Medical Hypnosis

A common misconception about hypnosis is that patients are not in control. In fact, they are. The state of mind they enter can feel much like a daydream. Hypnosis is a viable technique that helps people with lingering issues such as being overweight, smoking, stress, anger, infertility and phobias.

Don Glass, founder of Just Imagine Hypnosis Centers in Andover, helps his clients with each of these challenges and more. He has been practicing self-hypnosis for more than 30 years, and began working with clients as a certified member of the National Guild of Hypnotists in 2010. He recently welcomed an additional hypnotist to his practice.

Virtual Gastric Band (VGB), a technique that helps clients lose weight by suggestively having them experience a gastric band surgery, is one of Glass’ most popular treatments.

The success of VGB, or any other hypnotherapy, is entirely contingent upon the client’s readiness and willingness to eradicate the problem and comply with the process, according to Glass.

Phobias are another common issue, the onset of which often happens quickly. Glass contends that the solution should happen just as quickly and that he can resolve most phobia cases — the fear of flying, spiders, crowds or otherwise — in just two sessions.

“A phobia happens like that (he snaps his fingers), so why shouldn’t it go away like that?” Glass says. “It can, and you don’t have to go back and relive any of it, as they do in the psychological setting.”

Jennine Zito is a current VGB client who, like many, was skeptical about hypnosis. Today she’s gladly a believer.

“In the first month, I lost 23 pounds, and now it is down to about a pound a week, so I have lost 27 pounds,” Zito says. “I am very happy.”

Zito’s journey with VGB has been a process in which her appetite has diminished slowly. Others can experience a more immediate and dramatic appetite reduction.

“This is interactive — it is a process,” Zito says. “It is a choice you make because you can eat if you want, but you will feel overly full — that is the difference. I would recommend this to anybody; it is life-changing.”

In order for Glass to help his clients achieve the ultradeep state of relaxation that facilitates their receptivity to change, he first must take time to build a strong rapport. Before hypnosis, Glass meets with his clients to address any past emotional issues that are blocking them from achieving their goal. He subscribes to the Ericksonian style of hypnosis, in which dialogue is very much a part of the process.

“The subconscious mind has been referred to as a blank hard drive, and everything we experience goes into that hard drive,” Glass says. “These experiences become beliefs and form our behaviors.”

Hypnosis can help reprogram a person’s predisposition to any number of undesirable issues.

Steve DiOrio, another client, sought Glass’ help for his fear of flying. A promising work opportunity put DiOrio in the unavoidable position of having to travel by airplane, something he says he had “masterfully avoided” in the past.

“The two sides finally came into conflict with each other,” DiOrio says. “What I wanted to do came into direct conflict with what I was absolutely afraid to do.”

In addition to resolving his fear of flying, DiOrio believes the hypnosis helped alleviate “a lifetime of anxiety.”

“In our first session together, we didn’t address the flying as much as my ambient anxiety,” DiOrio says. “I sat in that very comfortable chair of his for 45 minutes and I’ll never forget it; it was March 29, I got up out of that chair and I was a new person. He literally reprogrammed the way I process my world, and it is amazing.”

Glass is a father, grandfather and great grandfather who is passionate about his work. His clients are referred to him by psychologists, social workers and medical doctors who believe that hypnosis can help in ways that traditional methods cannot.

“The best analogy I have for it is, if you had spent your entire life carrying around a 50-pound backpack and then one day you forgot it, things would feel different. It was like that,” DiOrio says.

To those who claim they can’t be hypnotized, Glass says, “You are right.” In order for hypnosis to work, the subject must be open to it. “It works for everyone,” he says. “If they want it to.”

Just Imagine Hypnosis Centers
Andover, Mass.
(978) 674-8481
JustImagineHypnosisCenters.com