Hypnotherapist can make 'grief very brief'

TEMECULA: He helps people deal with their problems through special techniques and training.

10:00 PM PST on Saturday, December 23, 2006

By TIM O'LEARY
The Press-Enterprise

Photo: William Wilson Lewis III / The Press-Enterprise

TEMECULA - Hurting over the holidays? Temecula clinical Hypnotherapist Paul Rieker wants to help. He is offering his services free today, Christmas and Tuesday.

Paul Rieker, a clinical Hypnotherapist at Southwest Family Counseling in Temecula, says he has no idea how many people will take him up on his offer of free help. "If there's 50 people or three, that's OK," he said, adding, "If there's 500, I'll be busy."

Rieker, who works at Southwest Family Counseling in Temecula, said he can't think of any activity he would rather do than help others during the holiday season.

"I'd rather be here helping someone find joy over Christmas than any other gift I could receive," he said, an infectious smile stretching from ear to ear during an interview in a group discussion room at the Jefferson Avenue clinic.

It is there that he invites visitors to sink into one of two overstuffed couches as he sits cross-legged on the floor, gets them to close their eves as he verbally relaxes them and encourages them to examine their past and their problems.

"We can make grief very brief," he said. "I'm sorry that it sounds so simple, but it's simple work."

Rieker is so confident he can help people that he's invited a cross-section of experts to watch as he works with people suffering from grief, depression, Fibromyalgia, teeth grinding and other difficulties.

While medical experts acknowledge that hypnosis can be a valuable tool in tackling physical and emotional problems, some caution that the field is not regulated by the state and it is best administered by licensed psychiatric professionals.

"That's the key issue," said David Spiegel, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Hypnosis has been shown to help patients deal with pain and other problems, Spiegel, a medical doctor who has written one book and about 50 scientific articles on the topic, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. He said he could not endorse nor comment on Rieker's offer to provide free hypnotherapy over the holidays.

The use of hypnosis and acupuncture to manage pain was addressed in a January 2000 paper for the Journal of the American Medical Association. The paper by Jane E. Loitman, a doctor with the Brown University School of Medicine, concluded that physicians and their patients can benefit by learning about such alternative forms of treatment and knowing when and where to apply them.

Rieker, 51, said he obtained a certificate four years ago from the Glendale-based American Council of Hypnotist Examiners, which requires 300 hours of training at a state-approved school, followed by an internship. His immersion in the techniques began in 1984, when a Colorado Hypnotherapist helped him overcome a severe depression and heal scars that lingered from his mother's suicide eight years earlier. Rieker began practice in 1985, his 1^st client was in severe pain.

Rieker said Hypnotherapist Dan Roden began practicing in the 1960s. Those hypnotherapy sessions, lasting less than a month, enabled Rieker to replace the anger he felt with fond memories and thoughts of joy, happiness and understanding.

Rieker, who has lived in the Temecula area since 1989, cites changes in state law that were passed in 2002 and recognized alternative medical treatments. Senate Bill 577, which modified the state's Business and Professions Code, noted that perhaps more than 5 million Californians were receiving alternative medical treatments.

"It's very difficult to say how people get better," he said. "I can't say I've changed everybody who has come in here, but I can say most people know within an hour or so if this is good for them."

Reach Tim O'Leary at 951-375-3733 or toleary@PE.com

Confidentiality is so important, and in keeping with that, we need to learn and share how Grief can be resolved in a short period of time.

· A woman from San Diego, led by her Mother found many resolutions in 90 minutes. Two years after her boyfriend died, on this Christmas day, she is finally was able to resolve… “He’s behind me” and break the severe guilt, which she knew was not true, but her emotions caused her to ruminate on “what she could-a or should-a done”. The clear decision she had was to find the friends, which she had pushed away for such a long time to join her in joyful life and play. But, she’s heard the advice over and over, for the past 2 years. Her CLEAR and FOCUSSED attention in trance, allowed her new and joyous resolutions. These resolutions were verbalized to her before, but before this Christmas day those words were not hers to own, in her emotions. You see the difference between the hearing of someone else’s teaching and the breaking of the ‘Wrappers of Anger and Fear’ occurs in minutes- when in trance. Walking out of grief is a significant difference in trance. I wish you could have seen this, witnessed this, and talk about this huge change with her, when it occurred. This beautiful young woman, her turning point to find that her love, who passed, is now behind her. Standing behind her, in thought and in time. Perhaps finding new love and marriage can now be real. Perhaps now her life can become full again. For her a life of grief was extinguished in 90 minutes.

