January 28, 2025 • 50 mins
Today we’re joined by Alexandra Janelli, a leading hypnotherapist and founder of ModrnSanctuary, an alternative beauty and wellness spa and winner of Philadelphia Magazine’s 2024 “Best of Philly.”
She is also the founder of My Burble, a transformative app designed to help users overcome stress, anxiety, sleep issues, and other personal challenges through tailored guided visualizations and meditations.
As one of New York City’s premier hypnotherapists, Alexandra has guided Academy Award-nominated actors, renowned photographers, singers, and executives toward meaningful transformation. Her work has been featured in top publications like The New York Times, Elle, Oprah Magazine, Men’s Fitness, and Forbes.
Subscribe on Apple Podcast , Spotify or YouTube.
Let’s connect!
Subscribe to my newsletter: Time To Live: Thriving in Business and Beyond
Website: https://www.annemcginty.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemcginty
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annemcgintyhost
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't stress over the grades.
Don't stress over the A's orthe B's or having to finish
college on the right timelineand scale.
It's okay if you're not thebest in the class, that each of
our skills come from like reallya different place.
I wish I had known back then.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.
I'm your host, anne McGinty,and today we're joined by
Alexandra Gianelli, a leadinghypnotherapist and founder of
Modern Sanctuary, an alternativebeauty and wellness spa, and
winner of PhiladelphiaMagazine's 2024 Best of Philly.
Alexandra is also the founderof MyBurble, a transformative
app designed to help usersovercome stress, anxiety, sleep
(00:57):
issues and other personalchallenges through tailored
guided visualizations andmeditations.
As a premier hypnotherapist,alexandra has guided Academy
Award nominated actors, renownedphotographers, singers and CEOs
toward meaningfultransformation.
Her work has been featured intop publications like the New
(01:21):
York Times, elle Magazine, oprahMagazine, men's Fitness and
Forbes.
You can find a link through toher business in the episode's
description.
We have an incredible lineup ofguests coming your way, so don't
forget to hit the subscribebutton and stay tuned.
(01:41):
Upcoming episodes feature thefounder of a boutique surf
resort, the creative forcebehind a local improv pop-up, a
doctor of clinical nutrition andan outdoor enthusiast who
launched an adventure travelcompany for teens.
Each guest brings inspiringstories and valuable expertise.
(02:03):
My hope is that you'll not onlybe entertained, but also gain
fresh insights and ideas.
Let's dive in.
Thank you to our listeners forbeing here today.
Alexandra, thanks for coming onthe show.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I am so happy to be here, thrilled to chat.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I am so happy to be here, thrilled to chat.
So what can you tell?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
us about hypnotherapy , like how does this differ from
hypnosis as entertainment?
It's such a good question andit's one of my biggest things
that I like to share with abouthypnosis, cause I think there is
a stigma around it.
I think we've all seen themovies.
I know it's in cartoons.
You know someone gettinghypnotized and walking around
quacking like a duck.
They do both exist, but I willtell you, what happens on stage
(02:54):
is very different than whathappens in my office.
Some people are verydisappointed when I say that and
some people are very thrilledto hear that.
So they do run a similar line,but a lot of hypnosis at least.
What we're going to talk abouttoday is really about a deep
state of relaxation with anacute focus.
If you can fall asleep at nightand wake up in the morning, you
(03:17):
actually go through thehypnotic state.
So it's a very familiar state.
People just might not be ableto right away identify.
Oh, that's the hypnotic state.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So how do you get into the hypnotic state, and can
you tell us a little bit moreabout what this state is?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So hypnosis is the state between awake and sleep,
like I'd mentioned.
And I think to understandhypnosis is to really start with
the theory of the mind, right?
So we have two parts to ourmind.
There's the conscious mind andthe subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is whereall of our behaviors are born,
our reactions, our copingmechanisms.
(03:55):
The conscious mind is all ourwillpower, deductive reasoning,
our logic.
It's what we use like 90% ofthe day, but it only accounts
for about 10%, and that's wherethe subconscious comes into play
, right?
It's all sort of below thisreally critical layer of like
logical thinking.
So from the moment that you'reborn until today, everything is
(04:18):
learned through association,right?
So if you have a fear of dogslet's say, you get bit by a dog
as a child and you develop afear of dogs, let's say you get
bit by a dog as a child and youdevelop a fear of dogs, you've
created an association on thesubconscious level that dogs are
scary, right?
And so when you see one, yoursubconscious is going to react
with that fearful protectivemechanism, even though the
(04:40):
logical mind is going to kick into go wait, it's fine, it's a
small dog, it's behind a fence,you know it's going to come up
to go.
Wait, it's fine, it's a smalldog, it's behind a fence.
You know it's going to come upwith reasons that you don't have
to feel that way.
And so what hypnosis does iswe're helping take you from that
awake, very aware state into amuch more relaxed and focused
state, meaning right, like whenyou're aware and you're fully
(05:03):
awake.
You have a very large scope offocus.
You can take in differentsights, sound, taste, smells but
when you go into the hypnoticstate, that scope of focus
becomes incredibly narrowed inand you're so acutely focused on
what's being talked about thatthat's where your focus goes.
You actually go into this state.
When you're watching movies,you go into it.
(05:24):
When you're reading a book,some people when they're driving
, you go into that highwayhypnosis, right.
You're not really thinkingabout am I pushing the gas or am
I pushing the brake?
You're just sort of doing thesethings and being aware of the
cars to your left and your rightand in front of you.
So it's actually a veryfamiliar state.
You're not under anyone'scontrol or anything like that
either.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So are you talking about the difference between,
like, beta waves and alpha wavesand theta waves?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Absolutely so.
As you go from the awakeconscious state down into the
subconscious states and theneventually asleep, you are
moving through those differentbrain wavelengths, states, and
then eventually you sleep.
You are moving through thosedifferent brain wavelengths, and
so my private practice iscalled Theta Spring Hypnosis,
because right like that is thatnice deep hypnotic theta wave
(06:20):
that we're looking for.
Now, all of those differentdepths are different, like forms
of the hypnotic state, and youknow you can use each state for
a different thing, right Likealpha waves.
You know I might want someonein a lighter state, where they
have a little bit more sensation.
As you go into the theta states, there's almost this disconnect
from the mind and the body, soit's sort of like you're free
floating, your body's deeplyrelaxed, and they all have
different purposes, which issort of interesting too.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So when you are in that theta state, is there still
any awareness?
Yes, or are you already?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
dreaming.
No, so you're still aware,right?
There's actually one more state, just below that, that, where
they can actually get you into avery, very deep hypnotic state
to do surgery, where you'vereally left the body, you've
disassociated from pain.
And then there's the sleepstate, and that's where you get
into left the body, you'vedisassociated from pain, and
then there's the sleep state,and that's where you get into
the unconscious mind.
But you are aware, right?
(07:10):
So you know, when you're justabout to fall asleep, if you
heard someone open your door,you're going to hear it and
you're going to, like, wake upand go.
What was that?
Same thing happens in thehypnotic state.
If I said to you, you know,take off all your clothes and go
run around the office, on somesubconscious level, right, you'd
have to want to do that or havelike a desire to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You wouldn't just do it because I told you to, there
has to be a want or a desire todo something like that, or even
if it comes from a fear place dosomething like that, or even if
it comes from a fear place, andwhat can you tell us about the
science behind what happensduring a session so you get
somebody into this deep state ofrelaxation where they're
(07:54):
halfway between awake and asleep?
How does the hypnotherapy workin the brain?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, it's a great question.
So when I run a session withclients, the first step is to
always understand what bringsyou in today, right, my job is
to understand a client fully incontext, and that means one.
What's going on right, how canI help you?
Maybe they say that they'recoming in for sleep Wonderful,
we have a baseline.
(08:21):
The other question is why?
Now, right, there is somethingthat has caused them to want to.
Other question is why?
Now, right, there is somethingthat has caused them to want to
take care of this.
Now, right, whether it's oh well, I've been having a hard time
sleeping, or I just lost my joband I've been having a lot of
anxiety around that, and soyou're kind of trying to
understand what the urgency is,right, some people it's my
(08:42):
significant other or my spouseis really upset that I smoke and
that's why I'm here.
Those are a little trickier forme, just because they have to
have that internal desire toquit smoking.
That doesn't mean it'simpossible, but understanding
context is really important.
So, for example, someone comesand they're like I really want
to quit smoking.
(09:03):
I feel like I'm ready.
I have this really badrelationship with it.
My next step is to understandthat relationship with
cigarettes in order to have asuccessful hypnosis session.
I'm trying to understand theclient's words, their
terminology, what things you canwatch their body get triggered
by right.
You can sort of tell whensomeone gets uncomfortable they
(09:24):
maybe start fidgeting or movinga bunch.
I'm looking for tone of words.
Are they speaking in metaphoror are they speaking much more
directly?
All of these are things that I,as the hypnotherapist, am
taking in so that when we get tothe point, after we've talked
and we've created goals ofhere's where I'm at and here's
(09:45):
where I want to go, I can thenunderstand how to phrase what
are called hypnotic suggestions.
And hypnotic suggestions areonce you're in that hypnotic or
let's call it the subconsciousstate, I can go in to start
negotiating.
Now, interestingly enough,hypnosis and meditation are very
(10:06):
similar in a lot of ways interms of how we get you into
that subconscious state.
So hypnosis and meditation runa very parallel line into the
point where we go to thehypnotic suggestion portion.
Meditation will leave you toextrapolate.
Hypnosis is going to go in toprovide hypnotic suggestions of
how things can be right.
(10:28):
So if we go back to the theoryof the mind that we talked about
earlier of how associations arecreated.
I'm going in to go okay, so youwant to break this association
with cigarettes, and I'll startwith where they're at and how
things can be right.
And this is why it's soimportant is that we're trading
right.
(10:48):
It's almost like a scale.
I'm taking away your currentassociation with it and giving
you an option for a new one.
The mind has to like it rightand it has to resonate with the
client.
So if I was like, oh, you'regoing to feel so free and fluffy
and they're like, I would neveruse those words.
That's a really weird way tophrase it.
They're going to reject thatsuggestion because it just
(11:10):
doesn't hit on the emotionallevel.
And so that's why theterminology and words are really
important, because you'reyou're trying to negotiate right
.
It's like you have to want thenegotiation on that has to sound
good to take it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
It makes a lot of sense.
It's fascinating to hear youdescribe it.
I heard you mention smoking asa possible use case.
What are some of the other bestuse cases for hypnotherapy, and
can you also tell us what itcannot do?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, these are really good questions because,
for me, I am not a licensedtherapist, I am not a medical
professional.
