John Scheffel, a resident of Victoria, has worked as an advanced practice nurse for 18 years, primarily providing family care, and has also worked on overseas health missions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, upon returning to the United States, the opportunity to pursue the practice of medical hypnotherapy presented itself to Scheffel, who began his own practice in January as an adjunct to patient care.
Scheffel says he has been intrigued by the concept of hypnosis since his medical education, but most of his mentors and medical professionals flatly dismissed it. He became interested in this treatment because it was a treatment that had existed for many years before drug treatments existed, such as being used in the field during the Civil War.
“Hypnotherapy has been around for 65,000 years, going back to shamans because there were no medicines to speak of,” he says. “Hypnotherapy creates a way to control your mind in a state of extreme relaxation.”
Entertainment Hypnosis is often ignored as a treatment because of how it is portrayed in pop culture, Scheffel said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, hypnotherapy can be effective for digestive problems, anxiety, some pain symptoms, and, with mixed results, addiction to smoking.
“Television has given us a bad image,” Scheffel said. “People don’t try to do anything that they’re ethically opposed to. You have stage hypnosis and party hypnosis and you’ve been bothering us, but what I’m doing is medical aid. medically assisted hypnotherapy.
Medical Support Hypnotherapy, as the name suggests, supports existing medical care, he said.
Mr. Scheffel works directly with each of his client’s primary care physicians to ensure they have approved the treatment and communicates to the client what he has done to ensure continuity of care.
He conducts sessions online and records the sessions on behalf of his clients, so clients can perform hypnotherapy themselves once they understand how to do it themselves.
One of Scheffel’s clients, Katie Jo Tipps, 46, of Victoria, uses audio recordings of sessions to hypnotize herself.
Tipps has suffered from back pain since 1997, when he fell down the concrete stairs of his apartment while trying to escape the rain.
The incident caused a bulging disc in his vertebrae, putting pressure on his sciatic nerve.
Tipps said medication alone wasn’t enough, as the pain got so bad that she had to lie down for three days straight. So she tried this treatment a few months ago, and thanks to her self-hypnosis, she was able to recover from her back pain much faster than ever before.
The length of a session depends on the client and their individual case, Scheffel said. However, we charge the same $85 fee per session, no matter how long it takes.Treatment is not covered by insurance
But hypnosis isn’t for everyone, and people who don’t like the idea are unlikely to benefit, he said.
Scheffel said the business is growing as fast as expected and he’s been happy to help his clients so far.
“I love helping people and this is another avenue where I can help people recover,” he said.
Kyle Cotton was born and raised in San Antonio and graduated from San Antonio College and the University of Texas at Arlington. Cotton has covered economic development, health care, finance, government, technology, oil and gas, and higher education.
