Transcript from the Dentology Podcast recording with guest Sharon Waxkirsh.
Episode published Monday 16 January 2023
00:00:00:13 – 00:00:20:08
Andy Acton
Welcome to another episode of the Dentology Podcast where we discuss the business of dentistry. In this podcast series, we’ll be discussing all the non-clinical aspects of dentistry, some goodwill, values, finance, marketing, how to buy and sell a dental practice mindset through to where you can invest your money in team management issues. My name is Andy Acton and I’m joined by my co-host Chris Strevens.
00:00:20:09 – 00:00:32:13
Andy Acton
Let’s jump straight into it. Oh, it’s funny, isn’t it? We’ve done this for quite a while now. We must be 60, 70 episodes in something like that. That recording with Sharon just blew me away.
00:00:33:20 – 00:00:44:05
Sharon Waxkirsh
Tell you what, it’s fascinating. It’s not you know, you do have a misconception about me. That is, you’re going to eat onions as apples and. Yeah, like a chicken.
00:00:44:11 – 00:01:01:12
Andy Acton
Yeah. I mean, it’s under under the heading of sort of dental hypnosis, but that creativity that she wanted to apply in a different way. I think it’s absolutely first, I think it’s going to really open people’s minds to the potential of hypnosis in dentistry.
00:01:01:17 – 00:01:19:05
Sharon Waxkirsh
So for me, I think it’s one of those ones of, you know, whoever listens, the next thing they should probably do is Stephanie, go and watch her on YouTube or contact to understand how they can make not only it easier for their patients, but easier for themselves. I think it’s brilliant, but.
00:01:19:05 – 00:01:31:05
Andy Acton
Also I was fascinated around how much acceptance there’s been in the UK. Only compared to um, you know, other places across the world, Europe and other countries.
00:01:31:07 – 00:01:40:22
Sharon Waxkirsh
But I think finally I’ll just say, and I’m going to use this phrase which will surprise people, the hypnotize in a dog. Now, if that’s not a soundbite, to make it sound interesting.
00:01:41:16 – 00:01:47:07
Andy Acton
It was it was a great conversation today. So welcome to our latest episode of technology. How you doing, Chris?
00:01:47:07 – 00:01:54:06
Sharon Waxkirsh
You are very good. Very good. Can’t wait. Can’t wait. This will be an interesting one. It’s more that all interesting, but this is not a bit different.
00:01:54:14 – 00:01:56:21
Andy Acton
I think it’s going to be different. This is not.
00:01:57:11 – 00:01:59:21
Sharon Waxkirsh
Going to be good. It’s going to be good. So to pressure Sharon.
00:01:59:22 – 00:02:17:22
Andy Acton
Now, so today we are joined by Simon Church, who’s a hypnotherapist, a founder and director of Academy of Hypnosis and the co-founder of the renowned Institute of Hypnotherapy for Medical and Dental Practice. I h m d p. Welcome, Sharon. I’ll provide a bit of a.
00:02:19:02 – 00:02:22:15
Sharon Waxkirsh
I was impressed on your surname. I’m not too sure Sharon was impressed in your surname.
00:02:22:21 – 00:02:24:02
Andy Acton
How do you pronounce your name?
00:02:24:02 – 00:02:27:11
Chris Strevens
Exactly as it spell. Actually. So it lacks Cush.
00:02:27:22 – 00:02:35:15
Sharon Waxkirsh
I guess you do wax Kush? Yes. Kush. Yes. Good. Where is where is that from. Mhm. Origins of that one.
00:02:35:15 – 00:02:40:10
Chris Strevens
Possibly Prussia, Russia, Germany somewhere. Oh okay.
00:02:40:24 – 00:02:41:11
Andy Acton
I’ll tell you.
00:02:41:20 – 00:02:43:02
Chris Strevens
There’s not many of us in the world.
00:02:43:03 – 00:02:45:09
Sharon Waxkirsh
No, no, I’ve never heard of you.
00:02:45:09 – 00:02:55:13
Chris Strevens
If you. If you ever need to find a wax, Kurt, it’s me or my very close family. My brother, my sister in law, my nephew, niece and mother. That’s about it.
00:02:55:13 – 00:03:00:18
Andy Acton
Oh, so I imagine if you have a wax, Kurt comes on your radar of some sort. They’re probably related.
00:03:01:03 – 00:03:05:04
Chris Strevens
They’re most definitely related. Yeah.
00:03:05:04 – 00:03:08:18
Andy Acton
Brilliant, brilliant spirit. I think he’s.
00:03:08:18 – 00:03:15:02
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yeah, it’s probably something you might want if you’re not a distiller of spirits in the past as opposed to a consumer.
00:03:16:08 – 00:03:17:07
Andy Acton
But who knows?
00:03:17:16 – 00:03:19:20
Sharon Waxkirsh
Just thinking is Kersh isn’t as well.
00:03:20:07 – 00:03:28:24
Chris Strevens
Curse usually is cherry but wax in German is vox and and vox is worker so it could be cherry pick something like that for that.
00:03:29:11 – 00:03:31:05
Andy Acton
Oh that’s nice.
00:03:31:06 – 00:03:32:18
Sharon Waxkirsh
No. Yeah, that’s quite sweet. Anyway.
00:03:33:03 – 00:03:34:23
Andy Acton
Anyway, we’ve done the genealogy.
00:03:34:23 – 00:03:42:10
Sharon Waxkirsh
So we drifted off on a weirdo tangent. Welcome to our podcast.
00:03:42:10 – 00:03:47:13
Andy Acton
This is the podcast of unusual surnames. It used to be about the business of dentistry, but not anymore.
00:03:48:16 – 00:03:49:12
Sharon Waxkirsh
And today.
00:03:50:07 – 00:04:10:13
Andy Acton
Sorry, we’re back. Getting back on topic, we’re both London born and bred, and then that’s where you live until 2016. You then moved to Indiana to be with your husband, who is a professor at Purdue University. So before we get to kind of that that part in your professional life, just to give some kind of context, you know, what was life growing up for you like?
00:04:10:14 – 00:04:13:11
Andy Acton
What were the things that shaped you as a child to the person you are today?
00:04:13:23 – 00:04:30:08
Chris Strevens
Oh, that’s a great question. Things that shape as a child are challenges of childhood. I guess family issues and moving out of the school. I hated school. And I have to.
00:04:30:13 – 00:04:32:07
Sharon Waxkirsh
Say, was school an impactful, one.
00:04:32:09 – 00:04:45:12
Chris Strevens
Dreadful experience. Yeah. Hated that I was much more autistic. So, you know, I was in the wrong place. You know, the school system wasn’t set up for people who are really into the arts. And I really love.
00:04:45:16 – 00:04:54:08
Andy Acton
I think that’s still the case. I think the school system, you know, it works for the people that sit right in the middle. And if you’re one way or the other, I think it can be quite challenging.
00:04:54:15 – 00:05:13:08
Chris Strevens
I agree. I agree. And I really was you know, for me, it was all about art. And I just love drawing, drawing, drawing. So I went to art school as soon as I could, literally 15 years old, I’d got into the candidate center and it was fantastic. I was the youngest person there. The oldest person was in his nineties and it was just tremendous.
00:05:13:14 – 00:05:38:20
Chris Strevens
At the time. I couldn’t get into a foundation because I was too young, but this was a pretty foundation, so it was fantastic experience and that was that was me. Once I was on the art scene, I was happy as anything. But once I’d finished art college, which I’d gone into a degree, I had a degree in animation, I walked out of the all animation.
00:05:38:20 – 00:06:00:18
Chris Strevens
School was the top not only in the country, but one in one of a kind in the world. There’s only a few. And we had John Lasseter came to visit us to try and gather people. And this is when he just died. Toy Story. And it was incredible. But the problem was we’d learn how to do everything and sell animation on 35 mil, you name it.
00:06:00:18 – 00:06:26:00
Chirs Strevens
I could I could use a steam bag. I could splice my own work and do my own sound, recording everything. And the day I walked out of that college computer came in and none of this were prepared. You know, it was literally it was it was a whole it was crazy. It was 100% success rate of jobs that the year before us and every one of us that walked out was like, oh, we have to really rethink.
00:06:26:00 – 00:06:37:00
Chris Strevens
And there were some great people. I mean, one of the guys in my class, Darren, he went on to do I mean, he did all the MCAT adverts so, you know, got, you know, some good animators.
