Denise Billen-Mejia 0:07
Welcome to Two hypnotherapists talking with me, Denise Billen-Mejia in Delaware, USA.
Martin Furber 0:13
And me Martin Furber in Preston UK.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:16
This weekly podcast is for anyone and everyone who would like to know more about fascinating subject of hypnosis, and the benefits that it offers.
Martin Furber 0:24
I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist,
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:27
I'm a retired medical doctor, turned consulting hypnotist.
Martin Furber 0:31
We are two hypnotherapists talking.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:34
So let's get on with the episode. Hey, Martin, how are you today?
Martin Furber 0:40
I'm great, thanks. I'm great. Let's see what we're going to talk about today.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:44
Currently, there's a lot in the social media, Doctor side of things on the fact that Doctors are not taught very well how to deal with death anymore. Despite the fact that it is something that you declare people to be. It is because well, people in general haven't been for generations now. You go to the hospital and you die somewhere else. We don't we don't want to watch it happening. We don't recognise it. We don't accept it. I mean, I don't think we should go back to the 1700s, 'Well, sorry - Your time's up'. You know, we need to fight. There are scientific things you can do to prolong life, but it should not be always the end goal, just to prolong it.
Martin Furber 1:31
It is always the end result though isn't it - death?
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:34
Yes, exactly. Exactly. So
Martin Furber 1:35
You've got to prolong it with the quality of life as well.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:38
Right, but we've also tended to now...It's so you have somebody who is inevitably going to die, as are we all, but within a relatively short timeframe. And so they go to hospice care.
Martin Furber 1:53
Yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:53
So it's another, you know, pushing it to somebody else. Not that I think that... but I think hospice care is wonderful. It was wonderful when my mother had cancer. Because that was a very short, very difficult time for my father, and we were all scattered, the four wins the daughters. So it was really wonderful to have the support of the Marie Curie nurses who came to the house to give hospice care, because it can be done in-house.
Martin Furber 2:17
Yeah, when somebody's, you know, in the latter stages of cancer, though, they need a lot of pain medication, presumably.
Denise Billen-Mejia 2:24
Right exactly. So those things are very important, but it again, medicalises or pathologises something which is a natural occurrence, the endpoint of this life is to pass on to the next one, in my belief, but opinions differ. But at some point, you'll cease to be on this earth, and talking about that is likely going to trigger somebody in an audience because they may have just this minute, had a death, or be facing that themselves or with another loved one. I mean, this, there's no way to avoid it. If we were to decide we were going to talk about you know how much we love dogs. Somebody else was bitten by one yesterday. I mean, you can't control for all these things.
Martin Furber 2:26
So you can't control triggers. Yeah, I mean, I remember after....
Denise Billen-Mejia 2:40
But also, but you if you were in person with that. Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot, you know, you could apologise you could cut it off. When you're printing something, for the interwebs there's no limit to when it might be read. Once it's there, it's there. Even if it's only on the wayback machine, you don't know when somebody's going to come across it. And you the writer, can have no idea of what's happening in the person who's reading it's mind. So yeah, so I think that we're wherever we joined this conversation, but we were reading somebody being upset because somebody else was upset. Yeah, it might well have been that that person was just venting in order to feel better because of something else that had happened. Oh, I think not to take offence is probably the best advice. Don't...You don't take offence from somebody else's offence, just like try and like, it's really easier to say than to do, but try it and give them a little grace ltoo.
Martin Furber 4:17
et it be water off a duck's back as we say, yeah. Oh, talking of something else. I knew we need to go back to a subject at some point as well. Do remember we were talking about... and you very helpfully wrote for me a part for my column on menopause.
Denise Billen-Mejia 4:39
Hmm.
Martin Furber 4:40
Are you aware of that case, over here in the UK? Of the woman who went missing some three weeks ago up here in Lancashire called a lady called Nicola Bulley? She'd gone missing. She'd gone for a walk in the morning down to the river with her dog. She'd taken her children to school. She was on a teams meeting at work. 10 minutes later or thereabout, she was nowhere to be found her dog was near the near the bench by the riverside and her phone was there still connected to this team's meeting. And it created this huge missing persons thing. And to cut a long story short, about two and a half weeks into the disappearance, the police, because there's been so many nasty and vicious rumours spreading about and hateful things said about the family and people were apparently trying to sell stories to the press. The police released some information that the woman had issues with alcohol brought on by menopause. So there's been a big hoo ha now about whether they should have released such private information or not whether it was beneficial.
