I'm so glad that you brought me on. I'm loving this conversation too. Um, I would just tell anybody listening out there that you can let go of any hurt, pain, shame, or guilt from the past. Just put it down like a heavy suitcase. You can make that choice to put down that heavy suitcase and no longer carry it with you. And you can create space to feel empowered to adjust your focus on what you have to be grateful for already, and notice all kinds of new things to be grateful for and all kinds of new things that you are good at and you're capable of, and just go on to create your best life ever. Colleen, I am thankful for you. Thank you, Jen.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

I'm thankful for you as well. What words of encouragement, if there is a woman listening that's like, man, I'm being called to do this, I want to do this, but I'm just not quite sure there's risk involved. What are some words of encouragement that you would give them that maybe pulled you through in moments of, am I doing the right thing?

Courage, Purpose, And Women’s Careers

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Well, I read something actually just yesterday that made me smile, that made me think, you know, this is a feeling that I had too. And it was don't die with your gifts inside you. Don't get to the end of your life and have all these regrets of things that you wish you had done. You know, if you feel like you have a book inside of you, write the book. If you feel like you have a career or a whisper in your head that keeps trying to move you in a particular direction, um, listen to that because I do really feel like we're all here for a reason and that we all have certain gifts. And it can be scary sometimes to move forward with ideas that you have that may seem completely different from what you were doing before, but there's a reason why your mind keeps going to that. We spend so much time in our life, in our work, and in our career, that I really feel like it should be something that you enjoy and that feels rewarding to you. We all have a purpose, and that's what makes our lives fabulous is when we when we align with that purpose. Um, so I would encourage women, you know, to really just keep learning all you can about that particular thing and connect with other women who have built businesses and who can help guide you along the way and maybe help you avoid mistakes that they've made, help, you know, you see things from a different perspective. But I would say go for it.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Amazing message.

Resources, Website, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Thank you. You're welcome. And I encourage anybody to visit my website, minddais.com. There is information about programs I have coming up. There's a link to schedule any free consult, and there's all kinds of tips and information for anybody who wants to learn more.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

I love all of that. And the link will also be in the show notes. Fantastic. Thank you for being my guest today on the Healing and Sharing podcast. Thanks so much for having me. Of course. And remember, you are stronger than you think. Until next time.