I really work within a scope ofpractice for self-improvement.
There are times, however, thatI might work with a medical
professional or a licensedprofessional for things like
depression, depression.
(12:01):
So where does that leave us?
I can work things that I'veworked on our anxiety, stress
management, nail biting, hairpulling, finger picking, fear of
flying fears, phobias, smokingcessation, weight release and I
call it weight release becauseyou didn't lose it, you don't
(12:27):
want it back.
Manifestation right Anytimethere's a behavior that a user
or a patient is going.
I don't want to feel this way.
Why am I like this?
Usually, you're looking forwhat is that behavior, why is it
a problem, and you can go inand negotiate, so it really has
a full scope of where it can beapplied.
However, it depends on whereyou're looking in that scope of
where someone who's not licensedcan do it.
There are plenty of licensedtherapists that also are trained
(12:49):
in hypnosis, though that caneasily fill in for all of it.
I say, if there's anassociation, there's probably a
way to shift it on thatsubconscious level.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Can hypnotherapy help with chronic pain or physical
conditions?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's a great question .
There is a level right.
So when we look at pain, it'sreally interesting, because pain
is your body's way of talkingto you.
It's your body's way of sayinghey, something's not right.
And so there is a point wherehypnosis can help, and then
there's a point where we don'treally want to ignore that
(13:24):
trigger can help, and thenthere's a point where we don't
really want to ignore thattrigger.
But what I tell people is, whenyou're having pain, it can cause
significant stress and it cantherefore influence the
perceived pain levels.
And when you have increasedperceived pain, it feels worse,
and that's where hypnosis canhelp.
Meditation can help.
There's a whole slew of thingsthat subconscious work that we
(13:44):
can take down the perceived painor the anxiety around the pain,
the worry around the pain, sothat it can be lessened.
And when you lessen pain andstress, the healing processes
can increase.
There's been lots of studiesthat have been done post-surgery
of people using hypnosis andmeditation and realizing that
(14:05):
the healing is significantlyfaster because the stress levels
are lower and those processesare not inhibited by stress.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, I believe it.
I believe stress is probablythe number one cause of all
illness in the world.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean when you think about thebody.
It's really interesting, right.
Absolutely Absolutely, I meanwhen you think about the body
it's really interesting, right,because when we can't fight or
flight, we hold it in and you'regoing to notice people who have
anything from jaw clenching,finger picking.
You know so many differentexperiences.
I had one client who was like Ijust have this lower back pain
(14:40):
Now he'd been to a doctor noslip discs, nothing there.
We did some hypnosis aroundsome other stuff but it turned
out a lot of his pain that hewas experiencing was just stuck
tension from carrying a lot ofguilt from his past with him.
So the stomach, interestinglyenough, and lower back, you know
we look at different bodysyndromes and it's like where
(15:02):
your symptoms that have nomedical reason to be there
presenting and you know thestomach and lower back does
represent it's an, it's a lineto look down.
It's not always finitely true,but guilt and frustration, and
so it's like tell me more aboutthat.
So you know it's really.
It's always interesting tolisten to the body and the cues
(15:22):
that it's giving you.
It's always interesting tolisten to the body and the cues
that it's giving you and toreally again build that picture.
The goal is to build thatpicture of the person in context
.
It's like, wow, that reallymakes sense, given what you're
sharing, given what you'retelling me.
The second thing that's alwaysimportant is to try to go from
the presenting problem.
Right, I can't sleep.
It's never about sleep.
It's never about sleep.
That's the presenting issue.
(15:43):
To be able to ask a line ofquestions, to get really deep
into the what is the underlyingassociation there?
You know it's like, okay, somaybe I'm not sleeping because
I'm really stressed out.
Well, what's causing you stress?
Right, and they're like well,I'm really stressed out because
I just went through a breakup.
Okay, well, tell me what'sstressful about the breakup.
It's like I feel rejected.
(16:04):
Tell me, where does that comefrom?
Right, so you keep digging downto get deeper and deeper.
And it's like, okay, this iswhere we want to work, cause
again, you're trying to getthose roots out, to plant a new
seed.
Root cause.
And that's why I like thecontext right, cause if I go,
you're going to have greatnight's sleep tonight.
You might, but you're not.
It's going to come back because, again, you haven't pulled the
(16:25):
roots out.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So with something like sleep due to stress, due to
some other deeper root cause.
How many sessions can itrealistically take for somebody
to feel healed?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, so I always say healed to feel healed as an
interesting statement.
Right, because it reallydepends on the definition of
healed.
But when users come in with apresenting issue, right, like I
never know, I always have thecommonalities of like what I've
seen.
But I've I've never ceased tobe amazed, sometimes things that
(16:59):
I think won't clear up rightaway and maybe you're going to
take, you know, a series ofsessions anywhere from like
three to six.
It's like in one.
All of a sudden it's like oneand done so.
It's sort of amazing.
Personally, the reason I endedup getting into hypnotherapy 14
years ago was that I was an avidfinger picker.
It started when I was reallyyoung and it just continued.
(17:23):
It was terrible through mychildhood, got really worse
during high school and college,and then I had been seeing
therapists and they're like wethink you have OCD, we want to
put you on a high dosemedication.
I was like that's just not theroute I want to go.
I am certainly not one who'sopposed to medication If it
helps, then why not.
But it was just didn't feellike the right thing at the time
(17:44):
and I ended up seeing ahypnotherapist on a total lark.
Someone was like oh, have youever tried hypnotherapy?
And I was like, no, should I?
That's crazy.
Yeah, I'm gonna try it.
I went in very open minded andwithin one session, I kid you
not I stopped and this was ahabit that I've been doing my
whole life.
(18:04):
I was blown away and I I tothis day I went back to the same
hypnotherapist who became mymentor and it was just so
life-changing.
I went back for what I nowdescribe, as you know, just sort
of fear.
I was living sort of in thisfear bubble of like, if I do
this, what are all theramifications and just started
living more freely and taking,you know, not a lot of risk, if
I do this, what are all theramifications?
(18:25):
And just started living morefreely and taking, you know, not
a lot of risk, but doing normalthings, that it's like, no, I
actually want to do this andthat sounds exciting and it was
really freeing and it's justsomething just like it feels
like nothing changes, buteverything changed.
It's like this whole new lens.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
It's incredible, and if you can remember anything
from that session, what wouldyou say was the suggestion?
So how was it so effective?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
You know the session.
So, first, the first session, Iremember really going.
Just it was a lot of liketesting, right, like, if I look
back with my sort of scoped eyefrom a hypnotherapist point of
view, right, the first part isreally just testing what worked
for me, right, where do I fallin terms of am I a metaphorical
(19:14):
learner?
Am I a direct learner?
There are things that we ashypnotherapists look for as you
go into the hypnotic state.
So he's testing how the rapportis right.
Am I following command?
Am I doing what's being asked?
How am I?
Am I relaxing as we go throughit?
So I remember him doing like ahand levitation, which is where
(19:37):
you put your hand out or yourelbow on the table, palm flat,
and it's sort of like I want youto think about, with your eyes
closed, a string on the back ofyour hand pulling up and up, and
up and up, and again you'relike this is weird, until all of
a sudden your hand is likemoving up without you like
thinking about it, and you'relike, okay, wow, mind, body
connection, right, your mind isthinking about the string and
(19:59):
the hands responding.
I remember also he regressed meback to a point where he's like
I want you to go back to theearliest memory of when this
started and, interestinglyenough, right your mind, as
we've all seen in the Disneymovie about emotions.
(20:19):
He regressed me back to amemory that was accessible.
It was not a logical one Iwould have recalled, but I
remember being a very littlegirl in my grandparents living
room and I remember looking atthe carpet and it was the same
carpet that I had living room.
And I remember looking at thecarpet and it was the same
carpet that I had in college andI just never really I knew
where it came from, but I waslike I don't, I had no
significance to me, but Iremember being on that carpet
(20:41):
and being very upset because Ididn't know where anybody was,
and that's where the anxietystarted from.
It was like a core emotion thatstarted of.
Like that pinpointed thebeginning of it.
Now, what's amazing in hypnosisis that he was able to go well,
where is everybody Right?
He challenged the fact that mymind had taken in.
(21:04):
His truth was that like I wasabandoned or whatever it
might've been, and I was like,oh, they're just in the kitchen,
okay, and reframed it so thatthat my mind didn't have to sort
of see it as a terror, but justa oh okay, they're there, I'm
fine, and it was almost like adomino effect of it, like just
(21:24):
released all this stuff.
But I also remember it was likeanytime my hand comes up to my
mouth or my fingers go to pickmy cuticles or what have you, I
hear no, and it was almost likethis jarring effect so that
anytime I like I would go to dothat, there would be this almost
like little panic that wouldcause the leg trigger.
It's like I don't do thatanymore kind of thing and it
(21:46):
just stopped.
It was sort of wild.
I mean, you don't think it'spossible when you've been doing
it for so long, and I thinkthat's part of what is so cool
about this profession.
Now, I certainly don't want tosell this as like it's 100%
guaranteed, just so you becomenot confident, right, that you
can change.
(22:14):
And then you realize, wow, likeI can.
I just have to know what I wantand I have to like find the
ways that it can work to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
The mind and the body are incredible.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Unbelievable.
It's a wonderful system and yetcan be so toxic.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
But hearing you tell your story was reminding me of
EMDR.
I don't know if you've evertried EMDR.
I haven't yet, but I've heardit's very similar it sounds like
it, and I've done EMDR oncebefore and the amount of
progress I was able to make in a15 minute session was mind
blowing to me.
So all of this, I think it'slike what you're saying, if
(22:51):
you're open, right, and ifyou've also been doing a little
bit of research to understandhow the subconscious works and
how you can really choose,sometimes, your future.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, and it's hard again, right, like people are
like I can't change, but you'rereally working that logical
willpower alone, you're workingwith 10% of the mind against
these associations that havebeen built for so long.
So it's hard to do that andit's sometimes I, I even have a
hard time doing guidedvisualizations to myself.
(23:24):
Right, it's sometimes easierwhen you find someone.
But now this gets into a coupleof the key things.
If you want to work with ahypnotherapist or anyone, even
an EMDR specialist, right,therapist, you have to trust
them.
Right, like, if you don't trustthem, you're not going to allow
yourself to go into theseunknown states.
Because what the mind, thesubconscious mind, hates the
(23:47):
most, right, remember,everything's built on
association.
If you don't know them or youdon't trust them, the unknown is
frightening because it can'tcategorize it.
