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Beyond a Bad Habit: Understanding Trichotillomania & BFRBs with Kisah Reynolds
29 Plays12 hours ago
Kisha Reynolds, CCHt, CHLS is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Certified Hair Loss Specialist, and Life Coach based out of Philadelphia. As a leading advocate for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs), she blends expertise with lived experience to bring awareness to these often-misunderstood OCD-related conditions. Her own lifelong journey with BFRBs fuels her mission to educate, empower, and transform lives through hypnotherapy, coaching, and public speaking.
Kisha holds specialty certifications in CBT, trauma recovery, narcissistic abuse for survivors, support for caregivers, hypnosis for grief and recovery, PTSD, test anxiety, fears /phobias as well as hypnosis to enhance sports performance. Through her practice, 3.2.1 Deep Sleep Hypnotherapy, she helps clients overcome issues ranging from addictions / compulsions, anxiety, rebuilding confidence, setting and maintaining healthy boundaries, lack of motivation, and silencing the critical inner voice to name a few.
She also owns Drink That Eat This Travels, where she creates transformational retreats that merge subconscious healing and coaching with global exploration.
321deepsleephypnotherapy@gmail.com
Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or to subscribe to her mailing list. https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/
Episode Highlights
- More Than a "Bad Habit": Kisha explains that Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs) are often lifelong conditions, and if left untreated, they can transition into new or different repetitive behaviors over time.
- The Reality of Trichotillomania: Kisha shares her personal experience of developing trichotillomania (hair pulling) at the age of 15, noting how the condition naturally ebbs and flows.
- The Lack of Medical Awareness: Highlighting the struggle for a diagnosis, Kisha recalls how her mother took her to dermatologists to figure out what was happening, only to find out that the medical professionals had never even heard of the condition
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to BFRBs and Grief Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Once a body focused repetitive behavior, typically once you get it, it is lifelong. And what ends up happening is if you don't get help for it does start to transition into something else and get to another body focused repetitive behavior, which is what happened to me.
00:00:18
Speaker
So when I was around 15, I developed, went into trichotillomania, which was the hair pulling. And typically with that, it kind of ebbs and it slows.
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Rinaldi. This is a space to explore the full spectrum of grief, from the kind that comes with death to the kind that shows up in life's many transitions.
00:00:48
Speaker
Through stories and conversations, we remind each other that we're not alone. Your journey matters, and here we're figuring it out together. Let's dive right in to today's episode.
00:01:11
Speaker
Let's start with a quick disclaimer. This podcast includes personal stories and perspectives on topics like grief, health, and mental wellness. The views expressed by guests are their own and may reflect individual experiences that are not meant as medical advice.
00:01:29
Speaker
As the host, I hold space for diverse voices, but that does not mean I endorse every viewpoint shared. Please listen with care and take what resonates with you.
Keisha Reynolds' Background and Personal Experiences
00:01:41
Speaker
Thank you for joining us today. Today, i am chatting with Keisha Reynolds. She's a certified clinical hypnotherapist. She's a certified hair loss specialist and a life coach based in fi Philadelphia.
00:01:55
Speaker
She is a leading advocate for body focused repetitive behaviors. First time I'm ever hearing that. So I'm really interested in learning more And I know it's ah something that's misunderstood and minimized and very hidden in silence. So we will really be learning more about that. So welcome, Keisha.
00:02:14
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for coming on and sharing about what you do and also how you got to where you are. So let's start off sharing it a little bit about you. Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
00:02:33
Speaker
Actually, I'm actually, i'm I'm out of Philadelphia now, but I grew up in New Jersey, small town called Ewing Township, which is about right out of Trenton, New Jersey. And pretty much my story as to how I got to be here really started when I was a child. I went through a phase of just, you know, some severe bullying. A lot of the kids have gone through that.
00:02:56
Speaker
And, but for me, when it came to the bullying, That really sparked my first body-focused repetitive behavior, which was more so very pervasive nail-biting.
00:03:09
Speaker
And back during those days, which we're talking very early 80s, nobody knew anything about it. In fact, the the term body-focused repetitive behavior had not even been coined yet. That didn't come along until... the mid 90s.
