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00:00 – Intro: Unstress Health & Dr William Diehl
02:45 – William’s journey into hypnotherapy
06:00 – What burnout really looks like
08:30 – Stress vs. burnout: Signs to watch
10:15 – Hypnosis myths vs. clinical reality
14:00 – Induction techniques explained
19:00 – Step-by-step self-hypnosis
24:00 – Tools to manage panic, anxiety & trauma
30:00 – Workplace wellness & toxic dynamics
36:30 – Performance vs. fear in the workplace
38:00 – What is Organic Unconscious Therapy?
41:00 – Goal setting, SMARTER method, time mastery
44:30 – Final insights: Rediscovering your authentic self
Mastering Burnout & Anxiety with Hypnosis: Dr William Diehl
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:00:01] Hi, Dr. Ron here, and I want to invite you to join our Unstress Health community. Now, like this podcast, it’s independent of industry and focuses on taking a holistic approach. To human health and to the health of the planet, the two are inseparable. There are so many resources available with membership, including regular live Q&As on specific topics with special guests, including many with our amazing Unstress Health advisory panel. Now we’ve done hundreds of podcasts all worth listening to with some amazing experts on a wide range of topics. Many are world leaders, but with membership, we have our Unstress Lab podcast series where we take the best of several guests and carefully curate specific topics for episodes which are jam packed full of valuable insights. So join the Unstress Health community. If you’re watching this on our YouTube channel click on the link below or just visit unstresshealth.com to see what’s on offer and join now. I look forward to connecting with you. Hello and welcome to Unstress Health. My name is Dr Ron Ehrlich. Well, today we explore hypnotherapy, but we explore it in the context with a psychologist. My guest today is Dr William Deihl, also known as Doc Hypnosis. Something gives it away in the name, really. He has over 20 years of experience. He’s a hypnotherapist. He’s renowned for his expertise in clinical hypnotherapy. Psychology and wellness coaching. Now, this is a great episode for giving you an insight into hypnosis in general, how it can be used in a clinical setting and some great tips for using it yourself. We talk a lot about self-hypnosis here. It’s a really interesting episode. I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Dr. William Deihl Welcome to the show, William. Well, thank you for having me here, Ron. And listen, we’re going to be talking about a lot of things that we’re very focused on now, the workplace, well-being in the workplace burnout. It’s an area where I believe we are going to really turn around public health. And so there’s a lot of things we’re gonna cover, but I thought I would be interesting for us to, for you to share with us your personal journey in overcoming some of these issues and the influence that it had on. On your professional journey from there.
Dr William Diehl [00:02:44] Well, my professional journey kind of started off about 20 years ago, I got my degree in psychology and I knew about hypnosis because my company name is Doc Hypnosis. And it was kind of interesting, a couple of years later, my father passed away, back in 2006. And while cleaning through his stuff, I found a certificate saying he’s certified in hypnosis. I didn’t even know it. So I actually go, wow, this might be a great way to kind of get to know my father better. And I fell in love with it. I started going back to school, did immersion programmes. It got every book I possibly can, because all of a sudden I found this tool that can actually get and help individuals get past their problems fast and effective. So I got really excited over it. And I was doing it part-time for the longest time. And I was working as a chief, what is it, what’s my title? What is it? Corporate Development, Vice President, Corporate development for a pharmaceutical company. And I also was a chief formulator because one of my first degrees is a Masters in Nutritional Science. And I died by accidental poisoning. And I flatlined and I came back. And ended up where I was suffering from panic attacks, anxiety, burnout, because I had to go back to the office for eight more months because my contract had eight more month. And it was something, a self-healing and a self discovery. And I went in and opened up my business. 2020, January 1st, 2020. And it had been skyrocketing from there. One of the number one hypnotherapists in Phoenix, Arizona, and I started helping people, and I saw myself being attracted to certain areas. One, anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD or what I was going through, panic attacks, but burnout was something that was growing, and especially during the pandemic, but it seemed to spike. At the end, you know, when people are coming out of the pandemic and pulled back into the workplace. So for me, it was a fascinating travel and understanding of working with people and finding out what they truly wanted in life.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:05:20] What an interesting combination though, to be doing clinical nutrition and then do psychology because food and mood are very closely connected as I’m sure you are very aware of. And then to discover hypnosis, which must be, and I’m looking forward to talking to you about this because obviously it’s a big focus of our discussion today but people’s perception of it is very much from the TV and show. Show time but but it must be such a gateway to a person’s mind. We’re going to get onto that but let’s talk a little bit about burnout first because that’s something that I know is becoming is a big problem certainly among health practitioners a huge problem but in the general population in the workforce. Tell us a little about burnout. What are some of the signs that people should look out for.
