Ever wished you could delve into your past lives and uncover the truth of your existence, but don't know where to start? Enter Sheri Fitzner, a leading light in hypnotherapy, who will guide you on a fascinating journey of self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment. We unpack the ground-breaking work of psychologists Dr Brian Weiss and Dr Allen Chips, who dared to challenge clinical norms and unlocked the true potential of hypnotherapy.
Imagine being able to understand the role of your past lives and the impact they have on your present. On this episode, Sheri Fitzner expertly navigates through the intriguing concept of past life regression therapy. We discuss the soul's journey, the lessons we are here to learn, and how all of this contributes to our divine light. Sherry offers a unique perspective on the power of free will and the crucial role choices play in our personal growth.
Ever wonder why certain patterns keep repeating in your life? Sheri sheds light on how hypnosis helps decode life's repeating patterns, allowing us to better understand our own existence. We also discuss the therapeutic process of hypnosis, the significance of setting intentions, and the sheer influence of imagination. Plus, don't miss out on a detailed discussion on the power of group hypnosis and its role in healing. After all, who doesn't want to unlock their extraordinary potential? Join us on this enlightening journey that promises to change the way you perceive yourself and the world around you.
Grab a warm drink and join us- we saved a seat for you. Don't forget to stay updated with Spill the TEA by following us on Facebook at Women Gathering and Growing with TEA or on Instagram at Grow with TEA.
Ever wished you could delve into your past lives and uncover the truth of your existence, but don't know where to start? Enter Sheri Fitzner, a leading light in hypnotherapy, who will guide you on a fascinating journey of self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment. We unpack the ground-breaking work of psychologists Dr Brian Weiss and Dr Allen Chips, who dared to challenge clinical norms and unlocked the true potential of hypnotherapy.
Imagine being able to understand the role of your past lives and the impact they have on your present. On this episode, Sheri Fitzner expertly navigates through the intriguing concept of past life regression therapy. We discuss the soul's journey, the lessons we are here to learn, and how all of this contributes to our divine light. Sherry offers a unique perspective on the power of free will and the crucial role choices play in our personal growth.
Ever wonder why certain patterns keep repeating in your life? Sheri sheds light on how hypnosis helps decode life's repeating patterns, allowing us to better understand our own existence. We also discuss the therapeutic process of hypnosis, the significance of setting intentions, and the sheer influence of imagination. Plus, don't miss out on a detailed discussion on the power of group hypnosis and its role in healing. After all, who doesn't want to unlock their extraordinary potential? Join us on this enlightening journey that promises to change the way you perceive yourself and the world around you.
Grab a warm drink and join us- we saved a seat for you. Don't forget to stay updated with Spill the TEA by following us on Facebook at Women Gathering and Growing with TEA or on Instagram at Grow with TEA.
Sherry, I'm so glad you're here.
Sheri:I'm excited to be here. I've been looking forward to this.
Kerri:Yay, alright, welcome to Fist of the Tea. I am excited to share with everyone that we have a special guest and our friend Sherry Fitzner is here with us and I am going to throw it over to Tracy to get us started and introduce Sherry.
Tracy:Thanks, Carrie, I am so excited to have Sherry here. I didn't really know Sherry very well and we went to Cuba for part of the book launch and I met her there and instantly felt a connection and was so excited to start to get to know her, but was also extremely curious about what she did and almost a little leery. And then, as the months have gone on, I've reached out to her a couple of times and we've talked about her modality and hypnosis and I was particularly interested after we all read the book Many Lives, Many Masters. But I have to say in the last three months Sherry and her offerings have been so helpful in my own life. I've actually started seeing Sherry, which I don't mind sharing, and this process. I am so excited for her to share what her gifts are with the group. We are all so curious about your thoughts on the book we just read first. So, Sherry, did you enjoy Many Lives, Many Masters? What were your thoughts?
Sheri:Yeah, I read that a few years back. That was is that Dr Brian Weiss? Yes, yeah.
Jennifer:Oh yeah.
Sheri:That was a good one, wasn't it? I went through that really fast. I like that. He came from such a place of is he a psychologist? So it's very clinical. He comes from such a clinical background and he kind of used hypnosis as like a last ditch effort right to help this woman who he had been working with for so long and have found how effective hypnosis is just as a healing modality in general. But what was interesting for him was how he started to understand that there was so much more to the life that we're living than just the life that we're currently living, and I think that's what was so captivating about that case study that he shared about that client. And since that book he actually has, he has written other books and has more works about his deeper connection with the ascended masters that he started to understand through the work of hypnosis, which is really that's the work that I'm fascinated with personally.
Sheri:So I love that he brought this scientific, logical, you know, approach to something that is cannot be defined by logic, as there are no standards for what he discovered, and he just really allowed that to show in his work, which is actually really brave, coming from a psychologist, and I think that's how just like he is, you know they're all founded on like facts. There's everything's black and white and you fall into a category or textbook. You know and what he is sharing is actually quite the opposite that there is no definition for what you're there is no textbook for it, right?
Sheri:Exactly, I think that's what's so captivating about his work is he's so authentic in his, in his fear for even sharing it because of his background. That's what made it so interesting. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Tracy:First of all, I love a story where skeptic is converted and they share the pain of that, so that instantly had me hooked.
