Dr. Liz Interviewed on Healthy, Happy Hormones with Dr. Chris Murphy

I was honored to be interviewed by Dr. Chris Murphy on his podcast, “Happy, Healthy Hormones.”

In this episode, we talk about how I help people with insomnia to IBS.  My inside-out approach to healing is a key foundation for helping my patients. Dr. Chris and I talk about some amazing stories and conditions being helped through the practice of hypnosis.  If you’ve ever had any hesitation in using hypnosis then you won’t want to miss this episode…it could change your life!

Listen in to the interview or See the Transcript below!

The Happy, Healthy Hormones podcast is where disease takes a dive and people come to thrive! Dr. Chris has been helping people transform their health for over a decade. He is a world-renowned health expert who specializes in holistic health.  He is a professional speaker, chiropractor, functional medicine specialist, and international best-selling author.  It’s his mission to help you, reach your full God-given potential through holistic health, and healing. See his book at: Dr. Chris’s Book

Transcript

Dr. Chris Murphy 0:00
Hello and welcome to another episode where disease takes a dive and people come to thrive and today we’ve got an amazing guest, Dr. Elizabeth Bonet. Now she is a certified licensed hypnotherapist. Those are not easy to come by takes a lot of skill to get there. She is also a PhD in psychology. So she earned about 23 or 25 years ago, I can’t remember off the top my head her years of experience in this field. She’s helped thousands of people overcome all kinds of things from IBS matter, marital issues, sleeping problems, you name it. She’s been on featured on numerous platforms, numerous awards, including top 100 mom’s in business. She’s very experienced. She’s even had a prenatal yoga studio that she once had. I mean, she does this all I love her outlook on healing from the inside out that she even has an amazing podcast is called hypnotize me. She’s in her third season, it gets listened to in over 140 countries. There’s been a lot of really cool things. So let’s go ahead and listen into what Dr. Elizabeth has to say because she has some amazing things and I really want to help open up your mind to the possibility of hypnotherapy really changing and Transforming Your Life.

You’re listening to happy healthy hormones with Dr. Chris, are you tired of the short term patch to your health problems is avoiding medications and surgeries important to you? If you answered yes, then your prayers have been answered. Dr. Chris has been helping people transform their health for over a decade. He’s a world renowned health expert who specializes in holistic health. He’s a professional speaker, chiropractor and international best selling author. It’s his mission to help you reach your full God given potential to holistic health and healing. Get ready to be inspired and transformed. here’s your host, Dr. Chris.

Alright everyone and welcome to another episode. We have Dr. Liz Bonet with us today. She is awesome what she does I really love her approach to holistic health and Psychology and how she helps people deal with their, their inner demons, but also just their health as well. And so I mean, that’s physical, chemical emotional health. So Dr. Liz, welcome.

Dr. Liz 2:12
Thank you. I’m happy to be here.

Dr. Chris Murphy 2:14
Absolutely. Well, hey, I want to jump right into things today because I think your story is really cool. I’ve never had a hypnotherapist, the PhD well, hypnotherapist at all, but let alone You know, a PhD. I feel like you don’t really find those everywhere. And so tell us like, what was your story? How did you get into hypnotherapy and that whole journey?

Dr. Liz 2:34
Yeah, it’s a good point you make there’s the PhD level is is not as common as either no degree or sometimes a bachelor’s or something like that, because of how hypnosis training varies across the US and across the world, actually. So originally, I got a PhD in clinical psychology and specialized in children and families. And then I actually burned out so I think Took about 10 years off of the field. And in that time was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And I also had babies and was raising babies. Didn’t work for about six years, except that I always had like a side business going like I am the side business queen. Okay, so yeah, yeah, I began teaching yoga during that time and really loved it in loved the meditations we would do at the end, and just the healing aspects of it. So then, I saw divorce coming, I decided to go back to psychology and get my license. In through that process. I discovered Okay, I want to become certified in hypnosis now. So it was a couple of years before I got to that point. But I felt like I really just wanted to give this a shot in Florida. It’s quite a long process. If you have a license, it’s actually takes you longer to become certified then if you had no degree at all, hey, so it’s odd. It’s an odd in between thing. But I took the first training and I fell in love with it. It was just such a wonderful match for me with my yoga background and leading meditations. And I had been a meditator myself for, I don’t know, now I’m going on like 25 years or something. So it’s a good match for me. And then I began, the more training I had, the more I began to specialize in hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Dr. Chris Murphy 4:31
That’s awesome. So you’ve been so you’ve been a PhD in clinical psychology for 25 years or the

Dr. Liz 4:41
I graduated in 98 with my PhD in clinical psych. So we’re in what 2019 when this airs or 2020 right around there.

