THT SE06 E10
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[00:00:00] Denise Billen-Mejia: Welcome to Two Hypnotherapists Talking with me, Denise Billen Mejia, in Delaware, USA.
[00:00:13] Martin Furber: And me, Martin Furber, in Preston, UK.
[00:00:16] Denise Billen-Mejia: This weekly podcast is for anyone and everyone who would like to know more about the fascinating subject of hypnosis and the benefits it offers.
[00:00:24] Martin Furber: I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist.
[00:00:26] Denise Billen-Mejia: I'm
a retired medical doctor turned consulting hypnotist.
[00:00:31] Martin Furber: We are Two Hypnotherapists Talking.
[00:00:34] Denise Billen-Mejia: So let's get on with the episode.
[00:00:35] Martin Furber: Okay. So let's get on with the show. Denise, we have another guest with us this week, Lori Hammond.
[00:00:41] Denise Billen-Mejia: We
do. The, I thought from Canada, but no, she's not American. Lori Hammond, who I've taken a couple of classes with, but we, each of us have trained in a different school of hypnosis.
We're very, very similar. And I think that would be a great thing to talk about. But of course, as our guest Lori gets to choose what she talks about most. Hi,
Lori.
[00:01:04] Lori Hammond: Hi, Denise. Hi, Martin. I am so honored to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:08] Martin Furber: You're very welcome.
[00:01:10] Denise Billen-Mejia: So where are you right now calling in from?
[00:01:12] Lori Hammond: I am in Denver, Colorado. Yes. Two hours behind you. Two hours behind most everyone. Most of the people who engage with my content are either East Coast, Eastern time where you are or UK time where Martin is. So I'm used to. I do a lot of the conversions often.
[00:01:29] Denise Billen-Mejia: Right. Well, the five hour one is easy, but when you get to the U.
S., you try and see the pieces on the map, and it doesn't quite align. I have a son who's, a son who's living in Flagstaff at the moment.
[00:01:40] Lori Hammond: Oh, okay.
[00:01:40] Denise Billen-Mejia: And sometimes it's two hours, and sometimes it's three, because they don't change their clocks.
[00:01:45] Lori Hammond: That's right. I'm kind of
jealous of them.
[00:01:49] Denise Billen-Mejia: Yeah. Yeah.
So, what is your favorite thing
about
hypnosis?
[00:01:55] Lori Hammond: Oh, that's a, that's a doozy of a first question. I like it. Denise, my favorite thing about hypnosis, I guess it would depend on the context, but my favorite thing about hypnosis might simultaneously be one of my least favorite things about hypnosis, which is my favorite thing is how rapidly a person can experience transformation, how effectively A person can experience transformation in a very short period of time.
And the, my, one of my least favorite things is trying to help a person understand, especially a person who's been in years and years of therapy, that it really can be this easy. I think one of the hardest things about hypnosis is helping people accept how easy it can be.
[00:02:43] Denise Billen-Mejia: Mm hmm. That actually I have a little tiny story I'll try and get out in one bite.
Um I had a regular doctor's appointment a few days ago and this doctor has referred clients to me as a hypnotist and he mentioned one of them and said oh he's really he's really lost weight and he feels so much better and blah blah blah and I thought we stopped at week nine out of twelve with this guy.
I thought he was fed up with me. He'd had weight loss. But he couldn't, he wasn't sure that it wasn't just because he wasn't eating. But it was the hypnosis, that was doing it. Yeah, okay. And of course, after a few weeks, he knew what he was going to do. But apparently, he's been singing my praises back with my doctor.
[00:03:28] Lori Hammond: Amazing. Amazing. Isn't it interesting when stuff like that happens?
[00:03:32] Denise Billen-Mejia: Yeah. Yeah. So, what was your first foray into hypnosis? Mm hmm.
[00:03:40] Lori Hammond: I grew up being taught that hypnosis was of the devil
[00:03:44] Denise Billen-Mejia: Oh dear!