00:03:26
Speaker
So at that point, you know, it's just more so looked at as, OK, well, you know what? You need to stop biting your nails, I'd say, you know, and you you know that it's a bad habit. But it was more than actually a bad habit.
Understanding BFRBs vs OCD
00:03:40
Speaker
Once body-focused repetitive behavior, typically once you get it, it is lifelong. okay And what ends up happening is if you don't kind of get help for it does start to transition into something else and get to another body-focused repetitive behavior, which is what happened to me.
00:03:59
Speaker
So from there, um when I was around 15, went into... triottilomania which was the hair pulling. And typically with that, it kind of ebbs and it slows.
00:04:11
Speaker
But at the time, again, I remember ah going to my mom, taking me to different like ah dermatologists, you know, to get an idea, try to figure out what it was.
00:04:23
Speaker
And they had never heard it. It was very, very new at that point. And so ah they thought that it was, you know, alopecia. So the way that this works is it's really based on sensory.
00:04:36
Speaker
So sometimes it is looked at as a relative of like OCD. And to a certain extent it is. But ah it's no thiss different in sense that typically when someone has OCD and they are doing do have performing rituals is usually something where they feel that they are going to, they don't want to get sick.
00:04:57
Speaker
Okay. Or they may wash their hands several times because they don't want to get germs. They don't want to, you know, they want to get sick. This is quite different. This is very, it's a sensory based.
00:05:08
Speaker
it's not based on that. It can go and come anytime. So yeah It can happen because you feel bored. It can happen because it's triggered because of a very stressful, you know, event, you know, anxiety.
00:05:20
Speaker
um It's a it's toxic, but it's a calming ritual. I tend to also equate it with them also kind of like the same feelings as, you know, an addiction.
00:05:34
Speaker
if you will, because the urges are are are very strong. And um typically, you know, when you start to pull, I have pulled some times where I've pulled maybe a dime size, you know spot, you know, on my in my head because I'm pulling the hair.
00:05:51
Speaker
What seems to also spark the pulling for me happens to be any type of a pimple or blemish or anything that I get on my skin. For the average person, it may not bother them. But for someone who has a body focused, repetitive behavior, when the moment that I feel something rough or feel something, it triggers me to start bothering with my scalp.
Journey to Hypnotherapy and Cultural Perspectives
00:06:17
Speaker
Okay. And then in turn after that, then going into the pulling ritual to help me to feel better. Okay.
00:06:26
Speaker
So that's, you know, that's how it, that's how it, that's how it happens essentially. Now i went in and out of remission. So like I said, this doesn't, it it is like, well, but you may not be pulling, you know, all your life.
00:06:40
Speaker
There are times that I've gone and I've been in remission and times when I've stopped for a year and then all of a sudden something will happen and I will start to pull again.
00:06:51
Speaker
You know, ah usually because I've, you know, gotten a pimple and I start, you know, bothering with my scalp and and then in turn bothering, you know, um pulling the hair out of and around that that area that is inflamed on my scalp.
00:07:07
Speaker
And I've been doing this for about a good 35, 36 years. And it got to the beach to the point where I just, I, you know, I wanted to stop. I needed to stop. I had to stop.
00:07:17
Speaker
I also learned at that point about trichotillomania. um it was good to be able to put a ah name with what I actually had. I wasn't, because before I didn't exactly know what I had.
00:07:30
Speaker
The term was coined by Christina Pearson. who was the founder of um TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors in the mid-90s. That organization has since, it was a nonprofit, and that has since kind of coons down, but they now has paved the way for other nonprofit organizations to pop up and to come up and to be able to educate.
00:07:57
Speaker
So with that, I found hypnotherapy. I... I've always had a love for mental health and you know being able to help others and for me it happened to be mental uh hypnotherapy I put together a program and now what I do is I use hypnotherapy to be able to help clients now one of the things that i do absolutely also encourage and I'm also, I work, hypotheraic needs to work well. Hypotheraic works well by itself, but where really also shines many times if you are working along with a licensed clinical mental health professional.
00:08:37
Speaker
Because what happens is I work from the subconscious space, okay? And as ah as a traditional therapist works more from the waking state of a conscious space. So the two of us together, there can really do like a two-pronged approach and really be able to tackle this, you know?