Dr. Chris Murphy 4:52
Yeah, so that’s great now so for our listeners that don’t really understand hypnosis, what is hypnosis and Does it help people overcome? Or how does it help people overcome disorders and different health problems?

Dr. Liz 5:06
Yeah, it’s a great question. Because sometimes they’re like, how does it differ from just meditation? You know? Is it an actual different brainwave state? Or is it the same? All kinds of questions come up like that. So the way I find it most helpful to define hypnosis is that your brain goes through these different waves states, when we’re going into the conscious state, which we’re in right now we’re talking, walking, doing all that stuff. A more relaxed state is alpha. And even more relaxed state is state and that’s often light sleep. And then a deeper state is delta when that’s generally deep sleep. And then they have this fifth state they’ve discovered which is gamma, which is like a flow state, which is really exciting. But there’s so far there’s not a whole lot of research on that.

Unknown Speaker 5:51
What is like diving a little bit into that. I’m curious about that.

Dr. Liz 5:54
Gamma. Yeah. Oh, I don’t know that much about it. Because there’s another Whole lot of research but they are discovering, like that flow state that athletes get in, or musicians often or even artists are actually most people can enter the state they have this type of experience doing some type of activity that’s skilled. So generally you’re pretty skilled in that area. And then your brain moves into this, this gamma wave state, which is then it’s actually a pretty fast wave state. But it’s very relaxing very, you know, people get addicted to the state because it feels so good.

Unknown Speaker 6:36
So they’re not asleep then they’re actually conscious when they’re going through that.

Dr. Liz 6:40
In gamma?

Dr. Chris Murphy 6:41
Yeah, it’s like it also referred to as like the zone, like when you hear you’re like, Oh, I was like,

Dr. Liz 6:45
yeah, that’s the zone. Yeah. And you hear athletes talk about it all the time. Right there in the zone. Yeah. Well, I’m not quite sure how they begin to do the brain studies. Probably not when someone’s playing basketball, right. But certainly, maybe when someone’s like, I don’t know. playing an instrument they took them out, I don’t know. So then they begin to discover this state that they that is the zone that is the flow state. So in hypnosis though, we’re generally between alpha, theta, and delta, sometimes people do go down to delta. And so the theory is that you’re forming new neural pathways in the brain. And we know that those are easier to do in alpha, theta and delta. So there’s more relaxed brain states, but you’re also doing is pruning so our neurons and ginger as we know we prune all the time they really do look like little trees. And I think it looks sort of like a science fiction world when you look at actual pictures of them. It’s fascinating. It’s crazy.

Unknown Speaker 7:43
We get to the cellular level are all of us officially go on its own universe. Exactly. It is it feels like a whole universe in there. So we know that they proved when you don’t use them or they’re not needed. And we also know that they grow when you’re making neural connections. So the more neural connections you’re making, the stronger that becomes. And hypnosis helps put up a stop sign to those old ones so that they prune, and it helps grow the new ones. That’s awesome. You know, that’s what we talked about with our own patients and clients is, you know, all the things we do are to help create neuro plasticity creating new pathways and neurons. And the research shows that the more those you create in your lifetime, the better quality of life you have as you go through life. And so I think that’s awesome how that works. That was a really great way to describing that. So. So how does something like that create these new pathways and what you’re doing with hypnosis, help people overcome different disorders and health problems. You’re like, Well, my problems over here or over there, or it was this thing that happened so many years ago, like how does this help with me now?

