When I was 19 I had an accident at work that injured my hip, knee and ruptured a disk in my low back. After going through surgery and standard rehabilitation for several months, coupled with the prescribed doses of medication, I became rather depressed and frustrated. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was actually the beginning of my professional journey into health and wellness.

It took me a while to adjust. I floated around with different kinds of work while trying to recover from my injuries and pay my bills. The work I enjoyed doing was too demanding on me physically and the work I could do was very hard for me mentally. Life has a way of teaching us lessons whether we like it or not. The one nice thing is that we do get a say as far as what we learn from life’s unexpected twists.

Eventually, I found myself going to school for massage therapy. Coincidentally, while I was going to school for that, I had a part-time job working at a local gym. Which led me to add personal training into the mix. It was a great combo! I always said, “I was like the dentist that would clean your teeth then give you a sucker afterward as a reward for being a good patient”. I would make my clients work and get sore then after offer them a massage to relax and recover. Bonus!

That worked great for many years. But I would always notice how many people would want to get in shape but never make real changes. They would pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for personal training but so many would only do it for a week or two then I couldn’t get them back in. Or they would come in and do the work and make progress but when I wasn’t working with them, they would go back to where they were before rather quickly. So I knew that the process worked. Yet still, very few people made real lasting changes. Even though they all wanted to. In many cases, it was heartbreaking to see.

I have always cared about others and about doing the best job I could no matter the task. These people wanted to make their lives better and they were paying me to help them to get in shape, be healthier, feel better, and have less pain. That was my job! I would always get excited about their success. I would also feel frustrated when they didn't get the results they were hoping for. So I started looking into the deeper reasons “why” so often people don’t really make the changes that they really want to.

Everyone I had worked with over the years wanted to change how they felt on the inside by changing how they looked on the outside. But lots of times we look the way we do on the outside because of how we feel on the inside. As a fellow trainer friend of mine would say, 'You can’t change your body until you change your mind!’.

One day I was talking with a friend of mine that's a counselor about my concern for a few of my clients. I wanted to help keep them motivated and asked him, “Why don’t people really make the changes they want to make?”. I knew the plans I had given them were effective and they were financially invested in reaching their goals but they were just giving up. What more could I do on my part to help?

We eventually came up with an idea where we would work with a group on both the mental and physical aspects of self-improvement. As we began planning and researching how we were going to go about things the topic of hypnosis for weight loss came up. My friend said that he wasn’t familiar with that but was curious. 

One day my mom asked me how things were going. And in doing so she reminded me of a psychiatrist we knew of that used hypnotherapy in her practice. So I contacted her and got her thoughts on the subject. She told me how much she loved it and the applications for it. She told me how she had great success using it over the years for herself and her patients. She then suggested a few books to read on hypnotherapy. Soon after that, I found a local hypnotherapist and he quickly piqued my interest even further. Not long after that I became a certified clinical hypnotherapist myself.

And I have to say, I have found hypnotherapy is the most beneficial thing for improving my life. The benefits of hypnotherapy have been a life changer for me. I learned how to clear out my mental blocks. I have been able to resolve past issues that would reoccur in my mind. I have learned how to direct myself toward things that I want and stop self-sabotaging. I have achieved a much higher sense of self-awareness, confidence, and emotional discipline. I have learned how to communicate more effectively and pay better attention. I have learned how to increase my focus, and be more efficient in the tasks I perform. Most importantly I have been able to have a much more calm and have a more peaceful heart and mind even through difficult life circumstances.

My journey here started with pain and loss but what I have gained from it all has been more than a fair trade. All I wanted was to feel better and heal so I could get back to what I had. My body may not get back to the way it was before my injuries but I have healed. I have learned there are many different ways to heal physically and mentally. If I'm going to be truly honest with myself, I have actually found myself living a much better and happier life than the one I had planned before the accident. I would like to share what I have learned with others to help everyone I’m able to enjoy the most out of life, the same way others have taught me. Oftentimes the fixes can be more simple than we think.