Lets First Start by Better Understanding Your Brain​: The field of Neuroscience reveals that our brains are literally programed like computers that are constantly running these 'life-scripts' that are programmed into our subconscious mind. You brain contains about 100 billion neurons that store information and communicate with each other. Whenever you learn something new, your neurons communicate making a synaptic connection in your neocortex. This is what learning is - making new connections in your thinking brain. Neurons that fire together, wire together. Did you know that "Your brain creates more electricity in a single day than all of the cell phones on earth?" Or "That when you experience something you take in information through your 5 senses, which causes your neurons to organize themselves into patterns making it easier to remember?" (Dr. Joe Dispenza). Which means your subconscious can't tell the between the memorized emotion of an event and the event itself. So when you think about an event and this triggers an emotion you mentally and physically experience it as if it were happening again. 
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We are the most suggestible as children and are like sponges absorbing the information of our environments and experiences. Until the age range of 9-12yo we are imprinting these experiences as good or bad without a logical filter. The critical filter does not come on-line until the average age of 11-12yo.  Throughout our life our mind is imprinting and reinforcing information in our subconscious creating this life script with our encoded life events. The subconscious makes up roughly 90% of our experience. YES roughly 90% of WHAT YOU DO IS an AUTOMATIC RESPONSE to a PREVIOUS CONDITIONING. Only  roughly 10% of your experience is conscious where it is currently thought that our logic, reasoning, decision making and will power areas are active. This is why actively engaging in an hypnogogic state is so beneficial to change these encoded life events, beliefs, emotions and experiences. 

Through Hypnogogic Therapies such as Clinical Hypnosis, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) & Brainspotting we can go in and dismantle this old programming and through the brains on neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life in order to compensate for injury or changes in one's environment; also called (brain plasticity) these therapies help your mind release subconscious blocks, release trauma & painful past experiences. These therapies along with Somatic Processing are able to bring deep healing to trauma, PTSD, PTS, grief & loss, change habits and self-concepts so you live with a greater feeling of ease and presence in your life. To properly encode a memory, you must first be paying attention (this is why Hypnosis & Brainspotting are so effective - you're in a state of heightened focused concentration) . Since you cannot pay attention to everything all the time, most of what you encounter every day is simply filtered out, and only a few stimuli pass into your conscious awareness. If you remembered every single thing that you noticed, your memory would be full before you even left the house in the morning.

There are 5 types of brain wave patterns:
• Delta brain waves (1 to 4 cycles per second): very slow brain waves, occurring mostly during sleep
• Theta brain waves (5 to 7 cycles per second): slow brain waves, occurring during daydreaming, relaxation, and twilight states
• Alpha brain waves (8 to 12 cycles per second): brain waves occurring during relaxed states
• SMR (sensorimotor rhythm) brain waves (12 to 15 cycles per second): brain waves occurring during states of focused relaxation
• Beta brain waves (13 to 24 cycles per second): fast brain waves occurring during concentration or mental work states
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How Memory and Associations work 
Neuroscientist do not yet fully understand exactly how memory fully works but what we do know is that multiple layers of the brain are involved and it is a complex layered process. As you learn and experience the world and changes occur at the synapses and dendrites (part of the neuron), more connections in your brain are created. These changes are reinforced with use, so that as you learn and practice new information, intricate circuits of knowledge and memory are built in the brain. If you play a piece of music over and over, for example, the repeated firing of certain cells in a certain order in your brain makes it easier to repeat this firing later on. The result: You get better at playing the music. You can play it faster, with fewer mistakes. Practice it long enough and you will play it perfectly. Yet if you stop practicing for several weeks and then try to play the piece, you may notice that the result is no longer perfect. Your brain has already begun to forget what you once knew so well. (resource; Sciene.howstuffworks.com, Dr. Richard Mohs, Ph.D.) 

When Trauma is Involved (Please see Somatic Trauma Therapy page for more information)
This sets up a looping effect in the mind and flashbacks of memories as the brain and the body (since the emotional charge of trauma is stored in the larger areas of the "body' such as the torso and legs.) are trying to heal and these over active neuropathways are stimulated by an overactive nervous system. 

The neurobiology of PTSD is characterized by specific symptoms, including; intrusive thoughts, trouble focusing and remembering, obsessive worry, hyperarousal in the sympathetic nervous system (think of it as the gas peddle for your autonomic nervous system) creating a startle response and/or anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares,  difficulty sleeping, depression, feelings of loneliness, isolation and anger are also common. 
 Brain regions that are thought to play an important role in PTSD include hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus demonstrates an unusual capacity for neuronal plasticity and regeneration thus making hypnogogic therapies very effective. These therapies are effective because not only are they reframing associations and restructuring the neuropathways they are calming the sympathetic nervous system and allowing the parasympathetic system (think of this as the break peddle for your autonomic nervous system) to kick in and restore the body to a calm peaceful state. Turning off the fight-flight response and that's what we want. 

Why Hypnotic Work is Good for Your Body
Prolonged stress can effect the development of a number of health issues, including diabetes, obesity and hypertension. And repetitive stress affects our moods, brings on anxiety disorders, and affects our experience of chronic pain and our ability to control food intake. Your body is flooded with stress hormones that are weakening your internal systems and even your brain.

Hypnotherapy
Why Choose Hypnotherapy?
Simply, because hypnotherapy works! 90% of your responses, actions, thoughts are your subconscious. Only 10% is conscious activity. So, with Hypnosis you can access the subconscious mind where your past experiences, you encoded life events or your "life script" are stored to discover the core issues causing the symptoms, such as; stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, chronic pain, fears, phobias, sexual dysfunction, procrastination, weight gain or loss, and much more.

