Denise Billen-Mejia 0:07
Welcome to Two hypnotherapists talking with me, Denise Billen-Mejia in Delaware, USA.
Martin Furber 0:13
And me Martin Furber in Preston UK.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:16
This weekly podcast is for anyone and everyone who would like to know more about fascinating subject of hypnosis and the benefits it offers.
Martin Furber 0:24
I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist,
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:27
I'm a retired medical doctor turned consulting hypnotist.
Martin Furber 0:31
We are two hypnotherapists talking.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:34
So let's get on with the episode.
Martin Furber 0:39
Let's get on the show indeed, and I'm joined this week by Double 'D' on this episode. We've got Denise Billen-Mejia, of course, my co host, and we're joined by author Denise Denise Oatley Hall, our good friend in America. Hi, Denise.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:53
Hi. In her car driving somewhere anyway,
Denise Oatley Hall 0:58
I'm sitting still.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:01
No, no, I know you're not irresponsible. Thank you. But you are still in your car. You did a very nice little radio segment for me on smoking. And we asked you if you could come to the same thing on the podcast because it is such a major issue. And it is so obviously not good for people. So there is no upside to smoking. And so many people want to quit but don't believe they can. And you, with help the person that developed the programme, have licked that problem, it seems. How many people do help stop smoking now?
Denise Oatley Hall 1:37
Oh my gosh, I don't know. Because I started using this programme about a year and a half. So a year, year and a half ago. I don't know I'm working on getting up to three people a week, so you do the numbers.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:51
Okay.
Denise Oatley Hall 1:52
So a lot. It's growing. As the word gets around, and people who stopped... I recently helped someone that was smoking three packs a day, and can't believe it and he texts me every now and then he goes... 'I'm still smoke free!'.
Denise Billen-Mejia 2:13
Yeah, had he tried to stop using other methods?
Denise Oatley Hall 2:18
Everyone has tried to stop using other methods, all the methods that will rarely work. I won't say never, because if you've decided you want to quit, you can quit. That's the biggest thing right there.
Denise Billen-Mejia 2:35
The cold turkeys who actually do it usually don't go back. But the the patches and chewing gum and other things tend to be problem. Yeah.
Denise Oatley Hall 2:44
Yeah, because they don't address the original issue.
Denise Billen-Mejia 2:48
What what are the issues you think that keep people smoking? What kinds of emotional baggage are they addressing with cigarettes?
Denise Oatley Hall 2:58
Well, the biggest in my in my opinion, the biggest thing that is not addressed that does get addressed when I work with them, or the other hypnotists work with them. Is that their habit, not addiction. Their habit has become like most habits an unconscious thing that runs them. And it's attached to activities. And so every time you get up in the morning, you have a coffee, you're triggered and you want a cigarette, all those different things, but that's running like blinking. You don't think about that anymore? It's unconscious programme, and so those are not addressed with patches and the scary medicines you can take, and they're just not addressed. And so people try to quit. They don't know how to get away from that drive that our subconscious mind is so powerfully doing. Does that make sense?
Denise Billen-Mejia 4:01
It does.
Martin Furber 4:05
I am an ex smoker, Denise. I was two packs a day until about 10 years ago. What surprised me when I stopped smoking was the fact that nicotine actually is not a relaxant, it's a stimulant. I didn't realise that because of course, people say oh, why do you smoke, 'Oh I smoke to relax'... No, the breathing exercises that you do when you're smoking, that's what relaxes you inhale deeply and that's what relaxes you, the nicotine doesn't, it's a stimulant.
Denise Oatley Hall 4:36
That is a truth and that is something I cover in the pre-call with them. And most people are surprised and I help them differentiate between the breathing like you just said, and actually every smoker, just about, unless you're in your own home, has to take a break if they smoke, and it's the break you're taking. Also, people don't understand about the other thing that really is addictive. That's in cigarettes. You guys know it,
Martin Furber 5:07
Is that the ammonia that they put in them over there?
Denise Billen-Mejia 5:09
Nah, it's the sugar.
