Graduate Story

Meet Program Graduate Brian McCartney

It feels amazing, to know that I can facilitate that change in people. To see them grow and evolve and become free is incredible. I can’t imagine doing anything else for a living now.

Brian McCartney, CHT
Bright Tomorrows Hypnotherapy

I am Brian McCartney, CHT graduate, and owner and hypnotherapist at Bright Tomorrows Hypnotherapy in Shelton, Washington.

My goal with my hypnotherapy practice is to bring as many people to mental and emotional wellness as I possibly can, healing my community one person at a time.

What was your goal in training to be a hypnotist?

My goal was to become more proficient at using hypnosis and hypnotherapy. I was already a practicing hypnotherapist, but I felt I was lacking in skills and needed better training. When I read up on 5-PATH hypnotherapy and Erika Flint as an instructor, it looked like an opportunity for growth as a professional that I just had to take.

Who do you really want to help with hypnosis?

My ideal client is someone that has experienced that helplessness of the pit of despair, someone that is fed up with how things are in their life but doesn’t know how to change.

Whether it is due to stress and anxiety, weight, depression, nightmares, or anything else really, these are my favorite clients because these are the people that I see the greatest change in.

At some point during their recovery program, I get to see them start to walk with their heads held high, knowing that they are in control. That they were able to get out of that darkness and into the light where they can enjoy life, sometimes for the first time ever.

I went from feeling like a fake before the course, to knowing that I am fully qualified and able to help clients with hypnotherapy, and I had the certificates to prove it.

Brian McCartney

What do you want to say to your ideal client reading your words now?

Please, please, please, come in and give this a shot. It is often a life-changing experience for people that enriches their lives. It works even when everything else has failed, and it can work for you.

What were your reservations about becoming a hypnotist?

My greatest reservations were whether it actually worked, whether it could actually support me, and whether I could do it. I found all of my fears were unnecessary. I watch people transform every day so I know that it works. My practice pays the bills and supports my family, and after receiving the right training, I am not only able to do the job, I am also excited to go into work every day with it.

What did training do for your credibility and confidence?

I went from feeling like a fake before the course, to knowing that I am fully qualified and able to help clients with hypnotherapy, and I had the certificates to prove it.

Not only did I have more confidence and a greater expertise in hypnosis, but also greater confidence and expertise as a business man, which enabled me to shift my part-time practice to a full-time practice shortly after I finished with the course.

What obstacles did you overcome while training?

One of my greatest obstacles as a hypnotherapist and in life in general has been a fear of failure and not being good enough. This fear would often become a self-fulfilling prophecy that would lead to self sabotage or giving up.

I had a lot on my plate when I signed up for training, including full-time college, a part-time practice, and a baby daughter. I was worried about whether or not I could keep up the balancing act.

How did we help you overcome them?

Hypnotherapy helped more than anything. Through 5-PATH techniques, Erika was able to help me with this stress and allow me to be free of the perfectionist expectations that I had for myself.

I learned how to strive for excellence instead of perfection, which has given me better results that I can enjoy, instead of stressing about everything in a way that led to everything falling apart.

How did training prepare you for seeing clients?

It took me from feeling like a pretender to feeling like the real deal. I left class with all of the skills needed to help people, and I knew how well they worked through and through because I was able to experience the techniques first hand through one-on-one practice with Erika as well as the other students.

Before I had a basic understanding of how to hypnotize and do some direct suggestion, but not a whole lot else. What I learned in class took me so much further than that, using tools like age regression and progression, forgiveness therapy, parts therapy, and other techniques.

I also learned a lot about how to build my business as Erika shared her knowledge and experience of running a modern hypnotherapy practice successfully. Using her advice I have nearly eliminated last minute cancellations and no shows, and have more than tripled my number of clients, all while being able to charge twice as much.

How has training helped you achieve your life goals?

I have found my calling. I never thought that I would be one of those lucky few people that would love to go into work every day, but I am. After about the third or fourth day of training I knew I had come to the right place and that I was learning probably the greatest tools for helping people that I have ever encountered.

How does it feel to be helping people in such tremendous ways?

It feels amazing, to know that I can facilitate that change in people. To see them grow and evolve and become free is incredible. I can’t imagine doing anything else for a living now. Helping people and lifting them out of that pit of despair gives me a deep sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Can you share an inspirational client win?

I had a man come to me for weight loss. He was 69 years old and had been fighting with emotional eating and weight for nearly his whole life. Through regression we were able to uncover the roots of his unhealthy relationship to food and to himself, which were developed in very traumatic situations early in childhood.

We worked with these using informed child technique, informed adult technique, forgiveness of others, and forgiveness of self therapies. I saw him a month after our sessions and he had lost 30 pounds. He said what we did changed everything for him.

I started seeing Brian for what I thought was weight loss in the sense of losing body size; and while this has indeed been a byproduct of our sessions, I find I have lost a lot of weight emotionally and psychologically as well. He is outstandingly good at getting to the root causes of compulsive problems. His methods and the passion for healing are amazing!