[00:00:00] I am honored to welcome Rita. Rita is a long time perioperative nurse whose years in surgical medicine gave her a front row seat to both the brilliance and the limitations of modern healthcare. Through that experience, she became deeply aware that while medicine often treats the body; healing asks us to care for the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. That calling led Rita to expand her practice into integrative and holistic care, where she now combines her nursing background with hypnotherapy, faith-based healing practices, and intuitive insight. She's passionate about helping people.
Reconnect with their own inner wisdom, their spiritual roots, and their capacity to heal. Today, we'll talk about fear, mortality, fragmented care, and what becomes possible when we return to whole person healing. Rita, welcome. I'm so excited about this conversation. [00:01:00]
Thank you. I'm happy, so happy to be here.
Like the line, so I'm excited.
Yeah. All right.
Oh, it is so great to, to just be in your presence and to have this organic conversation with you. And I'm really curious if you can remind me and tell our listeners about your journey into nursing and maybe what first called you into surgical care or the perioperative care area.
I've been a [00:02:00] nurse for getting close now to 40 years in all aspects of nursing, but surgery seems to be where most of my nursing care has landed. And I kinda laugh because a lot of sometimes you think about you see yourself in a different space maybe being. Earlier in your childhood, and I remember I'm dating myself, but there was a program that used to be called schoolhouse Rock years ago that used to teach kids and about medicine, about history and things like that.
And I remember the science one, they had a, a spaceship and the guy was going through the body and talking, seeing different parts of the body, talking to each other. And I remember I must, I don't know how old I was, 7, 8, 9. Wanted to be in that spaceship. 'cause I thought that was so cool that you get to see the inside of the body.
So now I laugh because that's exactly what I do today. I'm a surgical nurse. I see inside of the body every [00:03:00] day. So I think that was something that came into fruition.
Oh, I love that. And I also remember watching Schoolhouse Rock. So here for any of our listeners who can remember some of those episodes I think that always reminds me of the colonoscopy one, where they're taking a tour of the intestines, right?
All right, if you're a nurse, if i'm so curious. Was there a particular patient encounter or moment that kind of shifted your understanding of healing in a way?
I'd say absolutely, because I think in nursing school you're taught this perfect way of nursing and then you, most people go into that field because they care about people.
And my very first job was in postpartum night shift. I've been there, I don't know, maybe eight months now. So now I'm in charge. So I don't have a lot of patient direct here because I'm in charge, so it'll give me patients that don't require a lot of my attention. One of my patients at that [00:04:00] time was on Mac sulfate because she had hypertension and.
With that medication, since it has a lot of problems with sight and the lights bothering you. She had the room being dark and I remember just making rounds. She was a young girl and she was crying and asking me could I please stay with her? And in the back of my mind, this is my first job. I'm like, I don't have time to stay with you.
I'm a charge nurse. I gotta go see what's going on outside and. Although I could not stay, I felt such a divide. I said, this is not what I thought I signed up for. And in fact, I was really struggling about leaving nursing because I felt like the whole thing, maybe it was a lie. I didn't know how to deal with those feelings, but I already saw it right then with that.
Yeah, first step.
Yeah. I think especially to our nurses who might be listening that moment where there's that dissonance like. We're called to be [00:05:00] with the patients in their moment of need, and your role was competing with that, right? Your role as being a charge nurse was taking you away from that, even though your intuition said that's what she needed.
She's actually asking you, for what she needed. Yeah. Wow. I am glad that you can give some voice to that shift and realize that is what helped you pivot. And I know that you still work in surgery, but you've taken a different perspective likely since that incident, right? Yeah. Since that client and part of our talking before this, I know that you really have this belief like that healthcare it's so fragmented that it fragments the human being.
So I'm curious if you can just tell me what do you mean by that?
I think just I work in a teaching hospital. There's a lots of departments and a lot of specialists, and just by the mere fact in so many ways, that [00:06:00] is how medicine is designed. In fact, it's actually a thumbs up situation.
Oh, you're going to this hospital and they do X, Y, Z. They do this technique, but. I've always wondered, and I think I was called into this setting because I would always wonder what happened to the PA patient when they were off the table or what brought them in here. None of that kind of comes into play.
And usually we would send, we send them off. I have no idea what happened to them, what got them here. And it, there is, that always bothered me in my head, is to make me think about. Was there some kind of thought previously that now you've landed up in the operating room on this table with that heart attack or whatever.
And I don't think that is even addressed in this arena at all.
Yeah, and I guess that's an unfair question. Like when I ask you that, like why does medicine or our system kind of separate mind, [00:07:00] body, emotions and spirit, right? It's likely because, we're tending to the body when we're in the hospital.
