Minden resident Diane Mitchell, a corporate accountant turned hypnotherapist, said a shoulder injury led her to discover the power of the mind.
"For three years, I couldn't lift my arm up," she said. "A friend of mine, a hypnotherapist in Boston, invited me to a session. Within that session, there was instantaneous change. I could do everything with my arm. I could do windmills."
Two years ago Mitchell left her background in business and finance and began exploring the phenomenon that had healed her shoulder.
"We tend to hold in emotions and stresses and other feelings that show up somewhere in our body," she said. "We have to go into the mind, into the subconscious, to release them."
After attaining certification from the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners, Mitchell opened her own hypnotherapy practice in Minden.
"I am very interested in the medical portion of it," she said. "I want to teach people how powerful the mind is and allow them to live with good health and not have their minds controlled by pain.
"Hypnosis has a broad range of applications including complementary therapies for pain management, reduction of side effects of chemotherapy and empowered birthing."
Hoping to spread awareness, Mitchell scheduled an open house at her Minden office this Sunday in conjunction with World Hypnotism Day.
She said World Hypnotism Day was designed to dispel myths and misconceptions.
"Stage hypnotism is entertainment," she said. "The hypnotic works I do are beneficial to overall health. There are also a lot of people that feel that if you have a strong will, you can't be hypnotized. That's a myth. Intelligent people are hypnotized faster and easier because their imaginations engage."
Mitchell said the key to effective hypnotherapy is "co-exploring" with a client and shutting down his or her self-critical ego.
"We bypass that and go into the subconscious mind where messages are stored," she said. "We look at the messages and bring them to the light. We can re-deposit suggestions, but the subconscious can never be given a suggestion that does not agree with its moral code."
The open house will be 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at 1644 Highway 395, Suite 2A. An hour-long introduction to hypnosis will start at 2 p.m. Seating is limited. For more information, call 782-2027.