[00:03:45] Lori Hammond: And it Was witchcraft and you should stay far away from it. And so many years ago, I started following Tim Ferriss and he was the first person that I knew of that started a podcast.
I didn't know what this podcast thing was. So I started listening to Tim Ferriss. And I thought, what else is out there? I, I listened to all his stuff. I got tired of his stuff. And I thought, who else is out there? And I found this podcast about hypnosis from Mike Mandel and Chris Thompson. And I started listening and they were just goofy, silly men, very intelligent and kind of silly, silly.
And I remember listening and thinking, no, it's not this easy. Yeah. And just. You know, really feeling rather skeptical. And after listening to them for a few months, I started thinking, I wonder if this hypnosis thing could help me with, with my weight. Um, I had really struggled with my weight my whole life.
And so I decided that I would go see a couple of hypnotists and, um, I, I found two local hypnotists. The first one was very heavy on visualization, telling me to visualize, visualize, and I'm not really a highly visual person. I've let go of some of that limiting belief now that I know better, but I was just, I, I left there feeling frustrated and feeling incapable of, of doing this hypnosis thing.
I went and saw another hypnotist and He, every time he would walk out to, to see me, I would hear him coming because just before he turned the corner, he would go,
so
needless to say, he and I didn't have rapport. And I thought, I'm just going to learn this hypnosis thing for myself. And so I learned with the lens to help myself with my own issues.
And the most magical thing happened because even though I didn't get this Shazam amazing experience, I should have come to see you, Denise, um, with my weight, it completely obliterated lifelong depression. Like I have dealt with depression since my earliest childhood memories and it has transformed who I am as a person and how I show up in the world and how I, you know, How I see the world in the most beautiful and profound way.
So that, that was my intro to hypnosis.
[00:06:13] Martin Furber: Well, that's really interesting, Lori. May I ask this lifelong depression, did that tie in with the weight thing? Was that over the same period of time?
[00:06:23] Lori Hammond: It's interesting because I, The depression definitely started as a little girl. I don't know if I would be, would have been diagnosed clinically depressed.
I had been since, um, but my weight issues, it's, it's really interesting, Martin, because I started feeling like I had a weight problem or like I had an eating problem or like I was. Overweight from a conversation. I remember having with my dad as a small child. So I, I had an overweight mentality from very early.
I look back at pictures of myself as a child. And I was, I was almost too skinny. I was like a scrawny little kid. Um, the mindset happened back in childhood. So I, I'm not sure how much they are correlated, but I would expect quite a bit.
[00:07:11] Martin Furber: No, because I often get it with clients with weight issues it's the old am I fat because I'm unhappy or am I unhappy because I'm fat?
[00:07:19] Lori Hammond: Yeah. Yes. Yes. It's, it's interesting because in my experience, and I would love to hear what the two of you think about this, but in my experience, there's so many times when a client, especially most of the people I work with are actually already hypnotists. So they come in with the, with ideas about, you know, initial sensitizing events and such things.
And my experience has shown that it doesn't always necessarily matter as long as you can guide the client into the issue themselves and have, it's, it's almost like their unconscious mind will start to uncover and reveal what needs to be uncovered and revealed. So I think
[00:07:57] Denise Billen-Mejia: When it's safe
[00:07:58] Lori Hammond: yes, it's when we get our conscious mind.
too involved in trying to figure out why or how, sometimes I think it almost, in my experience, can make things harder to transform for that person.
[00:08:13] Martin Furber: Um, so are you talking about now in trance you need them to bypass that critical factor, etc?
[00:08:19] Lori Hammond: Yes, yes. Yeah.
[00:08:21] Martin Furber: Yeah, absolutely. Now just really interesting with you saying, um, you got into it via weight issues.
That was my journey into hypnosis as well.
[00:08:32] Denise Billen-Mejia: Okay, I did not know that.