Denise Oatley Hall 5:11
Yeah. And they go sugar! I say first of all the leaves are soaked in sugar water to begin with, because it's bitter. And then I did some research. There are a couple of companies that add up to 20% more sugar to the cigarette. Why? Because it's addictive. Yeah,
Martin Furber 5:32
I knew about ammonia, because when I used to smoke, if you smoked American cigarettes, they tasted of ammonia.
Denise Oatley Hall 5:38
Oh, wow. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of poisons in there. A lot of poisons in there. But once people understand what they've really been doing, and what has been driving them, and they don't know it, then there's a shift. There's a shift that happens. And that helps them believe well, maybe I can stop. And then, when you're working, as you two know very well, with the subconscious mind, it's so much more suggestible and you help align their programmes to what they want now. Break up all the programmes that are running.
Denise Billen-Mejia 6:19
Right
Denise Oatley Hall 6:21
Most people started smoking to get them something they wanted.
Denise Billen-Mejia 6:24
Right, one of when I asked the question originally, the things I was thinking of with the 14 year old, that starts smoking and coughing his guts up probably. It's because they want to look cool, because you know, it's there's this link in this behaviour, or actually, why am I think of cars, or something of models draped on cars when I'm...That! The sort of the sexy aspect of smoking. And it's not a conscious thought. It is a subconscious one, that these things drive people.
Denise Oatley Hall 6:58
They do, that subconscious, a need either get away from something, stress, Martin, or get to something. Looking cool. Feeling more grown up. Your subconscious mind is geared to getting you the thing that you want.
Martin Furber 7:14
I started smoking when I was about 14, and that was peer pressure. Yeah. Yeah. Wanting to be with the cool kids wanting to belong yet that sense of belonging, absolutely it was.
Denise Billen-Mejia 7:24
Yeah. And to a degree that goes along with needing a smoking break, usually have a buddy go out with you to have a smoking break. How about we just have everybody take a break, that will be good. Not I want to make it easier for people to continue to smoke. But just the idea of taking a break every hour, especially now we're all on screens all the time. It should be off of your screen periodically.
Martin Furber 7:50
Can I ask you Dee, did you ever smoke?
Denise Oatley Hall 7:52
No, no. But I've got five family members. I lost my dad when I was only 21 to smoking. Right after that. I lost my grandmother. I lost my grandfather and my mother. And last year, my brother, all with smoking.
Denise Billen-Mejia 8:09
And your brother, only last year, even though we've known for so long, how unhealthy it is?
Denise Oatley Hall 8:15
Yeah, but he didn't stop. And he died of stage four lung cancer.
Denise Billen-Mejia 8:24
Was it a late diagnosis?
Denise Oatley Hall 8:25
Yeah, he went in, because he wasn't feeling good. He thought he might have Covid, and it was worse. Yeah, it was worse. So I'm on the other side. I know what it feels like to say goodbye to your dad when you're only 21 and just married. You know, and people don't think about that. They really don't. They glance over it. But they can't afford to think about it if they want to stay smoking, who their loss affects.
Denise Billen-Mejia 8:55
Your dad must have been very young.
Denise Oatley Hall 8:58
He was just 55
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:03
Yeah, way too young.
Martin Furber 9:04
I mean, it's when I think now about smoking over the years over here in England. You know, originally the, I can remember as a child, the health warnings at the bottom, it was just smoking can damage your health, and then it became you know, bigger and fiercer and fiercer and the message is, you know, smoking kills. You know, say it as it is. And of course, all the advertising has been stopped for about 20 years. I mean, I can well remember when we used to smoke on aeroplanes. Do you want smoking or non smoking?
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:32
It didn't matter, was still circulating around you anyway, even if you didn't smoke?
Martin Furber 9:37
Yeah, but over here, and I mean, I think the most recent figures was 9% of adults in the UK now smoke. If you go back 30 years, it was probably about 35 40%. So yeah, yeah, well, that's still an awful lot of smokers in the UK that could benefit from hypnotherapy to stop smoking.
Denise Oatley Hall 9:58
And there's lots more that are undercover smokers. I can't tell you how many people I've seen that were so thrilled to stop, but they will never give me a testimony. Because they didn't want anybody to know that they ever smoked.
Martin Furber 10:14
Yeah, that's, that's the joke we have over here in the UK about America, if you pull a gun out, nobody pays a blind bit of notice, but pull a cigarette out and they are like.......