Dr William Diehl [00:06:13] You know, burnout is almost like a syndrome. And it actually can hit an individual so many different ways. You can actually have physical ailments caused by burnout. You could have mental symptoms like having trouble concentrating and focusing. Sleep issues, oh my God, there’s so many things. Mood issues, lack of motivation. Maybe even some weight loss for others, individuals that might be weight gaining. So each person is different. I know that for myself, even some people turn towards substance abuse. But for myself each person’s unique for me. And when I work with individuals, I sit down and find out, and then I’m finding out during it, they may come in here to me to see because they feel like they’re just. Anxious or they just can’t get motivated or can’t get moving or, you know, they’re they just seem lazy. And then we start talking and it finds out it’s really burnout. And so I’ve worked with them personally and how they manifest burnout for themselves. I love to put everybody in a box, but it just doesn’t seem like I can put everybody in the exact box. I just be able to think outside that box.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:07:30] Hmm. How common are you seeing this happening? I mean, is it like 10 percent of the population looking at this or what? What could you put a figure on it? How can you?
Dr William Diehl [00:07:40] Actually, there’s some studies that are saying that about 32% of the population, at least in America, is experiencing burnout. The other areas that are fascinating as well, they say about 72% of everybody will experience burnout sometime in their lifetime. They saw a spike almost doubling from in the teens up to the 32%. After the pandemic started and people are started going back into the works workspace. So it’s for me it was like okay I noticed myself because I worked at the beginning and and a little bit before but now I’m seeing a more and more increase almost on a daily basis.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:08:23] Hmm. How do people distinguish? Because I think most people would acknowledge that they’re feeling very stressed. And that means different things to different people. But when does stress become burnout?
Dr William Diehl [00:08:36] You know what, when it starts affecting your life in a whole different slew, stress is okay, I’m a little stressful, but all of a sudden you have a chronic cough and you don’t know why. Or you just don’t wanna get out of bed. Or you suddenly are very anxious to go to work. All those are certain signs that you’re actually coming up to a burnout state. And we can nip it in the bud and give them other ways to move forward from that burnout. Or we could say, okay, let’s put a treatment plan together to help them navigate through that burnout in conjunction with some companies. And some companies are great. They work with their individuals to help them and give them plans to help move forward.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:09:24] I mean, I must say, I’ve been very focused in the last couple of years on the workplace. And I think there’s no better time to be a HR or people and culture person than now, because all the things you’ve been talking about for 20 or 30 years are now being legislated. It’s not just a nice to have, it’s a must have.
Dr William Diehl [00:09:46] It has to. You have to have that support for their employees. They have to really bring the humanity back into the workplace.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:09:56] Now, we’re going to talk about hypnosis and as I said, I think most people’s perception of it is what they see on TV or they’ve seen in certain shows. Can you and you’re looking at it from a clinical perspective. So what can you give us? Firstly, I know we’re gonna talk about self hypnosis, which sounds really exciting, but but give us hypnosis 101.