00:06:37:00 – 00:06:38:09
Andy Acton
Real success in there. Yeah.
00:06:39:01 – 00:06:57:00
Chris Strevens
Yeah. I mean, yeah, one of them runs, Carolina runs the animatic, which is the Spanish Animation Festival every year. So, so we had really good students in that class, but it was just like it just kind of broke down in terms of what we were able to do.
00:06:57:08 – 00:07:00:10
Sharon Waxkirsh
Did you not want to retrain or was it just like another long?
00:07:00:10 – 00:07:15:13
Chris Strevens
You know, the funny thing was I did start I went on did flash animation. But the funny thing was my thing was I don’t want to sit in front of a computer. Right. I, I just love the idea of hands on. And I thought, oh, this would be dreadful to sit here day in day to see.
00:07:15:13 – 00:07:16:18
Sharon Waxkirsh
All the film and stuff.
00:07:17:14 – 00:07:23:17
Chris Strevens
And lo and behold, my life is in front of the computer. Yeah.
00:07:24:11 – 00:07:49:04
Andy Acton
Well, what is a real kind of fork in the road moment, isn’t it? I remember when my oldest like, um, he started mechanical engineering and we were going to universities and there was a guy who was a lecturer and he specialized in hydraulics. It was a similar thing for him in that he qualified in hydraulics. And she in a few years as he went electrical and he said for a period because of his niche knowledge, he was really in demand and it worked for him.
00:07:49:04 – 00:08:01:05
Andy Acton
But he said to the students, you’ve got to be really careful and it’s a shame. Back in your day it wasn’t identified soon enough to at least give you that that kind of option, because once it goes down, you become a digital.
00:08:01:14 – 00:08:23:01
Chris Strevens
Yeah, well, you say identified. I remember them bringing in a camera that shot 25 frames per second and it was a digital camera. And they would look at this, by the way, nobody can touch it. Look at this. It’s so expensive. It was a big chunky thing. And I was just like, Oh, we did a little bit on computer, but you have to bear in mind it was floppy disk at the time.
00:08:23:23 – 00:08:39:13
Chris Strevens
So yeah, anybody that had done anything on computer when John Lasseter walked in, he said, who’s who touched a computer? And there was just one guy in the class I was working with on the computer, and he said it was. And I said, Well, come work for me. And he’s like, one finished my degree and he said no.
00:08:40:05 – 00:08:52:13
Chris Strevens
So it was wow, you know, didn’t that we didn’t know who he was. He didn’t he all he’d done at the time John Lasseter all he’d done was the bounce and squash, which is the, um, the ball and the.
00:08:53:04 – 00:08:53:21
Andy Acton
The light.
00:08:53:21 – 00:08:57:02
Chirs Strevens
Night. And that school bounce is closed down.
00:08:57:15 – 00:08:57:17
Andy Acton
And.
00:08:57:18 – 00:09:02:22
Chris Strevens
Squash. And that was a unique thing to be able to do on a computer at the time.
00:09:03:18 – 00:09:12:02
Sharon Waxkirsh
Wow. Wow. It’s fun, isn’t it? That’s so. So what would that be 25 years ago, maybe longer and some.
00:09:12:19 – 00:09:16:12
Chris Strevens
Mm. 1992 I think. Yeah.
00:09:16:12 – 00:09:30:09
Andy Acton
Wow. It’s amazing how things have changed isn’t it. To where, where we are now when you watch kind of, you know, digital animation stuff now, um, some of those kind of scene shots is hard to tell whether it’s real life or animated. Um.
00:09:30:17 – 00:09:49:02
Chirs Strevens
It’s, it’s for us at the moment we look at it like that. But then if you bear in mind, you know, 1930s and you had a model of, you know, Godzilla on the cat on the screen, people would have said the same thing to you and us. Looking back at the clay Godzilla, you know, stumbling around. We think it’s hilarious.
00:09:49:06 – 00:09:54:17
Chris Strevens
But at that time, people were equally as frightened when they saw these kind of things of interest.
00:09:54:17 – 00:10:04:06
Sharon Waxkirsh
Do you still even though it’s it’s your past, when you watch something animated, do you sort of look at it in a almost like with the critical eye or.
00:10:04:10 – 00:10:30:03
Chris Strevens
No, I never did. You know, good animator. Hmm. I wasn’t I really wasn’t. I just the only reason why I went into animation was because another thing about our school system is that we go into it with funneled into career type colleges too early on. And so I felt that I wasn’t ready to do a specific art form.
00:10:30:03 – 00:11:03:18
Chirs Strevens
You know, when I came out of my art college, I wanted to do all art. I was still evolving and they kept going, Would you want to do a degree? You have to do photography or animation or film or textile or fine art. So it’s a niche and it’s like, I’ve just discovered everything. And so animation was actually the only degree that allowed me to play Still with Clay at the same time, make a film at the same time, use photography to build things to it, incorporated any art form that I chose at that time.
00:11:04:11 – 00:11:14:23
Chris Strevens
But actually it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I mean, I really wanted to just be an artist, which in any medium, and I didn’t feel that and I definitely didn’t get it in animation.
00:11:15:10 – 00:11:25:12
Andy Acton
But yeah, oh, it’s a very interesting backstory in terms of kind of how that did sort of shape and impact your future life in your professional career.
00:11:25:20 – 00:11:48:07
Chris Strevens
Well, I’ll tell you where it leads brilliantly into this career now is that in animation I’m working with people’s imagination. In animation, you work with imagination, you work with storytelling, you work with feeling, you know, what’s the feeling of the character. You have to understand a character to to develop the character. And when you doing hit a therapy, it’s very, very similar.
00:11:48:07 – 00:12:09:05
Chris Strevens
And I feel like I haven’t actually moved artistic direction. I’ve just used a different tool, which is instead of my hands, it’s my mouth. And so when I’m working with somebody is mind, they’re telling me a story and for me I already interpret it into my own mind of what does that look like, feel like? And there’s the story around it.
00:12:09:05 – 00:12:17:03
Chris Strevens
So I’m really interested in the character and the characters that have made up their story. So I think it’s very similar.
00:12:17:19 – 00:12:23:24
Sharon Waxkirsh
It’s interesting adaptation. Yeah, you know, it’s just a little tweak, but yeah, it’s interesting. Yeah, I.
00:12:23:24 – 00:12:47:19
Andy Acton
Would have thought I would have never joined together. I have never thought of somebody who had that as an interest coming out of school. And now your professional career and you’ve been a health services since 2006 but worked in a sort of self-development field for 15 years as well before before we get to that, you now live in Indiana, although at the moment we’re recording this, you’re you’re in London as we found out before we started recording just down the road from where our studio is.
00:12:47:19 – 00:12:48:14
Sharon Waxkirsh
In fact, you’ll hear how.
00:12:49:23 – 00:12:51:00
Chris Strevens
It’s and.
00:12:52:07 – 00:13:05:22
Andy Acton
You said in the details that you provide us with that it was a real kind of life change going to Indiana. So what did that look like for a girl who was kind of living in London to then going to Indiana? How different are they? What was that experience?
00:13:05:22 – 00:13:34:11
Chris Strevens
I can’t say I’ve adjusted. I have been there for a while. It’s it’s beyond different. I mean, I could say if you said to me, you can go to the countryside in the UK, I could understand it and relate some way. But in Indiana I feel it’s an extreme out of the box experience. You know, just as I can’t even begin to explain every detail of American life is different.
00:13:34:20 – 00:13:53:16
Chris Strevens
What people see on the movies is, you know, when you think of America, you see in New York, you see East Coast or you see West Coast or you see Florida. You have this kind of parts of the state that you see. And then occasionally you see these really weird movies that are set in some back of beyond or place.
00:13:53:16 – 00:14:09:09
Chris Strevens
And you think that can’t be real. You know, the place where somebody gets hidden away in somebody else’s basement for 20 years? Well, I think those places, I mean, they exist. And you just think, yeah, you could be in someone’s basement and your neighbor would never know. Would never.
00:14:09:09 – 00:14:09:18
Sharon Waxkirsh
Know.
00:14:10:18 – 00:14:18:21
Chirs Strevens
It’s a very odd experience. These that I live in a place which is a college town.
00:14:18:24 – 00:14:26:24
Sharon Waxkirsh
So I remember Indiana State for some reason and it’s I don’t know, it must have been in a film or something. Or was it like a good football team also?
