Fremont Tribune | April 23, 2016
Jeanne Kocher believes that the power of the mind is an untapped resource that can make all the difference in the world when it comes to living a happy, healthy and meaningful life.
And when it comes to un-tapping that resource, hypnosis might just be the key.
Kocher recently announced that she is officially opening her hypnosis practice inside of the Blue Bottle Coffeehouse and Blue Yoga Studio building, 529 N. Main St.
There will be one-on-one sessions Monday through Friday by appointment, as well as class sessions Tuesday evenings where people will learn the art of self-hypnosis to manage pain symptoms starting May 3. Down the road, Kocher plans to work with midwives in Omaha to help women with the childbirth process.
To reserve a slot, learn more information about prices and future topics, Kocher is asking people to contact her at 402-317-2809, and also their healthcare provider.
“I just want to make sure that doctors know I’m not trying to replace them, and also they should contact their doctor because the doctor knows best about their clients care,” Kocher said during a Friday morning interview.
Kocher said that she understands some people find hypnotism to be a bit bizarre, or maybe view it as a pseudoscience, but in all reality hypnotism has been used for centuries to help treat various maladies and mental blocks.
According to Kocher, in the early 1900s, the Mayo Brothers, founders of the Mayo Clinic, found a safer – and more effective – way to anesthetize patients after it was discovered that using the drug Ether in the surgery process was resulting in casualties.
“Ether was the main source of anesthesia used for surgeries, and one out of every 400 people died of just the anesthesia. So they had their anesthetist trained by a physician in Omaha, who also happened to be a hypnotist. So he trained their anesthetist to use hypnosis for surgery. So what you see is that even the Mayo brothers were using hypnosis.”
Kocher – who was certified in March by the International Board of Hypnotherapy in Albuquerque, N.M., doesn’t use the science in a surgical sense, but rather uses hypnosis to help everyday people.
From migraine headaches, insomnia, teeth grinding, quitting smoking and helping people lose weight, Kocher said that by guiding people into a trance she is able to help people see positive changes in their lives.
She even uses hypnosis to help people involved in music and athletics.
“Your subconscious mind is where your programming happens, where you formulate a lot of the beliefs about yourself.”
By molding these beliefs, people can actually heighten their performance by having more self-confidence and comfort, she said.
By using techniques of distraction, fixation and relaxation – sometimes by combining these practices – Kocher eases clients into a hypnotic state that generally takes about two minutes. Over the course of 10 minutes, Kocher deepens the trance and works with her clients addressing the issues they see her about.
Kocher said that nearly anybody has the ability to be hypnotized if they have the will for it to happen.
“That is the most important part of the process, they have to really want it to happen,” she said.
While in trance, Kocher made it very clear that the person is not sleeping, but rather they are in such a relaxed state that they are susceptible to persuasion that can leave a lasting impact on their parasympathetic response.
“They know what is going on around them, in fact, I need them to know what is going on around them,” she said. “This is not sleep at all, they can hear my voice the whole time, they are aware of other thoughts they are having and they know they are hypnotized. Initially, at first, it doesn’t seem like they are hypnotized but after the deepening you see signs of it.”
Numerous signs indicate when somebody is in a hypnotic trance, she said.
Although hypnosis is not sleep, people won’t always remember everything they said or everything that happened during hypnosis because the trance has them in a state of utter relaxation.
“People can remember some things, just not everything,” Kocher said. “You get such mental relaxation that a lot of it ends up being a blur.”