[00:08:33] Martin Furber: Oh yeah.
[00:08:35] Denise Billen-Mejia: Well you did have the traumatic events first.
[00:08:38] Martin Furber: Yeah, I did.
[00:08:39] Denise Billen-Mejia: Yeah.
[00:08:39] Martin Furber: Um, but I had weight issues all my adult life. Um, yo yo dieting. Um, and I was, you have to convert it into pounds again, Denise. Yeah. I lost a lot of weight with hypnosis.
[00:08:53] Denise Billen-Mejia: About
129 pounds. I think.
[00:08:56] Lori Hammond: Oh yeah. That's impressive.
[00:08:59] Denise Billen-Mejia: He's got a before and after picture on his website.
[00:09:02] Lori Hammond: And kept it off for quite some time, yeah?
[00:09:04] Martin Furber: Yeah, years now, years.
[00:09:06] Lori Hammond: Beautiful. Yes,
[00:09:07] Martin Furber: I still
have to have a word with myself now and again though, I have to be careful. Not to, uh, go back into old habits, it's easily, it's that default position that needs to change, isn't it?
[00:09:16] Lori Hammond: Yes, and that really is, so much of it is habitual, and I think when, I think it's really useful to give our clients tools at the end of a session that says, okay, you just experienced a shift, and in the future there might be moments of, You know, perhaps thinking about that cigarette or thinking about that Snickers bar, whatever it is.
And this is how, this is how you step right out of it because they can step right out of it. But sometimes it is a revisiting and a conscious shift to let the unconscious create a new habit.
[00:09:48] Martin Furber: Yeah, it is changing that default position. I found, you know, when you are sort of habitually eat a lot of bad food or have bad dietary habits, it's that get up off the sofa, automatically go to the fridge and you've eaten things before you realized you've done it.
It's changing that default position from what can I eat to what can I do.
[00:10:10] Lori Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. Focusing on what you want to be doing instead of not on what you're trying to stop doing.
[00:10:16] Denise Billen-Mejia: I'm I'm a big fan of what he put in there as a as a food. I'm going to call it a reward but you you're an afternoon snack. That that absolutely I love.
He eats a whole pineapple.
[00:10:29] Martin Furber: Every day.
[00:10:29] Lori Hammond: Oh
my. That would do the trick.
[00:10:34] Denise Billen-Mejia: He's gonna be an honorary Hawaiian soon.
[00:10:39] Lori Hammond: Beautiful.
[00:10:41] Denise Billen-Mejia: I was um um careful how I asked this because I don't want anybody who's hearing it thinking oh we're not that interested in my problem but this hypnosis works for so many things but what is your favorite thing? To work for. Where do you think you see the biggest?
[00:10:55] Lori Hammond: My favorite,
yeah, the, my favorite issue to work with, with hip, with hypnosis.
[00:11:01] Denise Billen-Mejia: Mm hmm.
[00:11:03] Lori Hammond: So because so many, it was, it was an accident really that I work with so many other hypnotherapists because I, when I first started hypnosis and I, this is kind of a roundabout way, but I promise I will get to answer your question. When I first started learning hypnosis, I knew that I was going to have to put myself out there and I was so afraid to put myself out there.
I, I had a Facebook account, but I never used it. I never even opened it. And the only people who were my friends on Facebook were people that I had actually met in real life and people that I knew and I never posted. I just, you know, it was just wanted to be invisible. And when I went to hypno thoughts the first time, which is the largest hypnosis conference in the world, I met all these hypnotists and I, I was so afraid to go, but I thought, Oh, these are my, these are like the most open hearted, loving humans.
I felt so safe with them. And so I started friending hypnotists. So when I finally started putting myself out there and I had been, you know, so afraid to put myself out there when I finally did it, I put, I used Facebook to start talking about what I was doing and all the people paying attention to me were all the hypnotists that I had friended.
