Today we’d like to introduce you to Elana Kogan.
Elana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After reading a book about hypnosis that a friend recommended to me, I went to see a hypnotist and had a very transformative experience – things I used to worry about just didn’t worry me anymore, they just began to roll off of me in a way they didn’t used to. I was even more surprised that the change was long-lasting. I didn’t return to my ways a few weeks later, this really was the new normal.
I was so intrigued with this whole experience and the powerful and positive effect on me that I started to read more about hypnosis and how it worked. I went to some trainings on hypnosis too. At the time, it wasn’t something I considered doing professionally. It was more of a passion and an interest. But a few months later, after more training and as my passion grew, I decided I wanted more. I wanted to help other people experience the kind of powerful change in their lives that I had experienced. I started to plan for how I would finish getting trained and then actually make a career transition and open up my own hypnosis practice. The rest, as they say, is history.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Because there’s so much misinformation from television and movies, many people are wary of hypnosis. It can be challenging to reach people who don’t know their problems are something hypnosis could help them with. I try to demystify hypnosis by explaining how it works and sharing the neuroscience behind it, to show how hypnosis can help people tap the power of their subconscious mind to overcome challenges.
Most clients who come see me are not coming for hypnosis as a first resort. They’ve tried other things to help them lose weight, reduce stress, quit smoking or what have you. But nothing has really worked, and they’re still struggling. So they end up coming for hypnosis because they do really want to make a change on something, but are still struggling to get there. One of the things I find most rewarding about working with clients is their pleasant, often joyous, surprise at seeing that they’re actually making real progress on something has always been such a challenge for them, and they see they’re doing it just through their power of their own mind. It’s very empowering for clients.
Wellness Through Hypnosis – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Hypnosis is a great fit for people who want to make a change but are struggling to get there. Hypnosis helps ordinary people with ordinary problems. It can be incredibly helpful to people who want to make a change in how they think, feel, or behave. I help clients to tap the power of their subconscious mind to overcome challenges.
The most common things people want to work on are losing weight, reducing stress, and quitting smoking. But it works well for a variety of things. I’ve helped clients prepare for surgeries, quit nail-biting, overcome fears like public speaking, gain confidence, and even sleep better. For all of them, the process involves figuring out together the right content for them – the right suggestions and visualizations – to help them meet their goal. We focus on letting go of unhelpful, unproductive ways of thinking or feeling or behaving, and introduce and incorporate more productive, positive and helpful ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving. Because we’re engaging the subconscious part of the mind to do this, it ‘sticks’ and has real staying power. I am still amazed by how we really can take charge and make a huge change in our lives, even when it’s been something we’ve been struggling with for years. Helping people to experience that, and feel a sense of agency, is incredibly meaningful to me.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’ve had two proudest moments in this work, one involving someone older and one involving a child.
An older client came to see me because after 30 plus years as a smoker, he wanted to quit – he was a new grandfather and wanted to be around to play with his granddaughter and watch her grow up. He had a lot of doubt about whether he could stop because he had been smoking for so long. But after a few sessions together, he was completely done with smoking, and cigarettes just had no appeal to him anymore. It was especially gratifying because this was such an important step for his health and towards his being the kind of grandfather he wanted to be.
I was also incredibly proud when I helped a 10-year-old girl be able to do something she didn’t think she could do. She was an avid gymnast and really enjoyed doing gymnastics. She wasn’t trying to get the Olympics or anything, she just loved doing gymnastics. She had learned a gymnastics skill and had been performing it fine, but one day suddenly froze and was no longer able to do the skill. As she continued with her gymnastics but couldn’t do the skill, she lost confidence, had anxiety around it, and just wasn’t enjoying the sport anymore. She came into our third and final session together proudly showing me the iPhone video of her doing the gymnastics skill. She was beaming. I was so happy for her that she could do the move, but I was most heartened and proudest that I had helped this young girl see that she could overcome her own barriers, and that it was the power of her own mind that did that. For her to learn that lesson so young meant the world to me.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2285 Massachusetts Ave.
- Website: www.WellnessThroughHypnosis.com
- Phone: 617-470-5658
- Email: ekoganhypnosis@gmail.com
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wellness-through-hypnosis-cambridge
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