Dr. Liz 8:48
Yes, so we’re going in and we’re changing those neural pathways basically. We also know there’s a lot of research about hypnosis in terms of the parasympathetic nervous system, and helping Sue that system. And I can’t tell you, like, I can’t really break down the science for you. Oh, yeah, cuz I don’t always understand it myself, honestly. But I do know that you know, these researchers up in the medical schools do all the research and they’re like, okay, we know that it’s let’s say, it lessens bleeding rates during surgery, right? We know that it extends the life of a breast cancer patient by about 18 to 18 months to two years, when someone goes through hypnosis, when they first make that discovery, discovery versus someone who doesn’t, okay, so we know that it’s soothing all these different systems in the body, and it’s also creating a new neural pathways. So let’s say someone really has a hard time with sleep. Insomnia is a very common request I get, and I’m sure in your practice, people ask you about sleep all the time. They get desperate, like oh my god, I can’t sleep please, if I get sleep, and sometimes they when I get off The medication that perhaps a doctor has prescribed. Sometimes they don’t want to start it in the first place, but they find they still can’t sleep. So what we’re doing is saying, Okay, let’s retrain your emergency response system, basically, your nervous system so that it can relax so that it can sue so that you can drift off into sleep. And let’s also work on the concepts of peace of Okay, you know, let’s take the suffering off of this experience for you. I can’t sleep so in my office is generally a combined approach. You know, someone doesn’t just come in and lay down on the couch and go into hypnosis like we’re talking for discovering where the blocks What do you want to change? How did this problem first develop? Where is it Now where do you want to be I how do you want to feel and then as well as some education around, okay, most people do wake up at night. You know, this whole eight hours straight. is a myth, right? Or it generally takes most people about 20 minutes to fall asleep, you know, except for my husband, of course, it’s like five minutes, right? He’s out of

Dr. Chris Murphy 11:11
the way women are more left brain, right. So it’s like it’s tougher to calm down and get that body back in that Zen state. Right? Yeah. Yeah. The same way.

Dr. Liz 11:23
you’d fall right asleep,

Unknown Speaker 11:24
I fall right asleep. And she has to go through a whole process. And it’s it’s a lot tougher for for sure. So, yeah, well, that’s, I love what you’re saying. Because as you’re working with the nervous system, you know, again, in our philosophy, it’s like the nervous system heals all is this working with the nervous system allow the body to heal. So it’s like you have to have an outside in approach where you’re cutting or your displace, you know, whatever. It’s like, no, you’re working with the body and the body can heal anything. And I think that’s great. And you talk about the researchers, research is great, but in the day, that the people on the ground doing the things seeing the results is what really matters, right? Like what you’re doing is great. These guys are telling us all these great Things great, I see it my practice every day. And that’s really what people want. They just want the results At the end of the day. And so I think that’s awesome how that works. That’s all

Dr. Liz 12:09
it is definitely an inside out approach. And one of my mentors calls it that she calls it healing from the inside out, instead of outside in outside and as you know, medication and I don’t know, surgery and sometimes this stuff is needed. I’m not saying it’s not, you know, someone breaks a bone. You gotta mend that right right. but technically your body heals from the inside.

Dr. Chris Murphy 12:33
Why That’s crazy. You have that approach because I feel you know, a lot of people in in your even field with any kind of psychology, psych psychiatry psychology accounts, like they want to just turn to that pill The very first thing like that, so they want to go to Okay, let’s let’s numb the mind and you’re saying white? Well, you can’t really heal. If you’re numbing the mind. You got to activate that mind. You gotta create new pathways and those medications just kill off those things.

Dr. Liz 12:59
They do. They do. I mean, there’s all kinds of research around antidepressant and a 30 minute walk out in nature is just as effective. And people don’t want to hear that, okay? They really don’t. But it’s the or they’ll say, I don’t have 30 minutes to walk in nature and it’s like, I, I get that, you know, that is a lifestyle change, let’s say, but it the side effects of that kind of stuff. You know that that’s a whole nother discussion probably.

Dr. Chris Murphy 13:30
And really, it’s like, okay, would you rather take the time now to prevent a disease or take the time to overcome one and everyone always when I ask that question to patients, they always say, well, the time to prevent and but then they don’t always want to do that thing. And but like, you’re right, it’s like okay, what do you want to do you think the 30 minutes and make that time for yourself now or do you want to end up in the nursing home the last 10 years your life? Right?

