Letter to the Editor Answering your readers’ questions on Training Holistic Therapists |07 December 2021
Following your editorial together with my advertisements in your esteemed newspaper, several readers have called me and asked me to explain in more detail the contents of the Holistic Therapist training course as advertised since an advertisement cannot carry all the information. In particular they wish to understand what kind of treatments a Holistic Therapist delivers and they have asked me to explain how hypnosis can be used for treating ailments and disorders. People in general have been misinformed about hypnosis and the subject matter has been badly depicted in films showing the use of hypnosis for the wrong reasons. Please allow me to answer some of your readers’ questions as follows:
What treatments does a Holistic Therapist deliver? - A Holistic Therapist delivers treatments that address the mind and the body. Since the mind controls the body, great success can be achieved if the treatment starts with the mind. There are in the region of more than 300 mind related illnesses listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) and the range includes anxiety, depression, stress, sexual dysfunctions, phobias, bad habits like smoking, excessive drinking, binging towards obesity to chronic ailments and disorders which are all mind related but manifest in the body and they require more than just body massage to achieve relief and cure.
What is the difference between a Masseur and a Holistic Therapist? - A Masseur is someone trained to deliver body massage and great relief and relaxation can be gained from a good full body massage even pregnancy massage can bring so much relief but there is a special way to massage expectant mothers otherwise serious harm can be caused to the mother and baby. Body massage used to be administered using talcum powder or coconut oil but recently a whole range of fragrances of massage oils have become available. A Masseur can be trained in 4 weeks in anatomy and physiology, soft tissue, deep tissue and sports massage always keeping an eye opened to any contra-indications to massage strokes and the oils being used.
A Holistic Therapist on the other hand is someone who is trained to use Aromatherapy Essential Oils during the massage process ensuring that the properties of the Essential Oils are properly blended in the first place before use. The blend must suit the ailments being treated. Each Aromatherapy Essential Oil has its own unique properties that suit a particular ailment and/or disorder. Improper use can cause a great deal of harm. Essential Oils are skilfully blended together using carrier oil plus no more than two different types of Essential Oils because their respective properties can clash with one another if too many are blended together. Blending the correct Essential Oils for a treatment is crucial to achieving the desired relief and cure.
A Holistic Therapist must study not only anatomy, physiology and massage but also how to blend the right Essential Oils to bring about relief and cure of the ailment or disorder being treated. Each Essential Oil is for a particular ailment for example Eucalyptus is for body aches and pains and respiratory difficulties, Lavender is for anxiety and relaxation, Ylang-ylang is for excitement and sexual dysfunctions and so on, each with its own unique healing properties.
Where do these Aromatherapy Essential Oils come from and how do they work when applied to the body?- Aromatherapy Essential Oils are infused or distilled from leaves, fruits, nuts and bark of particular plants and trees found in many parts of the world. Herbalists have been dispensing Essential Oils for centuries and in the old days before modern medicines Essential Oils kept our ancestors alive and well. The blend of Essential Oils is applied to the skin during body massage and because our skin is porous, the oils with their constituent medicines pass through the skin pores and into the blood stream and the heart pumps the blood complete with induced medicines throughout the circulatory system and when the medicines arrive at the part or organ of the body under treatment that part of the body or organ will absorb the medicines and repair and healing occurs in the same way as if you had swallowed medicines from the doctor. You do not swallow Essential Oils because without the accompanying massage to the muscles the Essential Oils have no effect.
Why have I introduced Clinical Hypnosis in the course curriculum? – Allow me to explain how hypnosis works.The human mind is divided into two parts, the Conscious and the Sub-Conscious. The Conscious mind is responsible for the activities of the body and takes instructions from the Sub-Conscious mind then when a person goes to sleep the Conscious mind goes to sleep. The Sub-Conscious mind, on the other hand, never goes to sleep and if it does then you are dead. While asleep the Sub-Conscious mind files away events of the day and this is when dreams are created when there is confusion in the filing process. If there is a loud noise outside the Sub-Conscious mind will wake up the Conscious mind to go and investigate. Memories are held in the Sub-Conscious mind and information is stored not in words but in photographic images in the form of electrical impulses.
Now just imagine that as a Holistic Therapist you have in your tool kit a range of Aromatherapy Essential Oils that can bring relief to the body but now you also have the means to communicate with a client’s Sub-Conscious mind that is in control of the ailment and disorder taking place in the client’s body. Therefore, chances of healing occurring have suddenly multiplied several times and since the mind controls the body you are now dealing with the boss. The Essential oils will address the body and the clinical hypnosis will address the mind and there you have it, a double whammy and success prevails. This is a very powerful way of treating ailments and disorders.
