Inside My Hypnotherapy Journey: Candid Answers to the Questions Clients Ask Most

An Interview with Hypnotherapist Isaiah McGee

Interviewer: Thank you for joining me today. I'm excited to dive into your work at A Conscious Life Hypnotherapy. To start, many of your readers are interested in personal transformation. Let's begin with a question that gets to the heart of what you do.

Question: You've built a practice dedicated to helping people align with their innate capacity for a more conscious life. What personal story or moment brought you to the practice of hypnotherapy and led you to become a hypnotherapist?

Isaiah: It has indeed been a journey! Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been very insightful – and that capacity was sharpened through early childhood abuse that caused me to disassociate from my body for protection and my capacity to objectively observe behavior became even more acute.

This capacity became my savior and my curse. On the one hand, from that detached capacity, I had an ability to intuitively understand pathology (something going wrong in the normal way the body or mind is working) which was extremely helpful in mental course correction.

And on the other hand, prior to my healed awareness, I felt like a third party to my own living; joy was experienced detachedly in early youth and adulthood and an obsessive state of self-consciousness created suffering anxiety. This led me to countless therapies and self-help books and understanding.

To make a long story short, conventional therapies and therapists were not effectively getting to the core of my pathology – I was so well versed on the pathology of distorted thinking that I could teach most psychiatrists and psychologists a thing or two. Those routes just weren’t cutting it for me.

And like one of those proverbial light-bulb moments, the idea of hypnotherapy occurred to me – the science of getting to the subconscious associations we make that drive behavior and distorted thinking.

After phone interviews with about a half dozen hypnotherapists, one in particular resonated with me.

From my very first session and hypnosis ‘treatment’ with this hypnotherapist it was a mental game-changer.

She became my therapist and six months into my accelerated healing journey I knew this (profession) was what I wanted to do with that acute dimension of myself that could recognize how to mentally course correct.

After some years of training completed at a world-renowned college of hypnotherapy studies, I began my practice, A Conscious Life Hypnotherapy. And the rest as they say, is glorious history. (smile)

Question: Some people have misconceptions about hypnotherapy. Can you walk us through the therapeutic hypnosis process from a client's perspective, especially for those who may be new to it but are interested in general well-being and healing?

Isaiah: Often in a first session with a client or with one who is simply curious about the modality, I demystify the concepts surrounding this very useful tool in the restoration of well-being. Many erroneous assumptions are fueled by the confusion from what’s called, ‘stage hypnosis’ – where, for entertainment purposes, the power of subconscious association is demonstrated.

When a stage hypnotist has some unwitting soul barking like a dog or quacking like a duck, they are actually utilizing a potent dynamic of the subconscious mind.

The brain operates and functions by creating associations. Every function in life is facilitated by an association. You know how to brush your teeth because of the association your mind has made with that narrow instrument with little bristles on the end of it.

Your mind makes associations about everything – every experience, no matter how slight or intense, creates an association. All behavior is a response to associations made from a condition, situation or occurrence; not from the incident itself, but from the association formed from it.

The process of hypnosis is simple: your brain is continuously absorbing data from the environment it is submerged in; constantly absorbing bits of data and referencing or creating associations from that input. Due to this constant bombardment of environmental data, the conscious mind gets overloaded and needs to ‘check out’ so to speak for a breather.

When the conscious mind is taking one if its breather breaks the subconscious mind, armed with all previous associations, takes over functional living. The conscious mind’s ‘checked out’ state is called hypnosis.

This state of receptivity to subconscious associations during hypnosis is heightened, permitting associations to be altered, adjusted, released or empowered – depending on the required intention by the individual.

This is the foundation of hypnotherapy; the therapeutic use of heightened subconscious receptivity to effect subconscious association change.

As you access and change sabotaging associations, you dissolve sabotaging behavior and experience. Remember the stage participant barking like a dog? Well, everybody has an association of what a dog sounds like.

