Meet Aaron Price, Hypnotherapist

Aaron Price is a certified hypnotherapist who trained at the Orca Institute of Hypnotherapy. He offers therapeutic sessions online via Skype, and he assists clients over the telephone and using MP3 audio recordings. He also sees clients in his office located in Abbotsford, B.C.

1. Why did you choose "Compersion Hypnotherapy" for the name of your business?

Compersion is a word first coined in the 70s to describe the feeling of being happy for the happiness of someone else. Many people consider it the opposite of jealousy which is why I chose it. I specialize in jealousy and fears.

Clients come to Compersion Hypnotherapy with a strong need to handle fear--whether they are nervous, shy, insecure, or phobic, or they have relationship fears like a fear of abandonment, inadequacy, being replaced, being alone and so forth.

With my particular style of hypnotherapy, I teach skills to my clients which they can use for life to better handle fear and replace it with things like confidence or compersion. I never really do anything to my clients, I empower them to do it for themselves.

2. How does hypnotherapy work via online and phone appointments?

For clients who are outside of B.C., Canada and cannot make it to my office, I offer sessions online. As long as you have a webcam with a built in microphone--which most laptops already have--then we can have a video call. It actually works just as well as sessions in person, and I have had some incredible successes across both forms of communication.

Basically we schedule a time to meet up on a program like Skype or Google Hangouts and at the predetermined time I'll start a video call. It is nice when clients show up a little early though so we can sort out any technical issues that might come up if they are unfamiliar with it.

3. During a free consultation with you, what will a client learn about hypnotherapy and how it might be an effective technique for him or her?

The easy answer is: Whatever they want to learn.

Almost everyone I talk to in the consultation has many questions. The biggest thing I do at this stage is answer them. No matter how wild or silly you think they are. Trust me, I've heard it all, so ask everything.

This is also a time for me to ask questions about your particular problem so I can determine what is needed to solve it. Every person is unique.

A consultation is a very laid-back appointment where I really have no idea what the client is going to bring to the table.

Sometimes they are skeptics and want me to explain hypnosis or demonstrate it, so I'll do just that.

Other times they are feeling anxious about seeing me, and I can explain to them how hypnosis is a natural state of mind we go into many times every day. Whenever a particularly gripping story or movie really draws you in, that's hypnosis. These people often do not want to experience hypnosis during the consultation or even during the first few sessions which is totally fine.

4. What's unique about the ways you are able to help people with hypnotherapy and the issues you are able to help them resolve?

My particular style depends on what the client presents. I do not believe in using "canned methods" or reading from scripts because nothing works 100%. Instead I am flexible and change my method to suit each individual client and each individual situation.

For example, I had a jealousy client who was unable to focus on any conversation for more than 30 seconds at a time. Apparently he had one of the strongest attention deficits I've seen, so before we could get any work done, I needed him to focus. I invented and taught him a technique he could use to control his attention span (and in fact use it to multitask better than anyone I've ever met). He was shocked by this and told me he had never felt such focus and mental clarity in over 50 years of living. Keep in mind this was all done in under an hour over Skype with a technique I'd never heard of. I simply adapted to the situation.

By staying empathetic and finding unique solutions, I have a 100% success rate as far as hypnotizing clients. I have never found someone who could not go into trance if we both wanted it to happen.

5. What do you find especially rewarding about your work?

Stories like the one above are rewarding because I can take a crippling lifelong problem and go beyond removing it--in some cases I can show people ways to use it to their advantage. I can help introverts be comfortable in public and have the choice to be sociable or not. I can save marriages.

Probably the most rewarding thing is teaching, though. When I teach a client to solve their problem, then it becomes a permanent change as long as they want it to be. I love giving people control over their lives when everything else has failed.

Thanks, Aaron!