While working as a counselor in a medical detox facility for drugs and alcohol, I ran multiple group sessions. Some session topics were required addictions counseling; some topics were my choice, which I based on surveying the group's clients. The clients were right; our program left a gap between detox and further treatment. By detoxing the clients from drugs and alcohol, a vacuum had been created in their lives. After detox, treatment programs and counseling may or may not have filled that void.

This gap prompted me to develop a seminar to revisit a person's passions before they started using. The clients' responses to this program were remarkable. After every one of these meetings, the clients were excited to reconnect to who they had been before their addiction. In every one of these seminars, we discovered there were artists, musicians, dancers, writers, poets, equestrians, runners, mothers, and fathers. The spark of their passions lit them up, and this lasted for the rest of their stay at detox (which typically consisted of a 3-day detox and 3 days of group sessions).

I knew I had discovered something great for the clients, though I could not pursue further work with them. After their stay at the detox facility, they were referred to other programs or returned to their lives. But the experience with those clients never left me. I wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between detox and successful transition. Since detox was strictly short-term care, I left my counselor position to research and pursue a better approach for a long-term solution.

I realized I needed a tool to really reach my clients. Traditionally, addictions treatment use talk therapy to affect changes in beliefs and actions. These affected changes are on the conscious level and are short-term. A person has to change their beliefs before changing their behaviors. Using will power does not work. If a change in beliefs has not occurred, a person quickly returns to the old patterns of behavior. This is the reason so many fail with New Year's resolutions, stopping smoking, weight loss, and substance use, etc.

Addictions, problem behaviors, and emotions need to be addressed on a subconscious level. To affect beliefs and behaviors for long-term change, you need to work with the subconscious mind. I have found an effective tool in hypnotherapy. I knew hypnotherapy would help the client change in deep and profound ways. I realized my clients' addiction problems began with uncomfortable emotions and thoughts; the clients used alcohol, drug, or problematic behaviors in order to disconnect from those uncomfortable emotions and thoughts. These disconnections continued for years and years. With each disconnection, the client moved further and further from whom they once were. The disconnection separated them from their passions, sources of love and supports in their lives, and their higher self.

Long-term change needs to focus on helping clients make re-connections, while neutralizing those uncomfortable emotions of fear, anger, and guilt. When I use hypnotherapy to work with addictions clients, I find the clients are surprised to find their former selves, their passions, their love and supports, and their higher self are still there. They often do not think they can find their way back. Through this reconnection process, the clients are transformed beyond addiction, their limiting beliefs, and problem behaviors to claim the life they only had imagined.