She is lying on the couch, eyes closed. I speak calmly. My voice leads her back, not into a memory she expected. Into one she had forgotten.
She is six years old. Her father is leaving. No explanation. The door clicks shut.
And suddenly: tears. Not the controlled tears of a grown woman. The crying of a child who has just understood why, for 30 years, she has been chasing men who are emotionally unavailable.
After 45 minutes she opens her eyes and says: "I had no idea that was still sitting in there."
When you hear the word "hypnosis," you might picture stage shows, people clucking like chickens, a total loss of control. I get it. I used to be that guy on the stage. But hypnosis coaching has about as much to do with entertainment as meditation has to do with sleep: similar on the surface, fundamentally different underneath.
In this article I will show you what really happens in hypnosis coaching, why it goes so much deeper on relationship issues than talk-based coaching, and why combining it with breathwork and retreats opens up a whole new dimension.
What hypnosis really is
Let's clear a few things up first. Because most ideas about hypnosis are just plain wrong, and those wrong ideas are exactly what keep you from trying one of the most powerful coaching tools out there.
Hypnosis is a focused state of relaxation. Nothing more, and at the same time everything. Your conscious mind steps back, your subconscious steps forward. You are not gone. You are here, just on a deeper level.
Picture it like this: your conscious mind is the driver. Your subconscious is the engine. Talk-based coaching speaks to the driver. Hypnosis coaching speaks to the engine.
That is why change after hypnosis is often faster and more lasting. You are not working on the surface, you are working at the root.
How hypnosis works on relationship issues
Now it gets interesting. Because hypnosis is good for a lot of things, but for relationship issues it is especially powerful. Why? Because relationship patterns are almost never rational.
You know he is not good for you. You know you should let go. You know you deserve more. But you cannot stop feeling what you feel. And that is exactly the problem: your conscious mind understands. Your subconscious runs the show.
"We make 95% of our decisions unconsciously. In love, it feels more like 99%."
Relationship patterns take shape in childhood. That is not a therapy cliche, that is neuroscience. The way your parents treated you, how they gave love or withheld it, left a blueprint in your subconscious. That blueprint decides:
- Who you attract: emotionally unavailable men, if your father was emotionally unavailable
- What you tolerate: toxic behavior, if chaos was "normal" in your childhood
- How you love: from fear instead of from fullness, if love got wired to the fear of loss
- When you leave (or stay): too long in the wrong relationships, if being abandoned is the worst thing you can imagine
Talk-based coaching works on these patterns at the conscious level: you recognize them, you understand them, you resolve to act differently. And then, three weeks later, you are sitting in front of your phone again, waiting for his text.
Hypnosis coaching goes deeper. In the hypnotic state we can go straight to the memory, the emotion, the association, and release it. Not suppress it. Not rationalize it. Release it.
That is why, with relationship issues, I like to talk about relationship hypnotherapy, even though I am not a therapist in the clinical sense. Because the work has therapeutic depth without needing the clinical framework.
Common relationship issues I work on with hypnosis:
- Heartbreak that will not stop, when you know it is over but your heart will not let go
- Fear of intimacy: wanting closeness, but running from it the moment it arrives
- Always attracting the same type: emotionally unavailable, narcissistic, unable to commit
- Making yourself smaller in relationships, the fear of being "too much"
- Processing breakup pain, especially after long relationships or toxic dynamics
- Trust issues after betrayal or emotional abuse
With all of these, the same thing is true: understanding it consciously is the first step. But the breakthrough only comes when your subconscious is on board. And that is exactly where hypnosis coaching comes in.
What a typical hypnosis session looks like
A lot of people ask me: "What actually happens in there?" Here is what a typical hypnosis coaching session with me looks like, transparent, with no mystification.
We talk about what is going on for you. What is weighing on you? What do you want? Which patterns do you notice? This is about clarity, for you and for me. The clearer the issue, the more precise the hypnosis.
I guide you into the hypnotic state. It feels like deep relaxation, a lot like the moment right before you fall asleep, but more aware. You hear my voice, you feel your body, you are here. Just calmer. Deeper.
This is where the transformation happens. Depending on the issue, we work with regression (going back to the original memory), reframing (re-evaluating old experiences), or resource activation (mobilizing your inner strengths).