00:14:26:24 – 00:14:47:24
Chris Strevens
That’s so there is a movie called Hoosiers or something like that, which is what you call in Indiana. Indiana, you don’t call them that. You call them a Hoosier. Nobody actually knows the origin of that. But but the actual place is all I can say is think weird movie. I lived there.
00:14:47:24 – 00:14:52:01
Sharon Waxkirsh
Maybe not the hills have eyes, don’t.
00:14:52:01 – 00:15:03:17
Chris Strevens
And they’re mine. No hills. Oh, no, that’s super flat. Flat, flat. And we’re talking about flat probably. I mean, Indiana itself is about the size of the UK or the size of England, I’d say.
00:15:04:21 – 00:15:05:07
Andy Acton
Wow.
00:15:05:16 – 00:15:23:13
Chris Strevens
So, you know, when I go traveling around and I want to get out of the flat, it’s you know, we’ve got a good two and a half hour, three hour drive and we’re talking about hundreds of miles because when we talk about drive in the states, drive, you know, I can do an hour drive and only end up in Golders Green here.
00:15:23:19 – 00:15:30:02
Chris Strevens
But from Finchley. But in Indiana, you’ve you’ve literally crossed the country. You know.
00:15:30:15 – 00:15:44:22
Sharon Waxkirsh
I had a friend who lived in Iowa, and he was, like I said to him, so what do you do? He said, Not much. And I said to him, So if you want to go and meet your friends, what you did, he said, You have to drive an hour. He said to find somewhere where you can all meet because it’s convenient.
00:15:45:07 – 00:15:53:04
Sharon Waxkirsh
And for us in the UK because also you come from the UK so totally alien concept isn’t it. It’s not.
00:15:53:04 – 00:16:00:22
Andy Acton
It’s bonkers. Yeah. So you split your time between the UK and Indiana. Yeah. It is unusual for you to be here in the UK.
00:16:01:02 – 00:16:01:24
Sharon Waxkirsh
We enjoy it. Sure.
00:16:02:10 – 00:16:06:22
Chris Strevens
I. Which one? I love London. I’m a Londoner. Through and through, that’s for sure.
00:16:07:05 – 00:16:08:19
Sharon Waxkirsh
I was Indiana as well.
00:16:09:01 – 00:16:14:04
Chris Strevens
No, I’m your.
00:16:15:23 – 00:16:16:15
Sharon Waxkirsh
Husband. Listen.
00:16:18:00 – 00:16:48:00
Chris Strevens
He’s around. I can see the benefits of being in a place like that. No one is. There’s no rat race. It’s super calm. Traffic jam consists of maybe three cars. You know, it’s it’s extremely chill. And as I say, where I live, particularly where it’s Purdue University, we’re in a bit of a pod in terms of when you’re in a college town, all you experience is students every day, student life, lord of academia.
00:16:48:06 – 00:17:06:02
Chris Strevens
So we’ve got incredible plays, musicals and lectures going on all the time, so I can be involved in a lot of interesting experiences that way. On the other hand, it’s it’s a drive, you know, anywhere to Chicago, my local to reality.
00:17:06:12 – 00:17:07:02
Andy Acton
I mean, lucky.
00:17:07:05 – 00:17:13:05
Sharon Waxkirsh
Lucky me. Sorry. Can I just ask a question? How did you meet your husband, Professor? Indiana, when you know.
00:17:13:20 – 00:17:20:22
Chris Strevens
He’s a traveler, he’s a traveling type, and I’m a traveler. I mean, that’s where we really meet. Well, together. And we actually met in Prague.
00:17:22:01 – 00:17:24:12
Sharon Waxkirsh
I was the Indiana professor when you met.
00:17:24:12 – 00:17:51:04
Chris Strevens
Oh, yeah. Yeah, he’s been there 25 years. So he’s he’s he’s a professor of biological sciences. He’s his expertize in virology. So he actually teaches the COVID course over there and he’s expert in Ebola. So how how viruses get into cells is his his thing. But he’s also I mean, he’s with flying around the Europe at night because he lectures specifically on scientific ethics as well.
00:17:51:21 – 00:18:16:23
Chris Strevens
So he he’s one of these whistleblowers. He uncovers bad science. Oh, very so it’s really interesting because obviously when COVID was, you know, in full bloom, he was bombarded with every conspiracy theory going, yeah, and he’s able to discern what is a conspiracy theory? What is the truth? Where did this where did these ideas come from? Who where did they originate from?
00:18:16:23 – 00:18:38:01
Chris Strevens
And by the way, most of them were from the UK, believe it or not, as interesting fact. Wow. So there’s been a, you know, people the misunderstandings that people have come out and that people say, well, I’m a scientist, but people don’t understand what that really means. There’s a scientist who I think we mentioned just before we go on the hall about PhDs and doctors.
00:18:38:01 – 00:18:58:09
Chris Strevens
There are people who are really, you know, have you know, I are somebody my career recently she had she had a Ph.D. and she’d written a book and named Doctor such and such. And I said, Oh, where did you get your Ph.D. from? She wouldn’t answer, you know. So it’s it’s you know, there are people around course. You know, we do their way in certain things.
00:18:58:10 – 00:19:00:23
Chris Strevens
You don’t know exactly who’s got what exactly.
00:19:00:24 – 00:19:02:01
Andy Acton
Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:02:02 – 00:19:08:11
Sharon Waxkirsh
So if you got the inside track where it all started, then yes.
00:19:08:11 – 00:19:12:16
Chris Strevens
But if you want a podcast with him on Scientific, I think that would be fascinating.
00:19:12:23 – 00:19:14:16
Sharon Waxkirsh
I mean, really interesting. But if he’s up for it.
00:19:14:24 – 00:19:36:00
Chris Strevens
Yeah, he’s totally he’s very, very he’s an incredible lecturer. I mean, it’s you know, what I what I learned during during the lockdown period because of course, I’m in the same room as in and we happened to be in lockdown for some reason. We were based in California at that point. Best place to be in lockdown. I have to say, I had a great time.
00:19:36:03 – 00:20:07:07
Chris Strevens
We hiked every every national park in the whole of northern California. Wow. I’ve never been better in my life. Really brilliant. But yes, during that time, of course, he was doing his lectures and I sat in on them essentially. So I learned so much about serology and COVID and you know, the politics about it, the history, the history of viruses of the Black Death, the plague, you know, everything for our.
00:20:07:07 – 00:20:10:15
Andy Acton
Audience, being medical bases, dentist, I think it would be fascinating.
00:20:10:20 – 00:20:11:15
Chris Strevens
It really is.
00:20:11:15 – 00:20:21:10
Andy Acton
I think he’d need to dumb it down definitely for us and turn it into layman’s like we could ask basic, simple. He could get very carried away. But I think people would find that really, really interesting. I mean.
00:20:21:15 – 00:20:24:16
Chris Strevens
It is a fascinating, fascinating subject.
00:20:24:21 – 00:20:25:20
Sharon Waxkirsh
Anyway. But to you.
00:20:25:24 – 00:20:26:07
Chris Strevens
Yeah.
00:20:26:09 – 00:20:50:04
Andy Acton
Yes, but back to you. So you’re you’re hypnotherapist and have been for for many years you operate in the medical field and in dentistry. And then we were talking about how it would be great if if they could be more embracing of that as a as a, as a technique in dentistry. But just talk us through kind of how this came about and how and why you you qualified and the differences between the medical profession.
00:20:50:04 – 00:21:06:01
Sharon Waxkirsh
And I’m going to ask you a very trite question here. Is it a bit like when you go to a you know, you go to a function and you’re a dentist and people got a bit of a problem here or my foot. And when you say what you do to hypnotize me, do they sort of do stuff like that?
00:21:06:09 – 00:21:15:24
Chris Strevens
I so I get I get to two different versions of that. One is, can you do it right now? You do it now. You know, that’s the first thing. And the next thing is you.
00:21:15:24 – 00:21:17:12
Sharon Waxkirsh
Haven’t already done it. Done.
00:21:17:22 – 00:21:26:21
Chris Strevens
So common question is, does that actually work? And I just think why would you ask somebody a question about their career? You know.
00:21:26:21 – 00:21:27:14
Sharon Waxkirsh
Just blagging it.