Denise Oatley Hall 10:28
It's kind of true. It really is. Yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 10:32
So, when you screen your clients, people call you and say I want to quit smoking, what kind of questions do you ask them in order to be sure, they really do want to. I mean, I take it you only want to have people who are serious, right?
Denise Oatley Hall 10:50
I only have people, most of the time, sometimes I make mistakes. But I try to have only people who are serious. I ask them on a scale of one to 10 how serious they are to stop. I had a guy told me the other day 2, I said oh, you're not ready. You're not ready.
Denise Billen-Mejia 11:11
And he knew it, because he was honest.
Denise Billen-Mejia 11:13
Yeah, thank goodness. But I listened to what they're saying and how they're saying it. You know, and what it is they're saying. I asked them how many packs they smoked. I'll ask them where they smoke. I'll ask them if they can remember when they first started, why they started. I'll ask them what their motivation is. And when I hear them say something like, well, my wife wants me to. No. Or, you know, I know I should. That is not someone who's ready to stop. When I hear them say things like, I'm sick of it. I asked them, is smoking your friend, and talk to them about that, and they go, 'Smoking is not my friend'. I know that. And I inform them like we were just talking about. And when they're saying I want this for me. That's my person. Yeah, that's my person so they're done!
Martin Furber 12:12
I mean, I don't do too many stop smoking clients. It's not something I've ever sort of pushed myself forward for; weight loss is my thing. But when I have done, it's the same thing, people have got to be really motivated to want to stop and I get them to tell me all the reasons why they want to stop. Yeah, and then you know, this person is motivated, and in that sense.
Denise Billen-Mejia 12:35
And also, because then they hear it out loud when they're telling you, which is just good for them.
Denise Oatley Hall 12:40
Yeah, it's true, good point Denise.
Martin Furber 12:42
But also our expertise as hypnotherapists, then reaffirms everything that they've said to them, and helps them obviously, you know. Otherwise they wouldn't need us, but they do. And that's where you know, that's where hypnosis really comes in to its own to help people quitting smoking, gives them that final push.
Denise Oatley Hall 13:02
It really does. And one of the things I love about this method is that it's very thorough. As far as it not only breaks up all of the associations, it creates a new craving, not an addiction, a new craving, of craving, like they used to crave a cigarette long ago when they were smoker. It's always long ago when you were a smoker in the past. Now your craving is to breathe fresh air, you love to breathe fresh air and they begin to crave that you replace the craving they had with a new one that's healthy for them. And other things that they've told you they want to be able to do. Like people tell me they want to be able to travel and walk up hills, be able to breathe so we give them images of that now you crave fresh air you're walking up the hill, you feel, you know that kind of thing.
Martin Furber 13:58
Is cost a big things in terms of cigarettes over there. Are they expensive in America cigarettes?
Denise Oatley Hall 14:06
Yeah, no, not as elsewhere like in Australia and England
Denise Billen-Mejia 14:10
I think the average is about $7 a pack now, somewhere in that range.
Denise Oatley Hall 14:18
Yeah, if you live near a Native American reservation you can get them really cheap and $4 a pack. And if money is the person's reason, only reason for stopping they're also not my clients. It's not enough.
Martin Furber 14:35
You've got to want to do for the health. I mean with me, it was the, I'd got to the point I couldn't even get up the stairs. I was gasping for breath.
Denise Billen-Mejia 14:45
And you still have residual issues. Probably because of your smoking, right?
Martin Furber 14:50
Oh, yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 14:51
And you can cut that out if you want to!
Martin Furber 14:53
No, absolutely. No, I do, I mean, I was an idiot for starting in the first place with having asthma. And now, of course, now I have asthma, COPD and bronchiectasis as my punishment for it.
Martin Furber 15:06
And you've been smoke free. How long? 10 years?
Martin Furber 15:11
10 years last month. It was April 2013. I stopped.
Denise Oatley Hall 15:15
Congratulations.
Martin Furber 15:17
Thank you.
Denise Billen-Mejia 15:17
Yeah. How did you know you weren't using hypnosis at that point? How did you? Did you just say, okay, I've got to stop this, or I'm going to be dead. Is that...