· A man from the Redlands area brought his wife the day after Christmas. She was in severe Fibromyalgia, without restorative sleep. For the 1^st time the day after Christmas said she “slept better than ever”. Her husband said he thinks the symptoms of FMS were changed in that session. Although this is not everything she needed in an hour, it was what she needed to learn so she can return to clear the other impasses she has begun understanding how restful and restorative sleep is again becoming hers.

· A woman with severe pain from bone spurs on her vertebrae, living in Riverside County came on Christmas Eve… In an hour and one/half she learned gloved anesthesia. Before the session, she could not bend without pain. After the session, her husband saw her wash the painful spot with her hand and saw the relief in her voice, her facial expressions and as she bent over, she could almost touch her toes. She commented the pain was less, after using gloved anesthesia WITHOUT pain killers than she experienced with the pain killers she was prescribed. What a Blessing, she has in her thoughts, Pain Relief when she chooses to use her mind to overwhelm her own pain with joy.

· A woman, who wanted to be anonymous, and to have an anonymous problem, came on Christmas Eve. Encouraged by a friend. Although I did not know what specifically she was seeking a resolution to, it was clear that after she cried the last tear for that thought. Next Christmas she will NOT carry that emotional impasse which she had in 2006. We don’t need to know what aspect of anger or fear she walked from; but she is thankful that this was her experience, without that fear which she held previously in her life or career.

· A man with Fibromyalgia Symptoms, with grief for both his Mother and Father, came on Christmas Eve. He spent a session that morning and returned the day after Christmas with not ONE but TWO PIES , an apple and a strawberry-rhubarb pie. They were delicious! . His gift to me saying thank you! In his trance he resolved both grief and forgiveness. Now knowing his symptoms have been reduced. He stayed for another session. His conviction for joy is evident. I believe he’s resolved to teach other people how FMS can be changed through the techniques of HYPNOTHERAPY APPLICATIONS.

· A woman whose long time boyfriend was in anger after his diagnosis for Lung Cancer by the VA. He hung to life for almost 6 months longer than they estimated him to live. He became more angry and bitter, so much so, this woman had to abandon caring for him, because of his anger and rage. In an HOUR she broke the grief she had for him. She no longer blames herself for her distance from him at his death. What a gift to walk out of self blame in that difficult time which haunted her.

· A man who was divorced and had remarried, from Colton area, in his second marriage came on Christmas Eve. After his wife divorced him, he found she was seeing another man during the end of their marriage. His fear or grief over that loss was a problem for him, as he felt he was going to continue in that way, his fear that his current wife was/is cheating on him. Although an hour was not enough, it was a huge step in finding his resolutions to find the best love in his marriage he can. His promise was to come back and have further applications of Hypnotherapy so he can walk out of the fear which he has been rehearsing before is marriage to his wife. His children will benefit greatly in seeing their Father exchange intimacy with their Mother.

These are a few of the stories which were made more joyful through deep meditation and emotional resolution in Hypnotherapy Applications. I cannot say that this was all that was needed by these individuals. I can say it was a blessing, each of these people needed.

The emotional release and re-framing is the key to fast resolution. This is the significant difference between Hypnotherapy: Abreaction, Desensitization and Emotional Reframing over other modalities of counseling and behavior modification. This is SUPER Cognitive Reframing.

Perhaps this was the 1^st Annual Grief Intervention for Christmas. Perhaps next year, Christmas 2007 will be a more joyous Christmas for others once the anger and fear of grief is resolved… and in a short period of time.

Bless Your Thoughts, Paul