Group Work

When a group does deep trance work together there is an energy that builds up within the group and among the participants.  There is an opening as each participant does their healing work and it is witnessed by the group.  As this energy or synergy grows within the group a unique phenomenon takes place – when a participant does their individual session other participants have parts of their lives healed too.  Additionally, there are opportunities for group members to serve each other during the intensive that brings about openings in both the giver and receiver.
Another aspect of these group processes is that a true compassion and love for each other begins to grow within the group and among the group members.  Close connections form and the group members begin to experience each other in ways they have not experienced others before and this often carries over into life outside the Intensive.  Many group members begin to find their relationships in life improving as a natural result of the life changes they realize from the intensive.

Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy

All of the trance techniques we use are called Heart-Centered Therapies developed by Diane Zimberoff and David Hartman of the Wellness Institute in Issaquah, WA.  Robert studied advanced topics there for nine years.
The goal in Heart-Centered Therapies is to hear the client’s stories (old reality), help them to break free from their false identification (old reality and identity), and to reach a new reality that is their true identifica6tion/self and encompasses health on all levels of existence (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual).  In most cases the old reality will probably be proportionately larger in the initial sessions when the client is experiencing the most emotional, psychological, physical, and/or spiritual pain.  One the client gains the awareness of emotional, thought and behavior patterns that are no longer helpful or healthful, this allows them to be responsive to suggestions for transformational possibilities.  Then when the client begins to understand and integrate the transformational possibilities healing occurs which leads to the new reality of taking full responsibility for a conscious, healthy, spiritual life.

There is a freedom in taking full responsibility for all aspects of one’s life.  When we have reached this state we are no longer victim to other people’s actions or opinions or the things that have happened in our past.  We have transformed the pain of our past into empowerment and freedom to choose how we live rather than in reaction to those around us and their words and actions. 

The Life Transformation Intensive

The Life Transformation Intensive is a six part program where the same group meets one weekend a month for a six month period. Each weekend has a specific theme and processes to match that subject and facilitate deep healing in each individual in the group. The strength of these group processes is that they are profound and during each process not only does the individual makes gains in their individual journey but there is a learning and an increased ability in each of the participants as they observe the work done by the others in the group.

Each weekend is designed to build on the last and address a variety of areas that impact the lives of the participants.  Also, during each weekend there is trance work of some kind.  In the early weekends there is hypnotherapy that targets specific issues of each participant and in later weekends there will be energetic psychodrama which will be discussed in detail on the next page.  On Sunday each weekend there will also be Breathwork which also has an article in this issue on the third page.  The difference between these group intensives and regular hypnotherapy is akin to the difference between talk therapy and hypnotherapy.  Hypnotherapy goes deeper and works much faster than talk therapy and the Life Transformation intensive goes even deeper and brings about more change than hypnotherapy alone can do.  (See the side bar about trance work in groups).  Most participants to a Life Transformation Intensive want to get their life partner or other family members to an Intensive so they can grow together and understand each other in a deeper way. Besides Hypnotherapy and other group processes the Life Transformation Intensive adds new levels of trancework explained below.

Energetic Psychodrama

Energetic Psychodrama combines the power of psychodrama with the sensitivity of hypnosis, assisting the participant to access repressed traumatic material.  The trance state is useful in promoting suspense of disbelief, lessening the inhibition, improving the integration of unconscious material into consciousness, achieving deeper states of spontaneity, and retrieving repressed memories.  Regular psychodrama is a process done in the conscious state and energetic psychodrama is done in the trance state. The difference between hypnotherapy and energetic psychodrama is that in psychodrama we represent externally our internal psyche.  In other words we begin to bring our internal world into the outer world.  We are able to experience physically what has been only experienced psychologically.  This allows objective observation and completion of unresolved conflicts through re-experiencing them with a corrective experience. 

Breathwork

Breathwork is another trance process used in Heart-Centered Therapies and during the Life Transformation Intensive. A Breathwork session is done at the end of every weekend.  Breathwork is a powerful therapeutic modality.  It provides a means to work on several levels:  the physical, the emotional/psychological, and the spiritual.  It accesses perinatal material (in utero and birth experiences) and transpersonal material (archetypal, shamanic, and cosmic experience) as well as early childhood and repressed biographical material. 

On the physical level, the breathwork experience actually begins to change the structure and functioning of the body.  We bring the breath under conscious control.  We begin to understand the subtle energy we are composed of and learn to manage it for optimal health and growth.  On the emotional/psychological level we heal the wounds of unresolved trauma, at the deepest of levels, in the developmental state in which they were left unresolved.  On the spiritual level we often experience a transcendent unity with nature, with life, with God’s creatures and perhaps God’s embrace.  The process itself requires a surrender of cognitive control, turning the session over to the unconscious body/mind.

For more information read out Life Transformation Intensive Report