You then might ask, ‘why would you imitate that sound on a stage in front of an audience?’

When one is ‘under’ that brain-overloaded state called hypnosis, your mind is simply – yet profoundly – responding to an association.

Hypnosis is not a form of mind control – in as much as anyone’s mind is controlled by influence – as you are very conscious during the hypnotic state and will not uncontrollably violate your values, morals or ethics.

Think about the healing ramifications of changing trauma associations, or limiting money associations, or toxic relationship associations and more.

This is the therapeutic value of a heightened state of receptivity – the state of hypnosis.

Your well-being is truly an association away.

Question: Your website highlights your unique "quantum hypnotherapy" approach. Can you explain what this means and how it differs from other approaches to hypnotherapy?

Isaiah: I used that term when I established my Practice because it refers to the capacity we all have to take a ‘quantum leap’ from one perception of ourselves to another.

Quantum as an adjective means the capacity to suddenly align with a different paradigm or perception. As I often state, hypnosis is not magic – magic is not real - but it is a direct means of mental realignment.

Question: For a potential client who is considering a session, what does a typical hypnotherapy session with you encompass, from start to finish?

Isaiah: There are generally two session formats – the longer intake session, which is the first session with any new client, where the individual provides background context of themselves and what areas of living they desire to address. And then there are follow-up therapy sessions that continue the addressing and reconciling of the issues presented.

During the Intake Session the mind is oriented to the hypnosis process – called the hypnosis induction and the first hypnosis treatment is also engaged. With each hypnotherapy session, talk therapy begins the session followed by a therapeutic hypnosis treatment reflecting the dynamics discussed.

Question: One of the most powerful elements mentioned by clients is receiving a recording of the therapy session. Why is a recorded session a key part of your practice, and how can it continue to empower clients after the session ends?

Isaiah: Both segments of a session, the talk portion and the hypnosis treatment are separately recorded and provided to the client. I instruct frequent listening to the session hypnosis recording for reinforcement of the mental realignment the treatment facilitates.

Listening to the session talk recording is at the discretion of the client; some find reviewing it useful though most just listen to the hypnosis recording as it is a summation and realignment application of the session’s focus.

Question: What is the most common form of resistance or skepticism you encounter from clients, and how do you help them navigate it to achieve an intended outcome?

Isaiah: We identify with our conditioning and so even desired release, or elimination of our sabotaging conditions can, to the subconscious mind, register as eliminating identity and therefore pose resistance.

This is remedied through the therapy whereby the client’s awareness is assured that the elimination of limiting conditioning does not threaten elimination of identity. It becomes a very liberating process for the client.

Question: Your testimonials and a stat on your website from American Health Magazine highlight the long-term effectiveness of hypnotherapy. What is your philosophy on the difference between a "quick fix" and true, long-term healing, and how does your work facilitate the latter?

Isaiah: We are conditioned in society to transfer our inherent power to a device – such as a pill, an individual or other source outside of ourselves. This projection of our agency to something independent of us causes us to perceive that something other than ourselves has the power to ‘fix’ what we feel powerless to address. This distortion in perception leads to fantasizing that the thing we’ve projected means onto has power, so remedy should be instant.

When one realizes that agency – the power to facilitate – is their very own identity of being, then healing is long-term because you are no longer duped into thinking it is some evasive commodity independent of you.

My therapy support never loses sight of the fact I am merely clearing the distorted perceptions that appear to block or interfere with your inherent agency.

I produce an award-winning newsletter, The Conscious Flyer, that all clients and subscribers interested in how well-being works receive, and I often close an issue’s empowerment article with, ‘be your own salvation,’ and this is what that means – recognize you are agency itself.

Question: For those who are skeptical or have not seen results from other methods, how do you address their concerns and build trust during the initial consultation?