Dr. Liz 13:52
Right. And I think two people have their own psychological journeys, their own emotional journeys where they come to a place of in their life, where perhaps they aren’t on all the medication and they’re like enough, you know enough. I’m so sick of this and now how do I seek healing? And I think that’s legitimate as well. And sometimes that’s also a question of self worth. Like they get to a place where they feel like I am worth this and I want to work on this in my life is worth this my children life, you know, all of that goes on for them. So it is a journey.

Dr. Chris Murphy 14:24
Yeah, they will you got to find that big. Why? Because if you don’t like nothing else changes. So what should someone look for in a hypnotherapist? And what should they expect to experience because I’m sure there’s different experiences and people that say they do certain things, but they’re really not that effective or not really getting the results so that the process they should so what should people look for an experience? True session?

Dr. Liz 14:45
Yeah, well, when I would look for experience into I do have a bias towards someone who is certified in hypnosis and who does hold a license. I think generally they’re better trained. But I’ve also met some fantastic hypnotist who don’t hold a license, right? They’re just certified in hypnosis. So you really have to talk to them, you have to get a feel for them. If you can look for reviews or recommendations, that’s fantastic. I would ask, how long have they been doing hypnosis? I would ask, have they worked with your particular problem? Because often people come to me and I’ll say, I’m very honest, I say, I haven’t worked with that before. So let me refer you to someone who has or if they still want to see me because of location or something like that, I say, you know, I do have two mentors that I work with and so I’m a formed around that, and I’m also research and formed. So those are a couple of questions to give them an idea. If they’re looking for someone license, then they can go through in the US ash.net ASCH American society clinical hypnosis.com or there’s also an international one. So if they’re looking around world, they can also look for that. Awesome.

Dr. Chris Murphy 16:03
And then when they get into it, like when you get into the actual the room with you and and you’re going to that process like what can someone expect? You know, maybe someone’s gone to the county fair and they’ve seen the hypnotherapist and they make, you know, the barking like a dog or whatever. And so seem to have that stigma, right? Because I saw that I was like, yeah, people probably would think that right. So well, what would they actually experience going through that?

Dr. Liz 16:24
Yeah, it’s funny. I had a cousin actually, who went to one of the shows, and he said, Oh, my God, if that can make my mom do this, and who knows this is really powerful, right? versus like, some people have the opposite reaction of like, I don’t know about this stuff. I don’t trust it. So it is really interesting to talk to him. But generally, you’re coming into an office and you are going to talk to the hypnotherapist. Again, I encourage a conversation on the telephone first to get a feel for them, make sure you feel comfortable. And then you’re doing some history of right what’s going on what are my goals and I would say before that for appointment through the conversation on the phone, you should have an idea of whether you’re going to do hypnosis in that first session or not. So some people do do that other practitioners don’t, they want to get to know you first and get a better idea of that problem. And then do hypnosis also depends on the length of the session. So you should have an idea about that. But then you’re going into a relaxed state, basically. So you may sit up and just lay your head back down. Some people lie down on a couch, but you’re going to be comfortable and go through progressive relaxation process and then into the hypnosis, I would say that’s generally what to expect. Obviously, there’s variations about how people practice, but that would be a good general idea.

Dr. Chris Murphy 17:43
Absolutely. Now, how long does this session usually last? It just depends on the person and what you’re uncovering.

Dr. Liz 17:48
It does. Yeah, it really does. So if someone’s coming in for me, like someone, a gentleman came in for blood pressure, so every time he’d go to the doctor, his blood pressure would skyrocket and then they would be his medication. Something that and he’s like at home, it’s fine. I’d like you know it’s white coat syndrome. That’s what they call it right. See a white coat and

yeah. So this first session was an hour and a half. And we did the hypnosis, I record it for him. I sent him home. I said, listen to the recording, he listened to it two or three times he had a doctor’s appointment like a day or two later, and he was totally fine. He canceled the next appointment because he didn’t need it. And I was so happy for him. So that is something that’s very specific. So that would only take, let’s say, an hour and a half session is all it took for him. possibly another one that’s an hour long or something or techniques that are way more intensive. I do a very intensive core healing technique. That’s a multiple hour sessions. So two hours, three hours, that type of thing. So it depends what level you’re going to what level of change.