00:08:59
Speaker
So that's ultimately what I like to see happen with my clients. You know, I've never been one that's subscribed to that has to be us or them in terms of myself. It works better when you have basically a team, like a holistic approach to this. Okay.
00:09:20
Speaker
It is something that it it does come, it it it will come back, which is having that team is very very important, which is also why educating people about this is so very, very important as well.
00:09:36
Speaker
That's why I'm so thankful for the TLC Foundation. I was in 2024, I was able to have the honor of being able to speak on their diversity panel and talk about what that looks like in different spaces. Okay.
00:09:52
Speaker
Some cultures, okay. And I will speak specifically for the African-American culture. We are, I'll say probably within the past 20, 25 years are just really,
00:10:04
Speaker
being very honest and vocal about mental health, okay, to a certain extent anyway. So something in terms of with hair pulling, it may not be deemed as important as, okay, somebody who has, say, for example,
00:10:20
Speaker
a cancer or like a heart problem or something like that. So many times it doesn't get the same attention. But the thing of it is that it can be very debilitating. Okay.
00:10:33
Speaker
um Especially, you know, I have worked with clients who will not go out of the house. Okay. ah Because they have pulled their hair and don't want to wear a wig or you may not necessarily have the money in order to get a hair unit, okay, that looks believable.
00:10:54
Speaker
That also affects your personal life. So that means, okay, if you are married or you have a significant other or a partner, you shy away from intimacy sometimes because you don't want, you know, your partner to know that. I personally, myself, went through that.
00:11:13
Speaker
At the time, I'm not now, but the time I was in relationship and that was something that I, you know, I kept secret. It wasn't until I started kind of writing book about this that I then came out about it and um and and and started to talk more about it because I felt that in talking about it, that for me, that remains the shame. It also showed me that there's community, okay? Okay.
00:11:41
Speaker
I did not know at the time that there were so many people that were out for there that were going through the same thing that I was going through. So like I said, the TLC Foundation at the time was huge for me because that was the first foundation that I found that really spoke to people who were like me and experiencing the same things that I was experiencing.
00:12:05
Speaker
If it was not tricking to the mania or the hair pulling, it might've been, you know, skin picking. It might've been the lip fighting. Some people, they will bite the inside of their other jaw.
00:12:17
Speaker
Okay. Or they'll chew on the lip or pick the pulled skin. um Some people, you know, they will have it where maybe they pull hair even out of seeing their eyebrows, you know, from the hair on their arms, even into like the pubic area. Okay.
00:12:33
Speaker
And some people with it, they also not only will they pull, but they will sometimes maybe eat the hair or eat the root, the root at the end, you know, of the ah of the of the hair follicle.
00:12:46
Speaker
So getting his, I'm getting in front of this has been, you know, a mission up for me. um that I am dedicated to doing. Currently now, I'm a member of a nonprofit organization called Leiter Foundation, which started by Bianca Leiter out of Harlem, New York area.
00:13:06
Speaker
And she really as doing a phenomenal job in kind of putting this, you know, out there to gather people to be able to come. Actually, and we had a really beautiful time actually on Sunday because I am one of the ones that I lead this support group for the foundation.
Support Groups and Awareness of BFRBs
00:13:25
Speaker
And this support group goes on every fourth Sunday, okay, of the month, okay, um at 4 p.m. And we were actually there just sitting and talking. And there weren't that many people at the time, because this was our first support group kind of coming back from a hiatus. But even with the few people that we did have It was amazing to be able to just kind of connect and share similar stories and be able to even share different tips and things like that, that people have needed found to be helpful. fault So, yes, sorry. this is really
00:14:03
Speaker
It's okay, Keisha. I know I could see that you're really passionate about the topic. And I am learning something new because I always associate, you know, the nail biting and the hair pulling to the feeling more of like anxiety when people do that.
00:14:19
Speaker
But it doesn't, it's not necessarily only an outward expression of anxiety. You mentioned being bored or something else that also can create it. but Yes. Yeah. that So is it it brings comfort to the person that is doing it when they're doing it, the emotions inside like me and chemicals are being released, that it kind of creates this addiction to some extent, right, of the body.
00:14:44
Speaker
Right. So we're talking about all of that, you know, that dopamine, you know, all of that, that, that's that, that makes you feel, you know, good. That's all, that's what's being released. Okay. In the brain, which, you know, is, you know, but which makes you feel good. And then it's, it's also, you know, addictive, you know, you want to continue that.