Dr William Diehl [00:10:17] Well, let’s talk about what most people think. They see these, usually they think of people up on stage and yes, I have a handlebar moustache just to make everybody go, what? But what happens is they think of this person where they’re gonna snap their fingers and people are going to collapse or something. But in reality, they’re not gonna, those people are not being passed out or anything else. Those people up on stage or doing shows or street hypnosis are looking for a particular individual. They’re called synabolists. That means that they actually go into hypnosis relatively fast in the form of hypnosis that they’re using. Each person’s unique. So I’m going to say this and then I’ll explain it a little bit more. Everybody goes into hyposis. But let’s go back to what you usually see up onstage. So that person passes out, he’s selected, he looks like he can’t hear anything. He’s passed out. Reality, they may hear everything that is said. They may hear some of it and pay attention and not pay attention to other things. Their mind just might wander and not paying attention to anything. That would be like my wife, but it’s really just one of those things that each person, there’s eight billion people in the world, there’s 8 billion different ways they manifest hypnosis. So the next one is, ooh, they’re gonna control me. He’s gonna be able to make me do something, tell my secrets. One, I can’t make you do something you don’t wanna do. So if you don’t wanna tell me the truth under hypnosis, you’re not gonna tell me of the truth if you feel threatened by it. So I can’ make you into a bank robber, I can make you a murderer, I can do something you don’t normally would do with their ethics. So in the clinical setting, we don’t do any type of making people cluck like chickens or bark like dogs, unless they want a cheap security system or free eggs. I don’t know which one, but each individual is different. So give an example of how I give example with that. When you drive, do you ever lose track of time? Sure. That’s called highway hypnosis. They gave us credit, thank you. But you go into hypnosis while driving. So really, is hypnosis that far different? Give me another question. Have you ever worked on the computer and you’re so focused on something, someone says your name, you’re like, what? Like you got pulled out of something. You got pulled of hypnosis. You’re in a relaxed state with hyper-focus. And that’s what I’m looking for in the clinical setting. Another great one is some people will watch a movie, hear a song, read a book, and they get emotionally moved from tears to wanting to go jog or get really fired up. That’s another form of hypnosis. You’re changing states, but you started off in a relaxed state with hyper-focused. So we talked about different levels of hyposis. Does it matter? No, I have had people where I’ve talked to them. And their eyes are wide open, but you can see that they’re in a trance-like state. And then there’s others that they’re over, a little drool coming down and the same thing happens. Each person’s different, so you have to see how they take themselves into hypnosis. So we’re gonna talk about self-hypnosis in a little bit, and I don’t wanna take away any of the questions, but when you’re talking about self hypnosis or hypnosis for yourself, there’s about five different ways you can take yourself into hyposis. That we’re all very familiar with. So definitely, I kind of wanted to give you a nutshell.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:14:10] And okay, those five, we’re going to come to those in self-hypnosis, but I guess there is this, I mean, what a powerful tool to have as a psychologist to have a patient, a client in a relaxed state and hyper-focused. That is a powerful too, which one might ask, why wouldn’t every psychologist, psychiatrist So use this kind of thing. But there is a way of inducing somebody into that state that must vary or other varying, there must be various techniques for inducing that state. What are some examples of ways of induces?
Dr William Diehl [00:14:52] Some of the simplest ways is asking people questions, especially internalising questions of how does that make you feel? Where do you feel that at? And so all of a sudden they’re talking about this wonderful world out here. Oh, you love being in the park? What makes it so wonderful? Oh, because of the beauty. And when you see that beauty, how does it make you feel? All of a sudden, those start making you go internal and experiencing those feelings, hence changing states. So questions are a very powerful way. There’s another technique, a lot of people talk about eye fixation and where you stare at something. You’ve seen people stare at a crystal or a flame. And use it for meditation, they’re actually putting themselves in a light form of self-hypnosis. But when you take a look at that, it’s not just eye fixation. You can fixate on a song. That’s number two of the five that I’m going to talk about. You can fixedate on the smell. Have you ever smelled something and brought you right back to grandma’s house or your mom’s house? And you go, oh my God. And you’re in a different state right there. You um taste something and you’re like oh that reminds me when I used to be a kid but take you back in time or a feeling maybe and and that’s what happens a lot of people get this feeling and the feelings are what we call triggers so when we get a feeling that’s familiar that’s bad, it’s a trigger. Something’s good, it is a trigger for good. Those are the basic five, but yeah, those are techniques that you could take yourself into and or others into hypnosis.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:16:41] And varying depths is another issue. I mean, induction is one thing, but the depth to which you go is another. Right. Yeah. How does how does that work? Do you make a conscious decision with a client as to the depth of inducing the person? You know, is that part of a part of it, taking them into a deeper state?
Dr William Diehl [00:17:06] Yes and no, because there’s certain areas where you can do a very vague issue and ways of therapy, just trying to give a person the mind options, and then you can give them some direct suggestions. So direct suggestions usually need a deeper depth to help you get them to work. So how do we do that? In our field, we call it fractionation. So we actually help them, you know, get them into a relaxed state. That have them open their eyes and go back down. We might do a countdown, going down an elevator from 10, all the way down to one, stuff that you’re used to. So all those are different things that where you can actually help a person go even deeper into hypnosis. And then from there, we can help them start rebalancing their nervous system or releasing that stress from that burnout and things like that.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:18:03] I mean, I this I’m just intrigued as to how you incorporate that into a session with a psychologist. I mean having had experience myself in various times with the psychologist. I imagine this first five or ten minutes of the session with you is an opportunity or you’re guiding them through a relaxation and an induction that is opening them up to exploration. Is that a fear assessment?
