Step into the world of Barbara Haines, a compassionate Life Guide Coach and Hypnotherapist, who has dedicated her career to helping others heal and transform their lives. Barbara’s has empowered countless individuals and helped them overcome challenges in their lives, release emotional triggers, and embrace a path of self-discovery. Read more about her work in her exclusive MysticMag interview below.
Please tell us a bit about your professional background.
I began my professional career as an elementary teacher and eventually went into teaching special education. After a while, I found I was doing much more counseling than teaching. That motivated me to earn a Master’s degree in counseling and I became a high school guidance counselor. At the same time, I opened my private practice and contracted with the state to work with adjudicated youth and women who were transitioning back into the workforce after their challenging circumstances.
During this time, I became quite frustrated as I found that talk therapy wasn’t enough to guide people on their healing journey. So, I began my studies in hypnotherapy. My thirst for knowledge eventually led me to continue studying different modalities to use on an individualized, as-needed, basis with my clients. I studied the mind-body-spirit connection, as well as the medicine wheel, where I studied with a shaman and learned an ancient Q’uero healing technique. I also studied Emotional Freedom Technique Level II. In addition, I studied Access Bars. Most recently, I became certified in Past Life Regression and Spiritual Hypnosis.
How can you help people transform their lives with your Life Guide Coaching?
Clients come to me at varying places in their lives with individualized needs and challenges. I teach them tools to feel more balanced, calmer, and more empowered. I teach tools to effectively communicate, such as how to say “no” without feeling guilty and how to speak their truth. They also learn tools to eliminate and release their emotional triggers created by past events and experiences. They learn to transform their limiting beliefs and thinking patterns to gain clarity and feel more in control of their emotions. My goal is for them to leave feeling much stronger physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared to deal with life’s difficult situations. I teach tools they can use throughout their entire lives. My clients have said that I teach people how to shift their lives and change their stories from victimhood to empowerment.
Can you walk us through one of your Hypnotherapy sessions?
A hypnotherapy session can be used for smoking cessation, weight loss, stress reduction, or releasing fears and phobias. The first thing I always do is a pre-talk consultation session, prior to the actual hypnosis session. This consultation helps the client identify a safe place that I can use to calm them down during the hypnosis session in case they become agitated, even though that rarely happens. However, I always use their safe place during the deepening portion of the session.
The hypnosis consultation is also used to gather information from the client and to make sure the client understands what to expect from their hypnosis session. It is very important that the client’s expectations are realistic, as well as that they are comfortable with the process and with me. Therefore, I like to be sure to touch base with them before we ever do a hypnosis session for that reason, so that they have met me.
The actual session consists of relaxing the client with an Induction, usually lasting from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the client and their experience in hypnosis and their ability to relax quickly. An example of induction may be me taking them downstairs and counting backwards, or through a door into a beautiful garden. Likewise, I might use progressive muscle relaxation.
This is often followed by a Deepening Technique to take them deeper into their subconscious and relax them more. Then, I introduce the healing portion of the session and make suggestions to change the unwanted behavior that they came into the session for. For example, in smoking cessation hypnosis, I pair the urge for the cigarette with something disgusting that they have come up with themselves. I do this to eliminate the urge for the cigarette.
I then continue on in the script to support their desire to stop smoking. I use a variety of different approaches for this portion, depending on the prior consultation and what I think might work best for them. At the end, I give them positive visualizations and affirmations to use in the coming weeks. I then count from 1 to 5 and bring them slowly back into the room. The client may, if they wish, record the session for future reinforcement.
How does Past Life Regression work?
As I mentioned before, I always have a pre-talk consultation. It is crucial for the client to understand the process of hypnosis and how it might feel to retrieve past life situations. During the pre-talk consultation, we identify the goal for going into the regression. For example, one of my clients was interested in exploring her toxic relationship with her mother in this lifetime and how it might have originated in her past lives. That was the goal we focused on during the regression.
Similar to other hypnosis sessions, I begin with an induction and the deepening technique. Afterwards, in a regression session, I have the client imagine walking through a doorway and descending downstairs. While guiding them through this process, I use words that encourage them to retrieve a past life memory. I ask the client to describe what they see and pose clarifying questions as they continue to recount the situations that come up for them. The session may stay focused on one memory or other memories may emerge.
If it is appropriate while the client is still experiencing the memory, we can do a healing around the situation. At the end of the session, I ask the client if they would like to meet with their Spirit Guides to understand the lessons from the past life memories that came up during the session. I believe it is essential for clients to comprehend the lessons behind the memories and why their Spirit Guides brought those specific memories to their awareness.This gives them a chance to learn and establish connections between their past life memories and their current life circumstances. I find that it brings a peaceful closure to the session that we’ve just completed.
I have found that past life regressions are a wonderful tool to help people uncover the root causes of their present-day issues. These sessions can help release stuck emotions and energy. It can help us understand and heal present-day relationships like it did with the lady that I referenced. It can connect us with past talents and interests. It can also help us with physical issues that may have their origins in a past life.
What energy approaches do you use?
In the realm of energy approaches, we understand that emotions are energy. Releasing energy blocks allows the body to utilize its own healing abilities. I offer several energy approaches depending on the client, but they are all based on the One Source, the Universal Life Force.
When appropriate I teach them how to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which balances the body’s energy and releases toxic emotions. Another approach I offer is Access Consciousness Bars, which is touching 32 points on the head to eliminate unwanted emotions.
I also provide an ancient Q’uero healing technique that helps release emotions and allows clients to create a new map for themselves. Sometimes, clients come to me as sensitive individuals who are aware of picking up emotions from others or feeling drained after being around certain people. In those cases, I teach them energetic tools I learned from the shaman on how to protect their energy, living space, and workspace from energy vampires. This knowledge is crucial for preventing feelings of fatigue and depletion.
What can people learn in your classes?
The first one is my Relationship Wisdom class. This is a two-part class where I teach people how their emotional triggers affect their relationships. Each person in a relationship enters that relationship with their own set of emotional triggers. They are unaware these triggers may prevent them from having healthy relationships. The Relationship Wisdom class covers any relationship, including partners, co-workers, in-laws, adult-children, or any relationship. This class teaches participants techniques to release their triggers and step out of victim-thinking, and step into a space of empowerment. This class also teaches people the difference between enabling and supporting, as well as living in a space of allowance, versus in a space of trying to control everybody around them.
I also offer group classes in hypnosis for smoking cessation, weight release, relaxation, and stress reduction. I have an Energetic Tools class that teaches people how to energetically clean their space and protect their energy. Additionally, I offer an Emotional Freedom Technique class, which is a powerful tool that can be used for a lifetime. Lastly, I offer a group past life regression class, typically with no more than six people, which has proven to be very beneficial to some individuals.
Can you share some success stories?
A few months ago, I was contacted by a man whom I had met when he was 16 years old. He happened to be one of the adjudicated youths who was court-ordered into counseling in the 1990s. When he contacted me, he said that I had changed his life and that he wanted to reconnect for some coaching sessions. He is now a very successful businessman in his 50s. This particular recent story warms my heart immensely and proves that we never know the seeds that we plant. I have been seeing clients since 1988. I love what I do. I always feel honored to walk beside a person on their healing journey.