00:21:28:03 – 00:21:47:08
Chris Strevens
You know? Okay. And my answer used to be, no, no, I just didn’t get loads money for it, you know? I know. Why would you ask that question? But, you know, but the question does still come up. Does it work? And you just think of, gosh, you know, people really have no idea about about what is the hypnotic state?
00:21:47:08 – 00:22:11:04
Chris Strevens
Still no idea. So I can explain that to you very quickly if you like. But let’s go back to the first question. How sorry that so you mentioned the HDP that was actually set up with myself and a colleague, Dr. John Butler. Don’t John Butler was my teacher and he trained with a guy called Guilbeault in Guilbeault. And unfortunately he passed away not that long ago.
00:22:11:04 – 00:22:37:07
Chris Strevens
But I actually got trained by Gil as well. Luckily, towards the end of his life. But John Butler, he’s a he’s a neuroanatomy, he’s at the psych therapies, is a wonderful teacher. And he and I, I went to one of his, I would say early trainings. I was one of his first sort of students that came out of his courses.
00:22:38:18 – 00:23:01:02
Chris Strevens
And at the time, John was very interested in surgery, hypnosis for surgery. And he happened to be doing, I don’t know if you remember this hypnosis surgery five live. There was a guy that was on TV that had a hernia operation to be done with no anesthetic. So Dale, the name of the chap that was was the victim.
00:23:01:09 – 00:23:22:23
Chris Strevens
And he used to come into our course, every other day or whenever and just to practice, you know, just to get his mind prepared because it was going to be filmed. There’s a lot of pressure when you’re doing this kind of thing. And so John had him in and I was really curious about it. You know, I didn’t really know what hypnotherapy was myself at the time cause I’m just studying.
00:23:23:06 – 00:23:38:18
Chris Strevens
So I was just watching this process. But when it finished, I have a really good friend who happens to be a surgeon in Barnet, and he turned and he goes, Oh, did you see that thing on five live? I said, Yes, I did. He said, Oh my gosh. Oh, but friends, them, they’re really interested. Can you teach them?
00:23:39:06 – 00:24:01:19
Chris Strevens
And I thought, Can I teach them? I just walked out of the doors. I said to John and there’s some surgeons that want to be taught. And he said, You know, I’ve always wanted to do this, great, let’s go in there. And, you know, we had a big lecture at Barnard General and so a lot of heart consultants there or all kinds, you know, my friend happens to be colorectal surgeon.
00:24:02:19 – 00:24:30:01
Chris Strevens
And from there we decided to set up the HMD pay, which is no longer exist because we became really busy with essentially marketing ourselves. And that was a thing. It was constantly writing articles and I’ve tried to go into every medical and dental magazine. So what happened from there was there was a day where I was doing a live show at the BDA and that’s the British Dental Trade Association.
00:24:30:01 – 00:24:50:09
Chris Strevens
And they had this big bubble where we were offered a space to go in and do a live hypno analgesia experience with with two clients, two patients. So I had the dentist ready. I knew the dentist. I’d been working with him already. I’d already had one of my feelings done, no anesthetic. So he was used to me doing it.
00:24:50:09 – 00:25:08:16
Chris Strevens
I’d already done four wisdom teeth extraction with another patient of his, and so I was working with this particular dentist a fair bit, so we went into the beady eye to do this process. John was meant to be there that day and I was going to probably do the talking and John was doing the hypnotizing or vice versa.
00:25:08:16 – 00:25:32:01
Chris Strevens
We hadn’t and decided. Anyway, I get a phone call from John that morning. I’m stuck in traffic. I can’t make it. You just start. And I was like, All right, I’ve got no choice here. So, you know, the first the first patient was there and I did well with her. And I was both hypnotizing and doing the lecture at the same time to imagine there was still video footage of me on YouTube doing this.
00:25:32:17 – 00:25:49:20
Chris Strevens
And then I phoned him up. John, John, are you coming? Now, the next phrase. Come on, you’re coming. I’m still in traffic cone. You didn’t. And so again, second guy the second guy was actually phobic. I’m so pleased he showed up. I didn’t know he was going to show up because normally phobic don’t show up. Yeah, but he did.
00:25:49:20 – 00:26:10:20
Chris Strevens
He was he was actually a filmmaker as well as a film producer because he’s from my previous life. And so he was knew what I was doing. He said, Well, I’ll do it with you. So of course he trusted me. So came to that and that was perfect. And then John said to me, Sharon, you know, you’ve done more than two hypnosis than anybody I know at this point.
00:26:11:04 – 00:26:24:08
Chris Strevens
He said, Why don’t you just carry on teaching the dentists? So I pretty much took that, you know, because he was so busy with his own school and he was the president of the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners. So he had his label. So I started he.
00:26:24:08 – 00:26:27:16
Sharon Waxkirsh
Was really stuck in traffic. He was, yeah.
00:26:27:16 – 00:26:31:13
Chris Strevens
You know, John was a great mentor. Whether he was stuck in traffic or not. I mean.
00:26:31:22 – 00:26:32:20
Sharon Waxkirsh
It’s an interesting.
00:26:33:15 – 00:27:05:08
Chris Strevens
You a talk about a good mentor to say, you know, you’re ready for this. So that was it. I said, okay, I’ll just carry on with my dentists. And I just, you know, took the reins and I started training people at Portsmouth Dental Academy, which is part of Kings and Guy’s. And, you know, wherever people want me, I’ll go into I mean, while I’m here, I’m teaching a lovely, lovely pediatric dental company called the Tooth Fairy in Richmond.
00:27:05:08 – 00:27:28:01
Chris Strevens
And I go there every six months or so. And I just, you know, I love the fact that a company will have me in because I know that every one of those people, from reception through to hygienist on every level, they’re all going to be on board. And so they have me in every six months, just so that I can meet the new people, bring it bring it in fresh and refresh them memory and stuff.
00:27:28:01 – 00:27:36:21
Chris Strevens
So, you know, that’s what I do. I sort of go to company to company. But then I started my own school and in lockdown because. Why not?
00:27:37:09 – 00:27:51:15
Andy Acton
Mm hmm. Yeah. And how and how he’s. He’s hypnotherapy adopted and accepted in dentistry compared to, say, the medical profession or other professions. Is it embraced or is it is it sort of pushing pushing my field?
00:27:51:17 – 00:27:56:23
Chris Strevens
You know, that’s a great question, because I would say it’s different overseas than it is here.
00:27:57:10 – 00:27:59:16
Sharon Waxkirsh
As in better over here.
00:27:59:16 – 00:28:30:22
Chris Strevens
It’s better over here, except it here. Over here. It’s far better acceptance. There are simple reasons for this. If you have on your website hypnotherapy or we we offer hypnosis, you’re far more likely to get those phobic or high anxiety clients to walk through your door because those people realize that no matter what that is going to happen, they know that you are more on board with them mentally and emotionally, whether they even know what hypnosis means themselves, it doesn’t matter.
00:28:31:05 – 00:28:39:03
Chris Strevens
They just know that the dental company has has taken their time to kind of understand that people have anxieties and.
00:28:39:03 – 00:28:41:13
Sharon Waxkirsh
Issues, acknowledges it in acknowledgment is.
00:28:41:21 – 00:29:10:03
Chris Strevens
Whereas if you go to the States, I’m where I live, you know, it’s sort of like I’m in I’m in a very peculiar place. So it’s it’s it’s almost like a no, no. The devil the devil did this. But in other areas of the states, it’s trickling in, but very, very slowly. Well, very slowly. And and I think there’s another issue in the States compared to the UK.
00:29:10:03 – 00:29:34:20
Chris Strevens
In the States, they’re really prepared to give you anesthesia for even teeth cleaning anything. And I start with kids, you know, they’ll immediately inject a child to anesthetize their mouth before so so that they don’t. And they’ve got so used to medicating their patients that the idea of not using medication almost seems to mystical and.
00:29:34:20 – 00:29:36:12
Sharon Waxkirsh
Go back to my stem.
00:29:37:02 – 00:29:40:07
Andy Acton
Suppose this is built into society that that’s how you treat people.
00:29:40:07 – 00:29:54:06
Chris Strevens
Yeah, exactly. And over here in the UK, it’s still not a thing in such a way. We’re not, thank God, we’re not sort of overly medicating everybody yet. I say yet because these things do fly over the water.
00:29:56:00 – 00:30:12:21
Sharon Waxkirsh
But you said something. Sorry, I mentioned earlier on that you had a feeling without and you know that local anesthetic can you you on yourself so can you sort of put yourself into oh.
