Calm Collective Conversations | Why Nothing Is Working (And What Actually Does)
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Christy: [00:00:00] I'm Christy, your host, and I'm back here again today with Crystal. And welcome back Crystal.
Crystal: Thank you.
Christy: Today I really wanna dive into some of your specialty work around working with menopause, working with sleep, and working with
habits.
So I'm so excited to get this conversation started. Ah,
Crystal: yeah, me too.​
Christy: Okay, let's start with menopause. I am so curious. What are you seeing that women are really struggling with [00:01:00] that isn't being addressed by our traditional healthcare system?
Crystal: I think some of what I'm seeing is the nervous system dysregulation so often by the time we hit perimenopause, menopause, we've just had so many things going on in our lives and we're always trying to do better, work harder, fix the next thing, do more, and really.
What I think is an important key is to learn to reconnect with that mind body connection and regulate the nervous system, and finally be able to access what you know to be true about yourself. And be able to connect with that Again, in a [00:02:00] sense that is empowering, filled with self-compassion, some joy and a new sense of underlying calm that I know for myself I just hadn't had, and I don't know how long.
I didn't know that was something. That was missing. And so it's not about doing one more thing and doing more. I think most of us have just been trying that for decades. Really it's about doing it in a different way so that you're really doing less and getting the results that you knew were possible.
You just didn't know how to get there.
Christy: Yeah, and so this is a conversation that doesn't necessarily happen in traditional healthcare setting. I think it's happening more often, but sometimes in more specialty type of settings. So when we think of hypnosis as a, let's just say, a specialty tool [00:03:00] for working alongside this perimenopausal, menopausal timeframe of women's life, which is actually quite lengthy, right?
How long is the average perimenopause.
Crystal: I do not know. And I think, that's where your healthcare practitioner, your doctor, knows more of the exact length of time. I've heard it's just different for everyone. For, I have heard that for some people it can even be 10 years or,
Christy: yeah.
Crystal: I think we're just learning more and more all the time.
Yeah. Yeah. So let's just say, I've read some statistics like age 35, people can start perimenopause to, and it can go all the way through 50 55. So that's a lengthy part of a woman's lifespan. That they do not have to feel dysregulated.
Christy: And we mentioned, this conversation is around hypnosis and how does hypnosis then support women differently during that transitional time of their lives?
Crystal: With [00:04:00] hypnosis, when you can again, begin to regulate with that mind body connection and learn some tools that really work for you, we have a number of different tools, see what works for you to feel more grounded, more connected with yourself. You can learn to make different choices when you get affected by stress, which we're all affected by all the time.
And you, I have found that women are able to trust themselves at a deeper level. So maybe that means seeking out. Healthcare that they hadn't felt like called to or felt brave enough to seek out before or seeking out mental healthcare. I think it just allows women to have agency in making choices that are right for them.
Christy: Yeah.
Crystal: Yeah. [00:05:00]
Christy: When you say that agency, right? I think you and I have talked about this before and one of my favorite things to do with clients or even groups of women who are experiencing hot flashes, a known, outcome of that transition, right? Is doing. Something called a pattern interrupt, right?
Where your body starts to give you the sensation of, I am so hot and I wanna, I need to fan myself. I need to cool off right now. And that's where our nervous system can get hijacked into a. Oh my gosh, I am so hot. I'm getting hotter by the minute. I better sit down and we can actually start to focus more on the hot flash than interrupting it to help it dissipate, right?
So I think that is maybe a concrete example of being able to work within that mind body connection. And I love that because oftentimes my clients will be like, oh my gosh, Christie, I did that ice castle thing you were telling me about, and I just, I had my imagination go right to an ice castle.
And she goes, I had to laugh because all of a sudden that hot flash just, it [00:06:00] dissipated, right?
And her daughter noticed mom, you used to be in the kitchen cooking and you would get a hot flash and you'd have to sit down. Today you got a hot flash and you just cooked right through it.
And I think those are some, those fun, uplifting kind of tools that give somebody their agency back they realize, you know what I, I. This is going to be part of this transition period in my life. I might experience this and how can I get ahead of it, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this time in life doesn't have to be a time when we're losing things. This can be a really empowering, wonderful time as well. And I think that's a lot of what hypnosis can help us. Learn and accept when we really have that connection with ourselves.
Yeah,
Crystal: it's really wonderful and empowering.