Denise Billen-Mejia 5:42
Answer - NO!
Martin Furber 5:44
Exactly. Anyway...
Denise Billen-Mejia 5:46
We know that she had psychological issues would have been more than sufficient.
Martin Furber 5:49
Yeah, or she was a vulnerable person would cover it.
Denise Billen-Mejia 5:53
It would cover everything.
Martin Furber 5:54
And sadly her body has now been found a mile and a half down the river. So you know, after it took over three weeks to find her body. But getting back to, you know, menopause, the condition and the effects it can have on some women, how it can throw them off balance.
Denise Billen-Mejia 6:11
Yeah, but I don't know that the jury's still out, I think as to whether that was the reason she fell in the river. Yeah, I mean, there's, that's a stretch. Just at that's very strange. The police are getting very odd in Britain.
Martin Furber 6:26
Yeah, I surprised you've not heard the story over there. It's been the national news headlines every day for three weeks. Because there's been such a big public interest in it, put it that way. And and the media have been making such a big thing of it. You know, media from all over the world have been camped out in this tiny little chocolate box village, in the you know, in the countryside of Lancashire.
Denise Billen-Mejia 6:49
It's very odd that they must have had permission from the family to release?
Martin Furber 6:53
I don't know if they did or not, but they've now had to refer themselves to the Police Complaints Commission, because various people have been saying, why did they have to release that information? I mean, what the press didn't pick up on was if the police started to look for this woman, within an hour of her going missing, obviously, there was something, she was vulnerable or some other reason, because normally, a missing person over 18 isn't a missing person for the first 24 hours.
Denise Billen-Mejia 7:21
Yeah, but the fact that she'd left her dog and her phone there, and so on. And she was on a meeting that is very strange. It was almost as if you had disappeared physically from the room, if it would happen - I'll go figure it out. But that's very odd.
Martin Furber 7:36
So that's been in the news over here. And then of course, we've got what's in the hypnosis news?
Denise Billen-Mejia 7:41
Yes, there is, but not a huge amount. I do like the article that we were reading earlier about the... just going over how, non-weird it is, how non woo-woo and how we need to ignore the showmanship side of it. I mean, there's a place for convincing somebody. There's there's a place for pointing out something to someone when they're experiencing hypnosis - oh there you go. And then they sort of buy into the, you know, like doing the heavy-light thing where they now open your eyes, see where your hands are? Oh, my goodness. Yes.
Martin Furber 8:21
Yeah. And yet, when I was doing my research, when I was training to be hypnotherapist, in fact, before I started my formal training, when I was just researching, I went to various hypnotherapists, and I wasn't aware of all these different testers, whatever you want to call them. One of them said to me, 'Oh just stand up' and did the book-balloon thing with me with my eyes closed. And yeah, I had one arm up there and one down there.
Denise Billen-Mejia 8:51
Yep, very, very normal.
Martin Furber 8:54
Yeah, absolutely. But I didn't regard it as being hypnotised at the time. And this was actually after the hypnosis session with him.
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:05
Interesting.
Martin Furber 9:07
Looking back now, knowing what I know, looking back it was like... Well, I wonder why he did that at the end of it? Did he feel I needed more of a convincer or..?
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:16
Maybe hge just remembered it?
Martin Furber 9:19
Maybe
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:20
Was there anybody else in the room, was there some other person there?
Martin Furber 9:22
No, no, it was just me and this person, who by the way, is an absolutely excellent hypnotherapist, he did a great session with me, but he did the book balloon thing after the hypnosis at the end.
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:40
Interesting!
Martin Furber 9:41
Like you say maybe he just remembered it or something? I don't know.
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:43
Yeah. It's usually right at the front that people do it. Usually, it's how the stage, is also of course how the stage hypnotist will look for the right people. You, you and you. Not that everybody in the room wouldn't be able to be hypnotised, but under certain conditions. Some people will go...
