Southbury Practitioner Promotes Successful Self-Help Through Hypnosis

By Kendra Bobowick

Do you want to stop smoking, lose weight, get on a plane without shivering from a cold sweat, let go of an addiction? With the help of hypnotherapist Salvatore J. Martone, there is a good chance that you can.

Start with a deep breath and your imagination. Alone or with his coaching you can use hypnosis as a tool to battle even the most embedded habits.

Close your eyes and lean back in the chair, Mr Martone might suggest. With a few deep breaths, find a relaxing place in your memory. Where are you? What do you see? Can you smell anything? What colors are around you?

Maybe the most relaxing place for you is seated on a stool with a book. No noise. No work demands. The laundry is finished. Relax and let the novel’s characters pull your mind away. Daydream.

That is the frame of mind Mr Martone is aiming for. The subconscious mind is the destination where hypnosis goes to work. He suggests envisioning a soothing place.

“Practice relaxing,” he said. “Find a comfortable, favorite, safe place.” Think of colors, textures.

Breathe.

“You’re bringing it in, holding, and blowing out slowly. Relax and go to your favorite place. What does it feel like? The exercise should push you past your conscious thoughts and critical thinking into the imagination. You want to start painting a picture,” he said.

Are you trying to lose weight?

“Picture yourself exactly the way you want to be,” he said. “If you’re 400 pounds, it’s hard to see yourself as 120 pounds.”

A person needs to imagine and needs to get around disbelief.

“It’s more likely to happen subconsciously,” he said. “What you believe is what you perceive.”

Subconsciously, hypnosis will help plant the desire to lose weight, for example. Once the overweight person, or smoker has reached a relaxed state of consciousness, he instructs, “Visualize eating healthier foods, eliminate bad foods.”

Will this work?

“You’re thinking differently, not with your critical thinking.” The critical mind could be a barrier. Hypnosis needs to step past it. “You want to bypass it; you need it out of your way,” Mr Martone explained. Why? “If the problem can’t be figured out rationally, we’re trying another way.”

Whether the problem is a relationship, weight, or habit, he said, “There is a part of us that wants to sabotage the relationship, that wants to keep the weight on, that won’t give up the cigarettes — we need to negotiate with that part of the mind,” he said. Possibly, a client is dealing with something traumatic. “The issues is consciously upsetting to you, rethink it in a relaxed, comfortable place,” he said.

The Therapist’s Couch

In his office is a soft easy chair with the footrest kicked up. Music is tinkling from hidden speakers as the room fills with a scent like opening the windows in spring. Mr Martone wants you to push away thoughts of phone calls, decisions about dinner, or stress over an upcoming meeting. Step around the critical thinking and try another route. Hypnosis.

“It’s distraction. It’s opening another part of the mind,” he said.

Do you believe that? Mr Martone spent a few minutes clearing away any misconceptions that hypnosis carries with it. He said, “There are a lot. People say, ‘You’re not going to make me quack like a duck are you?’”

He has an answer. “Look, if I put you in the deepest trance you could be in and said, ‘Go and rob a jewelry store,’ if it’s something you would do consciously, you might do it; if not, you won’t do it,” he said. “You’re never going to do something you’re not going to do in a conscious state.” Offering reassurance, he said, “You’re just more relaxed.”

Some clients are afraid of hypnosis and ask, “Are you going to take over my mind?” He answers, “I have a hard enough time controlling my own mind, why would I want to control yours?” Hypnosis is not sleep, he stressed. “You’re conscious. You run things past your conscious mind to a degree,” he said.

Fear is not the only barrier.

“The other part is embarrassment,” he said. Returning his thoughts to the person who asks, “You’re not going to make me quack like a duck are you?” he said, “I think that person is afraid of being embarrassed.”

Hypnosis or trancelike, meditative states take place everyday. Has your mind ever wandered? “A good example is coming down [Interstate] 84 and you drive past your exit — trance. Or you’re reading a book and lose time.” He gave his own example saying, “When I was in eighth grade I was staring out the window and the teacher had called my name a few times. Where was I?”

Like an eighth-grader daydreaming and letting his mind slip out of the math lessons in the classroom, Mr Martone offered another example of thoughts wandering beyond critical awareness. “You’re in bed and find that very comfortable spot, your senses are shutting down, but you know you’re not asleep.”

Phobias. Bad habits. Fitness goals. They can mend, but will require work.

“People turn to hypnosis because they want a quick fix. They think that in an hour with me they’re going to resolve issues, but if you have a bad habit for 30 years, good luck,” he said. Phobias might be easier to overcome. “One or two hours might work.”

Do you smoke? “I treat it as a serious addiction.” Revealing one approach to hypnotherapy, Mr Martone mentioned the “theater of the mind.” His instructions are simple. He said, “You can do this for anything. Freeze the frame. I send you back to the year before you were smoking. I want you to erase your memory of smoking…”

How It Works

“Your defenses are down and you’re more willing to go and make changes,” he said. “If you tell the unconscious, it affects the conscious. The subconscious will take the directions.” With the door opened to the subconscious, the mind awaits instructions. That portion of the mind does not relate to no or negatives, however. Mr Martone said instructions must be affirmative. “I now weigh a healthy 180 pounds; I am balanced in mind and emotion; I am a nonsmoker; I concentrate deeply; I enjoy health and energy…” Statements must always be in the present. He said, “No negatives, can’t, won’t, no past or future, just now.”

The path to reaching other parts of the mind is clear. Follow the steps outlined on one of Mr Martone’s CDs. Find a quiet place and either sit or lie down. Find a stationary point on the wall, and focus there. Breathe in deeply and inhale fresh air while exhaling thoughts of stress, sources of anxiety or apprehension. Imagine those tainted thoughts filling a balloon. Soon the balloon will rise and drift out of sight. Imagine any pains or tension as dried leaves falling onto the surface of a river and spinning away with the current.

Continue your deep breathing and let your muscles relax. Enter a secluded garden filled with vibrant colors and the scent of flowers. Let your eyes drift across the leaves, the pedals, a water fountain, and continue to relax.

Another worksheet described what the relaxation and refocused thoughts might feel like: “First every muscle becomes relaxed…after your nerves and muscles relax, your mind lets go. It feels almost like being awake while sleeping, or watching yourself sleep. You will not pass out or become unconscious. Most people experience something much different than what they expected…”

Hypnosis: According to www.nature.com, hypnosis is an alternative state of consciousness in which the attention of an individual is focused away from the present reality and toward particular images, thoughts, perceptions, feelings, motivations, sensations, behaviors, or any combination of these.

Trance: From thefreedictionary.com, trance is detachment from one’s physical surroundings, as in contemplation or daydreaming.

Learn more at amdgfamilywellness.com.