Christy: Yeah. I think, back to that very first question [00:07:00] I asked you, which was what are we seeing that women are really struggling with that traditional care isn't addressing and. Hearing that mind body connection come up once again.
It is almost like our system has been developed, so the mind and body are very separate, right?
There's actually physical healthcare and then mental healthcare. And perhaps this is where hypnosis really brings that into focus, where they're both, it's a yes, and I have a mind and a body.
And being able to co-regulate them simultaneously, right?
Crystal: Yeah. Yeah, certainly.
And I think I just see it over and over people. People really feel, they feel empowered. They feel empowered to feel better, they feel empowered to go find the next right step for them.
Christy: Yeah.
Crystal: And they feel heard [00:08:00] and, acknowledged, I think for what they're going through it. I feel like hypnosis is this mental massage for ourselves as well.
It's it can be so deeply relaxing. It's really remarkable. It's something that until I experienced it myself, it was really a game changer and it was something that I thought. Why did it take me decades to learn about this? Like, why didn't I know about this before? And part of it probably was 'cause I wasn't listening.
I wasn't searching it out, I wasn't hearing about it. Someone really close to me used. Hypnosis for birthing, and I didn't even know it. She did it years ago. Someone I know very well, and it's, I imagine, I don't know, she probably told me about it and I probably just brushed it off as woo that wouldn't even work and didn't pay attention to it.
Christy: Yeah,
Crystal: [00:09:00] and it's really phenomenal how it can affect our whole outlook.
Christy: I get that a lot from my clients. I'm sure you hear the same thing. Is it really that simple? And perhaps we've been focusing on something that's too complex, like we've made our healthcare system, if you will so complex that the mind body connection and us being able to get back into connecting the two is so simple.
Crystal: Yeah.
Christy: And I think that's why sometimes people need to be guided with hypnosis the first couple times. And then any good hypnotist, as will also be teaching self hypnosis, right? Because at the end of the day, this is all something that is very attainable for all of us. Your friend used it for childbirth, right?
And that was something that likely she did. Probably with some guidance
Initially to learn some tools and then the hypnotist doesn't come in the birth room with you, that you bring you [00:10:00] into that birth space, right? And I think that's just some huge accolades to the benefit of connecting mind body.
And the traditional hypnobirthing experience is five sessions long. That's an investment of about 12 and a half hours of your time. But it's a comprehensive childbirth education along with hypnosis, and we know that it's being used with great success by many women. And even if the births go a different direction and they're, they go to a belly birth or a C-section.
Those tools are still highly applicable because they're still regulating that mind body experience. Yeah. Yeah.
I love that. So we've drifted from menopause to peripartum, but that's okay. I really resonate with the hypnobirthing story as well as, as a nurse anesthetist for most of my career.
I used hypnobirthing when I had my children and I had been doing. Obstetrical anesthesia for years at that time, hospital birth and [00:11:00] epidural was what I knew. That's what I got paid to do.
And when it came time to birth my children I learned hypnosis and used it for childbirth and looking back.
I actually feel like I could have been your friend. I really did. If I did tell people, it was like really I'd tell 'em on the DL and I didn't highlight it. It was this inner experience. It was building up my own birthing warrior is what I'd call myself, on the inside and to set that mindset.
And also I knew, especially among my medicine colleagues my colleagues that I would work with, if I mentioned hypnobirthing. They thought I was nuts.
They'd be like, oh, good luck. Or is that gonna be near an IC an ICUA, neonatal ICU? And I was like, what? But very much like that's not gonna work, better have that epidural kit ready.
Crystal: Yeah. Yeah.
Christy: Yeah. So I feel like there was a lot of naysay, even among my colleagues who, had they learned some of these mindset tools early [00:12:00] on or learned more about the mind body connection instead of being educated in kind of a system that where we divorced the two
They would maybe appreciate it in a different way,
Crystal: yeah. I'm sure I was one of those naysayers as well. Like I said, I, yeah. I just didn't know, and I wish I had, I wish I knew a long time ago, but I'm thankful that I know now.
Christy: Oh, myself as well. I think I definitely would've done my first 10 or 15 years in nursing very differently, right?
And it was a kind of a slow thing. It was like you learning some of the language skills and then learning more of the application of those skills, and then being able to use it in more of a clinical realm, right? Using hypnosis as a clinical tool for change making, right? It was all meeting my life and my practice where it was, right?
Yeah. And it's so great when we can blend all of it together, right?
Crystal: Yeah. Yeah. [00:13:00] It's amazing how it affects every area of our lives.
