Welcome to my website
My name is Michael Conrad. I'm a retired PsyD psychologist and a "medical" hypnotist with additional studies in various avenues of neuroscience and physiology and can therefore counsel you on a variety of issues using therapeutic counseling or hypnotherapy or both.
A "medical" hypnotist is a hypnotist who has a medical, psychiatric or psychology background. Solutions and cures are achieved much faster when you include hypnosis within your sessions with a psychiatrist or psychologist.
Please note that words on my website that are highlighted in blue are links that will take you to learn more about them.
If you have serious medical issues that required doctor or hospital visits, then I recommend you go to a psychiatrist or a psychologist who might also use hypnosis within their sessions and avoid the common stage and street hypnotists who have no medical training who make outrageous claims that hypnosis alone is the answer. It isn't.
"Serious medical issues" that require doctor or hospital visits are PTSD, childhood trauma, anxiety, depression and pain and drug medication dependency, to name a few, and should only be handled by someone with training in psychiatry or psychology who might also use hypnosis in their sessions.
"Non-serious issues" are minor issues that don't require hospital or doctor visits such as eliminating habits like nail biting, biting the inside of your cheeks, cracking your knuckles, fear of heights, flying, spiders, the dentist and so on. Plus stop smoking, make healthier food choices, gain a lot more energy, self confidence and motivation and even perform better at sports and on the job. To be honest, any non medical amateur hypnotist can help you with most if not all of the minor issues expressed in this particular paragraph.
Therapeutic Counseling, hypnosis, or both are available "in person" as well as "virtually" worldwide through Google Duo which is an app you should already have on your phone.
What hypnosis is not. Thanks to the movie industry, most people believe hypnosis means mind control, is against their religion and is used only on the weak minded. Actually, that's not hypnosis at all; that's brain washing which is when a cult or abusive spouse forces one to abandon the way they think, feel, say and do things and to now believe and act only the way their controller believes and wants them to act. The exact opposite of how hypnosis works.
What hypnosis is. Hypnosis is simply the ability to relax to the point of feeling sleepy. It's taking a warm bath or lying in bed and letting go of all the thoughts and stresses of the day which causes you to completely relax and eventually drift off to sleep. In other words, the ritual that you put yourself through every night in order to go to sleep was named hypnosis, named after the Greek god Hypnos, the god of sleep.
Oddly enough, the more relaxed and sleepy you become, the more open-minded you become and more willing to accept and possibly follow helpful suggestions, but only 1) if they're coming from someone you trust, 2) are non-intimidating and 3) if you were leaning in the direction of those particular suggestions or "ideas" in the first place. This is why a trusted therapist's words are more effective once you're completely relaxed and are willing to follow their non-intimidating suggestions.
Although hypnosis, the ability to the relax to the point of feeling sleepy, and your willingness to follow suggestions from someone you trust, are two completely separate processes, most people think the combination of the two are hypnosis. It isn't. They just work better when they work together.
It's unfortunate that we humans believe that we are born with the ability to handle any problems that come our way without reading any self-help books or talking with professional therapists. It's also unfortunate that professional actors, athletes and CEOs believe that getting help from a professional is a sign of weakness; that their achievements, their greatness, comes from strength, determination and focus, and that any sign of weakness is counterproductive of their persona and therefore they shouldn't even acknowledge that they need help. Every year, hundreds of rich/famous/popular people have committed suicide as well as thousands of people who aren't rich/famous/popular. Please seek help from a medical professional, preferably a psychiatrist who can prescribe medications, and don't think that it's in your DNA to be able to deal with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts all by yourself.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988 or 1-800-273-8255 and provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress.
If you're seeking drug or substance abuse treatment, please contact the Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (1-800-662-4357) or go to https://find treatment.gov/ for information on hotlines, counseling services or treatment options in your state. Sadly, out of the 23 million American people each year that need addiction help, only 4 million each year choose to get it, as you can read about in this government article on addiction treatment therapies HERE. Note that at the end of the article, it states that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is my specialty, is their first line of treatment over and above medications.