And so you know, I can tellwhen a client and I just aren't
having a rapport, you'll notice,in the hypnotic state the body
does amazing things.
When you're relaxing, right One, you can see the client sort of
(24:10):
turn away.
Right, have you ever beentalking to someone and you're
just not vibing with them and,like you just sense their body
language turning away from you?
The same thing can happen andyou can gain it back, but you
know it's.
You have to be aware that it'snot working in that way or
there's some block and you canask directly to go.
What is the block?
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
How do you handle I mean, beyond asking questions
about what is the block like howdo you handle people who may be
skeptical, or they're resistant, or they're just nervous about
the process altogether?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Of course, I would say 90% of the clients that I
work with come in and have neverdone hypnosis, and so the first
step is always going.
Let me tell you what to expect.
I like to set up expectationsvery clearly from the beginning
of how the session's going toflow.
That before we do hypnosis I'mgoing to tell them all about
what happens.
That if they want to record thehypnosis portion, they're
(25:05):
welcome to that.
You know I typically don't havethem talk.
If they do, they're going toremember it.
It's not stage hypnosis.
But you should be skeptical.
I think that's a great right.
Tell me I'm wrong if you wantme to go into that state with
(25:35):
you.
So there's a level ofreassurance.
Now, again, as you're workingwith a client, again, if they've
never done it, it's perfectlynormal for them to like have a
little bit of a block at first,and again, that's just showing
them.
You know it's like, well, let'sdo some hypnosis, right, like
(25:58):
one of my favorite things is youcan do.
You know what I call the lemontest, and it's not a pass fail,
it's just I'm testing a client,right, or it's.
I have them close their eyesand I guide them through walking
into their kitchen and findingwhere they would keep a lemon
and a cutting board, and whatyou do is you have them cut the
lemon in half and bring thatlemon up to the mouth and take a
bite of it.
Now, interestingly enough,what's funny is the mind is
(26:21):
focused.
They're focusing on somethingthey've seen before.
They remember what we all knowwhat a lemon tastes like.
A certain type of person willstart to have their mouth
salivate.
You'll get like a tightness inthe jaw or they'll begin to
salivate.
Some people won't and that'stotally fine, but again, most
people do and it's like, oh, andI'm like there's no lemon here,
(26:43):
right?
So that's hypnosis.
Is that I'm giving you a cue,you're having a response and we
create that.
So these are the things whereit's like I want to make people
comfortable, right, and even asthey're going into the hypnotic
state, reassurance is great.
Or there's things that I'llpoint out to them as we go
through it, where it's likelisten, you might notice like
(27:04):
the first stage is going intothe hypnotic states.
The eyes wobble up and down.
Most people don't notice it'shappening when it's happening,
but if you point it out to them,I'm like you might notice this
wobble of the eyes moving up anddown and they'll nod their head
and it's like and that's justshowing me that you're already
in a light hypnotic state, right?
And that's the way of that,just sort of going look, you're
(27:24):
doing great, right, and that'slike, just keep doing what
you're doing and we'll just keepgoing deeper and deeper, and
just because people don't wantto feel like they're not in
control of the process, I thinkthat's by far the most
frightening.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, I can see that and I can imagine that,
especially given that mostpeople's exposure to hypnosis is
like what you were saying TVshows on stage where people are
doing maybe things that theydon't want to be doing, and it
feels creepy.
This doesn't sound like that atall.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, no, it's not like that.
Again, I'm a very reputableperson.
I read body languageextraordinarily well.
I'm pretty intuitive.
It's interesting because youcan tell especially if someone
is in the hypnotic state.
I can tell you when I was doinghypnosis personally and I see
I've seen this before with myclients too but for me my
(28:16):
hypnotherapist had asked me aquestion and I remember I don't
remember until he pointed it outthat I was tapping my fingers
on the desk like tap, tap, tap,tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
And he asked me it's like Iwant you to draw your attention
to your hands.
What's going on?
And I was like I don't want totalk about it.
And he's like, okay.
So I was not noticed, totallyaware that I was tapping my
(28:39):
fingers, but my body was talkingand that's what we call an
adverse reaction, right Is that?
A suggestion is given and thebody responds, right?
It's the same thing asflinching, right?
Your body is responding beforeyour mouth does and therefore I
might notice, as a client is inthe hypnotic state and I might
(29:00):
provide a suggestion thatdoesn't resonate with them, you
might see their face sort ofsquinch up a little.
You might notice their footbegin to tap a bit or move, you
might notice the breathingpattern change, because when
you're in the hypnotic stateit's a very shallow, light
breath.
So, interestingly enough, thebreathing pattern when you're
(29:22):
awake right is a normal breath.
As you go into the hypnoticstates they get shallower and
shallower.
It's almost feels like you'renot breathing, and then when you
go into the sleep state itbecomes like a rolling breath.
So these are all like very coolcues that we look for, like the
skin becomes very smooth andflush, the jaw relaxes, the body
(29:43):
gets heavy, heavy, heavy.
So it's such a fascinatingexperience to not only watch but
also be part of, because it'sfor the user.
It's very relaxing.
And again, it's not that you'renot aware of anything, you're
just choosing to focus yourdirection on what is being
talked about.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It sounds like an incredible practice to also just
help people with changing theirlives in the direction that
they want to.
Okay, so you do one-on-onesessions, but then you also have
Modern Sanctuary, and then youalso have the Burble app.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's right.
Yes, so healing my journeyreally started with my private
practice.
I've been doing that since 2010.
It is a passion of mine and Ihad realized that, while my
private practice is wonderful, Ijust knew I wanted to reach
more people and I knew that noteveryone can afford hypnotherapy
(30:39):
it's not covered by insurance.
So how would I do that?
And I had started, back in 2015, an app.
I actually paused developmenton it until three years ago and
we really started developing it,but that's what has recently
become verbal.
We'll come back into that.
But modern sanctuary is the spathat I started, where we had
all different types of holisticpractices all in one space so
(31:02):
that if hypnotherapy didn't work, we had acupuncture, if
acupuncture didn't work, we hadReiki.
We had so many differenttreatments as well.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So modern Sanctuary started before the Burble app or
after.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Before.
So, funny enough, it wentprivate practice.
I started the app and thenstopped it, jumped into Modern
Sanctuary, and that was from2016 until today, both New York
mostly, and then Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
And I think I just saw that you won Philadelphia
Magazine's 2024.
Best of Philly.
Is that right?
We?
Speaker 1 (31:36):
did Yep, we did so very exciting stuff.
And then Burble has been intandem with so since I started
development in Burble 2022.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So I'd love to hear a little bit about both of these
entrepreneurial journeys,because they're pretty different
from each other.
Yeah, so how was let's doModern Sanctuary first?
How was Modern Sanctuary set up?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Okay, so Modern?
When I started Modern, Iactually was working at a spa or
a wellness center and I endedup taking over the lease there
and then creating my own sort ofexperience.
It was a sole proprietor LLC.
I had the vision.
The original goal was to createa Himalayan salt room with one
(32:23):
or two practitioner rooms, andit just so turned out that the
space that I was in and workingout of with a whole team of
practitioners the guy was likeI'm not renewing the lease,
maybe you want to take it overand put the Himalayan salt room
here.
And I was like interesting, loand behold, it turns out when
you have a dream and a deepdesire, you can make anything
happen.
(32:43):
So that was where ModernSanctuary was born was in New
York City the day after theelection in 2016.
It was really all about doingwellness differently.
It was about dark, black wallsand crocodile wallpaper, playing
on the idea of sensorydeprivation right, that instead
of it feeling light and bright,that you were coming into a dark
(33:07):
room to take away all thatstimulus to feel relaxed.
It was about having the waitingroom look like a living room.
You literally walked off intolike a living room style waiting
room because I wanted people tofeel like they were stepping
into someone's home and thosewere sort of the goals, like
creating this.
You know you can do anythingfrom med spa services all the
(33:29):
way to crystal chakra balancingand neuroplasticity treatments
and stuff like that.
So it was pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
How many rooms is this Like?
How big is the facility?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, so the New York location was 16 treatment rooms
and a huge Himalayan salt room.
Oh my gosh, it was huge.
It was 5,000 square feet ofspace, an outrageous like rent
Cause of course you're in NewYork, we were not even ground
floor.
Rent was like above $25,000 amonth not including expenses.
So that was only in New York,right.
(34:02):
So what was interesting is,after COVID, we just knew we
weren't going to recoup and sowe decided in 2022 to close.
But, knowing what I knew fromthe New York location, it was
really looking again at thenumbers right, numbers don't lie
of what was working, whatwasn't, because we were also a
rental facility.
(34:23):
So, you know, we were kind oflike a we work of wellness where
people rented with us, and so Iknew that I didn't want to be a
landlord.
Again, I looked at the numbersof what services were doing
really well and then also whatthe benefit of the other ones
were.
Right, I was never getting intosalt again.
That's a whole, nother probablypodcasting conversation, but
(34:43):
there were certain things that Idid want to keep, like our
crystal bed, which is amarketing staple, like it's
always looks great in ads andit's a great draw for people to
come in and be known for.
But then we really stuck withlike lymphatic drainage,
massages, facials, infraredsauna, those sort of like really
key treatments.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
So, then, the idea to restart developing the Burble
app came back into play.
What has that journey been like, going from idea to the app
actually being available in thestore?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah.
So this has been, I would say,modern.
There was a very steep learningcurve at the beginning because
whoa did I get in over my head?
Burble has been really neatbecause I'm back on a learning
curve of things that, like, Iknow nothing about.
So during the pandemic, Irealized it was time to bring
(35:40):
that back on to the platform tofind someone to develop it with
and, interestingly enough, Ijust moved to Philly, so I
didn't really know anyone.
I just had a kid.
I was locked in my house and Iwas like I need to do something.
I need to do something becauseI can't run the spa and I'm
tired of trying to figure outloans and all that craziness.
(36:01):
But I ended up posting onNextdoor app and about being
like does anyone interested indeveloping an app with me?
It's funny because my businesspartner, daniel, was like I'm
never on that thing.
Are you sure that's where wemet?
I'm like it's a hundred percentwhere we met.
We talked to.
He was like this soundsinteresting, let's chat.
And we just went back and forthgoing over what the idea was
(36:23):
and he's like let's do it now.
Unbeknownst to me, I didn'trealize what his background was
in technology and developmentand he was like I love this idea
.
My business partner and myother business partner and I
want to do this with you.
So the three of us over the lastthree years have taken so much
(36:43):
time to really outline the userexperience, what the app is, and
I will tell you as we wentthrough the user experience.
It was so daunting, like I.