Martin Furber 10:02
Again it's what they want them to do as well. A stage hypnotist doesn't want somebody to just stand there relaxed and feel better, and sort any mental health issues out or anything that's troubling them out. They want them to perform.
Denise Billen-Mejia 10:15
Yes, look he's smiling, isn't that exciting?
Martin Furber 10:20
Yeah, they're looking for people to, you know, to perform and what have you. And those people, invariably the ones that run up onto the stage to be hypnotised want their 15 minutes of fame anyway, they're usually in a crowded place, often alcohol's involved. You know, they've gone up on stage, the same as they would volunteer, if a magician asked for volunteers. They want to get up on the stage and be seen by other people.
Denise Billen-Mejia 10:44
I realised the other day, why, a part of what is done when it's done on stage triggers me. Since we're talking about triggers. You know, the quite commonly used one to exhibit how hypnosis can work, is to have somebody forget their name, or not be able to say a certain word. So it's referred to as amnesia, it's not really amnesia, but I find that so unfunny. They look, it looks to me like nervous laughter and, but I'm also projecting when I say that, because when I was first acutely ill, I wouldn't be able to speak I would have speech arrest, and I would suddenly not... I knew I had thoughts, but I could not put them into words, and I could not get them out. And so I would just stand there like panicking, and I'm that, I think, is why I respond that way. I do not find that amusing. I do not think, and again, possibly projection. Maybe people do just laugh, but I think that's nervous-laughter I think that's fear.
Martin Furber 11:57
Yeah, or embarrassment. did that condition self-perpetuate as well, when you got yourself worked-up and frustrated?
Denise Billen-Mejia 12:06
It just, does? Yeah, it still happens now and again, but I recover from it very fast. But this... We'll have to do another one. What went wrong with Denises brain?
Martin Furber 12:23
Well, you know what Denise, I think that's quite a good thing to say. Because this is again, just stop the stigma. We all have mental health. And occasionally we all have issues with this.
Denise Billen-Mejia 12:34
This was neurologic health, not mental health per se. But right now...
Martin Furber 12:39
Brain-health?
Denise Billen-Mejia 12:38
Yes, brain-health, right now, we don't know what it was. But suddenly, more than 20 years ago, now, I suddenly could not function reliably in every moment of the day, there would be periods in the day that I suddenly... which is why I had to stop working. Because that's not an option in an emergency room. Sorry, I'm having a bad moment, I'll come back, is not an option. The Doctor's having a lie down doesn't cut it. And it would be, it would certainly be exacerbated by stress. And it was probably stress that had made whatever was happening in my brain worse. But they they studied me for over 10 years, and they still couldn't figure out what it was, it would still it got better, possibly because I was getting sleep because I wasn't working nights anymore, and I was eating better, and all the things that you get told to do to have a healthier life. So things got better. And then they stayed the same for a long time. And then suddenly, things got back to almost normal. I am not who I was at 48 when this happened, the chances of me being 68 Sorry, 69, and still being what I was at 48 is pretty slim. Yeah, there's definitely going to be changes. I think I'm okay now, but since we don't really know what happened. And it's interesting because people I would be perfectly happy having an MRI, I think I'd be okay, having an MRI and seeing what it looks like now, because I know what the issues were then. But because there's nothing to address now because I'm supposedly better. Nobody wants to do it. So we don't know. Don't know, things grew back, or what happened, but being stressed about it was was very difficult. And it was incredibly frustrating.
Denise Billen-Mejia 13:25
You've said it many times any medical condition will be exacerbated by stress.
Denise Billen-Mejia 14:34
Exactly, and then the stress of having a medical I mean, itself, it feeds on itself.
Martin Furber 14:39
Yeah, well, that's it. I mean, that's the thing, isn't it? You I mean we all well, maybe maybe not in your case with you being a Doctor, but we all know if we go to the Doctor I certainly do. You do get those thoughts going though your head before you go, you know, could it be this? Could it be that? I'm not the type, if I cut my finger like - Oh my god is it going to drop off. I'm not that bad. But, when I used to discovered a growth in a very personal area a couple of years ago, it was like, Oh my God, you know, what could this be?
