What it’s like to take a tour of the subconscious with a celebrity hypnotherapist

Does hypnotherapy work? Watch the full video to learn more about the practice. 

For a second, try and imagine that hypnosis isn’t the cliché with the swinging pocket watch we see in pop culture, but as the brain’s backdoor entrance to your heart’s desire. Because that exactly how it sounds in the latest episode of What the Wellness, Well+Good’s YouTube series that follows producer Ella Dove as she tries out various wellness practices to decide whether they’re weird or worth it. In this episode, we’re invited into Dove’s California home, where Kimberly Friedmutter, celebrity hypnotherapist and author of Subconscious Power: Use the Inner Mind to Create the Life You’ve Always Wanted, takes a tour of Dove’s subconscious mind to help her work through issues troubling her.

First, some basics: Friedmutter uses hypnosis, a combination of relaxation and trance, during the session. The way this works, essentially, is that when you’re in the trance, a hypnotherapist can unlock certain aspects of your subconscious mind, a process Dove likens to an intentional guided meditation. “You have two minds, you have your conscious mind, and your subconscious mind,” says Friedmutter. “Your subconscious mind is all of the things that we do, all the things that we aspire to do.” That includes your goals, your intuition, your gut instincts—all of those inner desires exist in your subconscious mind.

Prior to her session, Dove’s subconscious mind buzzes with thoughts about her recent cross-country move back to the city where she grew up. She says she’s having a hard time moving forward with her current old-is-new life because she feels slightly trapped by her expectations related the way life was. To help Dove through this chapter, Friedmutter takes her though a vignette in which Dove and members of her community feel great, look great, and are great.

What happens next? Helping Dove’s old life fertilize her new one via hypnosis involves trading thought language, being finely dressed, and setting great intentions. So, once and for all, does hypnotherapy work? Watch the full video here to find out.

Curious about what other treatments What the Wellness has covered? This is what happens when you look at your scalp under a microscope. And here’s how to treat your chakras with rainbow crystal therapy.