Three years sounds like a longtime to develop like what seems
to be a very simple app, but itwas so interesting to go through
the mind of what happens indevelopment of oh yeah, there's
no button to do that.
(37:03):
We forgot that.
Oh man, we got to go back inand do that.
Right, you don't think about,when you send a text message
through your phone, what happensto the text box as you type.
Does it just keep typing andthe text box doesn't get bigger,
or does the text box expand?
There are these little thingsthat you're like I have no idea.
(37:24):
Turns out the text box whenyou're texting on Apple, on an
iPhone, it expands upward.
But I'm like, whoa, we didn'teven think of that.
So it's all these things thatwhen they develop, they have we
need to know.
So we've gone through that,we've gone through the patent
process.
We've rebranded like colorscheme wise, website development
(37:45):
wise.
All of it just being done byDaniel myself, bill and the team
that's making the app.
So it's been a really coollearning curve in terms of you
got to be open to it, becauseit's a frustrating process at
times.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
And what did it take for you to finally launch?
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah.
So I had to put myperfectionist it's not good
enough quality to the side,because I think what I realized
was the app will always be indevelopment, right, just as we,
as humans, are always indevelopment.
Yes, maybe there's one or twothings that can always be
improved upon, but you had toget it to a place where the
(38:25):
first step being the minimumviable product right.
It's like we had to keepstopping, let's add this and
let's add this.
We had to go.
Let's just launch it and see ifpeople even want this to begin
with.
And that's sort of where we'reat.
We launched with a great product.
It's super interesting and foryour listeners, burble, is it's
(38:46):
not a hypnosis app.
It's a guided visualization appthat takes into account, like,
several different modalities ofthe subconscious mind.
But what's really unique aboutit is it's a choose your own
adventure platform, meaning wegive you the ability to create
your own session, right Fromwhatever you want to work on,
whether it's smoking ormanifestation, finding love
(39:10):
you're going to find thattreatment that's perfect for you
, and then you know, the mostimportant part is how you get
into the relaxed state, and soyou're going to be able to
choose your adventure of, I wantto go to the beach and then I
want to watch clouds, and then Iwant to float in a river, and
you can then pick the music youwant in the background and how
you want to end it, whether it's, you know, falling asleep,
(39:32):
waking up or just relaxing forlike 10 minutes.
The background, what's happening, is we're toggling together all
these components and creatingyour unique experience.
No session is ever the same,unless you save it, but it's
always going to be different,and we wanted that to be the
case, because I love apps likeCalm and Headspace, but I found
(39:54):
I'm like I can't find what I'mlooking for.
I don't even know what I'mlooking for sometimes, and it's
just.
We wanted you to be able tobuild your own experience.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
It's a very interesting concept.
I gave it a try and I washaving trouble sleeping and I
can say with certainty that itdefinitely helped me go to sleep
.
Love that.
I don't know at what point itdid, so I'm curious if it was
while there was speaking takingplace or if it was while the
(40:23):
beats were happening in thebackground.
I don't know, but it waseffective.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
It was probably all of it.
It all worked right, it's allcumulative and I think that's
the exciting all of it.
It all worked right, it's allcumulative and I think that's
the exciting part of it.
And again, those binaural beatsthat we put into them.
They're really helping andtrain the mind, as you talked
about with the alpha waves, betawaves, theta waves.
So it's all very meticulouslycurated and put together.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So, with Burble, what are you hoping to achieve?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
My goal is one to raise awareness that there are
tools out there that people canuse.
I think what's important for mefor people to understand about
verbal is I love meditation andagain, this is not a knock on
that, but I think there's a waythat you know apps can get you
into a really calm place andfeeling calm is wonderful, like
(41:12):
that's great.
We're looking to take it thenext step further, where it's
like we're not just helping youget calm, we're helping you
change and that's we're puttingthose suggestions in the
recordings.
It's really going to help,right.
We're helping you work on andtreat anxiety right, or dating,
or you're feeling not goodenough.
We're helping like shift thatby providing those suggestions
(41:36):
and other subconscioustechniques and tools as well.
So we're looking to just takeyou past the state of calm into
that real manifestation ofchange in your life.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Do you see hypnotherapy becoming more
commonplace?
So what do you see as thefuture of hypnotherapy?
Speaker 1 (41:55):
It has been my mission from when I started in
2010 to make hypnotherapy cometo the forefront as a real,
powerful tool that is accessibleto people.
I can tell you from when Istarted in 2010,.
There, of course, there's lotsof hypnotists out there, but I,
you know, right as I startedgetting going, there was lots of
(42:18):
news articles that were comingout.
You saw it in the papers more.
Olivia Munn was noted as beingsomeone who was using it for one
of her roles, and that's when Istarted getting more and more
press requests.
And that's when I startedseeing more and more celebrities
interestingly enough in mypractice and top level CEOs and
musicians.
And you know, I think you'realways going to see it sort of
in the mainstream first and thenit's going to trickle into like
(42:40):
everybody else sort of wantingto try it.
So I think it's on its way upthere.
You're seeing hospitals, right,you have the Mayo Clinic, the
Children's Hospital,Philadelphia, Mount Sinai.
They have dedicated programsfor hypnosis and hypnotherapy,
which is really amazing.
So again, if we look back, youknow, 15 years ago, to
acupuncture, when everyone waslike, oh, this is crazy.
(43:02):
But now it's, it's totally,it's in hospitals.
You see it everywhere, it'snormalized.
I'm hoping the same thing willhappen as well same thing will
happen as well.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I think that it will.
I mean, I am deeply down thatpath right now, which is with my
own self-healing.
Just sure, I've been readingJoe Dispenza.
My sister is an integratedphysician.
She's been teaching me so muchand just understanding again
what the possibilities are foryourself and how openness can
really be a powerful tool.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
It's also important.
One of the things is to sharewith people.
If you are going to be lookingfor a hypnotist or
hypnotherapist, there's a coupleof things you should look for.
One ask about their training,because there's several
different types of trainingspeople can have.
Sometimes people are like, oh,I know hypnosis and I took a
week long class and I wascertified by.
(43:59):
I mean certifications right noware kind of like I mean people
are just like tossing out papers, so you know, know where those
certifications come from.
How long did they study hypnosis?
There's one thing to know howto hypnotize someone, and then
there's what you do with themwhile in the hypnotic state.
So I know the school I went to,the hypnosis motivational
(44:21):
Institute, has one of the onlyaccredited programs out there,
so they have a resource whereyou can actually go look up
where their grads are located tofind someone in your area.
I really they're a fabulousprogram.
It's usually like a year longprogram too, so it's not just
let me get you into the hypnoticstate and tell you what to do,
but it really goes through likehow do you handle when someone's
(44:45):
like in trauma or how do youhandle all of these things that
are happening and really makingsure you do it ethically and
morally, and all that stuff toohappening and really making sure
you do it ethically and morallyand all that stuff too, and
also just knowing how one matchmay not be the right fit for one
person but it is for anotherperson, and finding the right
practitioner.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, so I just have a couple of questions for you
remaining.
The first is just what advicewould you give to anyone who is
aspiring to be an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I think it is such an exciting time for
entrepreneurship.
My first advice is trust yourgut.
If you have a vision like,listen, someone created the pet
rock, right?
Like if someone told me thatthat was going to be a
gangbuster thing, like that'scrazy, but trust your intuition.
Everything can be made into abusiness, everything and
anything.
You just have to believe that.
The second is do your researchbut also, more importantly, have
(45:44):
a marketing plan.
That has been the biggest hurdleis marketing.
I've seen a lot of people thatI've mentored go in and go well,
I have a really great product.
It's just going to gogangbusters and you're like, no,
it might, if you're reallyreally, really lucky, but having
a solid marketing plan andbudget for it and maybe not even
(46:06):
a budget, you might be able todo a lot of it on your own and
time and research, but marketingit's all about especially with
the competitive edge of thatpeople have nowadays is have a
solid marketing plan with it,cause an idea is an idea is an
idea, but it's how do you get itto the people that want it?
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
There's a lot of noise out there.
There's a lot of noise.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
You've got to stand out somehow.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yes, exactly.
So for a final question if youcould go back and speak with
yourself when you were in yourearly twenties, what life wisdom
would you give yourself?
Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's a really good question.
I would go back and probablytell myself don't stress over
the grades, Don't stress overthe A's or the B's or having to
finish like college in the righttimeline and scale.
It's okay if you're not likethe best in the class, that each
(47:03):
of our skills come from likereally a different place.
I wish I had known back thenthat my superpower is I'm a
creative right and I'm asolution finder.
If I had that sort of nurturedfrom a younger age, I think that
life would have felt a littlebit easier and maybe I wouldn't
have sweated so much in thecompetitive environments that I
(47:24):
was in for sure, and that wouldhave really bred a lot more
ability to learn without fearand phobia.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
In my mind it's great advice and I think a lot of
people in their early twentiesare just doing what they think
they're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Of course.
I mean that's what we've beenindoctrinated to do.
Right it's get good grades, goto college, do this, you know,
get the job and and that worksright.
Like I can tell you, myhusband's a doctor.
You know there's a path if youwant that.
But if you're not feeling likethe conventional path is working
(47:59):
for you, there's a millionother pathways out there, and
finding people to mentor youwould be another one.
Find mentors, even if it's notlike an official mentorship.
Just finding people that canlike, inspire you on the daily
has been life changing.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
I am so thankful for having you come on the show.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Me too.
This has been really nice.
I hope it comes through that.
I just love talking about whatI do and sharing about it.
So thank you, Anne.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Today's key takeaways .
Your subconscious mind is awellspring of creativity,
potential and healing.
Whether through hypnotherapy,meditation or guided
visualization, cultivating thisskill of tapping into your
subconscious mind can enhancepersonal growth, problem solving
(48:49):
and creativity.
Start small and dream big.
Alexandra's journey with ModernSanctuary started with a single
vision for a Himalayan saltroom, but her ambition and
adaptability turned it into a5,000 square foot wellness
center.
Start with what you have andallow your vision to evolve as
(49:10):
opportunities arise.
Adapt to changing circumstances.
Flexibility in business ensuressustainability, especially
during challenging times.
Identify what makes yourbusiness stand out and lean into
it to attract your idealaudience.
(49:30):
Know your numbers.
Analyze the performance of eachservice or product you offer,
and use these data-driveninsights to cut inefficiencies
and focus on profitable areas.
Be open to collaborating withpeople who bring different
skills and perspectives to yourbusiness.
(49:51):
Choose progress over perfection.
Let go of perfectionism to getyour minimum viable product into
the market.
Remember your product willalways evolve and the best
feedback often comes afterlaunch.