00:30:13:01 – 00:30:16:21
Chris Strevens
The you have a watch my YouTube channel okay is.
00:30:16:23 – 00:30:17:09
Sharon Waxkirsh
The answer.
00:30:17:22 – 00:30:42:03
Chirs Strevens
YouTube Sharon wax Kurt you will see so many videos on there of me doing hypnosis with others or other people having extractions of all kinds. I actually have 2 to 1 there. I think of myself having to extractions done by two different dentists. So yeah, it’s perfectly I mean, perfectly possible to do self-hypnosis. I actually have a course specifically for self hypnosis.
00:30:43:01 – 00:31:12:03
Chris Strevens
There is a saying in the hypnotherapy world, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis because essentially it’s about you. Are you putting yourself into that state? The difference between most states are when you do hypnotherapy, hypnosis, you kind of think someone else is doing it to you. What they’re doing is they’re facilitating your ability to move into that state and they’re facilitating it in a way that helps you maintain that state.
00:31:12:12 – 00:31:15:20
Chris Strevens
But essentially it’s your choice. It’s always your choice.
00:31:15:21 – 00:31:24:09
Andy Acton
So on that basis, some people resistant to it and it wouldn’t work on them just because they’ve got a closed mind and they won’t allow it to work on them.
00:31:25:02 – 00:31:54:03
Chris Strevens
You know, I watch my YouTube channel and you’ll see that I’ve actually I’m the first female in history to have hypnotized a dog for a hernia operation, no anesthetic. So I always think, is there such a thing as resistance? Well, it’s a fascinating experience. I mean, you are still one of your questions, which you sent me in in the in the IMA, what’s the most interesting thing you’ve done or something?
00:31:54:06 – 00:32:00:15
Chris Strevens
Quite an actually I think about it that is probably the most unique thing I’ve done in the hypnotherapy world.
00:32:01:05 – 00:32:08:07
Sharon Waxkirsh
So that I mean, that must be so is that like tone of voice then? I mean, that’s because how do you get a dog to get to this?
00:32:08:07 – 00:32:23:07
Chris Strevens
So again, I’m I’m over in Purdue University area. We have one of the best battery schools in the world there. And my husband hopefully is, you know, is doing his best to kind of introduce again, it’s such a slow process just to kind of get people’s awareness.
00:32:23:21 – 00:32:24:06
Sharon Waxkirsh
Hmm.
00:32:24:24 – 00:32:43:19
Chris Strevens
I don’t really you know, I’ve had people who come to me that will teach me how to do this. I don’t want to teach how to do this simply because we don’t have enough research on it. And until there’s the research done behind it, I feel I feel it would be unethical to start explaining how to do this.
00:32:43:22 – 00:32:58:10
Chris Strevens
And I would like to see more research. But I have to say that what we you know, we were in a it was done in a veterinary school at the time, and I had a number of vets around me. Of course, you can imagine the room was filled.
00:32:58:22 – 00:32:59:03
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yes.
00:32:59:19 – 00:33:20:16
Chris Strevens
It was a very exciting experience. And, you know, we measured the dog’s heart rate, the dog’s response is there wasn’t a peep out of this dog. There wasn’t a grizzle, a moan, a wine. The dog had identical responses as humans do in terms of and if you watch the video, it is absolutely fascinating.
00:33:20:17 – 00:33:25:08
Sharon Waxkirsh
That’s how I feel. I’m going to have to go and watch that video YouTube rabbit as you go down.
00:33:25:13 – 00:33:32:10
Chris Strevens
Yeah, well, I just subscribe and so yeah.
00:33:32:19 – 00:33:34:12
Andy Acton
We’ll put the link in the show notes. Yeah.
00:33:34:12 – 00:33:58:15
Chris Strevens
Right. So, so it’s a really interesting, it had all the same responses as, as a human does when they are just in that state of I’m having a surgery done and, and therefore my frame of mind is on board with it. So when you talk about resistance, I think it’s less of a resistance, it’s more of an inhibition.
00:33:58:15 – 00:34:25:08
Chris Strevens
And so therefore, somebody kind of can feel like, you know, really, you know, there’s another saying in hypnosis, fear is the enemy of hypnosis. But I also don’t believe in that because I believe when I’ve had people come and I’ve taught this to my students, everyone’s frightened when they go into surgery, you know, they’re right. And there’s not a single person that doesn’t kind of think to themself, Oh, you know, what am I doing?
00:34:25:08 – 00:34:48:00
Chris Strevens
Will I be safe? Am I going to be okay? So if you allow that as part of the process, then the hypnosis becomes very easy. So I had a lovely client, little girl actually, I think she’s about seven years old and she was having no anesthetic for some teeth removal. And so what we did, she you know, what I did with her is have a screen before we do anything.
00:34:48:10 – 00:35:13:03
Chris Strevens
So she’d scream before any tooth has pulled. Then the tooth was done. No screen, no no pain, nothing. And then she. Is it done? Yep. Yep. Done. Next one. Yeah. Have a scream. She gave a scream as a good. Let’s do it again. So it was just allowing that, that emotional kind of whoa let go experience and I tell you something, whenever you’ve done something with hypnosis on this level, you walk out of there high as a kite.
00:35:14:10 – 00:35:33:13
Chris Strevens
I mean, you know, drugs, you don’t need any drugs to be in hypnosis. It is you know, I get people off of drugs because I can say to them, whatever you have attained with whatever drug you have had, you can get that with hypnosis because hypnosis can only tap into what you already have. Mm hmm. And the drug can only tap into what you already have.
00:35:33:24 – 00:35:36:05
Chris Strevens
It’s not going to do something that you haven’t got.
00:35:36:05 – 00:35:43:15
Andy Acton
So the inhibition is the the barrier to it working well, does it work better? Is easier to hypnotize children than adults?
00:35:43:24 – 00:36:07:08
Chris Strevens
No. And again, it is funny because people always say it’s easier to do hypnosis with kids. You know, children are in a when you’re in that state, which children are in the states from the age of 0 to 6. And you guys have got kids. So if you remember your kids, when they’re around six years old, seven years old, they were really challenging at that point, six, seven years old.
00:36:07:08 – 00:36:31:19
Chris Strevens
They know everything. And that’s because their conscious, critical mind has started to kick in. So up until that age, they’re absorbing, absorbing, absorbing, get at the age of six or seven. And suddenly they are critically evaluating life around them and trying to connect what goes where, you know, the yes, no, good, bad, right, wrong. And they’re sort of pocketing it.
00:36:32:23 – 00:36:54:18
Chris Strevens
So when you’re working with kids, they still have that critical mind open, but it’s not so developed. So therefore, if you’re still got young kids and you’re saying like, you can do this, they’ll go, Oh yeah, I can. Now, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to hypnotize an easier in a way easier, but they’re much more open to bypassing that particular faculty.
00:36:54:18 – 00:37:17:09
Chris Strevens
However, if the parent is in the room, very often the parent, they look to the parent to see how should they respond. If the parent is responding in a way of their they will also respond. And then, you know, so sometimes it’s not easy to work with kids just because of the situation and circumstances around them where they’re reliant on what the other person’s response is.
00:37:17:22 – 00:37:18:24
Andy Acton
Well, yeah.
00:37:19:00 – 00:37:20:19
Sharon Waxkirsh
Anyone hypnotized? Any other animals?
00:37:21:24 – 00:37:42:19
Chris Strevens
Yeah. You can actually hypnotize sharks. Chickens, which is where it comes from, by the way. Chickens. Yeah. So, you know, everybody with is or can, you know, if you might be going to be maybe into chicken there’s virtually that was you know I had visited a doctor’s office once that I gave a whole lecture about hypnosis for an X-Man and all this.
00:37:42:24 – 00:38:13:03
Chris Strevens
And then they said it was because it knitted the chicken. And I said, Do you have many chickens coming to your doctor’s surgery? But I’ll tell you where this comes from. And where did you actually come from? The first person to ever record the state of trance. Remember, it wasn’t called hypnosis at that point. Was a man called Father Kirchherr, who realized that if you draw a chalk line or a line by which you can speak, put their head down, they’ll still they stay still.
00:38:13:03 – 00:38:15:13
Sharon Waxkirsh
I was I saw something on a video.
00:38:15:20 – 00:38:17:03
Chris Strevens
You’ll see people did.