00:15:05
Speaker
And so and you find yourself, you know, and again, this is something that is done in secret. Okay. Um, The interesting thing is that I've noticed when I'm not in my secret place, which for me, okay, is my bedroom. Okay.
00:15:20
Speaker
Well, when I'm not in my room, I don't do it, you know, and I guess because at that point I'm out, you know, more so in the, oak but yes, it releases, you know, dopamine in the brain and that chemical. And then that, you know, in you you, you kind of continuously, you chase it because you feel good. if It feels good. It's hard to explain, you know, exactly what it feels like.
00:15:47
Speaker
I'm trying to think of a way to be able to explain it to somebody who has never gone through it or has never experienced a i of an addiction. The only thing I can explain it to is, um have you ever been in a situation where You haven't had water for a really, really long time.
00:16:04
Speaker
And your your mouth is dry and you just crave, crave, crave, crave water. And it doesn't matter what you drink, you know, you are craving water.
00:16:15
Speaker
ah So take that like times 10. And that's what it feels like. Now, yeah it's because I've been a nail biter in my life as as a kid. You know, there were certain behaviors that I might have had, like as you were saying, like the lip biting. I'm like, wait, I do bite my inside of my lip. I'm like, oh I wonder if it's it. But like now I'm trying to think of which ones of the things that I even do might be and repetitive behaviors.
00:16:40
Speaker
Something that I know I do, i I rub my nose often. But for me, it starts because I ah have like allergies. So a lot of times I rub my nose. and But then I'm like, I noticed my sister does it too. And i like, wait, do we both have or do we have like this tick? I call it more like, you know, the ticks or re behaviors that just kind of become part of a personality, but that I never have sat down to think if they are associated with things like this. of yeah like With this. Yeah.
00:17:08
Speaker
So um so this is bringing that awareness even to myself and my own behavior. So thank you for pointing that out. The the part that I wonder is how because in your case, like you're aware of it.
00:17:20
Speaker
And so you now when you when you do go through stages of then having the repetitive behaviors, you do it in private. But how many people that do or like percentage wise actually don't even know that they're doing this? How many of but the behaviors are actually even subconscious? Does that make sense what I'm saying? that and they' yeah yeah I can't give you an actual percentage where I can tell you is that it's a mixed bag or majority of us. It's a mixed bag. So what happens is you may automatically just start to do this.
00:17:55
Speaker
OK, but you are aware that you're doing it. You may start to do that. OK, so for me and for a majority of the people that have this, it's not that it's not completely that you're doing it all like and unconscious like you're just not unconscious. You're just doing it. OK, she was touching her hair, by the way, for because since we don't have video here on the podcast, like you're talking the back of your head that you don't even know that you might be or twirling of our hair or things like that that we don't even realize. Yeah. Yeah, you know, right. You may not realize, you know, because this it's a it's it's a habit. But the, it's, well, see, the body focus, your body behavior, what happens is it's it's more so, and sometimes they consider, some people have called it in terms of self-harm. So it's not, so that's where the pulling, okay, almost like the religion religious era, realistic. Ritualistic. which ritual yeah yeah that Ritualistic. ritual and Ritualistic. Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:51
Speaker
Right. You know yeah that. So, but it's almost in terms of like, um it's not self-form, but it's done to yourself. It's that okay. So the skin picking, which can actually be quite serious and very, very dangerous, actually.
00:19:08
Speaker
If you have a scab and you're continuously picking, picking, picking, and, you know, that can become infected. You can get all types of germs in there from your fingernails and just consistently just picking it, picking it, picking it. So it's that type of thing. So like with just rubbing your nose, I don't necessarily would consider that to be a body-focused repetitive behavior. However, I mean, I don't really... It could be a tick. Yeah, it could be like, you know, it's more like a different thing. Mm-hmm. Right. And like you said, okay, you have allergies. So for you, it's like, okay, I have, you know, I have, you know, allergies. Right.
00:19:43
Speaker
But typically the main ones that you see are, you know, the hair pulling, you know, ah happens to be also, like I said, the biting of the inner inside of the cheek, the lip biting.