Sheri:Yeah, 100%. That was such a good way of saying, because he was he was admittedly a skeptic. That's why he didn't really use hypnosis in his, in his practice. You know he thought everything else could be solved by. Let's put you in a category. Let's let's just work on it this way. And and that was what was so beautiful and revealing, I think, about his work. I loved it. That's such a good way to put it.
Kerri:I think when I was listening to it, it just I don't know. It was like the fact that he was a skeptic and came around was just so like felt hopeful, like okay, so so maybe people are going to come around to this idea, it will be more accepted. I don't know, I guess I never really questioned some of it, and so to have someone who was a skeptic really kind of question it and still come out the other side being like okay, there's more to this than what I was willing to admit or I'm even able to prove. The you know the majority of what I see means towards, towards this other thing that I can't describe or explain.
Sheri:Or discredit, like I can't not prove that this is what's going on. Yeah, the hypnosis that I practice is it's transpersonal hypnotherapy, and that really gained its gain steam kind of in the 70s and in the 80s when they coined the phrase super conscious mind, when they realized that there's more to the human mind than just that conscious and subconscious space. And from that work I studied from Dr Allen chips and he had a very similar background to Dr Weiss you know the author that you're referring to in that he had a very religious background. So you know he has a psychology understanding, but he had an extreme religious upbringing and was very devout in his practice when he discovered all of these other elements to the human mind and a lot of what he was uncovering contradicted his religious background and so he also approached it from that skeptical let's see if we can prove that this isn't right, let's see if there's errors, let's see if you know. And then he started to discover patterns and then he just dived completely in and literally the textbook that I learned from Transpersonal Approach for Clinical Hypnotherapy is written by Dr Allen chips.
Sheri:So it's just. I think it's very disarming for people right to like have these questions answered immediately of like the what ifs and like old what if it's this, what if it's that? And then you have these, these very brainy people approaching it that same way. It's like, well, yeah, we kind of disprove that, we disprove this, and it kind of leaves little to argue with afterwards and it kind of makes it fun for somebody who, like me, where I'm like, I'll just believe it, I'll believe it until I find it's not true, why not?
Tracy:Sherry, have you so? Through your practice, do you do work with past lives?
Sheri:Yes, oh yes, so in Transpersonal Hypnotherapy, the, the parts that I really like to focus on are elements that are found within that superconscious space, and that superconscious space is what connects us through to our intuition, to our past lives, the Akashic records, anything that would be considered that outer body type of experience. That's where I want to guide people through. So what I've learned is that the more that we discover about these past lives, the more we have an understanding of what it is that we're going through now and why, and the choices that we really do have within our power to make as a result of that information. So I don't do past life regressions as a form of like entertainment. I do it really, for healing.
Sheri:Let's let's figure out what's going on, why you're having these fears, let's figure out where your limitations lie, the restrictions that you're putting on your life, and a lot of times it is connected to a past life. And even more interesting if I really want to embellish on this is that some of these past lives aren't necessarily lives that we've led, but we came in with imprints. They call them imprints. So this explains the idea and the concept not to jump too far ahead, but I'm going to kind of geek out on you. You know how there's so many people that are like, oh, I was Cleopatra or I was, you know, a former baseball player, and there's like 10 people that claimed that they had these same experiences, and it's like well, how can we have 10 people that were one life?
Sheri:What happens that I've discovered in my work is that people have had imprints of a past life to help them, guide them through what it is that they chose to work through in this life, and so we have these imprints of all of these past lives to help shape this life that we're in.
Sheri:And so that's what I love about this regression work is that you are guided back to help you with what you chose to work on in this life and it's so revealing. And then it helps you to understand, too, this human collective that we're all in. That's the idea. That's the idea that we're all in Not to get to woo or maybe I can get woo, I don't know, you can get woo so it also contributes to where humanity is at a whole. The more you learn about yourself at a micro level, you're learning at a macro level and you're able to receive messages and downloads and have a deeper understanding and connection to that collective, which makes you feel and understand how important you really are in the life that you're living and that you chose to live in this life. And so, if you make sense, like did I just totally not answer your question?
Tracy:No, that was beautiful. I'm like sucked in. I'm getting closer to my computer screen.
Kerri:For some reason that's something that's always resonated with me that, like we came here with with a plan to learn certain things, and we are doing that consciously or unconsciously, and we're attracting the things and the that we need to learn those things, so we're calling it in. There's probably a reason.
Sheri:I had someone channel one of their guides and we kind of we had questions about like, what is the purpose to a human life? Because it's hard, it's a lot of harshness, right. A lot of harsh lessons happen here in earth school and they said think of it as you're a diamond, and the more facets that you have, the brighter and more sparkly you shine. And the whole point to you having the soul is to be as bright and as light as source, and that's that's the goal of the soul is to be as as close to that divine light as possible. So you come to places like earth earth school to add more facets so that you can shine a little bit brighter. And so you do come in with these lessons and these ideas and these things that you want to learn to add new facets to your soul. And sometimes it's it's how to learn to to handle, you know, disappointment.