A healing crystal such as a quartz crystal pendulum is used to induce a trance and under a hypnotic trance the trained Holistic Therapist can access deep routed memories and information held in the client’s Sub-Conscious mind. The mind is carried and protected by the brain. The brain is a physical object and the brain can be operated on but the mind consists of electrical impulses running in the brain which cannot be operated on and the only way to access and alter the mind is through clinical hypnosis. But before the clinical hypnosis can work the client must agree to be hypnotized unlike in old films where they show someone being hypnotised against their will, it does not work that way. So if you think you will learn hypnosis and then hypnotise someone to go and rob the bank for you, forget it, or if you think you can hypnotise a member of the opposite sex and make love to him/her forget it because no consent means no hypnotic trance, full stop. The human brain is very well protected from unscrupulous attack.
What about Past Life Regression, can a Holistic Therapist engage in such an exercise and is it included in this course? - I have included Past Life Regression in this course curriculum because it is becoming very popular and not only that sometimes people believe they suffer with an ailment or disorder inherited not from the genes of their current parents but from a past life. The only way to achieve success in such a situation is to allow the client to engage in his/her past lives and hypnosis is an ideal vehicle to achieve the necessary regression. It is very safe and can be very effective.
Recently Past Life Regression has been of great demand may be because our minds are still developing opening up more and our thinking process is still evolving. Just like different people believe in different religions and who is to say one religion is better than another? Some people believe that when this human body dies, the spirit leaves this body and waits to occupy the body of a new born baby or an animal and who is to say this is not true? They say if you have receding hair line on your forehead then you have had a number of past lives. The best thing is to allow the client to find his/her own sanctuary and peace in his/her mind and clinical hypnosis allows this exercise to occur safely.
During Past Life Regression sessions the client talks about what he/she is seeing and what he/she is doing or wearing and can explain the settings he/she is in and who is present. Sometimes the voice tone changes because if the client is a woman and she has regressed to when she was a man then the voice tone changes to a man’s deep voice. Sometimes the client will experience an abreaction meaning the client will come off the couch and dance or want to fight or go to the toilet and vomit depending on the regression he/she is experiencing. Believe me this is not acting this is taking place in the mind of the client and it is very serious, I know, I have been a Holistic Therapist for over 20 years and I have worked in Europe and in America before coming back to Seychelles. If you do not believe in it then you leave it alone and you do not engage in Past Life Regression, there are plenty of other treatments to offer.
Can clinical hypnosis be used to give up smoking or to lose weight? - Of course, because all habits reside in the Sub-Conscious mind and hypnosis addresses the Sub-Conscious mind. However if a client wants to give up smoking and he/she can afford to smoke, friends come round and they smoke while they are there and drink then it is harder for him/her to give up smoking but if the client has been told by his/her doctor that smoking will kill him/her then the treatment can work very quickly. The same thing applies to over eating and putting on weight and to lose weight the client must want to do it in the first place then the mind will instruct the body to eat less and fewer amounts and to eat healthy food and exercise regularly.
Clinical Hypnosis is a huge subject and in this course we only use certain aspects of it to do with assisting the effectiveness of the Aromatherapy Essential Oil massage. All 3 elements, massage, essential oils and hypnosis must be present for the treatment to produce effective relief and cure and all 3 must be delivered professionally.
Has Covid-19 had an adverse effect on the Holistic Treatment market? - Not entirely, in fact people seem to have more money to spend on themselves than before Covid, maybe because we have to stay home more so the disposable income goes towards self-indulgence of good health and good looks. Our Transform-Therapies Clinic in Anse Des Genets, Mahé, Seychelles has limited the number of clients because of the closeness of this kind of treatment deliveries but in general all spas and clinics are doing well. However in some hotels the in-house spas are not doing very well because of lack of tourists which can be expected and the situation seems to be improving.
The problem with training is getting time off work to improve oneself so we have introduced a weekend course and the training time has been extended to 12 weeks.
Finally what level of salary range can a trained Holistic Therapist expects to earn?- I would say in the region of R11,000.00 to R12,000.00 plus bonus when fully proficient and Holistic Therapists are in real demand, we must fill the gap.
Contributed by:
Barry Laine FCIM, FInst SMM, MCMI, MBSCH
Principal
Academy of High Performance Ltd
The Wishing Well
Anse Des Genets
Mahe, Seychelles
Email: barrylaine@hpcgroup.sc