Understand the importance ofmarketing, even if it's
(50:12):
grassroots or low budget ormaybe even free.
Invest time and energy intoreaching your audience
effectively.
Don't know how to do somethingGreat.
It's time to learn.
Always seek growthopportunities, even if they
require stepping outside of yourcomfort zone, even if they
require stepping outside of yourcomfort zone.
(50:33):
And lastly, when you have adream and a deep desire, you can
make anything happen.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
Don't stress over the grades.
Don't stress over the A's orthe B's or having to finish
college on the right timelineand scale.
It's okay if you're not thebest in the class, that each of
our skills come from like reallya different place.
I wish I had known back then.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.
I'm your host, anne McGinty,and today we're joined by
Alexandra Gianelli, a leadinghypnotherapist and founder of
Modern Sanctuary, an alternativebeauty and wellness spa, and
winner of PhiladelphiaMagazine's 2024 Best of Philly.
Alexandra is also the founderof MyBurble, a transformative
app designed to help usersovercome stress, anxiety, sleep
(00:57):
issues and other personalchallenges through tailored
guided visualizations andmeditations.
As a premier hypnotherapist,alexandra has guided Academy
Award nominated actors, renownedphotographers, singers and CEOs
toward meaningfultransformation.
Her work has been featured intop publications like the New
(01:21):
York Times, elle Magazine, oprahMagazine, men's Fitness and
Forbes.
You can find a link through toher business in the episode's
description.
We have an incredible lineup ofguests coming your way, so don't
forget to hit the subscribebutton and stay tuned.
(01:41):
Upcoming episodes feature thefounder of a boutique surf
resort, the creative forcebehind a local improv pop-up, a
doctor of clinical nutrition andan outdoor enthusiast who
launched an adventure travelcompany for teens.
Each guest brings inspiringstories and valuable expertise.
(02:03):
My hope is that you'll not onlybe entertained, but also gain
fresh insights and ideas.
Let's dive in.
Thank you to our listeners forbeing here today.
Alexandra, thanks for coming onthe show.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I am so happy to be here, thrilled to chat.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I am so happy to be here, thrilled to chat.
So what can you tell?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
us about hypnotherapy , like how does this differ from
hypnosis as entertainment?
It's such a good question andit's one of my biggest things
that I like to share with abouthypnosis, cause I think there is
a stigma around it.
I think we've all seen themovies.
I know it's in cartoons.
You know someone gettinghypnotized and walking around
quacking like a duck.
They do both exist, but I willtell you, what happens on stage
(02:54):
is very different than whathappens in my office.
Some people are verydisappointed when I say that and
some people are very thrilledto hear that.
So they do run a similar line,but a lot of hypnosis at least.
What we're going to talk abouttoday is really about a deep
state of relaxation with anacute focus.
If you can fall asleep at nightand wake up in the morning, you
(03:17):
actually go through thehypnotic state.
So it's a very familiar state.
People just might not be ableto right away identify.
Oh, that's the hypnotic state.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So how do you get into the hypnotic state, and can
you tell us a little bit moreabout what this state is?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So hypnosis is the state between awake and sleep,
like I'd mentioned.
And I think to understandhypnosis is to really start with
the theory of the mind, right?
So we have two parts to ourmind.
There's the conscious mind andthe subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is whereall of our behaviors are born,
our reactions, our copingmechanisms.
(03:55):
The conscious mind is all ourwillpower, deductive reasoning,
our logic.
It's what we use like 90% ofthe day, but it only accounts
for about 10%, and that's wherethe subconscious comes into play
, right?
It's all sort of below thisreally critical layer of like
logical thinking.
So from the moment that you'reborn until today, everything is
(04:18):
learned through association,right?
So if you have a fear of dogslet's say, you get bit by a dog
as a child and you develop afear of dogs, let's say you get
bit by a dog as a child and youdevelop a fear of dogs, you've
created an association on thesubconscious level that dogs are
scary, right?
And so when you see one, yoursubconscious is going to react
with that fearful protectivemechanism, even though the
(04:40):
logical mind is going to kick into go wait, it's fine, it's a
small dog, it's behind a fence,you know it's going to come up
to go.
Wait, it's fine, it's a smalldog, it's behind a fence.
You know it's going to come upwith reasons that you don't have
to feel that way.
And so what hypnosis does iswe're helping take you from that
awake, very aware state into amuch more relaxed and focused
state, meaning right, like whenyou're aware and you're fully
(05:03):
awake.
You have a very large scope offocus.
You can take in differentsights, sound, taste, smells but
when you go into the hypnoticstate, that scope of focus
becomes incredibly narrowed inand you're so acutely focused on
what's being talked about thatthat's where your focus goes.
You actually go into this state.
When you're watching movies,you go into it.
(05:24):
When you're reading a book,some people when they're driving
, you go into that highwayhypnosis, right.
You're not really thinkingabout am I pushing the gas or am
I pushing the brake?
You're just sort of doing thesethings and being aware of the
cars to your left and your rightand in front of you.
So it's actually a veryfamiliar state.
You're not under anyone'scontrol or anything like that
either.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So are you talking about the difference between,
like, beta waves and alpha wavesand theta waves?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Absolutely so.
As you go from the awakeconscious state down into the
subconscious states and theneventually asleep, you are
moving through those differentbrain wavelengths, states, and
then eventually you sleep.
You are moving through thosedifferent brain wavelengths, and
so my private practice iscalled Theta Spring Hypnosis,
because right like that is thatnice deep hypnotic theta wave
(06:20):
that we're looking for.
Now, all of those differentdepths are different, like forms
of the hypnotic state, and youknow you can use each state for
a different thing, right Likealpha waves.
You know I might want someonein a lighter state, where they
have a little bit more sensation.
As you go into the theta states, there's almost this disconnect
from the mind and the body, soit's sort of like you're free
floating, your body's deeplyrelaxed, and they all have
different purposes, which issort of interesting too.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So when you are in that theta state, is there still
any awareness?
Yes, or are you already?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
dreaming.
No, so you're still aware,right?
There's actually one more state, just below that, that, where
they can actually get you into avery, very deep hypnotic state
to do surgery, where you'vereally left the body, you've
disassociated from pain.
And then there's the sleepstate, and that's where you get
into left the body, you'vedisassociated from pain, and
then there's the sleep state,and that's where you get into
the unconscious mind.
But you are aware, right?
(07:10):
So you know, when you're justabout to fall asleep, if you
heard someone open your door,you're going to hear it and
you're going to, like, wake upand go.
What was that?
Same thing happens in thehypnotic state.
If I said to you, you know,take off all your clothes and go
run around the office, on somesubconscious level, right, you'd
have to want to do that or havelike a desire to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
You wouldn't just do it because I told you to, there
has to be a want or a desire todo something like that, or even
if it comes from a fear place dosomething like that, or even if
it comes from a fear place, andwhat can you tell us about the
science behind what happensduring a session so you get
somebody into this deep state ofrelaxation where they're
(07:54):
halfway between awake and asleep?
How does the hypnotherapy workin the brain?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, it's a great question.
So when I run a session withclients, the first step is to
always understand what bringsyou in today, right, my job is
to understand a client fully incontext, and that means one.
What's going on right, how canI help you?
Maybe they say that they'recoming in for sleep Wonderful,
we have a baseline.
(08:21):
The other question is why?
Now, right, there is somethingthat has caused them to want to.
Other question is why?
Now, right, there is somethingthat has caused them to want to
take care of this.
Now, right, whether it's oh well, I've been having a hard time
sleeping, or I just lost my joband I've been having a lot of
anxiety around that, and soyou're kind of trying to
understand what the urgency is,right, some people it's my
(08:42):
significant other or my spouseis really upset that I smoke and
that's why I'm here.
Those are a little trickier forme, just because they have to
have that internal desire toquit smoking.
That doesn't mean it'simpossible, but understanding
context is really important.
So, for example, someone comesand they're like I really want
to quit smoking.
(09:03):
I feel like I'm ready.
I have this really badrelationship with it.
My next step is to understandthat relationship with
cigarettes in order to have asuccessful hypnosis session.
I'm trying to understand theclient's words, their
terminology, what things you canwatch their body get triggered
by right.
You can sort of tell whensomeone gets uncomfortable they
(09:24):
maybe start fidgeting or movinga bunch.
I'm looking for tone of words.
Are they speaking in metaphoror are they speaking much more
directly?
All of these are things that I,as the hypnotherapist, am
taking in so that when we get tothe point, after we've talked
and we've created goals ofhere's where I'm at and here's
(09:45):
where I want to go, I can thenunderstand how to phrase what
are called hypnotic suggestions.
And hypnotic suggestions areonce you're in that hypnotic or
let's call it the subconsciousstate, I can go in to start
negotiating.
Now, interestingly enough,hypnosis and meditation are very
(10:06):
similar in a lot of ways interms of how we get you into
that subconscious state.
So hypnosis and meditation runa very parallel line into the
point where we go to thehypnotic suggestion portion.
Meditation will leave you toextrapolate.
Hypnosis is going to go in toprovide hypnotic suggestions of
how things can be right.
(10:28):
So if we go back to the theoryof the mind that we talked about
earlier of how associations arecreated.
I'm going in to go okay, so youwant to break this association
with cigarettes, and I'll startwith where they're at and how
things can be right.
And this is why it's soimportant is that we're trading
right.
(10:48):
It's almost like a scale.
I'm taking away your currentassociation with it and giving
you an option for a new one.
The mind has to like it rightand it has to resonate with the
client.
So if I was like, oh, you'regoing to feel so free and fluffy
and they're like, I would neveruse those words.
That's a really weird way tophrase it.
They're going to reject thatsuggestion because it just
(11:10):
doesn't hit on the emotionallevel.
And so that's why theterminology and words are really
important, because you'reyou're trying to negotiate right
.
It's like you have to want thenegotiation on that has to sound
good to take it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
It makes a lot of sense.
It's fascinating to hear youdescribe it.
I heard you mention smoking asa possible use case.
What are some of the other bestuse cases for hypnotherapy, and
can you also tell us what itcannot do?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, these are really good questions because,
for me, I am not a licensedtherapist, I am not a medical
professional.
I really work within a scope ofpractice for self-improvement.
There are times, however, thatI might work with a medical
professional or a licensedprofessional for things like
depression, depression.
(12:01):
So where does that leave us?
I can work things that I'veworked on our anxiety, stress
management, nail biting, hairpulling, finger picking, fear of
flying fears, phobias, smokingcessation, weight release and I
call it weight release becauseyou didn't lose it, you don't
(12:27):
want it back.