Sheri:Sometimes it's really harsh things that happen in our lives and I love the conversation that happens as a result of that information, because there's a lot of people that like to say, well, I didn't ask for this particular thing in my life, I didn't ask for me to be, you know, hurt or you know anything, and I say that's both true and untrue at the same time, because I think that there are people that are showing up in our life to make sure that we do learn the lessons that we came here to do With.
Sheri:That being said, we have something called free will here, and so people can take that and expand on that lesson in some way, which may not be what it is that you specifically wanted, but, like, at the end of the day, maybe you are still learning that lesson. So how you got there? Maybe that's where the free will comes into play, but I think it's. I'm curious what you guys think about that, the idea of like a contract and free will and purpose. Like, do you have conflict going back and forth on what that means for you? And like what it is that you've called into your life, or maybe you don't want to acknowledge that you called it into your life?
Kerri:I think I think about that a lot. I saw I'm sure I read it somewhere and maybe it's like a quote of someone's and if it is, I'm sorry because I don't know who it is but that you know you were brought here to learn a lesson and that you will keep being presented with opportunities to learn that lesson. And so often when I'm in a moment where I'm looking at this fucking socks, I am digging deep to find out like what, what does what else is happening like this, what you know, what is this something that's reoccurring? Is this something that I I need to explore further? Because is this like, is this a lesson? Like what is the lesson? And how do I not do this thing again and learn what I'm doing and still learn and move on from it? So I think that's how I relate to it Most of the time.
Jennifer:I was going to say that I definitely struggled with that idea at first, but for me, part of the reason that I struggled with that is because of some of the choices that I have made in my life that haven't been.
Jennifer:I guess I have to always go back to now that I have learned this lesson. I was judging right, I was judging my life choices, my life decisions based on a less evolved concept. I guess is the way I would say it. You know, now we talk a lot about the knowing right Now that I know I can't know what I know. So before I understood that idea that my soul could have chosen, knowing that I would have to make the decisions that I made in this lifetime, I think I struggled with that concept of free will and that I, you know, was angry and I didn't have responsibility to those things because I was in survival mode and I blah, blah, blah. You know all that stuff right. But now, now I, now I think I see it entirely differently, based on the things that I have experienced and learned around that concept of it's part of the growth, I guess is the way I want to say it.
Tracy:Yeah, I think for me too, is the free will comes in in terms of I can teach a group any, you know. I can teach them the lesson. It is up to them to receive the lesson. So that's the free will for me and that's why I think they repeat because you're being offered the opportunity again and again to make the choice to engage and learn. And I think that you know when you take a look at learning styles or somebody learning something, it takes like eight times for somebody to be presented information, for the person to be able to retain it. So if you take a look at that, you know spiritually that's still learning. So it would take eight times for you to present a lesson to me, for me to absorb it and retain it.
Sheri:I think that's a really good point that you're bringing up too, because I think in earth school that we think of everything as as linear right.
Sheri:Like they're like for a healing or an experience or lessons, that there should be a beginning, middle and end.
Sheri:But it's not like that at all.
Sheri:Everything is that spiral right Like it comes back constantly, and sometimes it comes back really fast.
Sheri:Sometimes it takes a little bit longer, but while that's revolving, you're learning and growing and expanding. So, even though it might be the same theme, you are a new version of yourself every single day, and so every time you approach that theme that comes back in your life, you are looking at that through a new lens, a new perspective, and therefore it is a new lesson, even though it's the same theme. So you may take on the theme of abandonment, for instance, and now you are presented with all of these opportunities to understand the full scope of abandonment, and as you're growing and aging, it may not present itself as the typical abandonment, but now you're a new version of yourself and you're healing a different part or aspect of abandonment, and so, yeah, it might be the same theme, but you are an entirely different person, and so one could argue that it's a new lesson altogether just happens to be the same theme. So I don't know, I think getting away from the idea that there's a beginning, middle and end will just let go of disappointment.
Sheri:Like you, failed at something I mean like let's let go of the idea that it will ever stop. It's going to follow you throughout your whole life. But that's such a great companion, because it's really a testament to how far you've come since the first time this lesson has been presented to you. You're learning something. You're always learning something. You can't get away from it. Even if your head's in the sand, you're still learning something. So it is a measurement in a way, but not the linear one that we like to use here.
Kerri:Yeah, so our listeners won't know, but when you were speaking, you were kind of making this motion like a record player, something going around, right. Yeah, and there was this reel that I saw recently and it was two performers that were on a spinning platform. Have you guys seen this?
Kerri:Yes, no but that sounds nauseating. Well, it was a man and a woman and they were both walking counterclockwise to each other, right, sherry? Is that how it goes? And all of a sudden one of them turns around and now they're coming towards each other and they're together for a while and then back the other way, and then eventually they come back together, and that's kind of how I see it. You know, like everything, like you're drawn to what you need for a moment. You get what you can from it. It might go away from you, it might come back. Maybe you're going to miss it, you know, or it's going to move on ahead of you. So I do like to think of it that way. Definitely not linear. I love that whole reel. I just thought it was really impactful and it didn't make you nauseous.
Kerri:I see it again, I'll send it to you. I was just actually looking to see if I saved it somewhere, because I really did like it.