00:38:17:22 – 00:38:19:17
Sharon Waxkirsh
Not write.
00:38:19:21 – 00:38:39:24
Chris Strevens
Right to all animals have that that lactic process that that and that’s why I said about the dog I would like to do more research because I don’t know you know what the state of mind body is. People said, well, that dog must have been in such fear that that’s what it did. But if it was in fear, the heart rate would have been different.
00:38:39:24 – 00:39:03:06
Chris Strevens
It was so relaxed, so again, there’s a difference between that state of mind. What it does is it shifts perception of what’s going on needs and therefore doing hypnosis or any kind of surgery. To me, I always trust my patient. Always trust my patient because their brains will shift to what their needs are. And I’m just facilitating that process.
00:39:03:06 – 00:39:30:21
Chris Strevens
And that’s what the dentist can do. They can just facilitate the person don’t actually have to do that much. What they what they tend to do that takes the person away from that state is asking them about their pain level or asking them, how does this feel? Or You will feel this or you will feel that. Well, you’re then having to tell that person while they’re in a highly suggestible state, what they’re going to feel and how it’s going to how they should respond to that.
00:39:31:02 – 00:39:49:17
Chris Strevens
And guess what they’re going to respond, but they’re going to interpret it in their mind from whatever their research, their experiences have been and their perceptions have been. Hmm. So if you tell somebody, I’m just going to give you a scratch for an injection, I don’t know why they use that term. Scratch. It never feels like a scratch.
00:39:50:04 – 00:40:11:15
Chris Strevens
I know what a scratch feels like. Having an injection does not feel that way, but you tell them it’s not. And then, of course, their perception is, no, it doesn’t. It feels like when I was a child I had some nasty person dig me with and then they go off there to tell them what to feel. Yeah, because you’re you’re tapping into their perception.
00:40:12:03 – 00:40:12:10
Chris Strevens
Mhm.
00:40:13:05 – 00:40:17:16
Sharon Waxkirsh
Mhm. Yeah. It’s interesting isn’t it. It’s a fascinating how. Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:18:01 – 00:40:33:09
Andy Acton
And as for kind of dentists and dental practices, what are the, the wider benefits beyond being able to kind of treat those nervous patients or those patients who might be dental phobic or, you know, reducing the need for for medication or are there other benefits?
00:40:33:12 – 00:41:02:01
Chris Strevens
Oh, the benefits outweigh you know, it’s funny because I give such a short training and it’s so the value that you get for this training in terms of financially is, you know, is huge. You know, what you get for this. So when I put the first thing I was, I was going to give a lecture, I put your hands up, how many of you treat phobic patients and everybody’s hand goes out of you, don’t phobic, don’t come in the door.
00:41:02:01 – 00:41:13:22
Chris Strevens
They don’t you get high anxiety patient but you don’t get a phobic. To get a phobic, you’d have to drag them out of the house first. So, you know, the first person that needs to help them is the receptionist.
00:41:14:16 – 00:41:15:07
Andy Acton
But yeah.
00:41:16:06 – 00:41:34:10
Chris Strevens
Now if I teach the receptionist how to use certain language and and what to do for that patient, then that’s the first step that they may or may walk into the door. Mm. All that equipment that, that dentist is bought goes to nothing if you can’t get someone in your door.
00:41:34:20 – 00:41:35:14
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yeah that’s true.
00:41:36:13 – 00:41:55:13
Chris Strevens
Doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. The other part of it is once you have somebody that has come to you who maybe was a high anxiety and has lowered their anxiety due to the way you speak to them, the way you work with them, they are going to meet multiple referrals. You are the dentist to be seen. So then you’ve got a whole bunch of people.
00:41:55:18 – 00:42:17:03
Chris Strevens
Yeah, yeah. You might be working with more anxious people initially, but you’ll get loads more so that in itself. The other part of it is you are calmer as a dentist because your patient is more compliant when you have somebody in a hypnotic state, they are super compliant, they relax, they lie down. They might even feel as though they’re going to sleep.
00:42:17:03 – 00:42:41:10
Chris Strevens
Now you might say, Oh, I’ve got lots of patients that go to sleep. Maybe they put themselves into that self hypnotic state automatically. That’s fine. But what about the ones that don’t who are sitting there gripping the handles, who are trying to breathe, who are gagged, have gag reflex, who have a bad hygiene, you know, practice it. You want them to start so you can hypnotize them into doing that.
00:42:42:05 – 00:43:09:00
Sharon Waxkirsh
And I suppose also, though, if you’re if you’re hypnotizing your patient, then does it follow that you yourself are then becoming more relaxed? Because you’ve got to be relaxed to me as a as your patient, because you can’t be stressed to try to hit the sighs. I’m so hungry. So you have the benefit of not only working on a relaxed patient, but you sort of relax yourself because you’re allowing yourself to be relaxed.
00:43:09:00 – 00:43:09:23
Chris Strevens
Yeah, 100%.
00:43:10:04 – 00:43:11:19
Sharon Waxkirsh
So that would be a bonus exercise.
00:43:11:19 – 00:43:13:11
Andy Acton
Just sounds like a much calmer surgery.
00:43:13:11 – 00:43:16:12
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yeah. Rather than freaking out and chasing your tail.
00:43:16:14 – 00:43:41:21
Chris Strevens
Yeah, exactly. And of course, you know, a lot of a lot of dentists suffer a lot with back pain from hunching over, you know, the position that a dentist finds himself in is very uncomfortable on the most part. And so when using hypnosis for themselves, for pain control or to ease up some of these muscles, it’s it’s it’s a no brainer on so many levels.
00:43:42:01 – 00:44:05:02
Chris Strevens
I mean, I had I went to one dental practice and I said, could you just help us with our cookie addiction? I said, Why have you got cookie addiction? Well, of course, all the patients used to give them cookies, post, you know, post-surgery. Oh, thank you very much. Piling up and all the all the dental nurses and the team was stopping the physio actually did a whole weight loss program for them and it was brilliant.
00:44:05:18 – 00:44:09:24
Sharon Waxkirsh
Really bigger doors.
00:44:09:24 – 00:44:33:09
Chris Strevens
So but it makes it financially it works out brilliantly. And I often say if you teach this once I teach a dental practice and I always prefer than to bring in as many colleagues as they can, as I say, from receptionist right through, you know, to get all this hierarchy stuff because I tell you, your patient is the one who is not interested in that.
00:44:33:09 – 00:45:01:04
Chris Strevens
They just want to be able to get through the door. When you start doing this as a as a core part of your practice, you can then actually have special session days where you only invite the phobic people to come just to walk into the door and say, We’re having a tea reception just two meters, because you don’t realize that these people who are phobic, they have a they have a fear of the dentist lead and not even necessarily the process.
00:45:01:13 – 00:45:13:03
Chris Strevens
They there’s often have had some problem in their past. Yeah. From some kind of difficult dental practitioner unfortunately.
00:45:13:14 – 00:45:15:01
Sharon Waxkirsh
Well what is.
00:45:15:02 – 00:45:16:21
Andy Acton
What does success look like if show.
00:45:19:05 – 00:45:56:20
Chris Strevens
A fear like success is is every patient walking out with a smile. You know that to me is success. And I also feel success is with my students that they are really fantastic in that they’re now taking that leap to become medical and dental hypnotherapy because there are very few of us who do this. And my my hope is that the more I can train to do it in a practical way, not just theoretical but practical, they can then go to the big wide world and then talk to other dentists and surgeons in the cities, etc..
00:45:57:03 – 00:45:59:08
Chris Strevens
So, you know, that’s what I would love to see.
00:45:59:24 – 00:46:04:04
Andy Acton
I sense a frustration on your part that it’s all a bit slow.
00:46:05:08 – 00:46:09:21
Chris Strevens
You know, it’s been slow since I think 1700.
00:46:11:13 – 00:46:13:08
Andy Acton
Yeah. So it’s it’s had a long run off and it’s not.
00:46:13:08 – 00:46:14:10
Sharon Waxkirsh
Likely to speed up.
00:46:15:19 – 00:46:54:24
Chris Strevens
You know, you know, it’s there has been the history of hypnosis has had such a clash with the medical world because of the misunderstandings. There are really great neurology is now there’s a guy actually British guy who’s in the states working on neurology of hypnosis for pain control Mark Jensen and you know, we’re finding out more and more material, but even he says for his own research, he won’t have any answers until the next three years as to how it works and why so you can imagine, you know, 200 years ago when this was this was the only form of anesthesia for some time.