So what I have discovered is the, the thing that I have helped the most people with, and the thing that has been the most gratifying for me is helping people overcome imposter syndrome. Helping hypnotists who have, who have already trained
[00:12:33] Denise Billen-Mejia: Because you
know exactly how it feels.
[00:12:35] Lori Hammond: Yes. I know exactly how it feels and I know and if if anybody listening takes one thing from this conversation, it's this and that is that That feeling of not being ready is how the, what I call the imposter monster tries to keep you in your comfort zone.
Because any, anytime we do something new or something unusual, it's almost always scary depending on what it is, because that's how our unconscious mind, our lizard brain, our imposter monster, however you want to look at it, is trying to keep us safe by making us think that it's scary. And we can't wait to feel ready.
So often I hear hypnotists say, I'm going to get one more certification. I'm going to do one more training. I'm going to read one more book. When I feel ready, I'm going to do this. And the thing is the only way to feel ready is to do it. Yeah,
[00:13:30] Martin Furber: Absolutely. Absolutely. Because as you, as you quite rightly point out, we will perceive any kind of change, good or bad as a threat.
[00:13:38] Denise Billen-Mejia: Yes. Yes. Yeah,
[00:13:41] Martin Furber: absolutely. Right
[00:13:42] Denise Billen-Mejia: I'm safe right here I'm safe right here.
[00:13:46] Martin Furber: But it's true, isn't it? The biggest things that we look forward to in life, the things we're supposed to enjoy the most are also the most stressful. So getting married, having a baby, buying a car, buying a house, moving house, getting a new job. All the things we want or we're supposed to want, but they're also the most stressful because they take us straight out of our comfort zone.
[00:14:08] Lori Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. So true.
[00:14:11] Denise Billen-Mejia: I think moving house is supposed to be next to death in the list of fears
[00:14:18] Martin Furber: and public speaking.
[00:14:21] Denise Billen-Mejia: Most of us are kind of used to that now, but I publicly speak to two people and avoid. So. I'm not sure how well I would do on the stage anymore. We've been, I've been without doing in person stuff for so long now that I may have to have Martin hypnotize me, or maybe I'll give you a call.
What um, how is, how does your practice shake out these days? Because I know you've had a few changes.
[00:14:48] Lori Hammond: Yes. So I, I mentioned Tim Ferriss earlier, and the reason I started listening, listening to him is because years ago he wrote a book called the four hour work week and I read it and it just revolutionized my thought process around earning money, making a good living, making an impact in the world.
And at the time I was a hairstylist. I like these three syllable H words as. As hypnotist and hairstylist, and I was asking myself, how can I make an excellent living and stop trading time for money? And so as I was learning hypnosis with the view to help myself, as I saw what a transformation it was giving me, I started thinking, what if I could do this as a way of making a living in the world?
And because I was asking myself this question, the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. And because I was asking myself, how can I do this? I started thinking, and this is pre pandemic when most people had never heard of zoom, but I started asking myself, what if I could do hypnosis in a group setting, um, and help a group of people at once.
And I was like, I wasn't sure it would work, but that, that kind of solves that time for money issue. And so I was doing one on one sessions and I was doing group sessions. To be honest, I really enjoyed, like I thrived in those group sessions. I absolutely loved them. And I started with a free eight week hypnosis, like group hypnosis training.
And I had all the hypnotists, um, fill out a survey, fill out an intake form. And we did an eight week session. And at the end of the eight weeks, every single person who had done that just said this was life changing. This set me free. And each person was there with a different issue. So I, I validated that it was, that it would work.
And I, so I started doing group sessions and then I read this book called the power of eight. And it's an incredible book that explains Literally the science behind the magic that happens in a group setting when a group of people comes together and that same magic is present. So for me, I do a group call every week called 'Trancy Tuesdays'.