Martin Furber 15:25
I'd reached a particular I'll say, it doesn't matter. It's in the public domain. It was the weekend, I had to go and clear out my mother's bedroom. She'd died a couple of months before. And I remember sitting outside in the car, think, lighting up another cigarette and thinking to myself, if I could stop this today, this is the lowest I've ever felt in my life. If I can get through the rest of today without a cigarette. I'll never talk to another one. Voila.
Denise Oatley Hall 15:53
Yeah. Wow. That was a great decision. That was powerful.
Martin Furber 15:57
Yeah, yeah, that was, that was the lowest point. I've never felt so bad in my life. You know, it was the worst thing I have ever had to do was go and clear out her things, her personal things. Ironically, in reverse. My mother never touched a cigarette in her life until she was 44. And then she started smoking.
Denise Oatley Hall 16:17
Oh, my gosh. I talked with a woman the other day, who didn't start till she was 35.
Martin Furber 16:24
Yeah.
Denise Oatley Hall 16:25
And she started because at work, all the other people, all the other women were going out to have a smoke break. And she was left inside to do more work. They left her in one day, she just decided I'm gonna go have a cigarette and not do that work. And that's how it started.
Denise Billen-Mejia 16:44
And isn't it strange that you couldn't just say, I'm going on a break and walk around the block? Yeah. Yes, yeah. It's somehow socially acceptable. So it's less socially acceptable now. They make people sit in little cabins you know, the big hospitals where you see people crowded around the entrance. And now they have to go and sit in a contained space doubling their nicotine.
Denise Oatley Hall 17:09
Or, yeah, or, or, you know, at the theme parks now, you can't walk around smoking. And I know at Busch Gardens, which is near where it is, in my town, they have these smoking areas. They're not remote. They are little things in there where everybody walks by, and I can't help but think it's like going by animals in a cage. There's the smokers, and it's embarrassing. You know, I feel bad for them when I walked by because it's like they're on display.
Denise Billen-Mejia 17:42
Yes, but remember, it is their choice to smoke. I mean, that's, people need to remember it is, yeah.
Denise Oatley Hall 17:48
It is, but you know, Martin...
Denise Billen-Mejia 17:50
Ably assisted by the tobacco industry, which of course many people...
Denise Oatley Hall 17:57
Which spends billions of dollars, I picked a client who stopped recently gave me their pack of cigarettes, and I've never seen one like it, and I can't remember the verbiage exactly, but they were all natural, organic. And you know, the whole pack..
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:14
Oh yes, just like arsenic can be! I mean, it's not...
Denise Oatley Hall 18:17
Yes, but look at how subtle this is, and there was writing on the package that basically said, even though this looks harmless, this will still kill you. But it was phrased in such a way that it was so tricky.
Martin Furber 18:33
We had a similar thing over here a few years ago a brand of cigarettes probably 20 years ago now, a brand of cigarettes and it said Sun-Dried Organic Tobacco. Again you know immediately counjuring up, you know...
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:47
Tomatoes.
Martin Furber 18:48
Yeah, something nice and healthy. And then of course, I don't if you have them in the States, about 15 years ago they brought out cigarettes where in the filter, there was a little flavour pellet that you pop.
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:01
Oh, yeah.
Martin Furber 19:02
And it added flavour. It was like yeah, let's make smoking fun for kids again, you know, it was...
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:07
That was, that was made illegal here.
Martin Furber 19:10
Yeah, and here too, quite right.
Denise Oatley Hall 19:12
They're about to make menthol illegal here. And they're on the verge of doing that, because the cigarette companies are targeting teens, women and people of colour with the menthol. That's their target.
Martin Furber 19:27
Well, again, with menthol cigarettes it conjures up in the imagination. Oh, it must be healthy.
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:31
Fresh air!
Martin Furber 19:32
Well, yeah. Do you know how they create the menthol taste in the cigarette? It's a flavour that they inject into the foil that goes around them inside the pack.
Denise Oatley Hall 19:44
Oh my god.
Martin Furber 19:45
There's no menthol leaf inside the cigarette or anything. No, it's a perfume that's injected into the silver foil, which puts the flavour inside the the cigarette. they're just regular cigarettes with a menthol fragrance.