Denise Billen-Mejia 15:10
Right? Well, let's, as we know, we are everybody catastrophises everything it's natural, you know. When my husband decided not to call me when he was landing in a snowstorm, and the plane had been delayed landing for ages, and all the flight stuff was saying that they were already on the ground and he hadn't called. Hours, hours, hours, like nine hours went by. And then he walked in the door. And I tore him a new one. And, and he said Why? Because you didn't call me Yeah, because I was already planning the funeral, that's why!
Martin Furber 15:42
Yeah, nothing too dramatic, then. Getting back to what we were talking about, about 15 minutes ago, and you were saying about Doctors perhaps aren't as prepared to discuss death, and one thing or another.
Martin Furber 15:42
Well, because society as a whole isn't?
Martin Furber 15:57
Yeah,
Denise Billen-Mejia 15:58
I mean, because doctors are very factual about it. And that's not what people need to hear.
Martin Furber 16:02
But society is getting like that over here. Now we've got these adverts on television now, 'Simple Goodbye', or words to that effect. Go back, say 50 years you know, people died, perhaps more so at home. And then the used to be this tradition of having you know, Uncle George in his coffin in the front lounge for two weeks before the funeral.
Denise Billen-Mejia 16:24
I don't think two weeks was a very good idea. But yeah, it would be for a while. There still does happen occasionally, even in the US where they tend to make everything plastic wrap quite quickly. It's in rural areas where you're a long way from the funeral home, and things will tend to be, to happen, and get buried in the farm or whatever, but it's unusual. Actually, this is an interesting thing to discuss. One of the up and coming aspects of hypnosis is helping people die. As in helping people with the process of dying - and not hurrying them along!
Martin Furber 17:05
Dr. Death instead of Dr. Denise. Yeah. Okay.
Denise Billen-Mejia 17:08
So it's, the idea is that training, acceptance, and, often people fear pain, a lot of people are okay with being dead. The idea of the act of dying is frightening because they've never been there. No.
Martin Furber 17:26
My my Dad's exact words. He said to me, I'm not frightened of not being here anymore. I'm frightened of how I'm going to actually die. I said, 'Well you can't come back and complain about it - So don't worry about it'.
Denise Billen-Mejia 17:42
But that's it. So there are hypnotists who are essentially, to use the word doula. I don't know if it is a word for someone who has assisted someone to leave. But there is the doula who helps a woman prepare for childbirth and helps through that part non-medical assistants for that process.
Martin Furber 18:05
That's helping a woman with their mindset is it? Or..
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:08
Yes, and just and the practicalities of how to breastfeed and you know, all of that stuff in there that often would have been handed down by one's Mother or Aunt.
Martin Furber 18:18
But, to quote you from a previous podcast when I was saying something about childbirth is painful and you took me to task immediately and said, do not perpetuate the myth. Do these doulas help to remove that myth?
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:30
Yes, yes, uncomfortable. Yeah. Although I think it was Sharon someone...I can't remember who was but there was a conference I was at recently where somebody also told people just if a woman is using the word pain, please do not be dismissive of what she has experienced. It's let's take that pain down and make it less painful and then just merely just to uncomfortable. Don't say you know it is because your body will respond to what your brain is thinking.
Martin Furber 19:03
Yes,
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:04
If they're thinking pain they're going to experience it as pain if the experiences really uncomfortable, but there's a reason for it. He'll be a lot better a harder sell if it's because they're having a heart attack. Having a baby there's definitely positive thing at the end of it. Yeah. But we can we can change perception.
Martin Furber 19:25
Yes. of course, hypnothereapy can change perception.
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:28
Exactly. And so that is the idea I believe for these people who are working with the dying who can go in and help people to relax, help the family members too because watching somebody dying is quite uncomfortable and we don't do it very often now. One because for the most part, with the exception of during the pandemic, most children outlive their parents.
Martin Furber 19:56
Yes.
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:57
And most children make it to adulthood, not at all, by any means. And we have a horrible infant mortality rate in this country. There's so many things that needs to be addressed. But it is a different experience than it was my great grandmother's day.
Martin Furber 20:13
Huge differences between different parts of the population as well.
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:18
Of course, but the thing is, as you said earlier, we're all going to end up there. So...