It happens on Tuesday, go figure. And it's hypnotists from all around the world. And there's just this beautiful bond, this magic that has formed transformational session that happens. So that's again, my long winded way of saying my, my Uh, practice is mostly group, group work and recently I ran a promotion.
This promotion does not exist anymore, so don't ask, but I ran a promotion that allowed people who signed up for 'Trancy Tuesdays' to get one private session with me. And I have to tell you, Denise and Martin, it it's been, I'm so happy that I did it. It's been a lot of extra work because many people signed up.
And so I've had sessions every day for three months and I have two more months of sessions booked out, but I have learned so much about the formula for helping people transform in a one on one setting. And I've started applying that formula more consistently to my group sessions, and the breakthroughs are just amazing.
So again, like you had mentioned, Martin, how a lot of times the things that help us grow the most are the most difficult . It's been a lot for me to do the one on one sessions and I have learned so much. And I feel like I've grown so much.
[00:18:33] Martin Furber: Brilliant. Sounds really, really good. So you, you've got your work cut out for the next couple of months.
So
[00:18:39] Lori Hammond: I do, you know, I'm enjoying it so much, but it's, yeah, I, I'm kind of a person who likes to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And so to have things on my calendar, on my schedule, it has been a little bit of a challenging learning. Yeah. That's a good way to put it.
[00:19:02] Martin Furber: So what kind of issues have you been helping people with?
[00:19:06] Lori Hammond: Well, almost everyone that I work with is it has been a hypnotist and so many of them come in for issues, you know, just that they might express it as saying, I just, I want to make a difference in the world, but I don't feel ready. I'm not putting myself out there.
Somehow I'm holding myself back. And so it's going in and unlocking that unconscious part of them that has been imposter monstering them and helping that part of them understand that it's safe to move forward. It's safe to make a difference in the world and having them really vividly imagine. I don't want to say visualize because some people imagine in another way, just really vividly imagine how beautiful life is going to be once they break free from that scary thing.
The second. Most common issue that people have been asking for help with is actually weight stuff, weight management stuff. So, and those are two, my two favorite things to work with people for. So it's been, it's been fun.
[00:20:06] Denise Billen-Mejia: I've had a few people recently, recent as in the last six months, uh, approached me because, uh, They don't want to take Zembic, or the other variant names.
Which I'm very grateful for, because there are a lot of problems with some of these things, and if it's not necessary, then, and there's other, there's much faster, I think it's faster. How, Martin, how long did it take you to lose all that weight?
[00:20:31] Martin Furber: I lost it over a year, didn't I, altogether? It was over a year altogether.
Because I wasn't, I wasn't dieting.
[00:20:38] Denise Billen-Mejia: It should be two pounds a week. So yeah, you're up there in that. Yeah,
[00:20:42] Martin Furber: because I've done all the crash diets in the past. I've done every fad diet going as well. Um, and it wasn't another diet. It was changing. Um, well, as Denise would say that, which I habitually eat. It was, it was changing
everything. It wasn't going on to a diet. And then, because the minute you hear diet, your subconscious hears, Oh, you're finishing your diet. And of course we go back to our old ways, don't we? Um, so it was a matter of changing . What I did was I visualized and created for myself what I would need to eat once I'd lost the weight to maintain that weight.
Okay. And then went about eating that, which of course, when you are heavier than that amount, you will slowly lose the weight. So I started eating as I intended to eat forever more there and then, and just carried on. That was it. No more diets.
[00:21:35] Denise Billen-Mejia: And he built, he built in pineapples.
[00:21:40] Lori Hammond: That's such a creative solution.
I love it. Yeah.
[00:21:45] Martin Furber: Yeah. You know, Lori, pineapples are really low in calories. You can have a whole pineapple. It's about 300 calories.
[00:21:51] Lori Hammond: Interesting. I did not know that. Yeah.
[00:21:52] Martin Furber: They are so low in calories and yet so sweet.
[00:21:56] Lori Hammond: Okay. Yeah.
