As hypnotists, we strive to help as many people as possible by offering the best service we can, and our success blooms from our clients success. Having concise guidelines in place is a necessary step in achieving a 100% accomplishment rate. Here are the four tips that I follow with every client to cultivate the best chances of success for them.
We want our clients feeling hopeful!
At our center we offer complimentary 30 minute consultations. This is required! We can’t know if we can truly help our clients unless we understand their issue. The goal is two-fold:
Clients: to give our clients the opportunity to ask any questions they may have about hypnosis so they have clarity and confidence in working with us.
Hypnotist: to ensure we can help the client, and that the client is ready to move forward with service. Our goal is to ensure there is no misperception about working with us or hypnosis.
In these consultations, clients will share the common misperceptions about hypnosis that they share - including being concerned hypnosis is mind control. Or clients are hesitant, and they’ll or “just want to try it out,” because they are afraid they can’t be hypnotized. It’s our job to help our potential clients know the truth about hypnosis - that it’s NOT mind control. That they are truly in control. That they have to WANT the change, and that no - hypnosis is not magic!
You’ll also get clients that are disappointed you can’t mind control them to fix all of their problems- yes some want us to just snap our fingers and work our “hypnosis magic” to “fix” them without them having to do any work! Hypnosis is not magic - even though at times it seems that way because the change is so drastic and so quick - this is how hypnosis works! The mind learns fast and is brilliant. We help facilitate that natural process with excellent, professional and modern hypnosis.
We cannot guarantee results, and we don’t want them to think hypnosis doesn’t work because they weren’t ready to commit to the process. One of the hardest things a hypnotist can recognize is…
Some people just aren’t ready to proceed with hypnosis, and it is our responsibility to recognize those clues and be honest about the decision. We want to always be honest, and you’re showing the client you care by by only helping them when they are truly ready for the transformation. Doctors, lawyers, and universities don’t guarantee results because everything is dependent upon what the client is going to do with the information and direction they receive, and this is the same reason we do not guarantee results to our clients.
If a client is on the fence, it can be tempting to want to offer lower prices or faster service to try and get them to sign up, but this is doing them, and yourself, a disservice. When your services are priced appropriately, and charged before the session happens, the client feels they are making an investment in themselves, and are less likely to change their mind or get cold feet if they have already put some “skin in the game”. We never make guarantees or promise how many sessions they’ll need, rather we offer averages based on past experience. That’s truly and honestly the best we can do because each client has their own set of complexities that will be revealed during the hypnosis process and implement the inherent changes differently. It is all about the client, and we need to communicate that hypnosis is a process.
We always want a clear goal and picture of what our client’s results are going to look and feel like. My last blog post goes into more detail about clarity of outcome, but to summarize, it is crucial that we work with our client to outline measurable, realistic goals that let them know exactly when they’ve succeeded. Clients may want to come to you with a goal to lose 50 pounds, and we will break that down into smaller successes to help our client build their confidence after just 1 pound, or 5 pounds, and we’ll include wins that have nothing to do with the scale as well.
Weight loss hypnosis works well because it builds positive feelings and habits as your mindset evolves into living a healthier lifestyle confidently. Sure, people come to you to lose weight, but almost every weight loss client also wants to build their confidence and feel better about who they are inside and out, which is the real key to making lifelong changes.
Accountability is also why we charge our clients before service — so that it means something to them. Many of our clients are coming to us for help with stress and anxiety or substance issues, and it can be very easy to talk themselves out of following through if there isn’t a consequence for not showing up. There are clients out there that will throw $100 or even $1,000 around easily and not put much effort into the process.
We also encourage our clients to practice Self Hypnosis. This great tool harmonizes with our in-office work and zaps away insecurities and anxieties in realtime through daily practice. By transforming the initial bad feeling that makes our clients want to resort to their bad habits, we can solidify successful feelings and successful behaviors by removing the source of not feeling good enough.
Every session will cite The Benefits Form (which is the outcomes the clients want), and we get to help our client see how much they have accomplished already. With a weight loss client they may have more energy, had peace of mind without thinking about food all the time, walked for 10 minutes every day, and read instead of eating that cookie when they were bored, looked in the mirror with a loving smile instead of calling themselves an ugly name, and so much more. By reading their goals back to them, you’ll often hear, “I guess I have been doing better!” We want to create an upward spiral of success to encourage the default reaction to be feel good behaviors.
As hypnotists we are often the client’s last resort. By helping them feel successful during each step forward and not just at the end of the big goal, our clients are seeing the possibilities within themselves beyond just what they first came to us for. If we help someone lose weight and feel more confident, they may propel themselves to follow a passion, reach for a dream, and finally feel content with exactly who they are at exactly that moment.