THE FOLLOWING ARE ANSWERS TO COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT HYPNOSIS, COUNSELING, AND THE DONENFELD METHOD™. TO ASK ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND TO DISCUSS YOUR PERSONAL SITUATION, PLEASE CALL NANCY AT 212.758.7575.

"Hypnosis is an induced passive state in which there is an increased amenability and responsiveness to suggestions and commands, provided that these do not conflict with the subject's own conscious or unconscious wishes" (Dorland's Medical Dictionary, 1974 edition). Generally, this intensified ability to focus on the task is dependent upon the skill and understanding of the hypnotist, the client, and the method used. Rapport between the client and the therapist is vital.

The trance state provides freedom from one's ordinary conscious tendency to focus on distracting, irrelevant, or negative conscious considerations. In the hypnosis when using the Donenfeld Method™, one feels deeply relaxed and safe. Brain waves produced are generally the same as those produced when one is asleep, deeply focused, or in a meditative state. Hypnotic trance is neither a supernatural nor a mysterious state.

Most people experience trance everyday. For example, while driving in a car many people often experience trance and they may soon find themselves at their destination without remembering the drive to get there. The person's mind was elsewhere. Another example occurs when one becomes lost in a movie or book and oblivious to his or her surroundings or to the passage of time itself. One's ability to access this state at will however, requires either prior training, or specific guidance from a skillful therapist such as Nancy Donenfeld.

Yes, as long as the person wants to be hypnotized and has good rapport with the therapist. Nancy always personally answers her telephone and, speaks with each client herself, also answering direct availability and privacy. Key is a client's intention, provided that the technique used fits the client. A strong-minded, dominant person can be hypnotized just as easily as a weak-willed or submissive person, a willing or a reluctant person, a child or an adult, a person with a high IQ or a low IQ, and so on. Certain people, for example, benefit far more from the comment, "relax your arm" while others find the comment "your arm is relaxed" to be far more effective. In addition, people utilize their senses differently. Cooks, dancers, philosophers, musicians and fine artists for example, all differ in the manner in which they process information, depending upon their orientations. The Donenfeld Method™ proceeds accordingly, and the client need not be concerned. Each person's session is very different when using the Donenfeld Method™. No stock recordings are used. "One size certainly does not fit all". Positive suggestions are placed into a deeper part of the mind with the Donenfeld Method™ of hypnosis so that change is made far more easily and permanently than that which can normally occur simply with "knowledge, "wishful thinking", or most other forms of hypnosis. Nancy has yet to find anyone she could not hypnotize because of her unique skill, technique and intuitive perceptiveness.

No, there has never been a case recorded of a hypnotized person failing to return to his or her conscious state. If the hypnotist, for any reason, fails to tell a client to wake up, he or she would eventually fall into regular sleep from which he or she would automatically awaken completely alert. While in trance, the client can emerge anytime he or she wishes, feeling as though arising from a deep, refreshing sleep.

No. No one will say or do anything that would be against his or her own personal moral or ethical code. Nancy acts merely as a guide and mentor to enable change to take place. With the Donenfeld Method™, nothing is expected of the client. He or she is never asked to remember or learn anything. The client is in a passive, relaxed state. He or she senses a deep ease and comfort.

The client might consciously hear everything said during a session, not hear anything at all, or remember just parts of what is said. His or her subconscious mind however, is always in charge, integrating desired changes, attitudes and responses.

Yes. Leading physicians and dentists throughout the world use hypnosis. Its use has been approved by the American Medical Association since 1958. Few physicians however specialize in hypnosis, instead prescribing drugs, surgery, talk therapy or the like. Many physicians, however, send their patients to see Donenfeld (and frequently come in themselves).

Nancy spends a full 60 minutes with each client. The Donenfeld Method™ concentrates on the health and well being of each patient or client. Because the concept orientation is so positive, the mind embraces insights and change far more easily and efficiently.

In trance, a client experiences a state of profound relaxation and contentment. He or she is not asleep or unconscious and can easily respond to outside stimuli. Upon awakening from this hypnotic trance, a client feels full of energy, as though he or she had been asleep for many hours. Very often, the client will feel as though he or she has been through one of the most interesting and relaxing experiences of his or her life. In fact, the Encyclopedia Britannica states that, "when hypnotized, or in the hypnotic trance, the subject can think, act and behave in relationship to either ideas or reality objects as adequately as, and usually better than, he can in the ordinary state of awareness...".

Yes. See explanation on the next page entitled The Donenfeld Method™.

Yes. See explanation on the next page entitled The Donenfeld Method™.