[00:21:57] Martin Furber: 30 calories per hundred grams.
[00:22:00] Lori Hammond: Wow. That's incredible.
[00:22:04] Martin Furber: Yeah, people assume that they're really sort of high in calories because they are so sweet.
[00:22:09] Denise Billen-Mejia: And it's also the fact that they, most places consider them to be the expensive fruit, you know, rather than a regular old apple.
[00:22:18] Martin Furber: No, they're, they're cheap aren't they, pineapples?
[00:22:21] Denise Billen-Mejia: Are they?
[00:22:22] Martin Furber: 99
pence, so a pound.
[00:22:24] Denise Billen-Mejia: When you consider what else has been going on in Britain for the year.
[00:22:29] Martin Furber: About one
dollar
thirty.
Yeah, about 1. 30.
[00:22:35] Denise Billen-Mejia: Very good.
So Lori, have you, have you moved towards working with hypnotists primarily, or do you still put yourself out there as a one on one hypnotist?
[00:22:48] Lori Hammond: So after I read the book, the power of eight, before I read that book, I was kind of, I had one foot in each camp where I was doing one on one sessions.
And I have to say, I was not super successful in, in reaching people and in having the amount of sessions that I would like to have had. Um, so I had, I was doing the one on one sessions and. And the group sessions. And so after I read the book, the power of eight, I kind of said, nope, I'm done with these.
I'm going all in on the group sessions. So the only reason I'm doing one on ones now is because essentially I did the thought little experiment to see who would sign up for the group sessions, knowing they could get a one off
[00:23:28] Denise Billen-Mejia: Because you
promised.
[00:23:29] Lori Hammond: Yes. Um, I don't intentionally market myself to hypnotists.
However, that's primarily who finds me and who pays attention to me and who engages. And therefore I have a lot of digital trainings that I've built for them. I have a group called the Hammond inner circle mastermind, where people come twice a month and, and we meet together and I give them tools for building their hypnotherapy business the same way I've built mine.
Um, so it is my primary my primary point of contact, but it hasn't been on purpose. It's just been, I never in a million years would have imagined myself working with other hypnotists when I decided to do this work, but it's like I said, they're just the most open hearted, beautiful people. So I'm very grateful that that's how it's come or come about.
Yeah.
[00:24:19] Denise Billen-Mejia: You're one of the most recognizable names too. And maybe the hair has something to do with it, because that was pretty memorable.
[00:24:26] Lori Hammond: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
[00:24:27] Martin Furber: Well, Lori, we've nearly filled the episode. Is there anything you'd like to say to our viewers and listeners?
[00:24:33] Lori Hammond: Regarding what, why hypnosis works when it works.
I recently created a training because so, I think there are so many of us, myself included, like this has deepened my understanding of why hypnosis works when it works. So I created a training. Am I going to remember what it's called? I don't even remember what it's called. So if you get it,
[00:24:54] Denise Billen-Mejia: We'll put it in the notes below.
[00:24:56] Lori Hammond: Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Email me at [email protected] and I will tell you about that training. It's an incredible, I've gotten more positive feedback about this training, hypnotists saying, I'm finally ready to practice. I finally have confidence to help my clients. I finally understand why it works when it works.
And, um, That's the biggest thing I would like to leave people with is you are more ready than you realize you are. There's a part of you deep down that knows you are meant to make a difference in the world. And it is time for you to start. And if you're already doing it, it's time for you to just fully inhabit that confidence.
Because confidence is the number one indicator that a person's going to get the transformation that they seek.
[00:25:43] Martin Furber: Fantastic, Lori. Thank you so much for coming on to the show.
[00:25:47] Lori Hammond: Yes, thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure to be here.
[00:26:00] Denise Billen-Mejia: 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, stay safe. Consult with your own healthcare professional if you think something you've heard may apply to you or a loved one.
[00:26:16] Martin Furber: 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.