Dr William Diehl [00:18:34] Yes and No, it is, but I usually start off with a little in evaluation. So I do ask questions. So I’m gonna ask questions just like every psychologist out there, but my questions are gonna be leading questions to help them find a relaxed state and where they can actually start releasing some of the negative thoughts or the stress or the behaviours. And then from there, I’m going to start teaching them and giving them tools. To take away some of that, let’s say anxiety, for instance. There’s simple tricks of certain breaths, rolling your eyes, or even doing a simple thing of covering your left eye and looking up and taking a deep breath in and letting it out. Short circuits the nervous system from getting into a panic attack or anxiety attack. So I’ll give them tools, and in that process, all of a sudden their whole system’s starting to calm down. They’re seeing that there’s a chance for a solution and giving them hope and then from there I can take them even deeper.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:19:37] I think this idea of self-hypnosis is very exciting, very appealing, very empowering. And you’ve given one example, but let’s talk about self-hipnosis because I think this is something that obviously everybody could take away with them and use in a positive way.
Dr William Diehl [00:19:55] Oh, a hundred percent. You know, I like giving my clients tools. And you’d never know when stress is gonna hit you, anxiety’s gonna hit, depression’s gonna hit you whatever that’s gonna come at you. Even with pain, it’s a great way to handle pain too. So I like given them a tool and teaching them how to take themselves into that self-hypnosis state. Because throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the month, throughout the year, triggers are going to happen, or the boss is going to be a jerk, or you get a fight with your wife or whatever. So what we do is teach them how to take control of their own nervous system to calm themselves down and help them do through several different things. Relax the body, and I’ll do a little explanation. Of step-by-step of how you can do it. So let me just jump into that. One way is the first thing is change your breath. You change your physical state, you change how you perceive things. So how you’re stressed, you’re like this, you’re bringing on the world. So drop those shoulders, take a deep breath in, let out slower than you brought it in. By doing that and continuing that pattern, you actually start relaxing the body. That’s actually was studied by a university here in the States that showed that it can help by that just breath pattern, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, lower anxiety and stress. But so if you start that off, it’s a great way to help you start to relax your body and getting into it. And I like calling that smoker’s breath. So I deal with smokers every once in a while, but how do they smoke a cigarette? Deep breath in, and then they go. They’d blow out slowly. So nicotine is a stimulant. So how can a stimulent be a relaxant? So it’s the how they’re changing their breathing state in their body that helps them relax. So the next thing is I like to help release what’s called the vagus nerve. And you know that, fronts and the back of the head all the way to the tailbone. And I like just having them close their eyes and roll their eyes upwards. And that helps that relax to help you get into that relaxed state. So I kind of do it like a little step-by-step, teaching them through sessions. Breathe, roll those eyes, and then just go from the top of your head all the way down to your feet, relax your body. So let your eyes start to relax, let your mouth start to relaxed and open up, and all the down to the toes. Maybe even while under with your eyes closed, an image, or imagine just going down And they’ll live at the Vader 10 floors. And then when you get to that bottom floor, you do an affirmation. And it’s a big mistake for a lot of people that do self-hypnosis and meditations and even affirmations is that they come to me and goes, yeah, I have a whole affirmation, it’s some page long. You’re not gonna be able to stay in meditation, you’re not going to be able stay in hypnosis, trying to remember a page long affirmation so keep it simple. I’m healthy, wealthy, and wise. I’m happy, healthy, and wealthy, wise. Things are getting better and better in every way and every day. Keep it something short, repeatable, so you can do it over and over again while you’re in that relaxed state, and let yourself start to feel it. Really, it’s that feeling process. All my stress is leaving my body. Getting the next, and letting it go. So that’s just a simple process of. Getting yourself into a nice self-hypnotic state.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:24:01] Hi, Dr. Ron here, and I want to invite you to join our Unstress Health community. Now, like this podcast, it’s independent of industry and focuses on taking a holistic approach to human health and to the health of the planet. The two are inseparable. There are so many resources available with membership, including regular live Q&A’s on specific topics with special guests, including many with our amazing Unstress Health advisory panel. Now we’ve done hundreds of podcasts, all worth listening to, with some amazing experts on a wide range of topics. Many are world leaders, but with membership we have our Unstressed Lab podcast series where we take the best of several guests and carefully curate specific topics for episodes which are jam-packed full of valuable insights. So join the unstressed health community. If you’re watching this on our YouTube channel Click on the link below or just visit UnstressHealth.com to see what’s on offer and join now. I look forward to connecting with you. Mm, I like it. I love it. I love its music to my ears. We’ve had, we’ve done programmes and focus often on breath. And I remember many years ago, PhD in breathing said that switching on the parasympathetic nervous system by simply with the breath within one or two breaths, you can switch on the rest and digest out of the nervous system. The vagus nerve, of course, is a biggie, a biggy. I mean, people may not be aware of it being one of the biggest. It is, in fact, I think the biggest nerve in the body and connects to every internal organ. And it’s a whole story in itself. And your body scanning is very reminiscent of yoga nidra, which is the, you know, that ancient technique and affirmation. I love that. I mean, you know, it’s kind of. Seen as being very new agey. Oh, come on, you know, but actually hearing something positive coming out of your own mouth That’s related to you is is a very powerful tool.