00:19:55
Speaker
You will see sometimes people, kind like I said, the scab picking, you know, those are your main ones, skin picking. Those are the the main ones, you know, that you will see.
00:20:06
Speaker
yeah And when nails are, and then the, the not just it the nail biting that it goes all the way down to the skin or even around the nails. yeah For an example, and I'm just going to show this because I feel that, you know, I have to be very honest. So for example,
00:20:20
Speaker
i have gone myself to because again this it still comes back and I've gone myself to where I won't bite any other nails but I will bite my pinky so if you can see that I've like bitten my left pinky you know like down really really far so that's you know kind of what I'm talking about to the point of you know sometimes a person may not have like any nails you know on like Almost just about no nail, just like that pinky that you, you know, just saw. And um so yeah, let me ask you, because you said this is not this is something somebody will live with. And even with you having done hyp no hypnotherapy on yourself, you yourself being a hypnotherapist. Yeah. As well and helping people in this.
Hypnotherapy Techniques for Managing BFRBs
00:21:07
Speaker
what is then the mecca is like you want to create more space in between these episodes it's that the goal of and therapy right yes so when i'm doing this okay because it's like i said it doesn't completely go away but with hypnotherapy what it does do is it helps to take that urge down okay so for example if it's at If your picking is at an all time like eight or nine, I can significantly reduce it in a sense of I can take that down to, you know, maybe something like a two.
00:21:43
Speaker
Okay. Or like one. Okay. I never promise complete and total release of it because it's It does come back. And that is the nature of the disorder. But what I can do is significantly reduce it. Okay. Reduce the urge of of you having to pick. And such should I've had to do with myself. One of the things I do is self-hypnosis. And that's also what I teach, you know, my clients. I work with them one-on-one, but I also...
00:22:14
Speaker
I also teach them towards like the last like three episodes ah or ah sessions that I have with them. i will teach them self-hypnosis, okay? So that then they also have something to go back to, okay? Because while I enjoy seeing my clients, I want to equip them to be able to help themselves. You know, I don't want it, you know, them to feel like they always have to come to me unless, of course, it's something new. Then absolutely. You know, because hypnotherapy has been for a number of things, you know, um it's just that helping to significantly reduce the urges to pull with a BFRB happens to be one of them.
00:22:53
Speaker
I would equate it just by what you're describing. it it it seems like it it could be equated to somebody that, for example, was an addict, like an alcoholic, that they still call themselves that instead of they've never drank. So technically there can be people can that there can be people that maybe never end up doing the action again. But the urge might still be there within them. But they actually stop doing the action even if the urge is there.
00:23:21
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Yep. And some of that, that makes sense. Okay. Yes. you hear I will find it common also sometimes with people, they have ADHD.
00:23:32
Speaker
Okay. You will find that this is very common. And many times it's like, you know, like the comorbidity it will go, like they will do that together. They will have ADHD, but they will also do that as well. because the ADHD, you know, you have that anxiety that is there, okay, and then many times that does cross over into a biotankish repetitive behavior.
00:23:56
Speaker
Also from a you know, just looking at it from a genetic or a biological, the pathology of of this, you know, um and many times is also common, like if you have you know, a parent that maybe was OCD, okay, or, you know, somebody, you know, you know, a lot like high inside that, be passed something that she would be pre-exposed to, you know, as well, you know. I believe while my mom has never been diagnosed with it, just her ritualistic ways when growing up, I definitely believe that my mom was OCD.
00:24:30
Speaker
And, you know, that was probably contributing factor along with it was kind of like, I guess if you were a perfect storm that that the bullying. OK. And then on top of that, you know, my mom also, you know, having this me not knowing what OCD was at that time. I was only six, you know, but it kind of put me in a position where it was almost like in a perfect storm to be able to develop this.
00:24:54
Speaker
Because it gives you some control over something you didn't have control over. as Exactly. There is an element of control that your mind is a silent and soothing that is kind of silently kind of wanting you to have.