00:46:55:16 – 00:46:56:02
Andy Acton
Right? Yeah.
00:46:56:03 – 00:47:02:13
Sharon Waxkirsh
People think, Derren Brown, they don’t know. I suppose that’s the problem is that they, they think you’re going to make them like a chicken or you know.
00:47:02:20 – 00:47:28:07
Chris Strevens
Dan Brown if you watched his stuff lately actually brilliant. I mean I you know, he’s combination between mentalism, magic and hypnosis is absolutely wonderful. So it goes two ways. You’ve got the the people who The Mentalist and the Darren Browns of the world. And and they really show how the mind can be manipulated for good or bad either way or for sun or whatever.
00:47:28:17 – 00:47:41:04
Chirs Strevens
And then you’ve got, you know, a lot of hypnotherapy, so you have no idea what they’re doing as well. And they’ve been badly trained. They have done very short trainings. There’s no regulating system in the world at this present time.
00:47:41:04 – 00:47:42:18
Sharon Waxkirsh
Oh, really? There’s no regulation of it?
00:47:42:18 – 00:47:52:11
Chris Strevens
Well, yes and no regulation. So, you know, I could teach you on this podcast and say, I’ll give you a certificate. Essentially, you’re allowed to rock up and still flat.
00:47:53:10 – 00:48:05:02
Sharon Waxkirsh
And as mentioned, you can and I don’t know, but is it one of those ones that you can if you do it wrong, you could do some damage to people? Or is that sort of like a little bit dramatic?
00:48:05:02 – 00:48:32:01
Chris Strevens
It’s kind of dramatic. I mean, you know, I wouldn’t say you can do it wrong during surgery. I think there’s there’s it’s it’s harder when you’re dealing with somebody for therapy. Right, because you don’t. But then any therapist can say the wrong word at the wrong moment, at the wrong time and evoke a wrong emotion or an unwanted emotion or something like that.
00:48:32:01 – 00:49:02:21
Chris Strevens
So, yes, there is always that. But I do feel that if you haven’t had a really good training, you certainly it’s going to come across. It’s you know, you’re going to be sort of not so confident yourselves about how to work this into the system with other people. It’s not it’s not that it’s a wrong thing. But I mean, usually the worst thing that can happen in hypnosis is that you get a good rest.
00:49:02:21 – 00:49:05:16
Chris Strevens
You know.
00:49:05:16 – 00:49:07:09
Sharon Waxkirsh
Well, it’s not that bad, is it, right after this?
00:49:07:14 – 00:49:08:10
Andy Acton
Is that if that’s a.
00:49:08:16 – 00:49:12:21
Sharon Waxkirsh
Standalone, there’s no trigger word that somebody you turn around and turn into a baboon or something.
00:49:13:09 – 00:49:22:02
Chris Strevens
So again, people will do that for stage, but the brain will allow it to happen for a very short period of time.
00:49:23:04 – 00:49:24:17
Sharon Waxkirsh
Oh, okay. That’s interesting.
00:49:24:17 – 00:49:28:20
Chris Strevens
So they’ll play along with it knowing that it’s a short, it’s a very temporary.
00:49:28:20 – 00:49:34:01
Sharon Waxkirsh
It’s your brain will let you do that. And then after a while it goes, I forget this, that’s rubbish.
00:49:34:01 – 00:49:34:05
Chris Strevens
You know.
00:49:34:05 – 00:49:35:02
Sharon Waxkirsh
That. Would it be a chicken.
00:49:35:10 – 00:49:35:18
Chirs Strevens
Yeah.
00:49:36:05 – 00:49:38:21
Andy Acton
That’s interesting. Lions to perform is amazing.
00:49:39:12 – 00:50:07:10
Chris Strevens
This far more powerful than we even realize. Far more powerful. Yeah. I mean, I’ve watched people with strokes and, you know, Parkinson’s and all, you know, special needs. And my experiences have just been mind boggling with these people. You know, how we transplant. It’s incredible. Transferring different thought patterns to where it can land rather than where it’s not landing.
00:50:07:20 – 00:50:15:02
Andy Acton
You should to be a bit left field. Is there any evidence that it helps people with spinal cord injuries or is that is that there it’s not been explored.
00:50:15:09 – 00:50:16:17
Sharon Waxkirsh
So that’s coming from that.
00:50:16:24 – 00:50:42:11
Chris Strevens
That’s a really interesting question. Is it something my brother and I are really interested in? He is an inventor and he invented something for VR called the Rotor. And what would I’d like to do is use that machine to with hypnosis and find if there’s a way to use that for people with spinal injuries. That’s what we’ve been talking about, that exact discussion last week.
00:50:42:21 – 00:50:58:08
Andy Acton
Beside you because you’ve got a friend. Yeah, a good friend of ours had an accident a few years ago now I think it was a C you had a brake, c5 and he’s, he’s exploring anything and everything to give him the best outcome of recovery possible.
00:50:58:08 – 00:51:15:10
Chris Strevens
Well, bring him along, because we want to we you know, it’s an experiment at this point, but it’s you know, it’s a question of, you know, how does the body heal? And we know with the body heals incredibly. In fact, the body heals six times faster using hypnosis for any surgery.
00:51:16:09 – 00:51:18:14
Andy Acton
But that’s Matt Martin’s method.
00:51:20:01 – 00:51:38:22
Chris Strevens
So yeah, I mean, I usually I had this final worked on, I had, I had a bit of a bad surgery some years ago and I used hypnosis not for the actual surgery. They wouldn’t let me. They said, Sharon, if you breathe in the wrong way, you know, you’ve got 50, 50. Whether you’re going to walk again or not anyway.
00:51:39:03 – 00:52:00:06
Chris Strevens
So they said, we’re not doing this without anaesthetic. And I said, Fine, you know, that’s fine by me. I said, But do not give me any morphine, any painkillers, nothing. And so I came out of that surgery. I used hypnosis as my sole pain killer and absolutely fine. You know, I didn’t need anything. And then, of course, I remember I still had no sensation in my toes.
00:52:00:06 – 00:52:18:16
Chris Strevens
And I said to one of the registrars and said, Look, he said, How’s your legs? And I said, Well, I don’t feel anything. My toes still. And he said, he said, Well, that might never happen. Or, you know, give it ten years. I said, I’ll have it done by the morning. So and that’s what I did. I just put my mind to it and got it done by the morning.
00:52:20:00 – 00:52:20:13
Chris Strevens
So it.
00:52:20:13 – 00:52:21:10
Sharon Waxkirsh
Was amazing.
00:52:21:15 – 00:52:39:07
Chris Strevens
But that was me thinking of the Quentin Tarantino film. You know, it told to move. Yeah, that’s exactly what I did. And the power of the mind, it doesn’t have to be logical. Mm. And that’s what I love. It’s playful. We can really use. Okay, I’ve got a movie in my head. Let’s go for it.
00:52:39:21 – 00:52:40:05
Andy Acton
Yeah.
00:52:41:08 – 00:52:44:16
Sharon Waxkirsh
Going to introduce you to my daughter with her chronic pain syndrome.
00:52:44:16 – 00:52:47:12
Chris Strevens
Yeah. Oh, she has. Is it chronic? Regional pain syndrome?
00:52:48:03 – 00:52:52:14
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yeah. Sort of like everywhere. So she has loads of different injections and.
00:52:53:05 – 00:52:55:22
Chris Strevens
Oh, she’s my, she’s my typical client. Yeah.
00:52:56:04 – 00:52:57:09
Sharon Waxkirsh
Okay.
00:52:57:09 – 00:53:01:14
Andy Acton
It’s like I say that this has been a massive education. I think.
00:53:01:19 – 00:53:02:17
Sharon Waxkirsh
It’s been pretty much it is.
00:53:02:20 – 00:53:31:02
Andy Acton
Finally getting ready to get really fascinating. I mean, what we’ll do I mean, not, not, not, not joking. We should definitely put the link to a YouTube channel in the show notes and if there’s any other resources that would be useful dentists to find out more about what you do if you have had those and we’ll drop those in the show notes because there are lots of dangers here because I know practice owners who specialize in looking after your nervous, anxious, phobic type patients, and I’m sure they’d be interested to find out more about it.