Dr. Chris Murphy 18:55
That’s awesome. Now I want to I want to hear like maybe one or two of what you feel is like some of your miraculous stories you’ve had I want to share one with me not me personally but I do have a story is actually my grandfather. So the reason I’m I’m such it’s what I say believer but you know it’s just science you know people say like well I don’t believe in this or you know chiropractic or hypnosis is like don’t believe in this you don’t understand it right like this certain things where there’s certain like truce and laws of health, but my grandfather so this is way before I was ever around, but my my sister she was maybe like, two or three years old. And my my grandpa had been a smoker for years like probably like 3040 years, something like that, at that point, like multiple packs a day. And my my sister She just wanted to talk and the first thing she basically said to my grandpa was you Grandpa, you stink and that she didn’t want to be around them. Well, he was she was the first grandchild so that all of a sudden triggered his big why, right? Like he wanted to be around his granddaughter. So he decided, you know, he I think he kind of tried to do other things before in the past question. But nothing is successful. And someone had told him to go to a hypnotherapist, and he went to the hypnotherapist. One session, never touched a cigarette again, doesn’t even like to be around people that smoke. And it was like one transformational transformational change, which you know, change. Yes, sure. So I that was pretty cool. I’ve always thought about that. I was like, man, like, how powerful is that?

Dr. Liz 20:22
It is, and I definitely have cases like that people who stopped smoking in one session. That’s all it took for them.

Dr. Chris Murphy 20:28
And, nor but like, that’s like, Yeah, what do you think about?

Dr. Liz 20:34
Yeah, it’s actually about 20% of people can stop smoking, stop smoking in one session. And then the, the other 80% it takes more like three to six sessions. So even that if you think about it, you’ve been smoking your whole life, and you could stop within three weeks. Like that’s pretty miraculous. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I have people who I often work with entrepreneurs who come in, and those are some miraculous This changes in terms of feeling like oh my gosh, I suddenly feel completely different like I am finally feel worthy. They’ve been through years of their, like 20 years of CVT, cognitive behavior therapy, or sometimes psychodynamic. They’ve tried everything. And then they feel like all right, gnosis is often their last ditch effort, right? Well, I will try hypnosis. And they come in and they feel transformed afterward where they’re like, my fiance doesn’t even know what I did. And she’s like, what kind of changes are these? Like, this is amazing how you feel about yourself and how what you’re able to do now with your business and really stepping into that. So those are pretty miraculous changes I feel often or another one for another one is people come in for heartbreak or try to break away from a relationship. And perhaps they’ve tried like years and years and years. So I’ve had multiple these clients where they’re like, I can’t break away I know this relationship. awful for me, and I can’t do it. And we do hypnosis. And again, that’s generally a deeper process. So it’s not just one session, that’s multiple sessions, but then they feel free. They feel like okay, I’ve stayed away. I haven’t contacted the person, that type of thing. Another one is binge eating. I had a binge eater last year. I’ve had multiple of them. But this case just stuck in my mind where she felt like it just helped her so much. Like she she stopped venting. And she’s like, this is a miracle. Like, I can’t even tell you what kind of therapies I’ve tried. And so that to me, that’s going to transform her life from a health perspective soon emotional. Yeah, yes. Yes. That’s a couple of examples.

Unknown Speaker 22:49
Well, that brings me to my next my next question, which is, what are some common things that you may be see in your office or that you specialize in specifically?

Dr. Liz 22:57
So I do specialize in the deeper healing Core healing is what I call it. So going through and getting rid of those negative self concepts that seem to hang around and and trigger people and stop people from really living the life they feel like they need to leave, leave or can lead so they see it it’s like off in the distance but they somehow can’t get there and it’s like, okay, let’s work on those old ones and wipe them out and replace them with really good stuff. So I specialize in that. And then IBS is a common one. So it is more effective than any medication in the market for IBS. That’s a common one that I do this smoking I see insomnia, I love Love, love working with insomnia. And I do approach it from hypnosis and a cognitive behavioral perspective. So that’s a common one as well.