00:25:10
Speaker
right Thank you. This has been very educational lot with the with this process. so who So aside from body repetitive, i I'm going to have to go read it because I so know it's a mouthful for me. the mouthful but that body Body repetitive behaviors good news who else can benefit from like what other kind of clients do you have and do they all have to be in person I know you also do you do retreats as well so can you talk about the types of things you offer
00:25:43
Speaker
Yes, sure. So majority of my clients, in fact, all of my clients, except for maybe two of them, have all been ah virtual. So this is something that is able, I'm able to do this from anywhere. i you know, just, you know, use Zoom. And if if that's not available, some us then will do it over FaceTime. You know, I, what I do is I usually ah will explain to the person what hypnosis is. Many people don't know. They go by what they see in television.
00:26:11
Speaker
And basically what hypnosis is, is a narrow state of focus, which allows me as the therapist to bypass, you know, the critical mind to be able to then make changes in the subconscious, therefore being able to change negative thought patterns into positive ones. Okay. so you know, when we start talking about the typical mind, the typical mind is basically a filter.
00:26:34
Speaker
So when you think about, you know, we can and you know visualize or imagine a round circle, the very bottom of that circle is the primitive mind, okay? And it's where you have your fight, fight, and freeze. That's where you have that that's stored there, okay?
00:26:50
Speaker
And right above there, if you think about in terms of a large circle, large circle above that, that would be your subconscious mind, which is weighted made up about 88% of your mind, and okay? Now, right up above there is a thin, it's like a filter, and that's your critical mind. And above the critical mind,
00:27:09
Speaker
is your waking state, which is where we are now, which is responsible for being able to analyze things, logic, reasoning, making decisions, that type of thing. And that's made up of 12% of your mind. So your subconscious is made up much more than what your waking state is. So what happens is within your subconscious, as we get older, especially starting around eight years old, we start to then be able to develop our own programming.
00:27:38
Speaker
OK, and with that being ah taking in negative self, negative self-talk about ourselves or taking in negative talk and sometimes positive talk from the outside. OK, um social media, all of that, you know, kind of coming in.
00:27:55
Speaker
So an example of this is, you know, what happens is then it creates what we call known associations. Now, from traditional, from a therapeutic, from a mental health, in terms of a licensed clinical therapist standpoint, that would be a distortion, okay?
00:28:10
Speaker
We call them ah known associations. So a known association is what you have pretty much grown up with. to believe about yourself and what you had taken to believe about yourself.
00:28:23
Speaker
For example, if you feel and have known for many, many years that you make the best chocolate cake in the world. Okay. So then if someone were to tell you, Kendra,
00:28:35
Speaker
You don't make the best chocolate cake you've always felt that you did and you know that you did. You've won prizes, best chocolate cake, ribbons and everything. That's not something that you're going to accept. In fact, it would not even permeate through to your subconscious because that critical mind will filter that out.
00:28:54
Speaker
Same thing with that is that the critical mind does not discern whether something is positive or negative. Its sole purpose and sole goal is to protect what is within that subconscious.
00:29:07
Speaker
So the same thing plays out if you feel that you are not enough. Okay. You've grown up feeling that way. Then someone from the outside says, no, that's not true, but you are enough.
00:29:19
Speaker
And even though you may hear it, you don't receive it. Okay. And that's because you have a known association that you have grown up with and that you have internalized that you are not enough.
00:29:32
Speaker
Okay. So what happens is. That is a distorted way of thinking about things. So what happens is a um my clinical, nice clinical saracen will work with it and kind of get to understand that that is a distorted way of you, of thinking about things. Okay.
00:29:51
Speaker
What I do for my end is that I completely take the critical mind off wine to get period. So with hypnosis, the critical mind is offline. So when I'm speaking, I'm speaking directly to your subconscious. Okay.
00:30:08
Speaker
And that's also the reason why sometimes we are, you know, therapies sometimes tend to change things a little bit quicker than with the traditional therapy because the traditional therapy, you're really fighting, fighting with that, that you know, with that critical mind and and getting them to realize, no,
00:30:26
Speaker
That is a distorted way of looking and at and looking at things, and it takes time, where we kind of do a little bit of, I guess, if you will, a shortcut, and we kind of bypass that waking state and go directly into the subconscious.
00:30:42
Speaker
Wonderful. Yes, it's important to see like the different ways and to know that there are different ways to be able to address a situation. yes and And like you said earlier, that holistic approach, having it kind of come in through the different different views, it's always going to be yeah it's always going to be more more productive for the end result.