Martin Furber 20:24
Oh, yeah,
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:24
It will be nice if we... It's nice, not-nice for children to go to funerals, but we need to de-stigmatise death too. It isn't something Brandi did on purpose, you know, it's a natural thing that happens.
Martin Furber 20:39
It's inevitable, and yes, you know, you've got your nice sort of expressions, you know, where the funerals should be a celebration of their life, this that and the other. Yes, it should, but, people are so, so soon after the death and they're grieving. You know, it's one of those things.
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:58
It's a bit in your face.
Martin Furber 21:00
It's in your face. Yeah.
Denise Billen-Mejia 21:02
Well, I don't I mean, I did go, I had several funerals last year. And yeah, but one of them truly was a celebration of life, the lady was nearly 100. And she'd had a wonderful life, and, and her great grandchildren were there. And there were some others that were come out generation behind her. I mean, it was. It was very lovely. And it was great fun to see pictures of her when she was tiny, becasue photography's been around that long. That was really nice. The other ones, because, as I get older people seem to be younger when they're dying when really, to die in your 70s. It's not that out of place. It's not... I'm not planning it myself.
Martin Furber 21:47
Oh, you're gonna live to 100!
Denise Billen-Mejia 21:47
Oh, yeah. That would be lovely but, or maybe not, depending on how healthy I'm feeling. But when it's somebody who's younger, somebody who's close to your own age, because you're dealing with the loss of that person, but you also have that reminder that you're you also end up there too. So I think that hypnosis can help with the person with relaxation for everybody and some sleep for everybody. I don't know what else they would be doing.
Martin Furber 22:22
Yeah, I mean, I would question whether or not some hypnotists may bring a religious or spiritual aspect into that.
Denise Billen-Mejia 22:32
Well, then if they had been asked to. If they were from the same faith background, yeah, then that would be a reasonable thing to do.
Martin Furber 22:39
Yeah, yeah, to reinforce those beliefs that they already have. Yeah. So in the same way that hospitals, some hospitals make available hypnosis recordings for people to listen to, before going to theatre, not in the anaesthetic sense..
Denise Billen-Mejia 22:51
No, just relaxation.
Martin Furber 22:56
Just relaxation and confidence, etc. and taking away fears. Do you think the hospitals could provide something for patients who have perhaps got a terminal diagnosis, that kind of thing?
Denise Billen-Mejia 23:10
Yes, I'm sure that some do. But this is why I really think it's important that we reach more of the general population. It's not that not that I don't want to talk to the academics but they've got their own thing going on. It's the general population of physicians who had not been taught this in school. So few schools feature that they're missing a trick. This is something that is not right. But it's something that they can offer to their, with their patients. Not necessarily a personal hypnotist, but you could certainly have a selection of audios, especially these days when everybody's got flipping phones and yeah, they don't even have to produce a physical object,
Martin Furber 23:51
Okay, then. So hypnosis / hypnotherapy in the medical setting could improve the way we, not we, the way you speak to your patients in the emergency room, it could help with palliative care. It could form a part of palliative care. Where else do you think it could benefit because I know you're doing your programme soon on this for doctors?
Denise Billen-Mejia 24:16
It honestly is useful in every circumstance, I think, because not, I don't mean everybody should get hypnotised. I mean it should be offered. Yeah, not everybody is nervous going to surgery. At the general level, I'm just going to be a little bit of discomfort because you don't know what's gonna happen but...
Martin Furber 24:34
Do you know something? I've never been nervous having surgery. I love that bit where you count back and go boomf!!
Denise Billen-Mejia 24:41
I hate, I hate that. Although I probably, I would probably be quite good at it now because you know, that's what we do in hypnosis all the time. So it's a control thing. I did not like not being in control of what was happening. So now I will possibly relax more.
Martin Furber 24:59
Yeah, because you're used to be hypnotised?
Denise Billen-Mejia 25:01
Yeah, well, fairly. As a child, I had some minor operations, and they were not. Back in the old days, they were really mean to kids, we're talking more than 60 years ago now. I mean, it was like, turn over, all of a sudden you get stung in the rear end by a needle they didn't tell you was coming. I mean, a lot of things that I'm being told, I'm sure there were no lace curtains in the operating room. But I remember looking at lace curtains, I have no idea where they'd come from. And, the doctor taking my hand, and then suddenly stinging me in the hand because we were starting the IV maybe, no warning or anything else like that.