So I'm curious to pick your brain a little bit here and what would you know? True Whole Person care look like for you? Like how would you describe Whole Person Care, especially in the hospital or like in the surgical setting?
It's interesting you say that because that's actually been a goal and kind of a fun thing that I've been trying to do to challenge myself because my encounter with my patient is very brief.
I'm usually coming out there to meet them, make sure we're all on the same page. I'm doing my interview, make sure that they understand why they're here. What they can expect when they come in the operating room. I think that's a big piece of it also, because I spend a lot of time telling them what they expect, because usually most of them come with a lot of fear.
And this is a very strange place. It's scary for even sometimes the medical people. You got these people walking around with masks on, like they're [00:08:00] gonna get you or something like that. Yeah. So just laying those fears and. Often I've been challenging myself because it is a brief time that I've actually done deep breathing with them so that I can connect them with their body and remind them that they are built.
I like to call it feel fearfully and wonderfully made because just like we hear all about the anxiety and stress and fight and flight, you also in that very same system have calmness and peace. Yeah. And it was a matter of let's tap into that part in this part. So I wanted to help them to be empowered.
Yeah. Even in a free time. So that's been a personal goal for me to see if I could do that in those moments of those little windows of moments that I have with them.
I love that. And what did you call it, fearfully.
Fearful. Oh that's one of my [00:09:00] themes, scriptures, is that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Fearfully
and wonderfully made. So as you look at all of those things in yourself, the Yes, that fear is there, but we we also have wonderful things in us to counteract the anxiety that it's building you as well. Yeah. And it's a matter of you to tap into those powerful forces that you have within yourself.
Absolutely. I love that. I love that the fact that you brought some scripture in there. 'cause I know that is really important to you in your own personal life. And I'm curious if you can lend some perspective of how can nurses right, honor their patients' spirituality? Without crossing boundaries or imposing any beliefs.
So it seems like you have some skill there. How do you do that? Because not everyone you interact with is gonna be faith-based or even your own faith. So how can you, or how have you learned to adapt these strategies to really [00:10:00] honor that person's own spiritual path?
One of the big things is, again, to have them to look at theirselves and to see the powerfulness that they have within themselves, their breath.
How that they were made, that's literally inside of you. I was talking to someone this morning about the vagus nerve, just do you know that you can switch that on? That you have the power to do that. And as you start to think about those thoughts ahead of time and even while you're waiting to be rolled into the operating room, you in touch with a bigger power than other than yourself.
To be calm. And so I, I've heard patience. It's I'm scared. Can you pray with me? And then that opens up a door for that type of spiritual attention to them and nurturing. So I go with what they say and it's become fun and hopefully comforting to those who I interact with.
Yeah, I can hear that in your conversation. And, I know that when we [00:11:00] enter into the healing profession, when we help others, something inside of us usually changes as well. With you being on this journey, what have your patients taught you about faith, about surrender, about healing?
What has this vocation taught you about those three topics?
I think obviously the trust in a bigger power. Some of the patients and some of my clients that told me they were going into surgery, they want to be assured that, there's a spiritual edge that maybe they can take with them, an image that they can take with them, that even though this is a very foreign world to them, that all of these sounds are very strange and can be very scary, that their faith supersedes all of that.
And often when they are going to sleep, I whisper those things into their air. 'cause I, as a nurse, my job requires me to stand by them when they are being put to sleep. So I think it's a perfect time. I have a perfect [00:12:00] audience and and I say sometimes a little silly or smiling things to them when they go to sleep.
Oh, you're gonna be beautiful. Or we'll give that gallbladder. Love on its way, and thank it for what it's done for you that my colleagues laugh at me because this is who I am, the patients connect with that.
Yeah,
It kind comes the room and comes the thoughts because yes, you are in this foreign space, but you are so much more above it and so much.
Of you can be calmed down and you don't have to focus on all this externals that you actually have the power within you. And I'm hoping that I can help you to tap into that.
Yeah.
And therefore me as well. So I think that's what they teach me. 'cause I'm dealing with that every day and some of the stresses that come with the environment I'm in and it reminds me of the same.
Yeah, I love that. I love that you're using a little bit of humor. And [00:13:00] what I'm hearing is a different approach than sometimes our routine sort of scripted things that we do in the operating room, and you're connecting with them and allowing them to get a sense of safety, a sense of control, and empowering them, right?
Which is the beauty of knowing hypnotic languaging, right? And being wise to. The fact that people have their conscious mind, you know what we're usually seeing, what people are talking with and that subconscious or unconscious mind, which is where all their feelings, their beliefs, their values are, and you are whispering in their ear and you're speaking to that mind that is below the surface, right?
