BY BETTY JESPERSEN

Staff Writer

With three kids under the age of five, Mae Swan, 23, of Industry was having no luck on her own dealing with stress, an addiction to caffeinated soda and her weight.

Kitty Gee of Chesterville, a 78-year-old grandmother, had lived all her life with the compulsion to bite her nails until they bled. Her husband, John, an 83-year-old decorated World War II hero, has been unable to curb his appetite.

Mt. Blue High School English teacher and actor Dan Ryder struggles with stress and combating clutter and a lack of order in his life that hinders his creatively and productivity.

What these people have in common has been a need to make changes in their lives but the inability to do it alone.

What they also have in common is hypnosis.

"I chewed my fingernails all my life and tried everything to stop but nothing worked," said Kitty Gee. "One session was all it took and now the idea of biting my nails is repulsive."

Swan said within a week of starting her group sessions at Franklin County Hypnosis Center in Wilton, she no longer wanted to drink soda and stopped buying it.

"I was skeptical at first. I always thought hypnosis was hocus-pocus. Not anymore. I've lost 10 pounds, I'm making healthy food choices and it has helped me get through my barriers," she said. "It is miraculous."

John Gee lost eight pounds in two weeks after a session and has been religiously doing daily self-hypnosis sessions at home. He says he has lost all interest in overeating.

"I am backing away from the table now. I just don't have the desire," he said.

Ryder said hypnosis, and in particular the technique of journeying into one's past life, have helped him better understand the barriers, or "locks," in his subconscious that were holding him back from making improvements.

"It has been a transformative experience for me," he said.

Hypnosis, which dates back to ancient times, has been recognized in modern times as a technique to help people change behaviors and achieve personal goals.

It can help addictions, problems with weight, lack of self-confidence, concentration, insomnia, fears, stress and anger. In addition, it has been shown to improve academic performance and sports ability and is widely used by professional athletes, according to the National Guild of Hypnotists.

Consulting hypnotists Dawn and Dennis Jepson own Franklin County Hypnosis on Main Street in Wilton. Dawn Jepson holds an alternative doctoral degree in clinical hypnotherapy, a bachelor of science degree in human services, and an associate's degree in mental health. Her specialties are weight reduction, women's issues, healthy living and past life regression.

Dennis Jepson has a bachelor of science degree in physical education and specializes in smoking cessation, sports and academic enhancement and stress management.

"We believe that people possess the knowledge necessary to solve their own problems or identify their own need for change," Dawn Jepson said. "Our primary focus is to help clients realize that they do have choice in all areas of their lives and identify what those choices are."

"The work we do is designed to create independence and to teach people to use the tools and techniques on their own," she said.

Hypnosis works through deep relaxation, Jepson said. After a free consultation that helps the therapist design a personalized program, the client will be guided into a hypnotic state using a variety of relaxation and energy techniques.

"They go into a 'focused relaxation' state where the mind becomes receptive to suggestions and the brain waves slow down," she said.

In reality, people experience hypnotic-like states every day when they daydream, just before falling asleep or becoming full awake, and whenever that "unconscious pilot" takes over while driving a familiar road or concentrating on a task, she said.

During a session, the client is fully aware of communications, is able to respond on request and only focuses on what is relevant to the task, she said.

There is no surrender of mind or control. A person who does not want to be hypnotized cannot be hypnotized, Jepson said.

"The irony is that they are actually taking control back. They come to see us because they cannot control themselves and they want to regain that power over their life," she said.

Hypnosis helps them make the changes they want to make.

"It makes it easier for people to follow through on what they want to do, to make them more willing to do it and make it less of an effort, to make it more comfortable. And it gives them the momentum to keep going on their own," she said.

Sessions are recorded on a CD and clients are given a copy to take home so they can listen to the session at least daily to reinforce the information.

"Repetition is proven to be critical to make any kind of behavioral change," she said.

Paula Widmer, a licensed clinical social worker, has a counseling and life coaching practice in Wilton. She has referred several patients to the Jepsons to augment talk therapy with hypnosis.

"It is an intervention that can get beneath a person's conscious thinking to beneficially change their behavior," she said. "I have clients who have a lot of resistance to making the changes they desire."

She said clients may find it a struggle to make healthy eating choices. They may have anxiety, or need to reduce physical pain that gets in the way of functioning. She said hypnosis has also had a positive impact on clients with addictions.

"They come back excited and very relieved and with new hope for a different future," she said.

Past life regression

A growing number of clients are interested in past life regression, a technique that can guide them into accessing memories from past lives, Jepson said.

"I am very careful not to suggest anything to them during regression work. I am there to help them focus and assist them in remembering what it is they need, whether it is in their present or past life," she said.

The value of this technique is that it can help people unlock memories from past lives that aids them in overcoming obstacles in the present.

"By remembering what happened in a past life can fix or heal something in a person's present life," she said. "By letting go of the things that block them from making change, they find they can be more creative, more compassionate, more forgiving, more understanding or can have the courage to follow their dream."

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com