Manifestation right Anytimethere's a behavior that a user
or a patient is going.
I don't want to feel this way.
Why am I like this?
Usually, you're looking forwhat is that behavior, why is it
a problem, and you can go inand negotiate, so it really has
a full scope of where it can beapplied.
However, it depends on whereyou're looking in that scope of
where someone who's not licensedcan do it.
There are plenty of licensedtherapists that also are trained
(12:49):
in hypnosis, though that caneasily fill in for all of it.
I say, if there's anassociation, there's probably a
way to shift it on thatsubconscious level.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Can hypnotherapy help with chronic pain or physical
conditions?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's a great question .
There is a level right.
So when we look at pain, it'sreally interesting, because pain
is your body's way of talkingto you.
It's your body's way of sayinghey, something's not right.
And so there is a point wherehypnosis can help, and then
there's a point where we don'treally want to ignore that
(13:24):
trigger can help, and thenthere's a point where we don't
really want to ignore thattrigger.
But what I tell people is, whenyou're having pain, it can cause
significant stress and it cantherefore influence the
perceived pain levels.
And when you have increasedperceived pain, it feels worse,
and that's where hypnosis canhelp.
Meditation can help.
There's a whole slew of thingsthat subconscious work that we
(13:44):
can take down the perceived painor the anxiety around the pain,
the worry around the pain, sothat it can be lessened.
And when you lessen pain andstress, the healing processes
can increase.
There's been lots of studiesthat have been done post-surgery
of people using hypnosis andmeditation and realizing that
(14:05):
the healing is significantlyfaster because the stress levels
are lower and those processesare not inhibited by stress.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, I believe it.
I believe stress is probablythe number one cause of all
illness in the world.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean when you think about thebody.
It's really interesting, right.
Absolutely Absolutely, I meanwhen you think about the body
it's really interesting, right,because when we can't fight or
flight, we hold it in and you'regoing to notice people who have
anything from jaw clenching,finger picking.
You know so many differentexperiences.
I had one client who was like Ijust have this lower back pain
(14:40):
Now he'd been to a doctor noslip discs, nothing there.
We did some hypnosis aroundsome other stuff but it turned
out a lot of his pain that hewas experiencing was just stuck
tension from carrying a lot ofguilt from his past with him.
So the stomach, interestinglyenough, and lower back, you know
we look at different bodysyndromes and it's like where
(15:02):
your symptoms that have nomedical reason to be there
presenting and you know thestomach and lower back does
represent it's an, it's a lineto look down.
It's not always finitely true,but guilt and frustration, and
so it's like tell me more aboutthat.
So you know it's really.
It's always interesting tolisten to the body and the cues
(15:22):
that it's giving you.
It's always interesting tolisten to the body and the cues
that it's giving you and toreally again build that picture.
The goal is to build thatpicture of the person in context
.
It's like, wow, that reallymakes sense, given what you're
sharing, given what you'retelling me.
The second thing that's alwaysimportant is to try to go from
the presenting problem.
Right, I can't sleep.
It's never about sleep.
It's never about sleep.
That's the presenting issue.
(15:43):
To be able to ask a line ofquestions, to get really deep
into the what is the underlyingassociation there?
You know it's like, okay, somaybe I'm not sleeping because
I'm really stressed out.
Well, what's causing you stress?
Right, and they're like well,I'm really stressed out because
I just went through a breakup.
Okay, well, tell me what'sstressful about the breakup.
It's like I feel rejected.
(16:04):
Tell me, where does that comefrom?
Right, so you keep digging downto get deeper and deeper.
And it's like, okay, this iswhere we want to work, cause
again, you're trying to getthose roots out, to plant a new
seed.
Root cause.
And that's why I like thecontext right, cause if I go,
you're going to have greatnight's sleep tonight.
You might, but you're not.
It's going to come back because, again, you haven't pulled the
(16:25):
roots out.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So with something like sleep due to stress, due to
some other deeper root cause.
How many sessions can itrealistically take for somebody
to feel healed?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, so I always say healed to feel healed as an
interesting statement.
Right, because it reallydepends on the definition of
healed.
But when users come in with apresenting issue, right, like I
never know, I always have thecommonalities of like what I've
seen.
But I've I've never ceased tobe amazed, sometimes things that
(16:59):
I think won't clear up rightaway and maybe you're going to
take, you know, a series ofsessions anywhere from like
three to six.
It's like in one.
All of a sudden it's like oneand done so.
It's sort of amazing.
Personally, the reason I endedup getting into hypnotherapy 14
years ago was that I was an avidfinger picker.
It started when I was reallyyoung and it just continued.
(17:23):
It was terrible through mychildhood, got really worse
during high school and college,and then I had been seeing
therapists and they're like wethink you have OCD, we want to
put you on a high dosemedication.
I was like that's just not theroute I want to go.
I am certainly not one who'sopposed to medication If it
helps, then why not.
But it was just didn't feellike the right thing at the time
(17:44):
and I ended up seeing ahypnotherapist on a total lark.
Someone was like oh, have youever tried hypnotherapy?
And I was like, no, should I?
That's crazy.
Yeah, I'm gonna try it.
I went in very open minded andwithin one session, I kid you
not I stopped and this was ahabit that I've been doing my
whole life.
(18:04):
I was blown away and I I tothis day I went back to the same
hypnotherapist who became mymentor and it was just so
life-changing.
I went back for what I nowdescribe, as you know, just sort
of fear.
I was living sort of in thisfear bubble of like, if I do
this, what are all theramifications and just started
living more freely and taking,you know, not a lot of risk, if
I do this, what are all theramifications?
(18:25):
And just started living morefreely and taking, you know, not
a lot of risk, but doing normalthings, that it's like, no, I
actually want to do this andthat sounds exciting and it was
really freeing and it's justsomething just like it feels
like nothing changes, buteverything changed.
It's like this whole new lens.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
It's incredible, and if you can remember anything
from that session, what wouldyou say was the suggestion?
So how was it so effective?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
You know the session.
So, first, the first session, Iremember really going.
Just it was a lot of liketesting, right, like, if I look
back with my sort of scoped eyefrom a hypnotherapist point of
view, right, the first part isreally just testing what worked
for me, right, where do I fallin terms of am I a metaphorical
(19:14):
learner?
Am I a direct learner?
There are things that we ashypnotherapists look for as you
go into the hypnotic state.
So he's testing how the rapportis right.
Am I following command?
Am I doing what's being asked?
How am I?
Am I relaxing as we go throughit?
So I remember him doing like ahand levitation, which is where
(19:37):
you put your hand out or yourelbow on the table, palm flat,
and it's sort of like I want youto think about, with your eyes
closed, a string on the back ofyour hand pulling up and up, and
up and up, and again you'relike this is weird, until all of
a sudden your hand is likemoving up without you like
thinking about it, and you'relike, okay, wow, mind, body
connection, right, your mind isthinking about the string and
(19:59):
the hands responding.
I remember also he regressed meback to a point where he's like
I want you to go back to theearliest memory of when this
started and, interestinglyenough, right your mind, as
we've all seen in the Disneymovie about emotions.
(20:19):
He regressed me back to amemory that was accessible.
It was not a logical one Iwould have recalled, but I
remember being a very littlegirl in my grandparents living
room and I remember looking atthe carpet and it was the same
carpet that I had living room.
And I remember looking at thecarpet and it was the same
carpet that I had in college andI just never really I knew
where it came from, but I waslike I don't, I had no
significance to me, but Iremember being on that carpet
(20:41):
and being very upset because Ididn't know where anybody was,
and that's where the anxietystarted from.
It was like a core emotion thatstarted of.
Like that pinpointed thebeginning of it.
Now, what's amazing in hypnosisis that he was able to go well,
where is everybody Right?
He challenged the fact that mymind had taken in.
(21:04):
His truth was that like I wasabandoned or whatever it
might've been, and I was like,oh, they're just in the kitchen,
okay, and reframed it so thatthat my mind didn't have to sort
of see it as a terror, but justa oh okay, they're there, I'm
fine, and it was almost like adomino effect of it, like just
(21:24):
released all this stuff.
But I also remember it was likeanytime my hand comes up to my
mouth or my fingers go to pickmy cuticles or what have you, I
hear no, and it was almost likethis jarring effect so that
anytime I like I would go to dothat, there would be this almost
like little panic that wouldcause the leg trigger.
It's like I don't do thatanymore kind of thing and it
(21:46):
just stopped.
It was sort of wild.
I mean, you don't think it'spossible when you've been doing
it for so long, and I thinkthat's part of what is so cool
about this profession.
Now, I certainly don't want tosell this as like it's 100%
guaranteed, just so you becomenot confident, right, that you
can change.
(22:14):
And then you realize, wow, likeI can.
I just have to know what I wantand I have to like find the
ways that it can work to do that.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
The mind and the body are incredible.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Unbelievable.
It's a wonderful system and yetcan be so toxic.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
But hearing you tell your story was reminding me of
EMDR.
I don't know if you've evertried EMDR.
I haven't yet, but I've heardit's very similar it sounds like
it, and I've done EMDR oncebefore and the amount of
progress I was able to make in a15 minute session was mind
blowing to me.
So all of this, I think it'slike what you're saying, if
(22:51):
you're open, right, and ifyou've also been doing a little
bit of research to understandhow the subconscious works and
how you can really choose,sometimes, your future.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, and it's hard again, right, like people are
like I can't change, but you'rereally working that logical
willpower alone, you're workingwith 10% of the mind against
these associations that havebeen built for so long.
So it's hard to do that andit's sometimes I, I even have a
hard time doing guidedvisualizations to myself.
(23:24):
Right, it's sometimes easierwhen you find someone.
But now this gets into a coupleof the key things.
If you want to work with ahypnotherapist or anyone, even
an EMDR specialist, right,therapist, you have to trust
them.
Right, like, if you don't trustthem, you're not going to allow
yourself to go into theseunknown states.
Because what the mind, thesubconscious mind, hates the
(23:47):
most, right, remember,everything's built on
association.
If you don't know them or youdon't trust them, the unknown is
frightening because it can'tcategorize it.
And so you know, I can tellwhen a client and I just aren't
having a rapport, you'll notice,in the hypnotic state the body
does amazing things.
When you're relaxing, right One, you can see the client sort of
(24:10):
turn away.
Right, have you ever beentalking to someone and you're
just not vibing with them and,like you just sense their body
language turning away from you?
The same thing can happen andyou can gain it back, but you
know it's.
You have to be aware that it'snot working in that way or
there's some block and you canask directly to go.
What is the block?
