I had a rather negative experience with Rebecca Wallace, of New Horizons Hypnotherapy in Santa Rosa. In short, I told her multiple times over the course of a few months that I was not interested in ""aversion therapy"" (using negative suggestion to make a habit seem disgusting to a person), when I was working with her to help me give up smoking. Mrs. Wallace did end up using this form of hypnosis with me, resulting in a lack of trust between therapist and patient, along with reinforcement in my mind of the negative reasons why I smoke. Negative phrases that I was asked to repeat while in a meditative state still echo in my mind to this day, almost a year later (""Smoking is killing me and I am going to do it anyway"").
There was very little attempt on the part of Rebecca Wallace to compromise and come to positive closure on this matter. My request was that she refund me some portion of the $500 that I gave her (with the agreement being that I could have as many sessions as needed for a year). In the end, we only met together for a total of two hours over the course of two sessions, and I wanted the money back to seek out other forms of therapy. My discomfort and lack of trust in Mrs. Wallace made it impossible for me to see her again and relax into a hypnotic state, so the agreement could not be fulfilled. She would not recognize this as a valid point and called my opinion ""extremely distorted and dishonest"".
This posting is my attempt to gain closure with the situation after a year of trying to work out an agreement with Rebecca Wallace. I feel now that it is better that I did not get my money back, as it is of much more value to the community that people know about ""therapists"" to avoid. I hope that someone else can benefit from my lesson, and be sure to seek out a hypnotherapist who is also a trained counselor associated with a group to hold them accountable for their actions.
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