Sheri:As I'm aging, I kid you not I look at the Mary go around and I'm like, oh, no, no, I can't hang that way, but it is like I do know that reel that you're talking about, because, like one person would stay stationary and the other person would even be running backwards and eventually they'll catch up to that person. And so it was just like all these different ways in which, like you could be moving, you can be stationary and eventually you're going to meet, like you're in this round pattern.
Sheri:Yeah. So everything like if you just think of like it's just that it's like a spiral. That spiral has no beginning and end. It's just always going to keep coming back to you. It's just it's like a moon phase. You know eventually you're going to get back to a full moon. So that's what these learning lessons are. So I don't know. I think anytime we have an opportunity to feel like we're not failing at something, let's capitalize on that.
Mary:Right, absolutely. I'm a novice to this concept of past lives and I did read the book and was captivated by it, excited by it because it seems to unlock, you know, another dimension that is out there, possibly, and it also brings me a little bit of comfort for, you know, grieving the losses that I've had and just thinking that they're coming back around. It really makes sense to me, linear, like you were talking about linear, you know, they thought that the earth was flat, right, but it's round. And coming back to the possibly the same lessons, to keep learning or improving on the lesson, I think about that poem about walking down the road. You fall in the hole, you know, and so life keeps presenting that hole to you until you learn to walk around it.
Tracy:Love a. Is that what it's from? It's from a.
Mary:Okay.
Sheri:Yeah, well, it's the same as, like history doesn't repeat itself. It rhymes, right I?
Tracy:mean it's going to love that. Yeah, that's a cup, sherry. That's a repeat itself. It rhymes.
Sheri:It rhymes. Yeah, An astrologer friend of mine, she says that quite a bit because she, you know, just recognizes cycles that we find ourselves in. It's never going to be the same exact opportunity, but it's going to be something within that same school of thought that's going to be presented and it's like the hole, like you can be walking down the road and you might have a different distraction in front of you. That's the rhyme. But the hole is always going to be there, right, Unless you're paying attention, You're going to keep falling in it. So, yeah, I that always helped me too, because sometimes we're always on alert for the same thing and we're we're not present them with where we're supposed to be or could be. So just looking for a rhyme is is it's easier when you're present and it's also less aggressive.
Tracy:You spoke a little bit about and we've talked about how your work is healing and a lot of people like I was. I was trepidatious about hypnosis because my only experience with hypnosis I think I shared with you was at a high school. I don't know when you have a guy come in and they had a hypnotist come in and make a bunch of people act like dots and I was like so to me I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so scared of you know somebody being able to go into my mind and like tinker, and so what are your thoughts about that? Because now I know that that's. You know you reeducated me or reschooled me in a way that was helpful.
Sheri:Yeah, so what you're referring to is like that stage show. Right, you hear a bell, you quack like a duck kind of hypnosis. Right, that's meant for entertainment, and the people that engage with that type of entertainment are doing it of their own free will. They want to, they want to be a part of the action, they want to be a part of the fun, because the primary rule to hypnosis is that you cannot enter into a state of trance without being willing.
Sheri:I can't control your mind. It is not possible. There is nothing that I can say or do. There's no freak like you know direction of words that I can say that would lock you into a place where I could control your mind. And that's because, during hypnosis, you have to remain entirely in control of your mind in order to have an experience with it, which is really, really cool. Usually, once people hear that, they kind of like exhale a little bit and they didn't even know they were holding their breath, right, there is a big stigma around hypnosis that I can put you into a trance and I can get your bank account information, that I can get your blood type.
Sheri:I can get your little security number. I can't do that. You would never say that to me during a conscious conversation like we're having right now, and therefore you would not say that in a deeper level of trance. So that's the first rule of hypnosis is that you remain in control the entire time, and if you're up on a stage during a you know a show, it's because there's a part of you that really wants to do it and it's fun and it's silly and it's all for good humor. But that is not the type of hypnosis that I do. I do transpersonal hypnotherapy. So what that means is that we are working through all of the fields. We are doing it for the purpose of healing, of to helping within your healing journey, and you're the one holding the roadmap for that. I'm just holding your hand while you're doing it. Did that help to kind of share the difference between those two versions?
Tracy:Yeah, nobody thinks that you're running around with a secret pocket watch from Bugs Bunny.
Sheri:No, and you know what's unfortunate about that is that came from Freud. Freud was well one. He was bad at hypnosis, so he discredited it. He was the therapist of the day, right Like he was the it guy, and so anything that Freud said went. But you know, honestly, he just didn't know what he was doing because he was so black and white that he didn't believe that the mind could do anything outside of a textbook that he was writing.
Sheri:So, if that's a part of the experience, is that I have to believe, just as much as you have to believe, that there will be healing at the end of this and that is how we get to that place. He didn't believe that it was possible, therefore why would his client? And then it never worked, and so he would like try that pocket watch, which is called eye fixation and it can help you relax. But he did it like now. It's just a comical like expression of hypnosis and not at all accurate to what it is that we do. Thanks Freud, he was just bad at it.
Kerri:Oh, poor Freud.
Tracy:How does hypnosis help with the healing?
