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ALCHEMICALHYPNOSISANDTHEEMPOWERMENTPROCESS
As a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist with 15 years of various counseling experience, I am always looking
for new techniques to add to my toolbox. I believe that the most eective treatment requires that I work with my
clients as a whole system and not just treat their minds. I evaluate their diet, nutrition, exercise, physical health,
quality of life, and spirituality. I also believe that treatment that simply revolves around talking about their
problems, thoughts, feelings, etc., though no doubt useful is very limited in its possible benets.
THE KEY TO HEALING: NOT HOLDING BACK

Catharsis is an important part of the healing process, a form of grieving. The most powerful sessions I had ever
witnessed, and experienced for myself, were ones that involved the whole being, body and soul. This may involve
hitting a pillow, yelling, screaming, crying, whatever needs to be done to obtain closure. The client is encouraged
to re-experience some core event, but this time without holding back his or her feelings and impulses. This often
results in a sensation of great release, and deep calmness sets in.
THE LIMITATIONS OF EMOTIONAL RELEASE

However, emotional release has its own limitations. Clients are often left feeling sad, lonely and empty. The
experience of a great void within was sometimes even more painful to deal with than the hate, sadness, anger,
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despair, negative behavior patterns or whatever it was that the client came to treatment to rid themselves of. My
work with alcoholics, drug addicts, codependents and "Adult Children Of" introduced me to the important aspects
of a Higher Power and to spirituality's role in the healing process. However, not everyone is able to readily
embrace and benet from the idea. Many of us have had bad experiences and associations with organized
religions, or have become disillusioned with our God or spiritual discipline.
DISCOVERING THE POWER IN AN EMPOWERMENT INTENSIVE

I learned the techniques of using hypnosis and guided imagery, including John Bradshaw's inner child bonding
exercises, throughout my education, training, and professional work, but somehow never found it to be all that
powerful. It never occurred to me to combine all of the above technologies in one powerful session, until I
attended my rst "Empowerment Intensive" workshop with David Quigley, developer of "Alchemical
Hypnotherapy". It was a healing, transforming and spiritual experience I will never forget. The rst of three days is
spent in a variety of exercises to help the group bond with each other, get in touch with our inner children, and
resolve any conicts or discomfort any members may have with each other.
WORKING WITH THE GROUP

The next two days is spent with each person having a two-hour process under hypnosis with the active
participation of all the group members, usually 9-11 in total. Before the process, the client will talk about what he
or she wants to work on, and may assign roles to some of the members to play out. The usual roles are parents or
other signicant people in the person's life, as well as new internal resources like inner parents, inner mate, the
inner child, or other inner guides. The client is then put into a medium trance, usually with some supportive touch
from the group members. He or she will actively report what they are needing and experiencing, and the actors
behave according to what is presented.
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HYPNOTHERAPY AS AN INCREDIBLY DYNAMIC PROCESS

For those of you who believe hypnotherapy is a passive experience, I can assure you that this is anything but! One
Alchemical process includes speaking to whomever they feel the need to communicate with in whatever way they
need to. This often has the client up and yelling at parents, beating or slaying villains, castrating sexual oenders,
and rescuing inner children or past life personalities. It can be quite a workout! The thing that makes this
experience very dierent from regular psychodrama besides the hypnotic state, is that there is usually a positive
bonding and healing experience in the end with the uncontaminated loving inner mother, father, mate, higher
power, or other guide. Sometimes it's our present day adult self providing our inner child with the love and
nurturing we didn't get, and then becoming the inner child accepting this love, which can provide a tremendous
Catharsis of joy.
EMPTYING OURSELVES OF PAIN

The experience is one of being emptied of some traumatic experience or painful feeling, and lled with it's
opposite. The ideal nurturing, the sacred love, the way we had always wanted it to be. And it feels real! David says
that in hypnosis our bodies don't distinguish between what really happened in the past and the experience we
create, or should I say allow, to happen during a process. Sometimes it takes a while for the experience to sink in.
Our skeptical mind may not allow us to buy it at rst, but usually by the end of the weekend we are aware of
having been transformed in a very deep and profound way. We are dierent.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS

Alchemy transforms "the lead of emotional debris into the gold of self-realization." The individual sessions of
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Alchemical Hypnotherapy are quiteTRAINING

dierent
and also verySTORE
valuable,
though not
usually
as powerful as the
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weekend Intensives. Touch is not normally
used because of the client's need for safety and boundaries, but that
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really depends on the level of trust in the therapeutic relationship, how long they've been working together,
sexual boundary issues, etc. Like the processes in the weekend Intensives, the sessions are one and a half to two
hours long but since one is not being triggered by the group's raw emotions and by participating in other people's
processes, one does not normally go as deep in a single session.
EXPERIENCING SEVERAL PROCESSES DURING SESSIONS

Oftentimes in the group sessions, several processes will be happening simultaneously and spontaneously
because members are so deeply touched by what they are witnessing. This is encouraged as it all contributes to
the power of the experience. What seems to work best in individual sessions is to have several processes on
consecutive days or as close together as possible, until there's a major breakthrough and the client feels nished.
In addition to the use of Inner Guides, there is powerful work done with past lives, including examining possible
"contracts" with others and working through shame and guilt. There may be atonement to be made and
forgiveness toward others or ourselves.
REAPING THE BENEFITS OF PAST LIFE REGRESSION

The wonderful thing about past life regression is that it works even it you don't believe in the idea of past lives.
You can see it as a metaphorical and creative process and still reap the benets. I am still amazed at how our
unconscious is able to take so many events and issues in our lives and create or relate it to a single Alchemical
process. Our "Conference Room" technique makes comprehensive use of all the dierent parts of us working
toward some kind of integration around a particular issue or behavior that we want to change. This often takes
several sessions to complete. We will often have to go into completing communications, rescues, past lives or
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other processes during a typical conference

room session.STORE (/STORE.HTML)
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HOW THE TRAINING VALIDATES OUR DEEPEST HEALING KNOWING

During my training in Alchemical Hypnotherapy, I became aware of how much sense it all made. As though deep
inside I somehow always knew these things intuitively, as though being taught this skill was something of a
reminder, a validation, a coming home to what I had always known but could not articulate much less put into
practice. I had been pursuing this in my various training and therapeutic experiences in a fragmented way. I was
fascinated with cathartic therapies such as Primal Therapy, but found it limited and overly focused on staying in
Pain. I loved work with Psychodrama, but again found it to be limited. Hypnosis, guided imagery, meditation and
inner child work had their benets but often were not able to sink deep enough to create permanent change in
the client. It was a good coping mechanism, like taking an aspirin for a headache but not getting to the source.
Forgiveness was a great goal for people who held on to anger, resentments or shame, but often dicult to
genuinely feel. Spirituality, faith, and a sense of connection to a Higher Power contributes greatly to healing but
often clients would have diculty getting in touch with or trusting it. Alchemy seems to pull it all together.

Judy Chang Gummelt

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