I've long been fascinated by the potential of hypnotherapy to help people make necessary changes in their lives. When I met Certified Hypnotherapist Jackie Maclean recently in a business class we took together, I was immediately drawn to her evident knowledge and passion for helping people who were suffering deeply. The results she gets for her clients using hypnosis are simply astounding. Learn about Jackie's change-making work and her own Homegrown Solutions that ripple out to have a major impact on others by reading her story below, watching the video of our conversation, and listening to The Blue Roads Changemaker Podcast.
Homegrown Jackie
Jackie's mother felt helpless to protect her from the abusive environment surrounding her during her childhood years with a father addicted to alcohol. She was beaten nearly every day and hunger plagued her waking hours.
It was confusing. I kept wondering, “I haven't done anything. Why am I being beaten?”
Alcohol abuse surrounded her early life. Her brother died at 36 overtaken by the same affliction and the man she married at 19, who also suffered from alcoholism, had a heart attack and died early in their marriage leaving her alone with two young children under the age of three.
Jackie remarried, moved to Dubai with her new husband, and had two more children. She has beautiful memories of Dubai, but eventually, that marriage dissolved in infidelity leaving her, once again, to make her way in the world on her own. She started over with a printing business in Vancouver, Canada. Jackie was determined and resourceful, but also angry and alone.
Her devout Catholic upbringing served her throughout her life, but something was missing. She was plagued by negative thoughts.
Why me? Why am I so unlucky?
Jackie spent her evenings searching and doing research around ways to overcome the anxiety, stress and fear for survival that overcame her.
How will the bills be paid?
Jackie worked very hard and networked a lot in an effort to make a success of her printing business. During one such networking event, she found a flyer for training in hypnotherapy. She had an immediate sense that this was the answer to her prayers!
The universe works in mysterious ways.
The idea immediately intrigued her and she leaped at the chance to learn something new.
Solution Focused Jackie
Jackie took the hypnotherapy training part-time while she ran the printing business.
I realized that it was my thoughts, my negative thoughts…that precipitate the situation and bring you more of that. Goodness me, if I knew that I would have stopped! … These negative energies…If they are not released, they continue to live within us.
Hypnotherapy changed her own life perspective very quickly and she soon began to see fast results for her clients as well.
Several people came and although they smoked cigarettes for decades, they quit their habit in one session! One young woman came twice and got her dream job!
Self-doubt sometimes still plagued Jackie, but the more she worked with clients and saw their swift progress, the more her confidence grew. She took the hypnotherapy training again to bolster her skills and reinforce the process as she began to realize the incredible healing potential of hypnosis.
I haven't looked back. I sold my printing business and I've been doing this now for 16 years working with people and working with kids, helping people in all areas, whether it's depression or weight loss…
Jackie worked on behalf of other's well-being during her free time as well.
Because she remembered what it was like to be hungry, she started a feeding program called “Homeless on Hastings” for the homeless in Vancouver.
Once a month, volunteers gathered at Jackie's home where they often prepared over 1500 sandwiches to truck all the way to downtown Vancouver to feed the hungry.
Although it started from humble beginnings with Jackie and volunteers digging deep into their own pockets, it turned out to be an award winning project.
Jackie's Patchwork
I'm from India. So I was very, very conscious about my accent…I remember one woman on the phone saying, ” Oh, I can't understand your accent so I don't want to work with you.”
Another “so-called friend” said her word pronunciation was “unprofessional”. These kinds of comments shook her confidence. Over time though people began to ask her to make hypnosis audio recordings available. She quit listening to the naysayers and now has about 14 such recordings available through her website.
There was a time when working with men was a particular challenge for Jackie because of the abuse she had suffered as a child. Some of the techniques in hypnosis require a gentle touch to reinforce a suggestion. She had to work with extra determination to overcome an aversion to using this technique with male clients. Continuing her personal work around such limiting energies and beliefs helped her to overcome this barrier so it no longer plagues her. Some of her biggest successes have been with helping both men and women overcome their addictions.
Changemaker Jackie
In recent years, Jackie has been sharing her work often by speaking at Rotary Clubs about the powerful potential of hypnosis.