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
How do you handle I mean, beyond asking questions
about what is the block like howdo you handle people who may be
skeptical, or they're resistant, or they're just nervous about
the process altogether?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Of course, I would say 90% of the clients that I
work with come in and have neverdone hypnosis, and so the first
step is always going.
Let me tell you what to expect.
I like to set up expectationsvery clearly from the beginning
of how the session's going toflow.
That before we do hypnosis I'mgoing to tell them all about
what happens.
That if they want to record thehypnosis portion, they're
(25:05):
welcome to that.
You know I typically don't havethem talk.
If they do, they're going toremember it.
It's not stage hypnosis.
But you should be skeptical.
I think that's a great right.
Tell me I'm wrong if you wantme to go into that state with
(25:35):
you.
So there's a level ofreassurance.
Now, again, as you're workingwith a client, again, if they've
never done it, it's perfectlynormal for them to like have a
little bit of a block at first,and again, that's just showing
them.
You know it's like, well, let'sdo some hypnosis, right, like
(25:58):
one of my favorite things is youcan do.
You know what I call the lemontest, and it's not a pass fail,
it's just I'm testing a client,right, or it's.
I have them close their eyesand I guide them through walking
into their kitchen and findingwhere they would keep a lemon
and a cutting board, and whatyou do is you have them cut the
lemon in half and bring thatlemon up to the mouth and take a
bite of it.
Now, interestingly enough,what's funny is the mind is
(26:21):
focused.
They're focusing on somethingthey've seen before.
They remember what we all knowwhat a lemon tastes like.
A certain type of person willstart to have their mouth
salivate.
You'll get like a tightness inthe jaw or they'll begin to
salivate.
Some people won't and that'stotally fine, but again, most
people do and it's like, oh, andI'm like there's no lemon here,
(26:43):
right?
So that's hypnosis.
Is that I'm giving you a cue,you're having a response and we
create that.
So these are the things whereit's like I want to make people
comfortable, right, and even asthey're going into the hypnotic
state, reassurance is great.
Or there's things that I'llpoint out to them as we go
through it, where it's likelisten, you might notice like
(27:04):
the first stage is going intothe hypnotic states.
The eyes wobble up and down.
Most people don't notice it'shappening when it's happening,
but if you point it out to them,I'm like you might notice this
wobble of the eyes moving up anddown and they'll nod their head
and it's like and that's justshowing me that you're already
in a light hypnotic state, right?
And that's the way of that,just sort of going look, you're
(27:24):
doing great, right, and that'slike, just keep doing what
you're doing and we'll just keepgoing deeper and deeper, and
just because people don't wantto feel like they're not in
control of the process, I thinkthat's by far the most
frightening.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, I can see that and I can imagine that,
especially given that mostpeople's exposure to hypnosis is
like what you were saying TVshows on stage where people are
doing maybe things that theydon't want to be doing, and it
feels creepy.
This doesn't sound like that atall.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, no, it's not like that.
Again, I'm a very reputableperson.
I read body languageextraordinarily well.
I'm pretty intuitive.
It's interesting because youcan tell especially if someone
is in the hypnotic state.
I can tell you when I was doinghypnosis personally and I see
I've seen this before with myclients too but for me my
(28:16):
hypnotherapist had asked me aquestion and I remember I don't
remember until he pointed it outthat I was tapping my fingers
on the desk like tap, tap, tap,tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
And he asked me it's like Iwant you to draw your attention
to your hands.
What's going on?
And I was like I don't want totalk about it.
And he's like, okay.
So I was not noticed, totallyaware that I was tapping my
(28:39):
fingers, but my body was talkingand that's what we call an
adverse reaction, right Is that?
A suggestion is given and thebody responds, right?
It's the same thing asflinching, right?
Your body is responding beforeyour mouth does and therefore I
might notice, as a client is inthe hypnotic state and I might
(29:00):
provide a suggestion thatdoesn't resonate with them, you
might see their face sort ofsquinch up a little.
You might notice their footbegin to tap a bit or move, you
might notice the breathingpattern change, because when
you're in the hypnotic stateit's a very shallow, light
breath.
So, interestingly enough, thebreathing pattern when you're
(29:22):
awake right is a normal breath.
As you go into the hypnoticstates they get shallower and
shallower.
It's almost feels like you'renot breathing, and then when you
go into the sleep state itbecomes like a rolling breath.
So these are all like very coolcues that we look for, like the
skin becomes very smooth andflush, the jaw relaxes, the body
(29:43):
gets heavy, heavy, heavy.
So it's such a fascinatingexperience to not only watch but
also be part of, because it'sfor the user.
It's very relaxing.
And again, it's not that you'renot aware of anything, you're
just choosing to focus yourdirection on what is being
talked about.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It sounds like an incredible practice to also just
help people with changing theirlives in the direction that
they want to.
Okay, so you do one-on-onesessions, but then you also have
Modern Sanctuary, and then youalso have the Burble app.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's right.
Yes, so healing my journeyreally started with my private
practice.
I've been doing that since 2010.
It is a passion of mine and Ihad realized that, while my
private practice is wonderful, Ijust knew I wanted to reach
more people and I knew that noteveryone can afford hypnotherapy
(30:39):
it's not covered by insurance.
So how would I do that?
And I had started, back in 2015, an app.
I actually paused developmenton it until three years ago and
we really started developing it,but that's what has recently
become verbal.
We'll come back into that.
But modern sanctuary is the spathat I started, where we had
all different types of holisticpractices all in one space so
(31:02):
that if hypnotherapy didn't work, we had acupuncture, if
acupuncture didn't work, we hadReiki.
We had so many differenttreatments as well.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So modern Sanctuary started before the Burble app or
after.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Before.
So, funny enough, it wentprivate practice.
I started the app and thenstopped it, jumped into Modern
Sanctuary, and that was from2016 until today, both New York
mostly, and then Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
And I think I just saw that you won Philadelphia
Magazine's 2024.
Best of Philly.
Is that right?
We?
Speaker 1 (31:36):
did Yep, we did so very exciting stuff.
And then Burble has been intandem with so since I started
development in Burble 2022.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So I'd love to hear a little bit about both of these
entrepreneurial journeys,because they're pretty different
from each other.
Yeah, so how was let's doModern Sanctuary first?
How was Modern Sanctuary set up?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Okay, so Modern?
When I started Modern, Iactually was working at a spa or
a wellness center and I endedup taking over the lease there
and then creating my own sort ofexperience.
It was a sole proprietor LLC.
I had the vision.
The original goal was to createa Himalayan salt room with one
(32:23):
or two practitioner rooms, andit just so turned out that the
space that I was in and workingout of with a whole team of
practitioners the guy was likeI'm not renewing the lease,
maybe you want to take it overand put the Himalayan salt room
here.
And I was like interesting, loand behold, it turns out when
you have a dream and a deepdesire, you can make anything
happen.
(32:43):
So that was where ModernSanctuary was born was in New
York City the day after theelection in 2016.
It was really all about doingwellness differently.
It was about dark, black wallsand crocodile wallpaper, playing
on the idea of sensorydeprivation right, that instead
of it feeling light and bright,that you were coming into a dark
(33:07):
room to take away all thatstimulus to feel relaxed.
It was about having the waitingroom look like a living room.
You literally walked off intolike a living room style waiting
room because I wanted people tofeel like they were stepping
into someone's home and thosewere sort of the goals, like
creating this.
You know you can do anythingfrom med spa services all the
(33:29):
way to crystal chakra balancingand neuroplasticity treatments
and stuff like that.
So it was pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
How many rooms is this Like?
How big is the facility?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, so the New York location was 16 treatment rooms
and a huge Himalayan salt room.
Oh my gosh, it was huge.
It was 5,000 square feet ofspace, an outrageous like rent
Cause of course you're in NewYork, we were not even ground
floor.
Rent was like above $25,000 amonth not including expenses.
So that was only in New York,right.
(34:02):
So what was interesting is,after COVID, we just knew we
weren't going to recoup and sowe decided in 2022 to close.
But, knowing what I knew fromthe New York location, it was
really looking again at thenumbers right, numbers don't lie
of what was working, whatwasn't, because we were also a
rental facility.
(34:23):
So, you know, we were kind oflike a we work of wellness where
people rented with us, and so Iknew that I didn't want to be a
landlord.
Again, I looked at the numbersof what services were doing
really well and then also whatthe benefit of the other ones
were.
Right, I was never getting intosalt again.
That's a whole, nother probablypodcasting conversation, but
(34:43):
there were certain things that Idid want to keep, like our
crystal bed, which is amarketing staple, like it's
always looks great in ads andit's a great draw for people to
come in and be known for.
But then we really stuck withlike lymphatic drainage,
massages, facials, infraredsauna, those sort of like really
key treatments.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
So, then, the idea to restart developing the Burble
app came back into play.
What has that journey been like, going from idea to the app
actually being available in thestore?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah.
So this has been, I would say,modern.
There was a very steep learningcurve at the beginning because
whoa did I get in over my head?
Burble has been really neatbecause I'm back on a learning
curve of things that, like, Iknow nothing about.
So during the pandemic, Irealized it was time to bring
(35:40):
that back on to the platform tofind someone to develop it with
and, interestingly enough, Ijust moved to Philly, so I
didn't really know anyone.
I just had a kid.
I was locked in my house and Iwas like I need to do something.
I need to do something becauseI can't run the spa and I'm
tired of trying to figure outloans and all that craziness.
(36:01):
But I ended up posting onNextdoor app and about being
like does anyone interested indeveloping an app with me?
It's funny because my businesspartner, daniel, was like I'm
never on that thing.
Are you sure that's where wemet?
I'm like it's a hundred percentwhere we met.
We talked to.
He was like this soundsinteresting, let's chat.
And we just went back and forthgoing over what the idea was
(36:23):
and he's like let's do it now.
Unbeknownst to me, I didn'trealize what his background was
in technology and developmentand he was like I love this idea
.
My business partner and myother business partner and I
want to do this with you.
So the three of us over the lastthree years have taken so much
(36:43):
time to really outline the userexperience, what the app is, and
I will tell you as we wentthrough the user experience.
It was so daunting, like I.
Three years sounds like a longtime to develop like what seems
to be a very simple app, but itwas so interesting to go through
the mind of what happens indevelopment of oh yeah, there's
no button to do that.
(37:03):
We forgot that.
Oh man, we got to go back inand do that.
Right, you don't think about,when you send a text message
through your phone, what happensto the text box as you type.
Does it just keep typing andthe text box doesn't get bigger,
or does the text box expand?
There are these little thingsthat you're like I have no idea.