Martin Furber 25:43
No 'sharp scratch, this might hurt'.
Denise Billen-Mejia 25:46
Nothing, nothing! No, here, give me your hand. Ouch. And I pulled back and I got told off. I think that's a lot of my discomfort as an adult. You know, it's not again, messages in the back of your mind. Not real life ones...
Martin Furber 26:03
Again, a trigger.
Denise Billen-Mejia 26:06
It's quite surprising how we've changed now you can have, people can be, parents can be at bedside most of the time, if they're able to be, they can be, whereas there was there were set visiting hours.
Martin Furber 26:20
Yeah, there still are in some hospitals. Perhaps not so much with children. Yeah, when children are having huge operations, and you know, transplants, that kind of thing. You've got the theatres with the viewing gallery haven't you for the parents.
Denise Billen-Mejia 26:35
Gracious. Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to have parent watching me do an operation of that ilk.
Martin Furber 26:41
But yeah, I mean, so I'm gonna go back to medical things again here because we're drifting. So hypnosis, right? Okay, it can help with childbirth, it can help with palliative care. So we've got the birth and death, bit...
Denise Billen-Mejia 26:51
Any medical condition, you've got anxiety around, so it helps with the anxiety, it will cover everything. But there's direct effect for obviously for pain, certainly acute pain in childbirth, and the chronic pain of everything else. And we know that it has certain amount of immunologic effect that it can actually, physically can affect the body, there's IBS, and presumably a lot of other gastric ailments. It could help somebody relax and decrease their stress so that cardiac patients would be benefited. Pre and post surgical, anything. It improves blood loss during theatre, there's a lot of proof. It can be beneficial in these conditions. But the main thing really is mindset towards what's happening.
Martin Furber 27:45
Yeah, it's your perspective on things, because it's like most things in life. It's not the things that are happening that bother us. It's the thoughts we attach to them. It's the way we think about them.
Denise Billen-Mejia 27:55
And the not knowing what's happening next.
Martin Furber 27:57
Yeah, yeah. But also hypnotherapy does help you reframe something, how you look at something can alter your perspective on it.
Denise Billen-Mejia 28:06
Do you, have you, done much post trauma, post traumatic memory, whether stress or not? Have you? Have you worked with anyone who's has a bad memory?
Martin Furber 28:18
Yeah, I wouldn't want to go into any detail because maybe they'd be able to identify themselves. Yes, I have and quite recently as well. And yes, hypnotherapy really, really is helpful for that. Again, it's not a question of directly suggesting something to alter their mindset. It's a question of giving them that, able to take that step back and reassess for themselves, and give themselves a new perspective on something, just explore their own mind a little bit without all those thoughts going round and round and round. Yeah, because, I mean, this is something I'd like to get across actually. It's very different. People may confuse hypnotherapy with the act of falling asleep. I liken it to that point where you're not quite awake not quite asleep, because you never remember falling asleep, but not when you fall asleep that we things on your mind. Hypnotherapy takes those things away, it quietens them down. I think that's a good way of describing it. It quietens them down and then you're in that nice dreamy-like state. You came up with an expression the other day. Actually I've got notes everywhere Denise, I'm keeping notes on you! Therapeutic daydreaming?
Denise Billen-Mejia 29:33
Yes, that's what it is.
Martin Furber 29:36
I think that's a pretty accurate description myself. Therapeutic daydreaming. So yeah, so all these things can be hypnotherapy can help medically. So, okay, a shameless plug.
Denise Billen-Mejia 29:50
Yes, yes. Go ahead, what's your shameless plug?
Martin Furber 29:52
You, your shamelss plug!
Denise Billen-Mejia 29:53
No mine isn't ready for probably a while. I'm working on a programme CME programme for physicians.
Martin Furber 30:00
I think you're being too modist there, because it is an exciting programme and you are going to be teaching doctors. hypnosis.
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:06
Yes, no - teaching doctors about hypnosis. I'm not yet ready to teach them hypnosis.
