Like many people, I was initially very skeptical of hypnotherapy. My wife, who a few years ago was suffering from various allergies and had tried all kinds of cures before, signed up for a package of 10 sessions with Clarice. After a few very positive experiences with her, she encouraged me to try it, too. With nothing to loose, I decided to see for myself what a hypnotherapy session was like.
That was a truly serendipitous experience. I was at the time under a lot of stress working on a new business. I hadn't even realized the need for some personal coaching and mentoring to deal with a new level of responsibilities. From the very first session, Clarice asked exactly the right questions, listened, and was able to pinpoint issues I needed to resolve in my thinking, if I were to rise to the new challenges. She then deployed, with great expertise, some of her many hypnotherapeutic techniques to ensure that I was actually able to affect the needed changes, and that the changes would be lasting.
Lasting change, indeed, is what Clarice was able to provide. Her techniques may belong to the realm of hypnotherapy, but they're essentially designed to help focus the mind in such a way that it can establish new patterns of thinking, and rid itself of old, useless habits. Unlike many other therapists, coaches, and even psychologists, her goal is not to make you dependent on endless therapeutic sessions, but rather to teach you the tools to so that you can use those techniques on yourself.
For instance, I often practice some of her guided imagery and visualization techniques before important meetings or project deadlines - using those techniques the desired outcomes become so focused, so real and detailed that preparation for such important events becomes much easier. In that sense, Clarice is truly a teacher, in addition to being a therapist.
Another truly amazing aspect of Clarice's personality and professional approach is that she listens to her clients in a completely non-judgmental way. That is a very rare ability that I had never experienced in the presence of any person before. She is able to establish an environment where you can truly share with her your personal concerns and fears without having to worry that she'd form unfavorable opinions of any kind. That non-judgmental milieu then makes her therapy so much more effective. It also has long-lasting effects: having experienced such an atmosphere first hand means that we ourselves become better listeners in our relationships with our loved ones and colleagues. (It also has a downside, though: we will start to expect others close to us to have a similar attitude, which is not easy to come by.)
I'd like to point out two more aspects of her practice that impressed me: First, she is very, very smart - if you like to have a really intelligent conversation about your issues with someone, Clarice is the person to go to. Second, she is also caring for her clients - she would follow up with phone calls and emails to make sure that the changes she helped affect are lasting.
I could not recommend her more.
Pros: You're lucky if you get to meet her
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