That we sometimes don't see, if we're just listening to what people are saying, you're connecting with them on a beliefs. On their value system and at an emotional level by just using your words. [00:14:00] Yeah.
Absolutely.
And so I'm curious, like then in your experience, because fear is an emotion, right?
And I know because of my years in anesthesia and, because of your years in surgery, right? People are really afraid. In the or. And oftentimes when you ask 'em, they're really afraid of, what if I don't wake up?
Absolutely.
That's the
big one.
So what are people really afraid of?
There's so many things that they could be afraid of that I don't wake up. What's going to happen while I'm recovering in my family and all of the commitments that I'm in. Responsibilities that I have to have, what's my gonna be my post-op diagnosis after this surgery is over. There are so many fears that kind of come into play and how am I gonna be on the other side?
And this work is very much, it draws to me as far as the words are concerned [00:15:00] also because I believe words are very powerful. I've often believe that even before I got into hypnosis and healing starts with feeling safe. So that is something that I. Help them to try to get that feeling even in the operating room.
Yeah. As you see that you're gonna be safe, you're gonna be in this situation, and that starts with the mindset that you have a positive mindset about your outcome. That your body knows exactly what it needs to do in order to heal, and that it's going to be fine. And that whatever is meant for you is gonna be there.
Your journey. You get to set the dial on the television and let your, I do, I guess we're doing a lot of future pacing 'cause can you see yourself on that? On the other side of this, what, how much more you're gonna be, this is past you, you're active, you're enjoying your family. [00:16:00] These are kind of things and I try to say them and I, again, it makes me laugh and it challenges me because I do have a small window of time.
Sometimes don't see you again. There are sometimes I do see people come back and I tease them. It's oh, you should just come and let's have coffee. You don't have to have surgery to come visit with me. Just come let's go out. But that they hear hopefully healing and compassion.
Yeah.
And make them to move forward.
Yeah so what I'm hearing you say too is like people are just more, more or less afraid of that loss of control or that unknown, right? That uncertainty and by you just really engaging them in their breath is bringing 'em right back into this moment. You mentioned the vagus nerve and taking a deep breath and that is our light switch, if you will, to bring us back right into the moment because it's something that is right here in the present. All those other fears are in the future, right? And then once you give them their [00:17:00] breath and help them to take a deep breath, then you can actually start to change the direction of where their thoughts go.
So instead of being afraid of losing control, you start to help them to see. At the end of this, how amazing they're gonna feel. And I love that you're infusing that too with a little bit of humor because that silly gallbladder, and maybe you name it, is going away. But more importantly, you're really crafting this imagery for them of the healing.
And that is what I'm hearing from you is that's the key to giving them some power back.
That your body is not your your enemy also. Yeah. Then that's one of the reasons why I said that to them, because of course they're thinking if they're there for cancer, that you know that there is a fight against your body.
And not that you are at war with yourself. That what can you learn from this? What can you do it? We're gonna send that body part. It served you and we're so grateful that it served you. Now we're gonna send it off with some love. Yeah.
And [00:18:00] thinking it for what it has taught you, what has given you during that time.
So Rita as we're putting a pin in this conversation, and there's so much more depth that we can go into, but just for the listeners, right? And the listeners might be nurses, they might be patients, they just might be people out there, right?
How can that listener begin to reclaim their own healing power today? What is the simplest thing and the simplest way that they can, or what can they do to reclaim their healing power?
I go back to what I said before, is understanding and loving yourself that you are not your enemy.
Yeah.
And that whatever has come up for you, be it a illness or something else like that. Can you learn something from that? Can I like to play the reframing game. What has this information brought to me?
Sometimes, it takes a minute to do that because we [00:19:00] are slighted with so many negative images and things like that.
But as you look at it and take a different approach to it, you may find that you have much more insight and incredible personal power as you reframe. Your thoughts in this situation, which is a wonderful thing that I think hypnosis does because it helps us to look at our thoughts.
Yeah.
And more importantly, take those thoughts and shape them into who we want to be.
Yeah. Instead of being hijacked by those thoughts of, yes, making us play small or be in the fear game or. Instead, we can shift our thoughts to the things that we really desire or reframing it.
Absolutely.
And I love that you mentioned that because often a lot of the work that we do when we know the hypnosis and hypnotic approaches is reframing.
And we're using a softening, if you will, or a relaxation of. The [00:20:00] person a calmness in order to offer that reframe, because if we were to offer a reframe when somebody's really anxious, they're gonna be, they're not gonna listen. They're not gonna hear it. So one of the easiest, simplest techniques is to find your breath and use that vagal nerve to shift into more of a parasympathetic, if you will, nervous system where a reframe can be considered.