Denise Oatley Hall 20:00
That is crazy!
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:03
We've all agreed this is supposed to be about hypnosis. We've all agreed it's not a good idea. Why don't you Denise, what is the name of the programme that you use with your clients?
Denise Oatley Hall 20:16
Michael Whelehan's of Australia. It's his system that I use.
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:20
And it takes how many sessions? She says, like she doesn't know.
Denise Oatley Hall 20:25
One session, that's about between two and one and a half hours. Very intense.
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:33
So they walk out of the door. And it's usually in person, but it can be done on Zoom, right? They walk away from that session, non smokers,
Denise Oatley Hall 20:44
Non smokers, and they know it, they feel it. I ask them a bunch of questions. And you should see the looks on their faces. When I ask them the questions like, because the answers come out automatically, because it's their truth now. And they're like, yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 21:03
Do you offer, another loaded question, because I know the answer. Do you offer any kind of guarantee that this will work?
Denise Oatley Hall 21:11
I do. I offer a lifetime guarantee that if at any time after you see me, you feel like, and you use all the different things I give you, you feel like you want another cigarette, you pick up the phone and call me 365 days of the year and I will help you stay a nonsmoker for the rest of your life, for the rest of my life. My guarantees good so long as I live.
Martin Furber 21:43
Jason Linett Lifetime Guarantee yours or mine, whichever comes first!
Denise Oatley Hall 21:49
There you go!
Denise Billen-Mejia 21:50
Are you welcoming people to contact you to find out, how to learn, those of us who are watching this who are hypnotists, and want to offer this programme? Do you teach the programme or do you know where people can get trained?
Denise Oatley Hall 22:06
I do not teach the programme but Michael does, Whelehan, and I will give you that information also.
Denise Billen-Mejia 22:12
Good, so, we'll load this on YouTube.
Denise Oatley Hall 22:15
Yeah, go to his website, Michael Whelehan.
Denise Billen-Mejia 22:18
And if you are a smoker and you want help, Denise is only in Florida and a phone call away. And she's already got the programme.
Denise Oatley Hall 22:29
Right? Yeah. Um,
Denise Billen-Mejia 22:30
Do you have anything else you want to say about smoking? And then we're gonna ask you a bunch of other stuff about you.
Denise Oatley Hall 22:35
No, I guess I could go on and on about smoking, but you know, no.
Denise Billen-Mejia 22:41
How did you how did you find hypnosis because you've had a pretty varied career. The little I've known about you, in these meetings that we go to together. What were you, what were you in your first career life? What was your area?
Denise Oatley Hall 22:57
My very first career was at 10 years old selling Christmas cards door to door. I think it was on a bubble gum wrapper, and I thought I liked that I want money. I'm gonna call, I ordered it and took it around. But I have been so many different things, done so many different things. I'm an award winning artist. I've sold my art across the state. I've been a professional clown for 25 years. That was what I was doing before I became a hypnotist, worked on a quarter horse farm for eight years, was a phlebotomist and a medical lab technician. You should know that this sounds crazy, you know, I could add in astronaut or whatever, but I'm old. So of course, I've had time to do a lot of different things.
Martin Furber 23:42
Also, as a, as a mutual friend of all three of us, often says, she says nobody sort of leaves school and says, I want to be a hypnotherapist do they?
Denise Billen-Mejia 23:53
Very few.
Martin Furber 23:53
It seems to be a career development, or second career for most of us.
Denise Billen-Mejia 23:59
Well, I think it does help. It does help to have some life experience because you're going to be talking to people from all walks of life. So I don't, but at the same time, if my kids suddenly decided they were well, they all have established careers already, so wouldn't, they they would still come to it from a second career. Had I been a hypnotist earlier, maybe I would have leaned them that way. Because I think it is so useful, if you want to work in a medical area. Yep. So what kind of hypnosis did you practice first? What was, because most of us have had many different trainings. After a few years, we collect information, like little sponges.
