OBA Method VS Traditional Therapy & Hypnosis

Last night, we completed a 6-Day Intensive One Belief Away™ Hypnotist Certification.

Our students still have another 5 1/2 months of training and business mentorship to complete, yet it was an extraordinary experience for all of us.

This class has students who are therapists, acupuncturists, life coaches, hypnotherapists, and graduates of RTT, so they all bring unique skills and talents to our classroom.

Even though I've been facilitating Hypnotism certifications since 2007, each class is a magical adventure because of the profound insights that get uncovered and the deeply heartfelt personal breakthroughs all of our students encounter.

I want to share one of those insights with you here because it sheds light on why the OBA Method is radically better and produces consistently miraculous client results over traditional psychotherapy and counseling.

During my seven years of studying clinical psychology, I completed thirty-three courses, including abnormal psychology, behavior modification, group therapy, Rogerian psychology, Freudian psychoanalysis, psychological testing, counseling processes, cognitive-behavior interventions, Gestalt Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and more.

By the end, I learned that helping clients increase self-awareness and shifting their interpretations of past and present events would improve their mood (thoughts/feelings) and behavior.

CHANGE THE STORY -> CHANGE THE STATE (feeling)

While in graduate school (I attended two), I facilitated practice counseling sessions with volunteers using the methods taught under the professor's supervision.

Those meetings consisted of having clients talk about their problems, listening for much of the session, and then offering different ways of looking at the situation (reframes).

Reframing the situation produced more awareness of what was prompting their behavior, but it didn't change how they felt about it.

For example, a client came in for depression. She openly shared the traumatic experiences of her childhood, and I helped her understand that what she went through wasn't her fault. But the deep sadness she felt didn't change.

The following week, she'd be back talking about the same or new problems, even though she had more awareness and better tools for communicating with herself.

MORE AWARENESS DOES NOT CREATE CHANGE

Before entering my first graduate program in 1993, I completed a Hypnotherapy Certification that would change the trajectory of my life.

In the Hypnotherapy program, we learned to regress (mentally travel back in time) clients to when they first experienced a traumatic event and reframe the situation "when it happened."

Having the person mentally review a situation from a more empowered perspective during the initial sensitizing event (trauma) produced significantly better results than just developing more awareness and a positive mental attitude.

I applied the counseling and hypnotherapy skillsets over the next few years until it became apparent that the hypnotherapeutic approach involving age regression produced consistently superior results to traditional talk therapy methods.

During my hypnotherapy training, I learned that the goal of the Hypnotherapist was to get clients into deep trances (focused state of heightened suggestibility) so we could increase awareness and reframe the story when the brain was most ready to receive it.

That approach was so valuable it became my primary transformation tool for the next twenty years.

But another problem surfaced over that time.

Although most clients had breakthroughs and achieved all types of goals, there were also numerous times when the results lasted only a short time.

Clients would come in after a few sessions and say, "I think the hypnosis wore off because I'm back to ..."

That was frustrating because I want all my clients to have the best possible outcomes. So, I focused on WHY people relapse and struggle to follow through for more extended periods, and after numerous years of intense research, the truth finally revealed itself.

Whether we discussed the meaning of a particular trauma or hypnotically regressed to when it happened, the goal was always to give it a more positive spin intellectually:

CHANGE THE STORY -> CHANGE THE STATE -> CHANGE BEHAVIOR

I discovered that underneath the story we tell ourselves is a BELIEF anchored to deep emotion, and that combination drives behavior at an unconscious level.

Suppose you attempt to change the details of a story without upgrading the underlying belief. In that case, the brain eventually defaults to that belief, activating the deep emotion and ingrained habit once more.

For example, a client wants to lose 100 LBS but struggles with compulsive (binge) eating, and even when weight is lost, she gains it all back.

Through therapy, we would identify the emotional triggers that lead to binging, reframe the behavior, and find new methods for reducing stress or increasing comfort.

A Hypnotherapist would regress the client to when the binge eating first formed (when the person learned to turn to food for comfort). The client would then choose a new form of self-comfort and receive dozens of positive affirmations reinforcing worth and a positive mindset.

An OBA (One Belief Away) Hypnotist™ would do both strategies but first discover the unconscious belief formed during trauma.

Then, we'd upgrade the unconscious belief and anchor a new emotional state to a new set of behaviors that eventually become success-producing habits. That is the first step in creating sustainable results that last through time applying the OBA Method™.

CHANGE THE BELIEF -> CHANGE THE STATE -> CHANGE THE STORY

It became clear that when one upgrades their beliefs, it almost immediately improves how they feel. That emotional shift causes them to view the situation differently organically without having to coerce them into it.

New beliefs foster new feelings (states), and those emotions create empowering interpretations (stories) that lead to desirable behaviors and outcomes. Most attempt to use positive thinking (reframing) and affirmations to improve behavior, but it often doesn't change how you feel. Thus, the feelings cause you to retreat to old (priorly conditioned) behaviors.

The woman who wanted to lose 100 LBS would better understand her behavior and have a solid plan for managing it. But as soon as the need for comfort arose, she'd return to bingeing regardless of the pain it inevitably caused.

In that situation, I'd take her back to the first time she learned to comfort herself with food and uncover the unconscious belief that drove her to that response.

Since I've helped thousands of life-long dieters lose weight, common self-destructive unconscious beliefs are, "I'm not safe," "I'm not worthy of love," "Eating is the only thing I have control over," and "This is how I protect myself."

Then, we would upgrade the unconscious belief with more empowering paradigms and anchor desirable emotions that produce beneficial outcomes that satisfy her unconscious need for love and safety while improving her health.

Of course, that's only Step 1 in our OBA process, yet it's the secret to the outstanding results that almost all our clients experience.

CHANGE THE BELIEF -> CHANGE THE FEELING -> CHANGE RESULTS

If you need a breakthrough or want to become a One Belief Away™ Hypnotist, please reply. We'd be honored to help you!

:) Tim Shurr, MA

Founder, OBA Method™

PS: Need help getting more clients and growing your "people-helping" practice? Join us this Tuesday, August 30th, for a live presentation of How To Get Clients! Click here for your FREE TICKET now.