Sheri:It's a really good question. Before I can answer that, can I explain what hypnosis is sort of doing? Yes, Okay, so within the mind we have the conscious mind. The conscious mind makes up 10% of who we are. Within that 10%, that's such a small margin. This is the iceberg effect, right? Only 10% of the iceberg is sticking up out of the water, right? And within that 10% is the part of you that is taking in information. It's judging that information Judgment is not bad, it's just a part of human experience and it's analyzing that information. Also in that conscious mind house is the ego. Then we have the 90% of you which is unconscious.
Sheri:This is the background track. This is the part of you that is really running the machine, and what's funny is that you're not aware of what's going on in this aspect of yourself. This is where you know if you think of that. That's the unconscious aspect of you, as, like a neighborhood In one house, you have the subconscious, which is where your belief system is stored. So this is a collection of all of the information that you have taken in and by, usually between the around puberty, so anywhere between the ages of 8 and 12, that is when you are establishing your belief system. It is in that time of your life that you are actually living in a theta brainwave state. So children are living in a brain theta brainwave state. We can get to that in a second. I'll kind of embellish on that in a second. Next door to that is where your imagination lives. So the house next door to the belief system is your imagination. Next door to that is your intuition, which is really really cool. And the next town over is your subconscious or your super conscious mind, which is really cool, tricky place to go to and I highly, highly recommend you all go there.
Sheri:So what's happening now is that you have this 10% of you. That's really what you think is running the show. That is the part of you that is designed for the human experience to take in information, to judge it and to analyze it and try and logically make sense of it. Right, Okay, but that's the part of you that also gets in the way of your feelings and your emotional self and even your imagination. So what hypnosis is doing is relaxing the 10% of you that kind of gets in the way of having that conversation with your true self, Just letting it take a if you think of it being in a car. You're letting it be in the backseat sipping on its coffee, like letting it go into La La Land, and you're letting your subconscious kind of drive the car have you ever driven to work? Over and over again. And every time you pull up to work you're like how the heck did I get here?
Jennifer:Right.
Sheri:You're like did I stop at that stop sign? Did I hit an old lady? Like what happened? How did I get to work? You know, put the garage door down.
Kerri:How'd they get here?
Sheri:Totally Right. That's because you have taken that route to work so many times that your conscious mind knows that it didn't need to take in any information and analyze it. So it took a break. It went to into a, into a daydream like state, which is a translate state. So we enter into that all the time. We always go into translate states.
Sheri:Now, what would happen if a car pulled out in front of you and slammed on its brakes? You would slam on your brakes because your conscious mind is like whoop, I'm back here. We go Up until that point your subconscious was kind of driving the car. Well, that's what hypnosis is like. All we're doing is giving your conscious mind permission to step aside so that we can get to where the belief system is stored, and that is where we're going to shift and change these beliefs that you sort of have gained throughout your life. This is the conditioned responses that we have, that are not necessarily for our highest and best self, and we give ourself an opportunity to heal that, to change that narrative. And this is where the ego comes into play. The ego, like I mentioned before, is in that 10% of your mind. The ego we are all very familiar with.
Sheri:The ego the ego, that son of a gun, is in the background. She says the meanest things to me. She is so mean, she's so cruel. Why does she say things like that? Wow, the ego is always on the phone with the belief system. You've got to start to love your ego and what your ego is saying. You don't have to believe her, you just have to listen to her, because what she is doing is telling you what your beliefs are. And so with hypnosis, with that information, we can go into the subconscious, where the beliefs are stored, and let's just change around the belief so that the ego now is saying something nice and uplifting and supportive, rather than tearing us down every five minutes. So that's essentially what hypnosis is. That's what the healing is Getting to know yourself better. It's also helping you to discern what is for your highest and best and then going in and taking control and setting yourself up for it. That's a lot of information.
Tracy:I think that we all can relate to the bitchy inner voice that says mean things. I don't know about you guys, but mine definitely does.
Kerri:I've been trying to tell that person where to go more often.
Sheri:I say to just listen to her. Listen to what she's saying. Don't believe in what she's saying. What she's saying is not a truth, but what she's saying is actually a truth to you. You might not like to hear it, but it's what you're believing.
Sheri:So if your belief system lives in an unconscious aspect of yourself and your ego is always on the phone with her and that's the only way to contact it, we should really listen to what the ego is saying and become really good friends with the ego, because when we start to alienate aspects of ourself, we start to feel as though we're not whole.
Sheri:We feel like there's an aspect of ourself that's fighting within, that creates inner turmoil. But what if, instead, we looked at the ego as being that one friend who says the thing that you don't want her to say, but you know it's always true. It's that one that you're like okay, I really need to know if I messed up and you call that friend. Like there's always that one person's like yeah, you screwed up. Like we'll call you out on it. What if we chose to look at the ego as that version of ourself that will call us out on something that's not helpful to us? We just don't like the messenger, we don't like how she's saying it, but it is a truth. So if we get to know her and we integrate her as here for us instead of against us, wouldn't that just help you to feel more open to what it is that she's saying?
Tracy:What I hear you saying is that if my inner voice is telling me that I'm not good enough, I should make friends with her and rewrite her script. Or I should make friends with her when she's saying I'm not good enough so I can explore. Can you dive a little bit deeper with that example?