What Is Hypnosis?
HYPNOSIS is a therapeutic modality that has been approved by the American Medical Association as a valid treatment for dozens of issues since the mid 1950's. Hypnosis is actually a consensual state of heightened focused concentration combined with deep physical relaxation allowing access to the subconscious mind effecting positive change and improvement. In other words, you are mentally focused and aware of what is going on, and your body is deeply relaxed in a comfortable state of calm. 
Everyone naturally goes in-and-out of hypnosis every day. Have you ever  been lost in your thoughts and someone had to call your name to get your attention? Guess what? You went into spontaneous hypnosis. Another example is referred to as "Environmental Hypnosis" and this happens when we are driving and go on autopilot and sort-of come too a mile to so down the road. Our subconscious mind was actually driving in that moment. Everyone also slips through the hypnogogic state before drifting off into the sleep cycles. So as you can see this can be a very powerful state and hypnosis can create rapid change, more so than other traditional therapies and help you achieve your self-improvement goals.

Will I Loose Control or Can It Harm Me?
Absolutely NOT! Hypnosis is completely safe! Before each hypnotherapy session, you and the therapist will cognitively go over your goals and desires for the session. Then the therapist will formulate the "client-specific suggestions" based on your discussion, given to you under the hypnotic state. More importantly, hypnosis cannot make you do anything that goes against your morals or belief system or harm you in anyway.

ARE Phone/Video Sessions Just As Effective?
Yes, phone and/or Skype sessions are just as effective as office visits. The sessions are conducted in the exact same manner as 'in-office' sessions. The only difference being, that I ask for simple verbal cues to let me know you are in trance and following my queues.  I  have worked with clients from around the world with great success.


THERAPEUTIC GUIDED IMAGERY -as a Main Tool for Hypnosis                
Our mind learns through images and symbols. This is what makes Guided Imagery so powerful. It's the symbolic language of our mind. As a facilitator I am extensively trained in deciphering your own special symbolic language to create rapid and abundant. I use Guided Imagery in every session. Even the most blocked clients find that they are able to tap into their creative side and gain tremendous therapeutic benefits from the imagery.  

Guided Imagery and Chronic Pain: 
Pain has meaning! Its purpose is to call attention to something that's wrong, whether the problem is physical or psychological. Often my clients come up with vivid images and colors to describe or represent their pain: a black whole swallowing them, a sharp knife sticking them in the area of the pain, a twisting of the muscles, a giant bolder on  their chest etc. These images can be used to interpret the pain, understand its origins and to discover how to manage it.  The process of  guided imagery also promotes relaxation, a key ingredient in pain and stress management. Since stress is a key factor in many cases to 'chronic pain' the guided imagery serves a dual purpose.

Guided Imagery and Healing:
The medical field is now recognizing the mind body connection thanks to great pioneers such as; Dr. Marty Rossman, Dr. Christine Northrope, Dr. Bernie Siegel and Dr. Belle Ruth Naperstek. The benefits of therapeutic imagery in reference to rapid as well as spontaneous healing is now continuously studied and noted among the medical community. Many major hospitals such as UCLA and Northridge in Los Angeles offer Guided Imagery Groups for their patients. 

Guided Imagery and Self Discovery: 
Guided imagery can also be used to unlock hidden talents and help clients learn who they truly are. Many of my clients have experienced profound self discoveries through imagery journey's, and they have reached a  higher level of self-knowledge bringing forth greater self esteem, clearer future goals, and a greater sense of self and inner peace.

Guided Imagery and Children:  
Children LOVE to use Guided Imagery. They do it every day in their imagination. I am able to reach my young clients through this powerful modality opening up an entire world to them and helping them deal with their symptoms and issues.

Brainspotting (BSP)
BSP was born out of EMDR and is a wonderful and powerful brain-based treatment modality (A direct form of Clinical Hypnotherapy) that bridges the gap between mind-and-body, and allows the client to tap into their own inmate inner healing abilities. It is extremely effective with rapid results for PTSD, PTS, Grief, Anxiety, Fears and an array of other symptoms. 
BSP was developed by world renowned psychologist David Grand, who recognized  the fact that eye positions correlate with relevance to inner neural and emotional experience. These eye positions, or Brainspots, may through maintaining eye fixation, lead to a healing and resolution of issues that are held deeply in the non-verbal, non-cognitive areas of the mind which is the neocortex/subconscious mind. 

BSP utilizes both focused activation and focused mindfulness as its mechanisms of operation, and aims to fully discharge the activation held in the brain and body. BSP provides an anchor that grounds the client to an associative process which  leads to the processing and release of the core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation, performance anxiety, phobias, grief and an array of other challenging symptoms.  
 
 I absolutely LOVE Brainspotting.  I have seen people heal or shift encoded life events that have been bothering them for decades in just a few sessions. It is a powerful and complete modality. I have had great personal success with this process and why I had to get certified and offer it to my clients!" - L.C.

12304 Santa Monica Blvd Suite 208-A, Santa Monica 90025
Conveniently located in upper Santa Monica with easy access to the 405 and 10 Freeways. 
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Street and Garage Parking Available 

Telehealth sessions also available 


818-219-6642 phone calls only
 
email is best: Lisacefalu1@att.net 

please allow 48hours for a response.