Dr William Diehl [00:26:19] Well, how often do you have Self-talk that puts yourself down. Yeah, yeah. And one of the things I love asking my clients when you hear that voice putting you down, is it your voice? And a lot of times I actually hear them saying, I never thought of that. Wait, I don’t think it is. And I go, well, if it’s not, why about if you change it to Donald Duck’s or Daffy Duck’s voice or some favourite cartoon character, can you take that as serious? And no, so we start working on internal dialogue themselves, too, to help them shift the direction that they’re going.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:26:55] Yeah, and that internal dialogue can be your best friend or your worst enemy, really, can’t it?
Dr William Diehl [00:27:00] Constantly, they’re constantly bringing themselves down. I think we talk to ourselves and say negative statements more than positive statements. So we’re constantly have to, I think for every one yes or positive statement, we usually say to ourselves, we do three to five negative statements throughout the day.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:27:21] Yes. Well, you’d be pleased to know that mental fitness and positive intelligence is an exploring saboteurs is a topic we’ve we’ve covered on this podcast a few times. So this self-talk is very important. Are they the five types of self-hypnosis? They’re the breath, the body scan. Is that is that what you mean? Bye. Yeah, there’s five.
Dr William Diehl [00:27:41] There’s five different ways that you can do it and go into hypnosis. A lot of people think, and I said it earlier, but I’m going to say it again, you can start off by just fixating and starting that breath. You can start of with listening to a sound. 40 hertz is actually a great sound to listen to. They actually found out that 40 hertz is actually helps the left side and the right side of the brain balance out. They communicate, they communicate at that speed, in essence. And I’ve noticed when I work with individuals with 40 hertz, my wife actually has a doctorate in music. So something that she turned me onto is where he brings in that creative and that logic brain together. So you can probably find something on YouTube saying 40 hertz. Try to just do something raw, not with music or anything else, and just feel that energy.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:28:41] Is that the lower is that a lower register, a deeper deeper sound, not a high pitch? No, it’s not a hybrid sound. It’s actually a lower. Yeah, lower, lower register.
Dr William Diehl [00:28:52] Yeah, so you’ll actually find out that it can help calm down your nervous system, and I’ve noticed when working with clients, they actually go into a deeper state without doing anything more. They actually calm down. So another example of using sound is like listening to a metrodome. You ever have a metrodome, it’s a natural biofeedback tool that our heart rate will start matching that metrodome going back and forth. You’re listening to that sound can actually, so two ways to go into it. Smell is another one. So I actually started using for therapy memories, happy memories to help break away bad memories. So I got a whole bunch of different scratch and sniffs and everything else that had great memories to their individual. And while thinking of bad memory, sniffing that scratch and sniff and blowing out that negative memory. So it doesn’t affect them the same way. So smell can be another way. Taste can be a another way, and just feeling. So hence, a massage can actually be very hypnotic. If you’ve ever had a massage and you just feel like, oh, and you kind of melt first, you can be very hypnotic at that period of time.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:30:12] Now, you know, I know you link this to daily productivity and personal goals and things like this. So, I mean, I can see it’s a wonderful tool. How do we make, how do we put it to work?