00:31:06
Speaker
And Kendra is important also too, because one of the things that I'm acutely aware of is my scope of practice. Okay. So I don't cross into doing diagnosing. That's not what my role is. I don't diagnose. Now, if you have a diagnosis, okay, I will then help with that. Okay. From doing mindfulness, mindfulness,
00:31:27
Speaker
things that that's sort using hypnosis, you know, and, you know, and and even, you know, in an NLP. Okay. But I, or agnotic yes, programming. Yes. But I do not, um I don't diagnose. Okay. So that is why that two prong approach works.
00:31:46
Speaker
marvelously. You know, there are certain certain things that I am unable to work with. You know I'm not able to work with someone who is schizophrenic, okay? And just because they are already kind of like in this reality in terms of this fantastical way of thinking at times.
00:32:03
Speaker
And to put someone into hypnosis and tell them to do this imagery and all of that, that would maybe trigger or make things worse. So for that reason, I'm unable to work with someone who is schizophrenic. Okay. I do work with people who are bipolar, but I will not work with anyone who's bipolar unless they are treated being treated by a licensed medical therapist and that they are medicated and that they're the baseline.
00:32:33
Speaker
Okay. They're not in us in ah in a phase of hyper or hypomania. Okay. Okay. So I will work with that. But again, like I said, I'm very aware of my scope. Another one that I will not work with by myself is BDP or borderline personality disorder.
00:32:49
Speaker
OK, which can be very tough anyway. OK, but again, you know, that's something that, you know, Dialectical behavior therapy is, you know, one that is specifically good for that.
00:33:01
Speaker
But I will not attempt to do that by myself. You know, that is something that I would look to partner with a um licensed clinical therapist to be able to work and with that.
00:33:13
Speaker
Keisha, as we wrap up, I want to ask you, do you work with people too that are grieving?
Specializing in Grief Recovery with Hypnotherapy
00:33:19
Speaker
Yes. In their grief. Oh, yes. That is a big one. Yeah, since this is the topic of my podcast for somebody that's also in the... Because a lot of these things... can show up also yeah more when you are in grief. So yeah, absolutely. That's actually one of my certifications that I specialize in is grief and recovery. Okay.
00:33:43
Speaker
So with that, many times and we do it, it's it's actually quite beautiful. i had one client who was, I helped them be able to move through that. There's nine stages of grief. Okay.
00:33:54
Speaker
And sometimes people get stuck. And, you know, they're not able to move forward. So I help with that. You know, um i remember there one client who actually was really, i mean, you just kept kind of going back and forth and really wasn't really able to move forward.
00:34:09
Speaker
So what we did was, and I think what it was is because as much as she was grieving, she was also angry because this, you know, she was married and her husband also had an affair. So that was also very difficult to, you know, you're grieving the death, but also anger at the person that died. Yeah. and also angry at the person yeah So there was a layered layered. Yeah.
00:34:30
Speaker
Right. It was very layered with that one. Yeah. yeah So Keisha, for people to get a hold of you, I'll make sure to add your website on the show notes. It's 321sleep. Is that correct? It's www.321deepsleep.com.
00:34:47
Speaker
yes sleep yes yes sleep perfect yeah so much again Keisha for sharing and like for educating us on hypnotherapy as well as I'm not going to try to say that i look it for pen i yeah but here but I won't try to I won't even try to say the hair pulling one because it's like little right yeah it's a hair pulling or just
00:35:12
Speaker
hair pulling yes philomania but people just say philomania philomania exactly okay but hair pulling is fine you know hair pulling is fine yeah you do thank you once again Keisha absolutely thank you for having me Kendra I've had an amazing time thank you
00:35:31
Speaker
thank you again so much for choosing to listen today. I hope that you can take away a few nuggets from today's episode that can bring you comfort in your times of grief.
00:35:44
Speaker
If so, it would mean so much to me if you would rate and comment on this episode. And if you feel inspired in some way to share it with someone who may need to hear this, please do so.
00:35:59
Speaker
Also, if you or someone you know has a story of grief and gratitude that should be shared so that others can be inspired as well, please reach out to me.
00:36:12
Speaker
And thanks once again for tuning in to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray In Between podcast. Have a beautiful day.