Denise Oatley Hall 24:37
I'm thinking, you know, I worked with people, especially the methods that I've used. I use them because Jerry's pretty much was all regression, regression to cause that kind of thing. So I help people solve anxiety problems or just very light stuff. And the more training I got, and the more diversified, that I got, then I started to specialise. I like weight loss a lot, because I am adamant that we stop dieting for forever. I'm as passionate about that as I am about smoking.
Denise Billen-Mejia 25:14
Is this because, it's again, it's the corruption of a word. The word diet just means that which you habitually eat.
Denise Oatley Hall 25:22
Yeah, so yeah, but dieting is a whole different word. Yeah. And it's, it's just harmful to everybody, but especially women. It really comes down on women, but it's harmful to everybody. It doesn't work. So I, you know, started working on that, during the pandemic.
Denise Billen-Mejia 25:41
Do you do predominantly Zoom or predominantly in person now?
Denise Oatley Hall 25:45
I do some of both, really, it depends on the person. If they want to come I see people in my home. If they want to come and they're nearby then that's fine with me. But sometimes they're more comfortable with Zoom, or they're far away.
Martin Furber 26:01
Yeah. Yeah, I find it amazing actually, how people have got used to zoom because of the pandemic. I have clients that live literally, well, I had one literally two miles away, who preferred Zoom.
Denise Oatley Hall 26:17
Yeah, and they don't have to drive.
Martin Furber 26:19
Yeah, absolutely it does, absolutely. It also in we've, we've said it many times, you know, there are many advantages to doing it online. First and foremost, when people are comfortable and more relaxed in their own surroundings, always.
Denise Billen-Mejia 26:32
Exactly, just not. You're all relaxed at the hypnotist, then you're gonna get in your car and get agitated by traffic. It's like going and getting, it's like going and getting a really nice massage and then have to go deal with the world.
Denise Oatley Hall 26:51
That's why those in-home massages are so great. You know, you just say bye bye and go to your bed.
Martin Furber 27:00
So what other kinds of things do you see people for in general Denise? Is it you know, as well as stop smoking and weight loss is a lot of stress and anxiety, or is it maybe sort of things people want mental rehearsal for future things that they are going to do? Mindset?
Denise Oatley Hall 27:15
So yeah, I've seen I've seen people for stage fright, I do phobias, a lot of phobias. And recently, I've been helping somebody who had a concussion, and has balance issues. And that seems to have gotten better for him. So anything that you know, that affects your mindset, people come in with different things. I've been seeing people with sleep issues. And that's kind of new for me. Have you guys worked with sleep issues,
Denise Billen-Mejia 27:45
Sleep, even people don't realise that they have a sleep issue. When they come to me for X, Y, or Z. The second session, the first thing they say usually is I'm sleeping so much better. They're not used to that. I don't sleep well, so that must be the way the world is. And then all of a sudden, they get a good night's sleep and realise how much better they feel.
Martin Furber 28:05
Yeah, I come from the angle of everything to do with how we are feeling, mental-health, starts with a good night's sleep. Once we get, once we get in the habit of sleeping seven, eight hours a night, good quality sleep, everything else is so much easier to deal with. All my clients get a recording to listen to every night at bedtime, to help them with their sleep, and to help them get the right kind of sleep. And then we take the work on from that.
Denise Oatley Hall 28:33
Wow, that's a great idea.
Martin Furber 28:36
Yeah, that's how I do it is after the initial consultation. Before I see them for the first trance session, they've got to listen to the recording every night for a week. It gets them used to my voice it, it gets them used to my voice. And so you know, they're more amenable then to hypnosis, but also they they sleep better. They're already feeling better. Because there's been sleeping better.
Denise Oatley Hall 29:04
And that's the goal, isn't it? Yeah. Feel better and be better.
Martin Furber 29:08
Yeah, that's it. Whatever the presenting issue is, people want to feel better in themselves.
Denise Oatley Hall 29:16
Right? Yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 29:17
So where do you see your practice going now? Are you going to, obviously you've got this goal you want to see, yeah to help. What's his name? Whatever his name is, getting his 25,000 people. Yeah,
Denise Oatley Hall 29:35
Yeah, that's part of my goal, too. But I am expanding my practice, offering that. I'm also going to start training hypnotists. I'm re-hauling my website and I'm moving in, and I'm also going into doing more speaking. I'm writing a book, isn't everyone?