00:53:32:00 – 00:53:32:22
Chris Strevens
What they like.
00:53:33:00 – 00:53:36:02
Sharon Waxkirsh
It’s a mainstream, isn’t it? Yes. The problem is people perceive it as.
00:53:36:10 – 00:53:57:07
Chris Strevens
Yeah, they perceive it. But actually what I’m doing with most dentists is just tweaking what they already know. So I’m just giving them a little bit more information as to why or how that what they already do is probably perfect. And I don’t like to change what people do because I don’t want people to think, but I got to relearned something and doing it all wrong.
00:53:57:15 – 00:54:16:09
Chris Strevens
And what I see is that, well, let me see what you are doing and let’s just use that to the best of its ability rather than trying to make you change completely, because most people are doing things fairly well, but they could be doing a lot better. So especially they want to do things with no anesthetic. Mm hmm.
00:54:16:10 – 00:54:16:17
Chris Strevens
Yeah.
00:54:17:05 – 00:54:26:23
Andy Acton
Yeah, Sharon is. Speak it. It’s been absolutely fascinating. Honestly, we need to wrap it up only for time, because I could sit and chat you all day afternoon again.
00:54:26:23 – 00:54:27:20
Chris Strevens
I’ll do that.
00:54:27:20 – 00:54:28:14
Sharon Waxkirsh
In your part, too.
00:54:28:14 – 00:54:38:17
Andy Acton
Yeah. And and it may well be that we do, you know, we get feedback from people that listen to the podcast and it might be there is a is a need for, you know, for more information or also different or separately maybe.
00:54:38:22 – 00:54:41:04
Sharon Waxkirsh
Someone on the side, someone on the podcast.
00:54:41:04 – 00:54:41:19
Andy Acton
Is actually.
00:54:42:02 – 00:54:46:24
Chris Strevens
Well, I do that pretty regularly. I mean, mostly because I’m in Indiana, I’m doing hypnosis all the time on Zoom.
00:54:46:24 – 00:54:48:18
Sharon Waxkirsh
So yeah.
00:54:49:08 – 00:54:50:18
Andy Acton
We always wrap up with.
00:54:50:19 – 00:54:54:00
Sharon Waxkirsh
Whatever wants to talk. Sorry. Oh, yeah. The food for the dog thing.
00:54:54:00 – 00:55:01:09
Chris Strevens
Well, you enjoy the moment. You watch that, you’ll say, right, we’re having a back again. I think I can take that over. Yeah, yeah.
00:55:01:16 – 00:55:13:11
Andy Acton
The Dog Whisperer. Yeah, we always been the same way. And we ask our guests the same two questions. And the first question we have for if you could be a fly on the wall in a certain situation, when would that be and who would you be with?
00:55:14:03 – 00:55:41:13
Chris Strevens
So if I could be a fly on the wall, I think I think I’d like to be about 300 or so years into the future. I would really like to see how the world has progressed, changed. You know, as I say, hypnosis has taken 200 years or so to get to where we are. And, you know, plus and some I mean, actually, it can take you right back to the sleep temples.
00:55:41:13 – 00:56:03:12
Chirs Strevens
It goes back thousands of years. But I’d like to see where we are as humanity, what we’re doing, how we’re changing, how we vote, if we even do. I mean that to me. So it’s not always a circumstance. It’s not like anything special, any food or anywhere. I mean, I just like to to be in the world or on another planet, wherever we are, you know?
00:56:04:03 – 00:56:20:14
Chris Strevens
And who would I like to be with? I guess it would be my husband because he’s so interested and he’s so interested in and in history as well. He’s absolutely incredibly knowledgeable, man. So I’d like, you know, just having him on my side is really helpful.
00:56:21:03 – 00:56:21:17
Andy Acton
Well, yeah.
00:56:22:04 – 00:56:32:07
Chris Strevens
He’s he’s basically my walking Google and ask him any question and he definitely know the answer. And so that that would.
00:56:32:07 – 00:56:34:17
Sharon Waxkirsh
Be a Zoom pub quiz on and he’s inviting.
00:56:35:12 – 00:56:38:15
Andy Acton
Me. He’d be the guy for your phone. A friend. Yeah.
00:56:39:02 – 00:56:59:07
Chris Strevens
He’s doing it. So this is the funny thing. He’s an American. And of course, when I took him over to England, I said to him right, we’ve got to do pub quizzes because I’m like, The guy’s a genius who do pub quizzes, but what happens at pub quizzes, pop music and sport, the two things that he’s just not interested in.
00:56:59:07 – 00:57:03:17
Andy Acton
So on the on the time by the really obscure tie breaker, he’s your man.
00:57:04:04 – 00:57:08:07
Sharon Waxkirsh
Preacher is in a pub quiz so if you could mention the Babylonians.
00:57:08:07 – 00:57:10:14
Chris Strevens
Yeah, right, exactly. And the funny thing is.
00:57:10:14 – 00:57:12:09
Sharon Waxkirsh
Is the most famous building they built.
00:57:12:17 – 00:57:29:00
Chirs Strevens
Yeah, yeah. Tell you. Tell you right now. Yeah. So we are great on the pub quizzes when it comes to the history. So we get really high scores when it’s all about history, politics, especially American politics. I he’s also a politician as well. He’s just run for state Senate.
00:57:29:00 – 00:57:32:22
Andy Acton
As for who was in the Spice Girls, he falls down on that one.
00:57:33:23 – 00:57:39:15
Chris Strevens
No, I did.
00:57:39:15 – 00:57:41:08
Andy Acton
But we’ve all got to be good. Different.
00:57:41:10 – 00:57:42:20
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. Which is good.
00:57:43:07 – 00:57:54:19
Andy Acton
At our on our on our last question is if you could meet somebody living, they’d think no longer with us. Yeah, you’re a fictional character. Who would you like to meet given the chance?
00:57:55:06 – 00:58:23:08
Chris Strevens
I think at the moment my dad just died fairly recently, and I think I’d actually like to meet my dad and just say to him, What on earth were you thinking with the inheritance? And then, you know, and then the next year? Because my question and then the next you never heard of a trust, right? And then the next thing I’d say to him is, what’s heaven like?
00:58:23:08 – 00:58:32:04
Chris Strevens
I’d love to I’d love to have some about something more about world. And outwardly I think it’d be really interesting if there is such a thing.
00:58:32:10 – 00:58:34:05
Sharon Waxkirsh
Interesting. It’s the second question. Yeah.
00:58:34:06 – 00:58:35:17
Andy Acton
Yeah, that was a follow up.
00:58:35:17 – 00:58:39:12
Sharon Waxkirsh
If it wasn’t the primary one, why the inheritance all that?
00:58:39:18 – 00:58:47:08
Chris Strevens
Well, my dad always used to joke to me that, you know, when I’m dead, I’m going to have to put a cashpoint machine on my on my gravestone. So I think.
00:58:48:04 – 00:58:57:00
Andy Acton
It’s a good, really good show. And it’s been an absolute joy. Yeah. Really, really enlightening. We we, we said when we start it is going to be a bit different.
00:58:57:10 – 00:58:58:10
Sharon Waxkirsh
More than 12 minutes I was.
00:58:58:10 – 00:59:01:19
Andy Acton
Going to say yeah you tick the box for it being a bit different for sure.
00:59:02:10 – 00:59:04:11
Sharon Waxkirsh
Very interesting. Very, very interesting. Yeah.
00:59:04:11 – 00:59:07:09
Andy Acton
Yeah. And not adding courage, but would you just do it more so.
00:59:07:20 – 00:59:13:00
Sharon Waxkirsh
Yeah, such a nice. It’s a fascinating subject isn’t it really. That sort of is not really thought about. Yeah.
00:59:13:12 – 00:59:25:20
Chris Strevens
Yeah, yeah. Do think about it and tell you and listeners, you know, I’d love to hear any of your questions, whether it comes around in Chris or just through myself, through my own website, just, you know, the way I’m always open to chatting and stuff.
00:59:26:10 – 00:59:28:01
Andy Acton
Brilliant. Lovely. Appreciate your time today.
00:59:28:20 – 00:59:30:01
Sharon Waxkirsh
So thank you very much. Well.
00:59:31:02 – 00:59:41:00
Andy Acton
Thank you for listening to this episode of Dentology where we discuss the business of dentistry. If you like what you heard, please do subscribe where you found this episode. That would be amazing. And also follow us on Instagram.