Martin Furber 30:12
So, you're teaching doctors about hypnosis, and for me as a mere therapist, I think that's fantastic.
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:17
Mere? Yeah. Yeah. But it was fun because I was at my doctor's last week, and I mentioned that, he said, Oh, yeah. So he's quite excited about it. And I also hope that, that, then, would translate them talking to their office staff, because although a physician may not have the time, or even inclination to do hypnosis himself, him or herself. I think that they might want to have people in their office trained, yes, who could use it,
Martin Furber 30:48
Or if not trained, enthused about it?
Denise Billen-Mejia 30:50
Yes, and, of course, others would be in situations like yourself where they could hire or not hire you, but have a therapist come into the office on certain days of the week, and work from there, depending on their space requirements. I see a patient at a local clinic, I physically go there, because of her condition, she can't zoom with me. And so that's a particular circumstance. But we're trying to get it past, the attorneys have difficulty with me being a doctor, but not being a doctor anymore.
Martin Furber 31:25
And you live in a very litigious society!
Denise Billen-Mejia 31:27
We do live in a very litigious society. So I'm going to hopefully be working down there and being able to work with a larger group of people.
Martin Furber 31:35
Have you found the doctors you've spoken with, or you've approached, and people within the medical profession, have you found them more amenable towards hypnosis than you thought they would be?
Denise Billen-Mejia 31:48
Almost all of them are. There's a few who are clearly just being polite. Yeah, but for the most part, it's something, A, they want to know how much it's going to cost my patient because that is a big issue for everybody. It's fun to me that people will go and drop, you know, 1000 bucks on one of those. Yeah, that was a that was a phone in case you didn't see it in the camera. And not want to spend two or $300 on something, that's gonna stay with them forever. The easiest, the easiest sell, of course, is cigarettes, because you can say this is how much it's actually costing you just to smoke. And then you can even break down and this is the cost to your cardiac health and your lung health and the other things are amorphous. It is hard to explain to people how much better they will feel. Of course, we can't guarantee because they've got, it's not just, we don't come in and do a thing, and then everything happens. It's not like, I will chop off your foot now then there's a definite thing, but if you don't, I'm taking away your pain now. If they're not on board and helping you with that.
Martin Furber 33:01
Yeah, I mean, smoking, dear me! I think if that was invented tomorrow, it would be immediately banned.
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:09
Smoking - absolutely!
Martin Furber 33:11
And you know, in this country, we can blame our royal family. It was Walter Raleigh who brought tobacco to England. Oh, yes, for Queen Elizabeth the first.
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:21
Yes, but not using as directed, because that was not the way the Native Americans were using it at the time.
Martin Furber 33:27
Were they sticking it in pipes? Or just burning it...
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:30
It was for religious experiences.
Martin Furber 33:33
Oh right, ok.
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:34
But yeah...
Martin Furber 33:35
Well, we've covered birth we've covered death, we've covered the bit in the middle. We didn't know we were talking about those today. But we've reached the end of the episode Denise.
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:41
I will be interested to see what you do when you edit this.
Martin Furber 33:45
Well, that just about wraps it up for another one Denise. We've gone all over the place as usual.
Denise Billen-Mejia 33:49
Indeed, indeed! You must must keep an eye on the comments to see if people are getting fed up with this rambling of ours. But yeah, I guess they just wouldn't show up if they don't want to listen.
Martin Furber 33:58
Well, that's true. Yeah, so don't forget next episode, Helen Breward.
Denise Billen-Mejia 34:02
Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, Jo was last week. So yeah, that's great.
Martin Furber 34:07
Helen Breward next episode. Don't miss it.
Denise Billen-Mejia 34:13
Bye everyone.
Denise Billen-Mejia 34:22
We hope you've enjoyed listening. Please remember, this podcast is designed to give you an insight into therapeutic hypnosis, and is for educational purposes only. So remember, consult with your own healthcare professional if you think something you've heard may apply to you or a loved one. If you
Martin Furber 34:38
If you found this episode useful, you can apply for free continuing professional development or CME credits. Using the link provided in the show notes. Feel free to contact either of us through the links in the show notes. Join us again next week.