Dr. Chris Murphy 23:52
people ask all the time Hey, what can I do x y&z but if you’re not getting sleep that affects so many areas of your life, you’re set from your side. ecology aspect of the tear physiological aspect it’s, that can be the one thing that changes someone’s life. That’s probably one of the most powerful things that changes someone’s life is just being able to sleep.

Dr. Liz 24:11
Yeah, yeah. I mean people feel nuts. If you can’t sleep like political you feel, right. Yeah. In the in the ability to have some control over that is really important to feel like okay, I do have the ability to put myself to sleep. My body does know what to do and our task is just accessing that power. So yeah, it’s transformative.

Dr. Chris Murphy 24:32
Well, how does someone work with you? I mean, you talked about Okay, if someone wants to be a hypnotherapist? It’s closer to them but you do virtual hypnosis?

Dr. Liz 24:42
I do. Yes, I do. So I can do hypnosis all over the world all over the US and they can just contact me through my website Dr. Liz hypnosis. com that’s Dr. LIZ hypnosis. com and set up a free and telephone console. We talked And, and then we could do sessions I’ve done them through the telephone through zoom, that type of thing secure means. Hmm.

Dr. Chris Murphy 25:07
That’s, that’s awesome because I think that’s so, so key it’s it’s tough to find I feel a good quality person that you trust in any health field. And so if you can have that, that freedom to see somebody virtually across, you know, the United States the world to find the best because you know what I what I really get disappointed in people in their in their mindset is, well you know, I’m just going to go to what’s most convenient or what my insurance might pay for something like that. And like, as you’re talking about your health, you can’t let your insurance dictate your health, you got to find the best for what’s going on for you and get richer. So I always ask this question to all my guests and it’s always been for everybody, which is what does reaching your full potential mean to you?

Dr. Liz 25:52
To me, it’s a sense of self efficacy inside, so feeling like okay, you have the ability To accomplish what you want to accomplish in life, that’s full potential for me, like, okay, it may not happen right now. But I know I’m going to get there. I have that internal sense, that internal sense of, I’m a good person, I have the abilities, I have the skills or I know how to make that way, make the path there. Because, you know, we can’t all do everything right. Like, yeah, I gave up programming years ago. So now I hire someone, but it’s like, the sense of self efficacy is okay, I have someone that I know I can reach out to solve that problem. And I have the ability to ask for that kind of help.

Dr. Chris Murphy 26:36
So that sense, that’s awesome. What do you think there’s like if until someone could actually get appointment schedule with you? Or someone like you what’s like one thing they could do in their life, they could just help them lead towards that direction.

Dr. Liz 26:50
I would say there’s all kinds of free resources on the internet. I mean, we have so much right that can help us for free and they can go to my website if they join the news. Sutter they can download I have three free hypnosis files for them that they can download and use. And I mean talking like five minutes from now they could get it, right. So I also recommend insight timer. So it’s a wonderful meditation app and they have courses on there. I listened to one this morning on intrusive thoughts, just to check it out is wonderful. So there’s all kinds of resources, I would say, just get started with one thing in your life one change, like I’m just going to listen to this one file. That’s it today. And then tomorrow, I’ll make one change, maybe listen to the file again. But just do one step towards your help.

Dr. Chris Murphy 27:38
I love it. I love it. So hey, I appreciate it. I know we’re out of town. I didn’t feel we could talk a lot more about these things. Listen, we will have to have you on again in a future date. Talk about some more things in the aspects of this. So hey, guys, make sure you get Dr. Liz’s information gets Dr. lyst hypnosis.com. Get those free resources and we appreciate you and we’ll see you soon. dockless

Dr. Liz 27:57
It was my pleasure.

Dr. Chris Murphy 28:03
Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Please help more people in reaching their fullest potential and rate review and subscribe to this podcast for show notes and other free resources we mentioned today go to New Edge wellness. com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Although my office is in Broward county and the Fort Lauderdale / South Florida area, I work with people all over the world. If you would like the magic and science of custom hypnosis, schedule a free consultation to see if we’re a good fit to work together using the link below or above.

Yours in health,
Dr. Liz

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