Making it valuable

You may have noticed that Hypnotists never give free Hypnosis sessions. There is no such thing as pro-bono hypnotism.

The reason for this involves several factors, but the most important is the client’s unconscious mind. Instinctively, humans don’t value common and plentiful commodities as much as they do the rare. Where as the conscious mind will readily accept free goods or services, unconsciously you will see Hypnotism as common, by being free, and will not value it as much as having to work hard to get it.

Since a Hypnotists work involves directly interacting with the unconscious, this becomes a major problem, as it will most likely result in the unconscious not taking the process seriously, which will result in, well, no results.

This sounds logical, at least, but perhaps the skeptical will dismiss this as an excuse for the Hypnotist to charge. However, I offer this: I will not work with clients that, while the bill was paid, was not paid by the client themselves — because it will not work.

When this happens, I will insist the client pays the bill themselves. Or at least a significant part. If the client does not, or cannot, then I will return the money, and (regretfully) refuse to work with the client.

And I feel terrible. Someone came to me for help. They took the time out of their day, with great hope that they can find relief, and I refused to help them. The truth is, however, the whole process was doomed from the start. There was no way I could have helped them, but I could not in good conscience just take money to do, basically, nothing. Worse than nothing! I would have not helped them, AND would have stolen a valuable resource from the client — belief in hypnosis — which will help them.

No, I cannot and will not do this. If I, or a member of my family were robbed of a possibility of peace from discomfort in this way, I would be livid. There is no way I would do this to someone. In fact, I find the idea unconscionable.

The ONLY time I do hypnotism free of charge are A) For college students (I volunteer at SPSCC every Friday), and B) For the unhoused (a.k.a. the homeless); and for both of these types of clients, I require, ahem, creative payment - and a LOT of it. I make the college students write long and detailed (and highly cited!) papers, between each session, about their hypnosis experiences (a request that always elicits a panicked wince), and offering a homeless person a $20 gift card, which they can keep, however, the refusal of the card is their price — every session!*

In short, you have to have skin in the game, and your unconscious has to believe it is valuable.

This is why YouTube hypnotism is more miss than hit - it is free. That is, value-free. The hypnosis might be fantastic, but it doesn’t really work.

*NOTE: If you would like to sponsor an unhoused person, you can donate a $20 restaurant/brick-and-mortar gift card. We will then send you a letter, written by the client (or myself, if they take it), who either refused this money, or accepted it. In exchange for your donation, we will give you one “Experiencing Hypnosis” session.

The Experiencing Hypnosis session is a pleasant, relaxation hypnosis session. And, no, because you donated, you still had to pay.