I gently guide you back. We talk about what you experienced. I send you off with exercises for everyday life, so the change does not stay in the session but gets woven into your life.
A full session runs 60 to 90 minutes, online or in person. And yes, hypnosis works online too, over Zoom or by phone. That surprises people, but the hypnotic state is induced mainly through the voice. As long as you have a quiet spot, it works.
Who hypnosis coaching is right for
(and who it is not)
Hypnosis coaching is powerful. But it is not right for everyone, and it does not replace therapy for serious mental illness. Here is my honest take.
Hypnosis coaching is ideal for you if:
- You recognize relationship patterns that keep repeating and will not stop
- You are struggling with heartbreak that no longer makes any rational sense
- You have tried talk-based coaching or therapy and hit a wall
- You are ready to go deeper than talking and analyzing
- You sense the answer is not in your head, but deeper
- You are open to new experiences, even when they get emotional
Hypnosis coaching is not the right fit if:
- You are dealing with an acute mental illness (psychosis, severe depression, suicidal thoughts), where you need clinical care
- You are not willing to let go and engage, because hypnosis only works with your cooperation
- You are looking for a quick fix, because hypnosis is powerful but not a magic trick
- You are under the influence of alcohol or drugs
My path to hypnosis:
from party hypnotist to coach
I rarely tell this story. But it belongs here, because it explains why I understand hypnosis so differently from most people.
At 19 I started doing stage hypnosis at parties. Not as a job, out of fascination. I could put people into a trance and get them to do things they never would have done awake. It was spectacular. It was entertaining. And, if I am honest, it was an ego trip.
I was the guy at the party who said, "Give me five minutes and I will hypnotize you." And it worked. Every time. People could not move their arms, forgot their own name, laughed at things that were not funny.
But then something happened.
A friend asked me to help her with test anxiety. Not a show, real help. I sat down with her, guided her into a trance, and instead of the usual suggestions I simply asked her: "When did you first feel this fear?"
What happened next changed my understanding of hypnosis completely. She started to cry. She told me about a moment in third grade she consciously did not even remember. A teacher who had humiliated her in front of the whole class. And in that moment, a belief had been planted: "If I fail, I get laughed at."
In the trance, we re-evaluated that memory. Not erased it, re-evaluated it. And three weeks later she passed her exam. No panic. No blackout.
"In that moment I understood: hypnosis is not there to entertain people on a stage. It is there to free people in their lives."
After that I trained. Hypnosis coach, NLP, therapeutic hypnosis. And I left the stage for the couch. From stage hypnosis to coaching hypnosis. From entertainment to transformation.
Today I use hypnosis as one of several tools in my work with women moving through relationship issues. Not the only tool. But the one that often brings the breakthrough when everything else stays on the surface.
And yes, sometimes at retreats I tell the old party stories. We laugh about them. But the work we do afterward is anything but funny. It is deep. It is real. And it changes lives.
Hypnosis + Breathwork + Retreat:
the combination
Hypnosis on its own is powerful. But when you combine it with breathwork and the retreat setting, something happens that I have never experienced anywhere else.
Why? Because each tool reaches a different layer:
- Hypnosis works with the subconscious: beliefs, memories, associations
- Breathwork works with the body: stored emotions, tension, trauma held in the nervous system
- The retreat setting creates the space: out of daily life, into the depth, held by a group
At my retreats, women often have breakthroughs in three days that would take months in one-on-one sessions. Not because the methods are magic, but because the combination of method, setting, and group creates a space where transformation becomes almost unavoidable.
A typical retreat day might look like this:
- Morning: breathwork session, opening the body, moving emotion
- Midday: reflection and group work, sharing insights, letting them be mirrored back
- Afternoon: hypnosis session, working deeper in that opened state
- Evening: integration, journaling, stillness, nature
The morning breathwork opens the body. The afternoon hypnosis then reaches a place that would not be accessible without that preparation. And the group, women all working on similar themes, holds the space for each individual.
"Going alone is brave. Going together is transformative."
If the combination of hypnosis, breathwork, and the retreat experience speaks to you, take a look at my AI coaching companion Sophia, or book a free Clarity Call and we will figure out the right next step for you together.
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"You do not have to understand everything to change. Sometimes you just have to allow it."