Isaiah: Skepticism is often masking resistance; and resistance is often the consequence of disappointment. My job is not to convince one of the efficacy or validity of this approach to restoration but to offer the consideration that the client can trust themselves. That they can trust they have the capacity to heal – that capacity is irrevocable in all of us.

By the time an Intake Session has concluded the individual recognizes my resolve and integrity to support well-being and that breeds trust.

Question: What kind of "homework" or practices do you often recommend to clients to reinforce their session work and continue their progress in their daily lives?

Isaiah: I emphasize to my clients the importance of listening frequently to their hypnosis treatment recording - “hypno” for short – as I jokingly state, it’s the one thing you cannot overindulge or overdose on – listening to your hypno recordings!

Saturate your mind listening to them. The frequency doesn’t make the hypnosis ‘work better’ but rather the saturation strengthens your recognition of your inherent power.

I also keep a writing pad near client seating at my office or request in virtual sessions for clients to always have writing material handy.

I have them write significant takeaways or empowering statements identified in session, as writing assists the mind with absorption. There are activities or actions I encourage a client to engage that emerge organically from the explorations discussed in the therapy sessions.

Question: Your work seems to focus on empowering people to make proactive changes. What is the most important message you want to convey about the power of choice and personal agency in a person's life?

Isaiah: That your Agency is not dependent on a particular philosophy, mental technique or device but is a matter of deprogramming from the distorted perceptions that have been normalized due to their blanket acceptance.

Varying sources can facilitate and support beneficial alignment, but are not the source of it; you are. Well-being doesn’t need to be activated – it is who you are – it just needs you to be available to it.

All effective therapy should enable you to become available to a capacity within you that already knows how to satisfy and fulfill.

Question: Your website lists a wide range of issues you address, from fears and phobias to smoking and habits. Is there a common thread or a core principle that you apply across all these different challenges?

Isaiah: Yes. That all sabotaging programming can be deprogrammed as you realize this is so.

Question: Your blog and newsletter articles touch on topics like "How to Defy Gravity" and "Embracing Freedom." How do these broader, philosophical concepts connect to the practical work you do with clients?

Isaiah: Everything I employ in well-being empowerment, from hypnotherapy to webinars, to writings of newsletters, books and videos is for the express purpose of deprogramming from underestimating ourselves.

The more you mentally release distorted, limiting perceptions about yourself the freer you become and by extension the world itself becomes free.

Question: You have a number of testimonials and five star Google reviews. How do you feel when you read these testimonials, and what is the most rewarding part of hearing a client's success story?

Isaiah: It solely indicates that the resolve and integrity to recognize everyone’s irrevocable worthiness is being amplified greater than the conditioning that would impose limitation.

Question: You work with a wide range of clients from around the world. What is one of the most surprising or common insights you've observed about the healing journey that applies to people regardless of their background or location?

Isaiah: That everyone intuits that there is an undeniable splendor about their true nature that just wants to express and thrive.

Question: Looking ahead, are there any new techniques, programs, or areas of focus you are excited about exploring in your practice in the near future?

Isaiah: That’s an intriguing question primarily because life is like a Rorschach test – that we see things from our mental position rather than what is objectively before us.

And though there is much debate and pro and con predictions regarding the Artificial Intelligence revolution, it has opened an entire new frontier for me to leverage in presenting well-being methods of deprogramming.

As such, I have many portals of empowering support mechanisms now being accelerated and augmented through this developing technology of which we are not yet even scratching the surface of.

So, I look forward to providing well-being seekers with more efficient and innovative means of supporting their worthiness of being.

Question: As we conclude, what is one final thought or message of empowerment you'd like to leave with your readers?

Isaiah: It’s quite simple actually: All experiences that shape perceptions of suffering do not have the final word. All distress is opportunity to reset the idea of who you think you are so that what appears as roadblocks becomes leverage for liberation of well-being.

I trust this conversation provided some valuable insights into my practice. As always, I love hearing from you and am happy to answer any further questions and field responses. Connect with me!

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