Spirit Beat: Hypnotherapist Empowers Clients to Heal Themselves

"Everyone has been hypnotized, but they don't necessarily realize it," Esther Kinderlerer, a local hypnotherapist said. "If you have watched TV, you have been hypnotized.  You are completely engrossed; your body is essentially not moving, and your brain waves settle down to essentially the same level as a hypnotized state."

For the past five years, Kinderlerer has practiced hypnotherapy in Hastings, giving clients the tools they need to heal themselves.  She has worked with women and men of all ages to help them overcome problems such as weight management, insomnia, infertility and phobias. 

Working as a hypnotherapist, Kinderlerer said, presents unique challenges, but ultimately has allowed her to grow along with her clients.  "There is something daunting in the beginning about putting somebody into a trance," she said.  "You think, 'Are they going to go?'  'Are they going to make it there?'  When I first started, it was a time in my life when I was learning to let go myself, letting go of preconceptions. I feel as the years go by I have had some wonderful sessions with people and have become more and more comfortable doing this work."

Kinderlerer has a unique approach to hypnotherapy that focuses on the individual client, something she establishes with everyone from the very first session: "I find out from the clients how they feel and where they want to go with the session.  I get an understanding of what their goals are.  The first session can be us really setting down a contract of what we are going to do.  We do a lot more talking in conscious mind. It is really to allow the person to build confidence in themselves, to feel, 'I was able to do this and it came out well for me.'"  

As a hypnotherapist, Kinderlerer believes it is crucial to manage expectations and educate her clients.  While it is highly effective, hypnotherapy is not a quick fix.  "There are some things that take more sessions that others. A lot of people have seen advertisements saying they can quit smoking in one session. That is an older style of hypnotherapy.  I don't do that.  Some people have success with that kind of system, but looking at the data, those clients relapse more quickly.  

She gave weight management as an example. "Many people have an issue with finishing what's on their plate; it means they have an issue with self-esteem," she said.  "Keywords are very important.  We all have a word that is a trigger for whatever our problem is.  It is very important to figure out what those words are and work with them, reclaim them."

Through listening to her clients, Kinderlerer is able to unlock the healing strategies that work best for them.  Most importantly, her work is about introducing people to their own inner healer. "If I heal you, at the end of the day, you are not healing you.  If I heal you, you are losing this incredible power that you have.  The point of it is to teach you to do it yourself," she said. "People start to get it after six or seven sessions.  After that many sessions, people can pretty much get it, how you go in, how you find the answers, how you listen to your own answers, how you work it for yourself.  You have almost created a grounding and an anchoring into this system. It serves you so well for the rest of your life."

In addition to hypnotherapy, Kinderlerer uses dance as a healing modality.  For the past three years, she has been leading dancing circles at Human Bodyworks in Hastings.  "When I started doing hypnotherapy, I learned that it was the other end of meditation," she said. " You can still your body and still your mind to completely remove the input that we get so much of.  You can do that in a hypnosis chair, or you can do it by completely letting go to music and being able to just move and therefore the rest of the world completely melts away. 

Kinderlerer was frustrated that there were so many different dance therapies in New York City, yet so few in the suburbs.  "We pay hundreds of dollars for our children to take classes, but we don't have the avenue as grownups. It is assumed that the only time we are going to let loose and dance is when we're really drunk." Kinderlerer started the dancing circle in Hastings so that adults could come and, while sober, experience the freedom of dancing in a community. 

Dance therapy, she feels, ties in well with hypnosis because it is yet another way to bring people into the awareness of their own light.  "It is feeling the benefits of meditation in all different ways.  The negative thoughts melt away when you do this kind of work.  You get a spark from your own white light.  When you are in that dancing spirit mode, you are complete lightness," she said.

As a mom living in the suburbs, Kinderlerer believes this release is incredibly important both for herself and others who live similarly stressful and other-centered lives. "If I were the only person in a room and I was able to put on music and dance my heart out, I would feel better for the next seven days," she said. "There is something amazing physically about dancing.  Yoga gets there in a certain way through building heat in the body, but it is very structured. After a dancing circle, you get to the end of the day and you sleep so well because you have had this freedom to move.  It is an hour and a half of not taking care of anyone other than you!"

Kinderlerer works with hypnotherapy clients year-round.  Appointments can be booked by calling 914-886-5764.   Dancing circles at Human Bodyworks will resume in September.  Until then, Kinderlerer invites anyone who would like to dance with her to find her on Wednesday evenings in Dobbs Ferry at the free jazz concerts in Waterfront Park!