Mending a Pig's Elbow and the Outcomes and Howcomes of Hypnosis Success

A very reasonable question people ask prior to a counseling session is, "How many sessions will it take [to accomplish my goal of ..., stopping smoking, having confidence restored, improving my golf game, decreasing my test anxiety]?"  My response can vary from individual to individual because, after all, we are all unique; moreover, our circumstances are all going to be different.  But I would also go so far as to say that because of those individual differences, any semblance of a prediction of outcome would be both unprofessional and unethical.  The San Antonio Hypnosis Center does not subscribe to puffing up its value of its end product--ie., to effect positive change of a person's desired goal on an absolute basis--any more than any other professional, whether in the health, real estate, or legal industry, makes blanket promises over the phone about the value of its services to an individual or entity without making an appointment to gather information to assess a situation and make a professional and ethical comment.

   It is only natural to ask, "Can you help me?", to which our response is, "If we do not feel we can provide our services with a reasonable expectation of a positive outcome (doing no harm at worst and effecting positive change at best in varying degrees) then we will tell you that and will not charge you for the time it takes to conduct that assessment. (And, I'd like to say, because of the importance of suggesibility as the number one correlated variable associated with successful outcomes, 'If you feel we can [...help you], we can".)

   "Remember," I tell the inquirer, "we're dealing with the brain here, and while we know the brain can respond to hypnosis to effect desired changes in a person (both mentally and physically) we don't know how it does it, because built into the nature of the brain is its inability to understand itself, even though it is the very organ from which our understanding of anything else is processed and understood.  So from that paradoxical situation arises a wait-and-see attitude, after a proper assessment of some variables that we can identify and control such as the prospective hypnosis client's suggestibility, desire, circumstances, past attempts that have been met with success, to name a few, and go from there."
   One wouldn't call a doctor's office and ask to talk to the doctor and tell them, "I've got a fever, and I want it to go away! Can you help me!"  Of course that's an absurd idea, but the analogy is useful. An assessment is in order.  

   "But how many times have you helped someone with _____________, or _______________, or ______________?"  That's when we explain that, although we concentrate on many types of situations--smoking cessation, weight loss, confidence building, test-taking anxiety, etc.--that doesn't necessarily mean we don't have to have had that specific practice experience. I would not have had to have worked with a fighter pilot in any way before helping him restore confidence in his split-second decision-making while operating a fighter jet, or, in a similar vein, than the veterinarian being able to insert screws in the elbow of a pig if he or she never before had done that specific procedure on a pig.
     Hope this clears up a little the picture of the howcomes of the outcomes.  More to come.