Denise Billen-Mejia 29:55
Martin inparticular!
Denise Oatley Hall 29:59
What are you writing Martin?
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:00
But that was a that was a dig sorry.
Martin Furber 30:05
Yeah, I started to write my book.
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:08
And he's almost finished.
Martin Furber 30:09
But it's two chapters short, and has been since last December. I was trying to. Yeah, I was trying to rush it out ready for Christmas. Then I got stuck with, you know, a bit of a mental block on the last two chapters. I stopped, put it down, go back to it. And then I've just been so busy since then this year has just been unbelievably busy for me. I've got a waiting list.
Denise Oatley Hall 30:33
That sounds good.
Martin Furber 30:34
Yeah, is I'm not complaining. But I've got a waiting list for clients at the moment.
Denise Oatley Hall 30:39
Oh, my gosh, I need to talk with you. I'd like a waiting list.
Martin Furber 30:44
So it's just got put back, and put back, so I'm aiming for next year, for this year's Christmas market with that one.
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:51
See, there you go.
Martin Furber 30:52
Yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:53
You got to have a goal
Denise Oatley Hall 30:55
Now you have another person is going to ask you about that. How's the last chapters going?
Denise Billen-Mejia 31:03
You've had a lot of new stuff that you've been sort of onboarding in the last few months. I think things are good. You'll be busy, but I think things will become more organised for you. So that you'll see some areas, where you will be able to dedicate some time to writing. That's the key. You have you have to really, yeah, when you get up in the morning, that's what you want to be doing. That's what it needs to be.
Denise Oatley Hall 31:29
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Martin Furber 31:31
Absolutely, I'm the same in terms of clients. You know, what, when the days I've got clients to see either face to face or on Zoom, I look forward to each one. I absolutely do. But then I think, do I wish I trained to be a Hypnotherapist 20 years ago? In one way, yes. But in another, no, because it's something you hit on, Denise before. When you said about we need the life experience, I think to be the best in this profession. I think so I think that life experience makes us better. hypnotherapists
Denise Oatley Hall 32:05
Absolutely. I agree. You bring everything you've ever done into it. When I used to work with horses, you have to learn to listen and watch horses, what great skills that I brought into my hypnosis practice.
Martin Furber 32:18
You know, we've got another podcast coming up with Sharon Waxkirsch. And she was talking about hypnotising dogs. And so I mentioned, well, you know, that's not as off the wall as it might sound, because people have been doing it with horses for years. Horse Whisperering.
Denise Oatley Hall 32:36
Yeah, yeah.
Martin Furber 32:37
So it's a form of hypnosis. Surely?
Denise Oatley Hall 32:40
It kind of is. Yeah. And it's great for you know, teaching your observation. Because when you have the horse, a stallion, you want to be observant. You want to know what that animal is thinking by looking in their eyes and noticing how they're holding their their legs and shaking their head. They're talking to you. Yeah,
Martin Furber 33:04
yeah, absolutely they are, yeah. But it's a it's, the conversation on that one, it was when Sharon mentioned it. She said it as if it was off the wall, and I thought, no, it's not. We've been horse whispering for ages.
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:22
She had anaethetised a dog for surgery, I think. And that's what she was talking about.
Denise Oatley Hall 33:28
Really?
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:29
I don't want to steal the thunder from the next, when her episode comes out, but yeah, yeah. Not that we think all of us should go and be hypnotists for dogs, but she's working with a particular vet. Right my dear, I think we should let you go because you've still got three hours of driving ahead of you before you can rest. Thank you for stopping by the road.
Denise Oatley Hall 33:54
Thank you for having me on. This has been a delight to talk to both of you.
Martin Furber 33:58
It's been great Denise. Thank you so much for coming on.
Denise Billen-Mejia 34:10
We hope you've enjoyed listening. Please remember, this podcast is designed to give you an insight into therapeutic hypnosis, and is for educational purposes only. So remember, consult with your own healthcare professional if you think something you've heard may apply to you or a loved one.
Martin Furber 34:26
If you found this episode useful, you can apply for free continuing professional development or CME credits. Using the link provided in the show notes. Feel free to contact either of us through the links in the show notes. Join us again next week.