Christy: Yeah.
Crystal: Learning these communication tools and ways of being.
Christy: Now I know that one of the, one of the groups of people that you really love to serve is women going through menopause.
The other thing that's one of your highlighted specialties is sleep. And sleep is such a huge issue. So Crystal, if you will tell us what's actually going on beneath the surface for people who just can't sleep
Crystal: well there, as there could be so many things going on. We would hope they have gone to their medical practitioner and, looked into any of those physiological things that could be changing it.
And then when I work with people with sleep, we know that there's a cycle to sleep, not being able to sleep. And so you build up some worry and anxiety around that and it's just this whole cycle. So we [00:14:00] work on. Breaking that cycle and reducing that anxiety and worry related to sleep. And there are a lot of different tools that we can use.
But again, it's regulating the mind and the body and the nervous system. Learning how to relax, learning how to fall asleep easier, and also focus on feeling better the next day. So you talked about self hypnosis. Part of that work is really, doing some, we know with visualization, your mind can't really tell the difference if you're actually doing something or if you're just really visualizing doing something.
So we work on noticing, feeling good the next day. And we also work on some tools for if you wake up during the night, there are a number of different tools you can use to. To fall asleep easier. [00:15:00] Also, a big part of hypnosis is learning how to manage everyday stress throughout the day. And that, of course leads to better sleep, less night wakening, feeling better the next day. So it's it's working on everything and it's. It's so helpful.
Christy: Yeah. And for those listeners who are familiar with maybe going to, their physical or mental health care practitioners for insomnia or sleep related issues one of the common tools that is recommended is insomnia, cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the go-tos. And that's changing our thoughts about something. And what I'm hearing you say is a little bit of that mechanism of being able to capture our thoughts and kind of change that, or think about what we're going to think about before we think about it.
So we'll think about what we wanna think about, right? Now [00:16:00] what we do know as hypnotherapist is and by the way, we use hypnotherapist and hypnotists. Pretty interchangeably. That's a whole nother discussion, but I just don't wanna confuse anybody. But when we're using this concept of hypnosis or hypnotherapy we are working with some of the tools that, would be considered along the lines of cognitive behavioral therapy.
And so if somebody is getting that kind of advice or recommendations from their mental health or physical health practitioner, we can reinforce that with hypnosis. And what we know is when we add that hypnotic component to these skill sets is that it's like. Way more effective. So whereas cognitive behavioral therapy might work, say 60 to 70% of the time, when we add hypnotherapy, we're going to get results closer to 80 to 90%.
So gimme that 80 to 90%. If I can just add something to enhance that, so I can really start to [00:17:00] and I love what you always say to really acknowledge and see and hear my own self, I really feel like that is a good way to describe the hypnosis experience. 'cause I'm able to just be me without the ego saying, I can't do this, or without the worrywart saying that won't work, or without my own thought patterns getting into my way, I can just be.
And I think that also highlights the benefit of just using the mind body connection in a new way.
So we're not separating the mind and the body. We're really enhancing it.
Crystal: Yeah, absolutely. And as a modality to use alongside of our healthcare and our mental healthcare, they all, it's really just intended to make those modalities work better.
Christy: Yeah. Yeah.
Crystal: Ever replace 'em.
Christy: Yep. There's room if we were knocking outta the park and just physical or mental health, we wouldn't be looking for other solutions, right? Yeah. And the truth is, we can, we [00:18:00] know better and so we can do better, right?
We know that our mind and body are so intricately connected now, like there's no denying that, but our healthcare system hasn't necessarily.
Caught up yet, right? We're not teaching this in nursing schools, as we have both highlighted, right? We're not teaching this to our physician colleagues yet, right across the board, but people are finding it and they're realizing, oh my gosh, if I add this extra layer, my life as a nurse changes my relationship with my patients change, right?
My patients' lives change. I think it's really cool.
Crystal: Certainly.
Christy: Anything else on sleep? What else do you like? So helping to get to sleep. Does hypnosis also help people stay asleep?
Crystal: Yeah, it certainly can. And it's because we are working on so many of those things that tend to wake us up during the night.
The stress and the worry that wakes us up and then starting to ruminate on those thoughts at two or three in the morning. [00:19:00] Yeah, so hypnosis is a really good way to help break those patterns, reduce that overall stress and worry in the first place. So we're not falling asleep with it. We can take care of it in the moment and break those cycles and those habits.