Sheri:Yeah, so if you're hearing, I'm not good enough, which is a pretty common thing, especially, unfortunately, for us women to hear like we kind of have that narrative drilled into us.
Sheri:So I'm not good enough. Why am I not good enough? The first response is usually to become a defensive and be like oh my God, I hate when I talk like that. Or God, I'm so stupid. Or like we either play into it or we try and completely ignore it. So what I'm asking you or inviting you to do is now engage with it. If you're saying I'm not good enough, ask ego. Ooh, that was really mean. Why did I say I'm not good enough? I went to start engaging and asking her questions, find out, find out more. And here's the thing ego will tell you If you ask a question, you will get an answer, and it usually comes in the form not so much of thoughts.
Sheri:A lot of times people think it's like an actual conversation happening within our mind. Usually it comes through our emotional self, like I'm feeling this. I don't feel pretty, I don't feel like I'm effective in my role, I don't feel like I'm good enough to be in the outside world today, like, whatever it is. Start to pay attention to your emotional self, because she's answering you, she's talking to you, this is what you believe about yourself, and I'm showing you this because you're ready to work on it. It's such a compliment when ego shows up to tell you I'm not good enough. What she's really saying is, hey, you are in a time of your life where you are ready to work through this belief that you're not good enough Because you are. It's time to let that aspect of yourself go and grow and expand beyond it.
Sheri:So here's this nugget of information. Let's do something about it now, because that's the other rule to hypnosis is that your mind will never reveal something that you're not ready to know. You have safeguards in place to protect yourself from knowing information. This is where regressed memories come from. Have you heard of that? You all of a sudden smell a certain cologne and you remember being eight years old all over again. When you block that out, we have safeguards in place to protect us from certain memories or ideas. So if you are remembering something, it's not that you've been tricked into it. It's because your mind is saying okay, you've learned enough to be able to process this and work through this. So that's why our ego kind of tends to get a little bit louder during times of expansion and especially during certain phases of our life, when we're starting to transition into different phases of our life, our ego might start to get a little bit louder. It's not a coincidence. It's because you've learned enough lessons in order to work through whatever ego is telling you.
Tracy:So for those out there listening, what would it be like to come to your office and have a session?
Sheri:Well, hopefully fun. I feel like growing and expanding and healing. It should not be a sterile experience, so I try and step away from anything that would feel sterile. I want you to feel like you're coming in and sitting in my living room. That's how I'm hoping it feels. It's just very relaxed.
Sheri:So you come in and we're just going to get to know each other. We're going to find out what are your intentions. Maybe you don't know. You just know that you have to do something and that we're going to work through what that means for you. So this could mean that perhaps there's a small reading that comes along with it. Maybe I have to talk to your guides, maybe you have to talk to your guides. We have to get a little bit of information, because I do call myself an intuitive clinical hypnotherapist. So I'm getting hits on people. I'm getting, okay, ask about this, and that usually leads us down the road that we need to go on in order to get to where you're ready to heal, where your journey is taking you.
Sheri:So we have some time to create an intention around a session. So each session is about an hour and a half. So the first portion we're just talking. We're just getting to know you, then we're going to do some suggestibility testing. So what this is going to do is to help me understand how your mind works, and it's kind of cool to get to know yourself this way.
Sheri:So, do you like authoritative language? Do you like not an authoritative language? Do you tend to lean into certain perceptual factors and filters? Do you like to hear things more than you like to have things described visually? Are you kinesthetic? Are you really connected to your emotions and have a really good understanding of how something could feel or make you feel?
Sheri:So once we kind of go through those sort of things, I'll understand the type of language that you need to help you to relax, and then we'll get into hypnotic component, and during that that is the most relaxing part of this entire. I'm telling you you walk out of there feeling like ooh, like jelly, because now what we're doing is we have all the tools in place to help you to relax, and it inevitably happens. You're always hearing my voice, but there's certain phrases that help you to relax a little bit more. And during that suggestibility testing, during that conversation, I'm learning how to help you to do that, and so we're going to engage with that type of language. We're going to relax you it's called an induction and then we kind of get into the meat and potatoes of the hypnotic experience.
Sheri:What belief are we working towards? What understanding or conditioning are you trying to reverse? And we're going to work with the subconscious and start to shift that around and break up that belief system so that when you are in a fully conscious state, that that is going to become a part of your awareness now.
Kerri:Sherry, you offered group hypnosis and I came to one of your sessions for that. Can you talk a little bit about that too? And because I know, I know I messaged you before I came and I'm like what is this group thing? Should I come or should I meet with you one on one? Is it going to get weird? And if?
Tracy:so how, how weird, yeah, yeah.
Sheri:To what she needs to know what degree of weirdness are we getting into here? Yeah, you know it was funny because I think I do recall that and it actually happened to be a really small group that day that you would come, there were supposed to be a bunch of people and I think I don't know what happened, but it ended up being a really small, intimate group. I love when that happens because then we're kind of we're really feeding off of each other because you're so open, you're so open to the experience. Group hypnosis is remarkable when everybody has the same intention to just be open to healing. As long as we are there with the same intention, we are going to lift each other up so much more effective and in such a beautiful supportive experience and you really do feed off of each other energetically. So that particular I don't know if I can share, I don't want to share too, too much of that group hypnosis but that particular hypnosis was to invite you to really understand your purpose. What are you here for? And actually, carrie, I do have to talk to you about that because I heard something and it made me immediately think about you. This is a side note there.