I share how the simple tool of hypnosis can change lives and, not only change lives, but can do it quickly… A large majority of my clients quit their addictions in either the first or second session.
After the first couple of sessions, Jackie uses follow-up appointments for repetition and reinforcement because new habits must be strengthened if they are to remain. One example she provides is replacing the cigarette enjoyed over many years by a smoker first thing in the morning with a tall glass of water. This must be done again and again to become a new habit.
If not, there's a tendency to go back to the same old, same old. I don't allow this to happen to my clients. My commitment to them is to help them move forward to experience transformation.
She provides an example of a young lawyer who contacted her after one of those Rotary talks. He was concerned about whether their work together would be confidential. After she assured him it would, he confided the extent of his alcohol addiction and his grave concern that he might lose everything if anyone were to know about it. He signed up for Jackie's 30-day program and quit his alcohol habit in the first session. It was completely discreet. Now, he could go back to focusing on his work and his young family in the fully present way they deserved.
That's my work anyway. He had three young children. So screaming at the kids, angry with the wife, fighting, drinking… That was the scenario. Now he's just happy and free!
That's where the ripple effects of change-making really pick up momentum. Imagine the positive ripples of true happiness and freedom when one person becomes happy and experiences freedom from addiction.
Children, spouses, employers, employees and their families… Such a huge AHA!
These ripples are the reason Jackie has decided most recently to focus on helping people in powerful positions overcome their addictions.
Business owners and entrepreneurs who are excellent at what they do. They are in these high powered environments. They have a lot of stress because they have a lot of responsibility. When I help them get completely free – and completely free for me means that they have choice – This is really in the big scheme of things, not about the drugs or the alcohol or anything that we do. It boils down to, “I have choice.”
Jackie acknowledges that most people don't realize they have a choice because they have so many obligations and they can't afford to be seen at groups like Alcoholics Anonymous or rehab.
They have everything to lose: their business, their career, their spouse, the kids, the house, and, in some cases, maybe even their life.
Jackie is thankful that we live in a time when she can offer her therapeutic services literally anywhere in the world by using Zoom or the telephone. She works with people with any kind of addiction or distress whether it be alcohol, drugs, gambling as well as fears or negative thought patterns. The hypnosis method involves a completely natural process of deep relaxation to turn clients away from surface-level or analytical thinking to access the subconscious mind. From there, Jackie can provide guidance that replaces negative habits with more positive thoughts and behaviors that better serve her client's well-being.
She has one important word of caution.
The one key component that's very important for change is someone has got to be motivated. It cannot be because somebody's spouse is chasing them to do it or their boss says, “You either quit or you're fired.”
Personal motivation is key. People don't have to fully understand the process to benefit, but hypnosis can never work outside one's own values or intentions. That said, when you want the change, hypnosis can work wonders.
Just like I said to myself many, many years ago, “Enough is enough”! As I spoke to the universe, “Enough of this crap! It's got to stop.” I didn't know how it was going to happen. I didn't know anything about hypnosis. I was a very strong Catholic and hypnosis is such a far cry from that, and yet, because I cried out on some level, the universe provided me with this opportunity, which also means I could have said, ” No.” Nobody forced me to go.
Be sure to watch the whole video above for more great examples of how habits and, even addictive behaviors, can change quickly with the help of hypnotherapy. The video below from P3TV is another great resource. If you're interested in a conversation with Jackie about her work or to see if hypnotherapy might be of help to you, too, you can follow her or reach out via Facebook, LinkedIn, or via her website https://www.thepowerwithin.ca
Jackie Maclean's work certainly relates to Global Goal #3 Good Health and Well-Being most directly, but the ripple effects of a healthy human have infinite potential to realize each of the other goals, too, don't you think?
Get in touch to let us know what YOU and people you know are doing to realize these Global Goals by the year 2030. We can do it if we take care good care of ourselves, overcome any habits that may be holding us back, and take our place in he world as Changemakers!
CHECK OUT our CHANGEMAKER YOU course to help you get started today!
Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in. Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU.
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Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in. Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU.