And overall it. It just helps reduce stress and help you feel better during the day. Yeah. We all know how important sleep is for our physical and mental health.
Christy: Yeah.
Crystal: We all know that.
Christy: We all know that. And we all live in this world that's so rife with stress, yeah.
Crystal: Yeah.
Christy: So we covered menopause and sleep, which is often sometimes linked together.
People in perimenopause will often say, oh, my sleep is so dysregulated. And I know we were gonna talk about habits, but I [00:20:00] wanna slide this one in here. 'cause the other thing that you have been starting to integrate is hypnosis with weight loss and GLP ones. And this is such an interesting intersection, right?
Yeah. Of, because you also said like hypnosis isn't meant to replace our medical care. It's meant to really complement it. So how are you seeing hypnosis complement GLP one medications?
Crystal: I think hypnosis is addressing one of the things that GLP ones it's that layer that's really needed for people using GLP ones.
GLP ones are. Seem to be phenomenal and they are being used so widely. So what hypnosis does is it can really address some of those underlying issues that address the emotions and the stress that everyone is dealing with. And [00:21:00] also hypnosis can be really effective for. We were gonna talk about the habit.
Habit change.
So when people are looking at healthy, long lasting weight loss, we all know that movement is gonna be a part of that. And really feeding our bodies with good, healthy nutrition is gonna be a part of that. And hypnosis is wonderful for, creating these natural automatic habits and helping with that and supporting people where they are.
When there is the habit loop, the habit cycle, you have the queue, and then you have the habit, and then you have the response. So if a cue is stress and. The habit might be, I'm stressed out, so I'm going to reach for that glass of [00:22:00] wine, or I'm gonna eat that cookie that's sitting on the counter.
And then the response is, you get that little hit of dopamine hypnosis works on the subconscious level. When you have a cue such as stress, then in hypnosis we can decide what would you rather your response to that stress be? Rather than grabbing the cookie or the glass of wine, maybe your response to stress.
You would like it to be a relaxing, deep breath and feeling centered so that you can have the ability to make the next best choice for you. So you have the cue, the stress, and then in hypnosis, we automatically can help change that habit to be taking a nice deep breath. Feel centered and. Make the choice that's best for you.
And the response to that is feeling good. I teach in my when we work on habits, really [00:23:00] celebrate yourself for every little thing that you're doing when you decide to take a relaxing, deep breath. And then make a choice that's right for you. Celebrate that. That releases that little bit of dopamine and makes it even easier to do next time.
So when we are doing coaching and hypnosis, people can choose what would feel better for them when the queue arises. The stress is what I always go back to. They can choose what they would like to do as more of an automatic response. And in hypnosis we can create that.
Christy: Yeah, this goes back to that kind of classic conditioning, right?
Pavlov's dogs, right? There's a cue, there's a habit, there's a response, and so the one thing that hypnosis is addressing. Maybe GLP ones in and of themselves [00:24:00] can't, is that intersection between the q, the habit and the response, right? And that's, we mentioned earlier in this segment, like that pattern interrupts, like there's a pattern that we have of here's the Q, here's the habit that we have established.
Here's the response, we're interrupting that. And do you think that combination is, meaning the combination between GLP ones and hypnotherapy, changing the way that we approach weight loss long term.
Crystal: I hope that hypnotherapy is really a part of that because I believe that it can really support people who are on this journey.
Feeling confident and competent and capable of creating these healthy lives that again they deserve. And they know deep down they know that they can have a lifestyle like that. And I just see [00:25:00] hypnosis as one of those little. Pieces in the puzzle. Maybe a, hopefully a pretty big piece in the puzzle to help people live the life that they really know that they want and they deserve.
Christy: Yeah. In our last episode together, we talked a little bit about how hypnosis, once we learned it, meaning you and I learned it and we applied it to ourselves, it started to really change our identity, right? Maybe not just personally, not just our personal identity, but also our professional identity.
We've gone on to identify as more than just. The traditional nurse, if you will, a nurse coach. A nurse hypnotist. And I think that's the other deeper layer that somebody even with their weight loss journey, gLP ones and hypnotherapy can help regulate those habits, right?
Really interrupt that cue to response and create a response that they would ideally like more. And also it can also get to the deeper layers of their [00:26:00] identity. How do they identify this? And this is all wrapped up in self-esteem beliefs about yourself. And I think that's like the bigger underbelly, right?
When we can really have a tool that can. Be surface level helping shift a habit, which is important, that's a pattern, right? But then also sometimes getting to those more psychological ruptures or psychological ruptures down below the surface where really their identity is fractured.