Sheri:But in that hypnosis you had to come back with symbols, and certain symbols help you to engage in your purpose. That was the whole point to that group hypnosis, and so everybody had pretty profound symbols. But everybody went in with the same intention Everybody was there to learn something about themselves, and so it really opened up the door to finding that place within that super conscious mind. And what's interesting about that, and why that's so important, is because we are all sharing in a human experience, right, everybody here is sharing in this human experience, and so where does that go? Energetically? That goes into the super conscious mind. So every experience that one person has, we all have the same ability to share in that experience, and that is why we have things like an empathetic response.
Kerri:But at the same time, I'll have a different experience, right.
Sheri:Yes, very unique to you, absolutely so. Because what's happening in hypnosis is you're engaging with your imagination. Your imagination is giving you different types of filters to understand what it is that you need to know, and so we're all going into this like, say, I'm describing a house. Everybody's house is going to look different. Everybody's feeling is going to be different. Everybody's understanding is going to be different. However, the words that I'm saying are completely the same, but the way it gets understood and the way it gets interpreted, that's the most revealing part of it. That's what I love about this is because two people can go into hearing the same words and they're going to come out with completely different experiences, and when they get to share that in a group setting, everybody's kind of like what, how did you see that? That's amazing, and everybody's kind of cheering each other on and it's.
Sheri:I love doing group settings. I did a. The largest group setting I ever did was 100 people and it was a very intense. It was a very high vibrational group of people, like they were there to. They wanted some high vibrational beings to be communicating, like they were in it right, and what they came out with was like out of this world stuff. It was really, really cool. So, like you know, again this information that's coming through, you all need to support each other in it, so it has to be the same intention. As long as you have that in place, with a group setting you're going to, you're going to definitely gain something out of it. It's fun.
Kerri:It was fun. I highly recommend it.
Tracy:I'm so excited, cher, because you are going to be doing two group sessions for your adventure, for the retreat. Now I'm like, oh, I can't go. I have to get ready for this, the ceremony at the end, but I'm so excited for the people that get the opportunity to go to your adventure.
Sheri:I know I'm really excited. I think what's so unique and special about the retreat that you guys are putting together is it seems to all be in the name of accepted vulnerability. Right, Everybody can show up in a really authentic place, Like, if you want to be your authentic self, if you want to have the freedom to express who you are in a really safe place. This retreat is designed for that, right it's. You guys are all such beautiful spaceholders for that, and so the fact that we get to do group hypnosis in a setting like that, like I can't imagine that people aren't going to walk away and I say this in like I okay, if you know me, you know that this is actually a compliment Everybody's going to walk away, crying.
Tracy:Like.
Sheri:I want everybody walking away with smiles and tears just rolling down their face, because you get to have these really beautiful aha moments while being hugged and totally embraced in the experience. So I cannot wait for this retreat. I think it's going to be remarkable. It's going to be so beautiful and transformative for, I think, so many people. I'm so glad you guys are doing this Me too.
Kerri:I was talking to Tracy earlier about the retreat, and I was kind of talking about, you know, like a month after the retreat. I think that's when everything will really feel like, when people have had time to reflect on their experience and then kind of move into the world. Having had the experience is just going to be the best part of it. We're getting like feedback like from the experience, when people have really immersed in the experience and moved it forward into their lives. I'm just so excited for that.
Sheri:I always love the last few hours of those types of experiences because, like in the beginning of it, you're just kind of like where's my place? Who am I here? What am I supposed to gain? Then in the middle of it, you're kind of in the thick of it. You're just sort of like very hyper focused in on yourself and what it is that your role is in that space. At the end, everybody sort of has released anything and everything that they needed to.
Sheri:At that point there's just like this beautiful calm that kind of takes over. You recognize that you're all in it together and then it becomes really sad to depart. It's like a bittersweet. It's like, oh, look at the new me. Oh, I don't want to leave you because you were a part of like helping me get here. It's just like you kind of become like this little family, and so for me I love those last few hours of really understanding everything that you just did. And it was because of the people that were physically in that location with you, like you all helped each other. I just love that part.
Kerri:I call that like fairy energy, like that, just like I don't even know what to describe it other than that sort of fairy looks like to me, like just flying around with excitement, with jazz hands, with jazz hands.
Tracy:It was definitely like a flitty little hand motion that you did, and it was just like Sherry, you had shared with me about the time right before you go to bed and why it's so important and I just wanted. I loved that nugget that you'd shared with me and I wanted to be able to make sure that we paid that forward, because I was listening to like crime shows before I went to bed and that's not really a good idea. That's what I found out. It also probably was not helpful for the dreams I was having.
