Getting sleepier...and sleepier

By JILL BODACH

Hour Staff Writer

NORWALK -- Sitting in Bill Sadick's office I feel my eyes growing weary and I can barely keep them open, even though I got plenty of sleep the night before. As I ponder the reason for my sudden sleepiness, I notice that my left arm feels very heavy and I cannot lift it off of my leg no matter how hard I try.

I hear Bill Sadick telling me that my arm is growing heavier and heavier. How does he know this? I ask myself. The sounds I heard before as I sat in the same spot I am in now -- the ticking clock, beeping horns and squealing brakes -- have disappeared and all I can hear is Sadick's voice.

It is like I am floating somewhere outside of myself, although I also feel completely grounded. I am aware that I am in an office on East Avenue and that Sadick is talking to me, but it feels as though I am an observer and not a participant in events like closing my eyes or lifting my arm.

Then, slowly, I hear Sadick telling me that it is time to wake up. I open my eyes -- they are no longer heavy -- and realize that it has worked.

As he has done with many others before me, Bill Sadick, a certified hypnotherapist and a member of a group of therapists of various disciplines at the Total Life Care Center, has hypnotized me.

Sadick is not the sort of hypnotist who appears on college campuses or at corporate parties. You know the kind, the ones who make people bark like a dog or sing karaoke to AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." Sadick's hypnotism comes at the request of his patients and assists them in doing tasks that they otherwise have trouble performing. These tasks can range from: moving on after the death of a loved one or of the end of a long marriage; passing a math test or studying for SATs; losing weight or quitting smoking.

The real power behind hypnosis, Sadick says, comes not from the hypnotherapist but from the patient or client.

"All hypnosis is self-hypnosis in the sense that the hypnotist serves only as a guide," Sadick said. "The person undergoing hypnosis tells his or her unconscious what change needs to be made." The process of hypnosis allows a person to remove negativity or fear associated with a particular person, event or trait in their personality by a process called dissociation.

"Some people will hear a certain song on the radio and immediately associate that song with a person or time in their life," Sadick said. "That association becomes an anchor linking that song to that memory. If the memory is a painful one, then every time the person hears that song, he or she will feel that pain all over again." Through hypnosis, a person can train his subconscious mind to dissociate that song with a particular person or thing and therefore not feel the negative feelings when he hears the song. This is able to happen because through hypnosis people learn to tap into the unconscious part of their mind where the association takes place and effect change.

"Our minds are so powerful and we only use about 10 percent of our minds," Sadick said. "Our unconscious mind is like a computer hard drive in that it does what we tell it to do and will react the way we tell it to react. If we change what we tell it, then our reaction to stimuli will change." This is what people mean when they use the phrase "power of suggestion." What a person tells himself and the way in which he tells himself will affect the outcome of situations he is presented with, Sadick said. "How you say things and how you hear things counts," Sadick said.

For example, if someone tells himself that he will never make any money in his given field then he will begin to see the obstacles to him making money more so than he otherwise would. However, if that same person tells himself that he can be successful, then those feelings with manifest themselves.

"The power behind hypnosis is looking at things and hearing things differently," Sadick said. There are many misconceptions about hypnotherapy and what it can and cannot do to a person who is placed under hypnosis.

"Hypnosis is all about focus," Sadick said. "It is not dangerous because the person being hypnotized is always in complete control. A person under hypnosis will not do anything that they do not want to do." In fact, a person is in such total control of what he or she does that a person can learn to self-hypnotize for times when they aren't in the presence of a hypnotherapist.

Through a simple technique of controlled breathing, counting and focus, I was able to bring myself to a deep level of relaxation with some minor coaching from Sadick. By doing this on a somewhat regular basis, I would probably be able to train my unconscious, slowly, to undo a bad habit or recreate a new habit i.e. have more patience or not use profanities.

This sort of self-hypnosis and relaxation are some of the techniques that Sadick teaches cancer patients and survivors. By learning to relax and focus patients can actually minimize some of the pain they are feeling, and survivors can decrease the amount of worry and concern associated with the possible return of the cancer.

As a form of therapy, Sadick says that hypnosis may result in change quicker than simply speaking to a therapist. However, he cautions that hypnotherapy is not a magic wand and that other more mainstream forms of therapy are very good as well.

"I may be able to clear up a phobia quicker than more traditional therapy, but therapy can assist a patient in clearing up the residual issues associated with the phobia," Sadick said. Sadick will be explaining his techniques and teaches some methods of relaxation and self-hypnosis to breast cancer survivors at Norwalk Community College, Room 116 on the West Campus. The program is being sponsored by the Breast Cancer Survival Center. For more information, contact Susan Santangelo at (203) 857-7304.

To contact Sadick call 1-866-POS-MIND or log on to mindchanges. com.

©2003 The Hour Online