(37:24):
Turns out the text box whenyou're texting on Apple, on an
iPhone, it expands upward.
But I'm like, whoa, we didn'teven think of that.
So it's all these things thatwhen they develop, they have we
need to know.
So we've gone through that,we've gone through the patent
process.
We've rebranded like colorscheme wise, website development
(37:45):
wise.
All of it just being done byDaniel myself, bill and the team
that's making the app.
So it's been a really coollearning curve in terms of you
got to be open to it, becauseit's a frustrating process at
times.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
And what did it take for you to finally launch?
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah.
So I had to put myperfectionist it's not good
enough quality to the side,because I think what I realized
was the app will always be indevelopment, right, just as we,
as humans, are always indevelopment.
Yes, maybe there's one or twothings that can always be
improved upon, but you had toget it to a place where the
(38:25):
first step being the minimumviable product right.
It's like we had to keepstopping, let's add this and
let's add this.
We had to go.
Let's just launch it and see ifpeople even want this to begin
with.
And that's sort of where we'reat.
We launched with a great product.
It's super interesting and foryour listeners, burble, is it's
(38:46):
not a hypnosis app.
It's a guided visualization appthat takes into account, like,
several different modalities ofthe subconscious mind.
But what's really unique aboutit is it's a choose your own
adventure platform, meaning wegive you the ability to create
your own session, right Fromwhatever you want to work on,
whether it's smoking ormanifestation, finding love
(39:10):
you're going to find thattreatment that's perfect for you
, and then you know, the mostimportant part is how you get
into the relaxed state, and soyou're going to be able to
choose your adventure of, I wantto go to the beach and then I
want to watch clouds, and then Iwant to float in a river, and
you can then pick the music youwant in the background and how
you want to end it, whether it's, you know, falling asleep,
(39:32):
waking up or just relaxing forlike 10 minutes.
The background, what's happening, is we're toggling together all
these components and creatingyour unique experience.
No session is ever the same,unless you save it, but it's
always going to be different,and we wanted that to be the
case, because I love apps likeCalm and Headspace, but I found
(39:54):
I'm like I can't find what I'mlooking for.
I don't even know what I'mlooking for sometimes, and it's
just.
We wanted you to be able tobuild your own experience.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
It's a very interesting concept.
I gave it a try and I washaving trouble sleeping and I
can say with certainty that itdefinitely helped me go to sleep
.
Love that.
I don't know at what point itdid, so I'm curious if it was
while there was speaking takingplace or if it was while the
(40:23):
beats were happening in thebackground.
I don't know, but it waseffective.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
It was probably all of it.
It all worked right, it's allcumulative and I think that's
the exciting all of it.
It all worked right, it's allcumulative and I think that's
the exciting part of it.
And again, those binaural beatsthat we put into them.
They're really helping andtrain the mind, as you talked
about with the alpha waves, betawaves, theta waves.
So it's all very meticulouslycurated and put together.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So, with Burble, what are you hoping to achieve?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
My goal is one to raise awareness that there are
tools out there that people canuse.
I think what's important for mefor people to understand about
verbal is I love meditation andagain, this is not a knock on
that, but I think there's a waythat you know apps can get you
into a really calm place andfeeling calm is wonderful, like
(41:12):
that's great.
We're looking to take it thenext step further, where it's
like we're not just helping youget calm, we're helping you
change and that's we're puttingthose suggestions in the
recordings.
It's really going to help,right.
We're helping you work on andtreat anxiety right, or dating,
or you're feeling not goodenough.
We're helping like shift thatby providing those suggestions
(41:36):
and other subconscioustechniques and tools as well.
So we're looking to just takeyou past the state of calm into
that real manifestation ofchange in your life.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Do you see hypnotherapy becoming more
commonplace?
So what do you see as thefuture of hypnotherapy?
Speaker 1 (41:55):
It has been my mission from when I started in
2010 to make hypnotherapy cometo the forefront as a real,
powerful tool that is accessibleto people.
I can tell you from when Istarted in 2010,.
There, of course, there's lotsof hypnotists out there, but I,
you know, right as I startedgetting going, there was lots of
(42:18):
news articles that were comingout.
You saw it in the papers more.
Olivia Munn was noted as beingsomeone who was using it for one
of her roles, and that's when Istarted getting more and more
press requests.
And that's when I startedseeing more and more celebrities
interestingly enough in mypractice and top level CEOs and
musicians.
And you know, I think you'realways going to see it sort of
in the mainstream first and thenit's going to trickle into like
(42:40):
everybody else sort of wantingto try it.
So I think it's on its way upthere.
You're seeing hospitals, right,you have the Mayo Clinic, the
Children's Hospital,Philadelphia, Mount Sinai.
They have dedicated programsfor hypnosis and hypnotherapy,
which is really amazing.
So again, if we look back, youknow, 15 years ago, to
acupuncture, when everyone waslike, oh, this is crazy.
(43:02):
But now it's, it's totally,it's in hospitals.
You see it everywhere, it'snormalized.
I'm hoping the same thing willhappen as well same thing will
happen as well.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I think that it will.
I mean, I am deeply down thatpath right now, which is with my
own self-healing.
Just sure, I've been readingJoe Dispenza.
My sister is an integratedphysician.
She's been teaching me so muchand just understanding again
what the possibilities are foryourself and how openness can
really be a powerful tool.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
It's also important.
One of the things is to sharewith people.
If you are going to be lookingfor a hypnotist or
hypnotherapist, there's a coupleof things you should look for.
One ask about their training,because there's several
different types of trainingspeople can have.
Sometimes people are like, oh,I know hypnosis and I took a
week long class and I wascertified by.
(43:59):
I mean certifications right noware kind of like I mean people
are just like tossing out papers, so you know, know where those
certifications come from.
How long did they study hypnosis?
There's one thing to know howto hypnotize someone, and then
there's what you do with themwhile in the hypnotic state.
So I know the school I went to,the hypnosis motivational
(44:21):
Institute, has one of the onlyaccredited programs out there,
so they have a resource whereyou can actually go look up
where their grads are located tofind someone in your area.
I really they're a fabulousprogram.
It's usually like a year longprogram too, so it's not just
let me get you into the hypnoticstate and tell you what to do,
but it really goes through likehow do you handle when someone's
(44:45):
like in trauma or how do youhandle all of these things that
are happening and really makingsure you do it ethically and
morally, and all that stuff toohappening and really making sure
you do it ethically and morallyand all that stuff too, and
also just knowing how one matchmay not be the right fit for one
person but it is for anotherperson, and finding the right
practitioner.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, so I just have a couple of questions for you
remaining.
The first is just what advicewould you give to anyone who is
aspiring to be an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I think it is such an exciting time for
entrepreneurship.
My first advice is trust yourgut.
If you have a vision like,listen, someone created the pet
rock, right?
Like if someone told me thatthat was going to be a
gangbuster thing, like that'scrazy, but trust your intuition.
Everything can be made into abusiness, everything and
anything.
You just have to believe that.
The second is do your researchbut also, more importantly, have
(45:44):
a marketing plan.
That has been the biggest hurdleis marketing.
I've seen a lot of people thatI've mentored go in and go well,
I have a really great product.
It's just going to gogangbusters and you're like, no,
it might, if you're reallyreally, really lucky, but having
a solid marketing plan andbudget for it and maybe not even
(46:06):
a budget, you might be able todo a lot of it on your own and
time and research, but marketingit's all about especially with
the competitive edge of thatpeople have nowadays is have a
solid marketing plan with it,cause an idea is an idea is an
idea, but it's how do you get itto the people that want it?
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
There's a lot of noise out there.
There's a lot of noise.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
You've got to stand out somehow.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yes, exactly.
So for a final question if youcould go back and speak with
yourself when you were in yourearly twenties, what life wisdom
would you give yourself?
Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's a really good question.
I would go back and probablytell myself don't stress over
the grades, Don't stress overthe A's or the B's or having to
finish like college in the righttimeline and scale.
It's okay if you're not likethe best in the class, that each
(47:03):
of our skills come from likereally a different place.
I wish I had known back thenthat my superpower is I'm a
creative right and I'm asolution finder.
If I had that sort of nurturedfrom a younger age, I think that
life would have felt a littlebit easier and maybe I wouldn't
have sweated so much in thecompetitive environments that I
(47:24):
was in for sure, and that wouldhave really bred a lot more
ability to learn without fearand phobia.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
In my mind it's great advice and I think a lot of
people in their early twentiesare just doing what they think
they're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Of course.
I mean that's what we've beenindoctrinated to do.
Right it's get good grades, goto college, do this, you know,
get the job and and that worksright.
Like I can tell you, myhusband's a doctor.
You know there's a path if youwant that.
But if you're not feeling likethe conventional path is working
(47:59):
for you, there's a millionother pathways out there, and
finding people to mentor youwould be another one.
Find mentors, even if it's notlike an official mentorship.
Just finding people that canlike, inspire you on the daily
has been life changing.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
I am so thankful for having you come on the show.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Me too.
This has been really nice.
I hope it comes through that.
I just love talking about whatI do and sharing about it.
So thank you, Anne.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Today's key takeaways .
Your subconscious mind is awellspring of creativity,
potential and healing.
Whether through hypnotherapy,meditation or guided
visualization, cultivating thisskill of tapping into your
subconscious mind can enhancepersonal growth, problem solving
(48:49):
and creativity.
Start small and dream big.
Alexandra's journey with ModernSanctuary started with a single
vision for a Himalayan saltroom, but her ambition and
adaptability turned it into a5,000 square foot wellness
center.
Start with what you have andallow your vision to evolve as
(49:10):
opportunities arise.
Adapt to changing circumstances.
Flexibility in business ensuressustainability, especially
during challenging times.
Identify what makes yourbusiness stand out and lean into
it to attract your idealaudience.
(49:30):
Know your numbers.
Analyze the performance of eachservice or product you offer,
and use these data-driveninsights to cut inefficiencies
and focus on profitable areas.
Be open to collaborating withpeople who bring different
skills and perspectives to yourbusiness.
(49:51):
Choose progress over perfection.
Let go of perfectionism to getyour minimum viable product into
the market.
Remember your product willalways evolve and the best
feedback often comes afterlaunch.
Understand the importance ofmarketing, even if it's
(50:12):
grassroots or low budget ormaybe even free.
Invest time and energy intoreaching your audience
effectively.
Don't know how to do somethingGreat.
It's time to learn.
Always seek growthopportunities, even if they
require stepping outside of yourcomfort zone, even if they
require stepping outside of yourcomfort zone.
(50:33):
And lastly, when you have adream and a deep desire, you can
make anything happen.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com