Sheri:Yeah, definitely don't watch crime shows. I, yeah, no, no, don't do that. So what's happening is the goal for hypnosis is to get you into what's called a theta brainwave state. Okay, theta, as I mentioned before, is the same state that you are in as a child when you are downloading information about your world. It's your kid. That's where conditioning is happening. It's also what people refer to as the healing state. It's a healing, the healing brainwave, like that's that's where that's happening.
Sheri:Typically, what's happening is you're walking around and your conscious mind is engaging in what's called beta. You're analyzing, you're taking in information when the conscious mind starts to just sort of chill out against, into what's called like the alpha. Alpha is like your daydreaming meditations. It's a light trance, okay. And then you're entering into theta. Theta is a very small window of time, no longer than a half an hour. Most people engage in this a lot shorter of a time, but it's a that very small window of time right before you fall asleep, which is a delta brainwave state. So this is that time. I don't know if anybody has ever fallen asleep on the couch and they're listening to the movie, they're listening to the dog's collar, and then you're saying to yourself I'm falling asleep and you know it. It's that. It's like you know, you have that last thought of the day. Whatever is in your environment, you're absorbing, you're taking that in. Your conscious mind is like I'm gone, I'm done, I'm going to sleep myself. And so there is no block, there's no analyzing of the information. You're just downloading them, you're just taking that on. So if you're sitting there listening to crime shows and you're listening to violence and you're listening to somebody's adrenaline pumping and survival mode stuff. Imagine what you're taking on yourself and what sort of form of hormonal responses your body's having as a result of that.
Sheri:And so a lot of people refer to this time of day as the golden hour. The time, the hour as you are going to sleep and the hour as you're waking up is such a beautiful time of day because that's where healing can really happen. That's where intention setting can happen. That's where you can let a lot of things go. That is healing. So you have an opportunity.
Sheri:Take that time to make sure you're setting up your environment to be really geared towards whatever goal that you have towards yourself. Maybe that's when you have something playing in the background telling you how freaking amazing you are, how great of a job you did that day. Something that's like you did amazing Mary, way to go, something that just is really affirming to how beautiful of a soul you really are, rather than a crime show that's making you feel like you are in survival mode Because your body's responding to that. You're having a chemical reaction to that, whether you recognize it or not. So use that, that Theta Brainwave state, before you go to bed and as you're waking up in the morning to really set the tone for your healing journey that day. You have an opportunity right, so you may as well use that. That's like a gift to you.
Tracy:That's awesome. We had a question from one of our viewers or viewers. We had a question from one of our listeners, One of our non viewers.
Sheri:I was like are they watching right now?
Tracy:Question was will I remember what I said? And I think you did good answer this, but I just really wanted you to reiterate that you'll remember what you said and what you were doing during the hypnosis, and that's one of the cool parts.
Sheri:Yeah, so this is cool because a lot of times when you're in hypnosis, the long answer to this is yes and no.
Sheri:But, I'm going to start with the yes first, because when you're in hypnosis and you're doing this for healing, you're going to hear what you're saying, and so it's so funny because sometimes you might even have background thoughts of like did I say that? Am I even talking? And like, you know that there's a thought process being engaged with, but you're not really engaging with it, and that's having conversation. But you're hearing me the entire time. And so it's funny because some people are like I don't know, did I even respond? And I'm like I wrote down everything. Here you go, this is exactly what you said, and you're like wow, I can't believe I said that, but that's what I felt, you know.
Sheri:And then there's times when you go so deep into a trans like state and we're working in that super conscious space and maybe we're in the Akashic Records, or the Akashic Records, however you prefer to say it.
Sheri:Maybe we're doing a past life regression, or maybe we're going into a space that I lovingly call the healing room, and when you're in these different dimensional spaces, this is what's considered that out of body experience, if you want to call it that. That sounds extreme. You're just in your mind. You may not hear yourself speaking in those states just because of how deep of a state you are in, but everything that you recall afterwards is like it validates everything that was said.
Sheri:So, like in those states, perhaps there's a guide speaking, maybe you're not speaking at all and they're just speaking through you, guiding you, maybe it's your higher self that's speaking and so you're not speaking. Again, a different version of you that knows all and is highly connected to the universe is speaking. So you may not hear what is being said, but you feel all of it, and so when you see the words afterwards you're like, oh my gosh, yes, that's exactly what I was feeling. It is such a validating expression. So, yes and no, but you hear me the entire time. Somehow you hear me the entire time, which is really, really cool.
Jennifer:I'm just fascinated.
Kerri:So, sherry, we would like it if we always end our episodes with how to make tea, something that our listeners can do for themselves, and I'm wondering if you would tell them how to make tea.
Sheri:So I would invite everybody to engage with permission and the idea of permission. A lot of times, what I recognize is that we stop ourselves from growing expanded because we just don't give ourselves permission to do so. And so in my line of work, a lot of times that means I don't give myself permission to engage with my imagination. Your imagination is your guide to your healing. So allow yourself to give yourself permission to engage with your imagination to create some really positive and exciting emotional states for yourself. You have the ability to imagine all of the worst case scenarios, but why not imagine some really beautiful outcomes for yourself and see what happens next? Love that.
Tracy:That's so beautiful. Thank you so much for coming, Sherry.
Sheri:You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it and I'm so excited for the retreat.