So the client can be like, oh yeah, what is the gift here? Or what? I'm going through all of this and it hasn't happened to me. It's happened for me.
What's the possibility in that? Because a lot of times our thoughts are so concrete and lock the door. Yeah. And that's why I guess I asked that simple question, is it true because, and is it always true?
Because if you really answer that, not really. There is definitely a side B.
Yeah.
If you allow that to be right, nothing is that concrete.
Yeah. Because if you allow that belief to [00:21:00] be true for you, like really true, then I. What does that make you? So I love that. I know that you were drawn into hypnotherapy as a nurse and so part of the stuff that you've talked about today, the breath work, the reframing the future pacing, those are all kind of hypnotherapy techniques.
And I'm really curious to hear from you, Rita, because you are an expert at being able to deliver this in a way where. People don't even realize that you're using hypnosis, if you will. So it's really just become part of your language pattern, your ability to connect with people. How do you find that Hypnotherapy really compliments our traditional medical model?
I think. One of the basic things and the drawing card for me is simply the power of words. That has been very sobering to me and [00:22:00] allowing people to even hear what they say. I remember working with someone different aspect, but her husband did some long, long line fishing in Alaska and he hurt himself.
And so now she had to figure out ways that she can do her that we, she can provide finances to the home. And we were talking and she was just saying, I feel like I forgot the weight of the world on me. I've got the weight of the world on me. And then of course, and a few later in our session, she ended up having rotator cuff surgery and oh, it just befuddled me as did you hear what you're saying?
Yeah.
That she had been already saying that the weight of the world on your shoulders. Did we open the door some way? Yeah. So sometimes we don't realize what we say and that we put it out there that. Have we, I won't say signed a check, but maybe not in ink, but [00:23:00] at least Yeah,
Check that Maybe we can use an eraser to get rid of that.
I love that. So what I'm li what I'm hearing is that as a hypnotist, as a hypnotherapist, you. One of the things that you do is you mind your words and you use those with purpose, but also you're listening for your patient's words and for your client's words. So I think that's a great opportunity for us as nurses, as nurse practitioners, as doctors, as healers to start to listen differently.
Because the client might actually be telling you something like, the weight of the world is on my shoulders. And letting you know what their problem is without even knowing what their problem is, right? There's a deeper knowing. Absolutely. There's an unconscious knowing, but it hasn't made it to, its the conscious mind yet, right?
Yeah. I love that because that rings so true. From my lived [00:24:00] experience as well, like I feel like when I learned hypnosis, it became a skill of how I can communicate, but also how I could listen.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. And so right now we're talking a little bit more about just conversational hypnosis or listening, ear hypnosis.
I guess we're gonna, we're gonna coin that the hypnosis ears, but there is the more like clinical hypnotherapy where we really do guide clients for. Different things such as when they're getting ready to face surgery or facing a diagnosis or in grief or an end of life anxiety realms.
Right? Which is definitely where your strength is because you're so connected to that spiritual component. Tell us a little bit more as how hypnotherapy can really help in those realms.
I, I love words. So the first word that [00:25:00] came to me, that is one of our words in hypnosis as well as I believe the answer is an anchor.
Yeah.
So it gives us an anchor. We give anchors as we do hypnosis with people so that they have something to take with them to keep them in that space.
Yeah.
And. That's what I believe that they need is having an anchor.
Yeah.
That anchor keeps you just like a boat from flying off the handle that even though you know the boat rocks, but it doesn't go all the way away.
Yeah.
And so I think about that in a visual sense, metaphorically an anchor as well as, just physically what that does for you and helping them to find their anchor.
I love that. I love that as a metaphor. So if anybody is feeling like there's a time in life where your boat may be like lost at sea because it's maybe rough seas or there's a [00:26:00] storm coming, that hypnosis becomes an anchor. It becomes a tool that you can stay steady amid. A summer storm. A winter storm, our big waves right out in the ocean.
You might rock a little bit. But you're anchored. I love that. Rita, thank you so much for this conversation today. I really I, there's so much more dimensions about you. Like we didn't get into kind of your medical intuition perspectives, and we didn't dig deep into the spirituality. So I hope you'll come back for another conversation with me.
It would be my pleasure. It's been a delight to spend this time with you, and I look forward to a future times.
Awesome. Good to see you again, Rita.
You too.
And also shout out Rita and I are both members of the Calm Collective Care team. So reach out to us if you wanna learn more about hypnosis or you wanna be guided in hypnosis practice.
Absolutely.
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