And being able to mend that, right? Yes. And develop that sense of self-compassion. And curiosity. Really again, centering on what hypnosis I think it does. It just helps you center on who you really are and feel empowered in that.
Yeah. So from your perspective, crystal, and we didn't really highlight your background in this episode 'cause we did in the last one.
So if you, if listeners, if you missed the last episode, you have to go back and listen to Crystal's [00:27:00] intro. But from your perspective, crystal, why are nurses uniquely positioned or what are we uniquely positioned to do in hypnosis in the coaching space?
Crystal: I know that nurses. We are so skilled at what we do and compassionate and caring, and I can only speak for myself, but I know that many of us came into this profession with a real desire to make a difference and to help people.
And I have just found coaching and hypnosis to be this like secret that is actually out in the open. I just didn't know about it as a way of really empowering people to be able [00:28:00] to access and understand what is really right for them. To be able to ask the right questions so that they can come up with the solutions that are right for them.
Christy: Yeah.
Crystal: I think it's remarkable and it's so effective. It really is just asking the right questions, but it's learning how to do that. So it's the coaching and hypnosis. I just. I don't think I have the right words to say, but I think that they are so powerful, so empowering, and I'm so thankful. I feel like they have really enhanced my skills and abilities in the workplace, but also just in my own life.
Christy: Yeah. And you're still in the workplace full time. And you're also building a thriving independent, private practice where you offer coaching and [00:29:00] hypnotherapy. So after everything you've seen from way back 29 years ago from oncology, nursing to hospice and palliative care to right now, what do you believe is actually possible for people when they learn how to work with their mind instead of against it?
Crystal: Ah, I think it's so exciting 'cause the possibilities are really just open. It's whatever they want the possibilities to be. And so many people, I didn't realize what some of the blocks were. And again, it's not about having to work harder or do more or fix yourself. It's really just being able to understand how to work.
With your mind, your body, and trust yourself.
Christy: Yeah.
Crystal: Yeah.
Christy: I think, yeah, a lot of self-trust and a lot of self-compassion, right?
Crystal: Yeah.
Christy: Yeah. And that's for anybody that's [00:30:00] accessible to anybody. Yeah. And if a nurse was listening right now and feeling that pull, you know that there's more out there that feeling, what would you want them to hear?
Crystal: I think I just feel like learning about hypnosis and then I did hypnosis training first, and then I did coaching second, and I just think it was a game changer. I feel like anyone who is called to that should get training in both of those modalities because it's. So beneficial. Again I don't remember if it was this conversation or the last one when I learned these things.
I went through a period of time of just feeling really almost oh, just so disappointed that I hadn't learned this decades ago. So I feel like it is so powerful and if you feel called to it, I would definitely encourage anyone [00:31:00] to learn about. Hypnosis and learn about coaching for sure.
Christy: Yeah.
And I think that there should be a movement.
Globally that we are introduced to more of these concepts right from the get go, embedded in our nursing curriculum when we first step into nursing school. Wouldn't that be great, right?
Crystal: Yeah. Yeah.
Christy: But if you've missed that opportunity or if it wasn't available to you, like it wasn't available to so many of us at the time.
Then the time is now, invest in yourselves. I know many of these programs will offer contact hours towards your nursing licensure and all that. So that makes it a little bit better when you can also use it for your license application or for your workplace. Absolutely.
I think getting my formal. Education and hypnosis was a game changer for where I am now. And I think it was for you as well. And many of the nurses who have taken a hold of that opportunity of learning these skills have now found [00:32:00] themselves embarking on a pivot in their career that is enjoyable for them.
Sustainable for them. And it feels good. It feels like we're back to taking care of the whole person, right? The mind, body and the spirit and not just sectioning out and parsing out what part of the person we wanna work with, which is sometimes what our healthcare system feels like is asking us to do.
Crystal: Yeah. I really appreciate you sharing your story of how you got where you are, and then also who, what niche is if you will, what niche you like to work with now, so those with going through menopause or sleep issues or GLP ones and integrating, those are just habit.
Christy: Like just living your best life and really reintegrating your mind body.
Crystal: Yeah.
Christy: I love that. Thank you for your time again, crystal, and I'm sure we'll have you back on the show. There's always gonna be something new that you're wanting to explain to people. And again, thank you so [00:33:00] much for being here.
Crystal: Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Christy: You're welcome.
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