Dr William Diehl [00:30:27] You know, what you do is there’s a couple of ways to keep a goal going, okay? And a lot of people think about goals and think about, you know, how can I have goals? Let me talk about the three ways that you can actually increase your goals and setting the goals. The first way is a lot people do, they’ll write down their goals. All high achievers actually have their goals and know their goals and what direction they’re going. And I would probably say all high achievers do their own form of self-hypnosis too. So first way is every morning, every night, go over your goals. Write them down, read them out. Another great way of doing it, and we have probably the best tool we carry around with us all the time. You probably have one of these in your pocket, in your hand, whatever. And in reality, that goal, is a great tool because you can actually put your words and just listen to your goals over and over again while driving. Do what Tony Robbins calls neck time and all of a sudden you’re doing something while doing other things. You can also put them in because they have little apps that will go on these little phones that will actually put it into subliminal messaging with your favourite music. So all of a sudden, you’re constantly hearing the favourite goals. So what makes hypnosis a great way to helping those goals even go further is all of the sudden, this becomes a feeling it. You start visualising it, seeing it, and then you start feeling it while doing those affirmations or hearing those goals, repeating and seeing how it feels to Maybe become the top seller or seeing the goal of being at work and enjoying your the day at work or Feeling how that would feel and all of a sudden your mind starts to come up with more options we get into a pattern and It’s like a phobic when a Individual I had this little girl that came in she was afraid of fire There was absolutely no reason for her to be afraid of fires. She never had any experience with fire, but her mother did. Her mother was caught in a fire and she was afraid of fire. So all of a sudden, she never had a reason why. She just understood every time her mother saw a fire, she would scream and cry. So she learned every time I see fire, I scream and cried. That would be very compelling. Yeah. So what do we have to do there? We have to give that person more options. All right, good put out the fire, I could blow out the candle, I could walk away. So all of a sudden, they’re. Their focus on the problem now goes like this and all of a sudden they that problem’s not really a problem anymore.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:33:36] Hmm. I know in the workplace and actually in life, relationships are very important, obviously, but toxic relationships at work can be a real problem. How can we use this to to change that or to affect that?
Dr William Diehl [00:33:51] First, you have to recognise that you’re in a toxic relationship, if it’s work-related because a lot of times there are some toxic relationships that actually occur because the corporation is naturally a narcissistic form where they don’t take… They’re the centre of attention. You have to do this for your business. You have to be a team player I’m sorry, you have to take this weekend up, you know, be at work at this weekend, you have to miss this. So all of a sudden, that grandiose personality a narcissist has, or some corporations have, or need to admiration, lack of empathy. Even the exploitation, you’re blowing things out of proportion to individuals to make sure they do something even more. Takes away that person’s identity. So those things, we can actually rebuild their self-esteem. We can help calm the nervous system down. We can get them focused back on themselves and stop focusing on the other individual or maybe how they’re trapped into work. And there’s a healthier way that companies could actually approach things with giving proper management training to some of their managers. I know this one individual that I was working with, and you clearly could see, the company has, hey, we want everybody there, we want a team, that’s their charter. But the manager, we used to actually do weaponized joking that says, well, I’m a dictator, ha ha ha, I’m, but they were a dictator. Recognising it first that they’re under attack. Not physically or really on purpose, it’s just the structure. Then by taking the proper steps, they putting like anything, healthy boundaries down. That’s what we can help them start seeing self-worth, putting those boundaries down and help them get to where they need to be to have a healthier, happier life and start choosing themselves more. And putting themselves a little bit more first.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:36:19] And I mean, you taking this into a workplace, I’m guessing what we’re getting everybody focused on this kind of control of the nervous system.
Dr William Diehl [00:36:32] Right. We’re trying to get them back into realising, really, a happy employee, a happy person, it performs better. When you’re under fear, you’re not going to be performing as well as if you’re, you know, in a relaxed performance, you know for a performing state. I don’t know if you ever did, you know, entertainment or anything else. I actually was a musician and I also did other things when I was growing up in entertainment wise. And if you walked into a gig or a situation where you were nervous, you’re not gonna perform and be at your pinnacle performance if you are nervous. If you are relaxed, things flow, things go. And when you’re a high performer, you actually raise other people around you by 15%. If you’re low performer and a negative thinker, you actually lower everybody else’s skills around you and their performance by 30%. So by doing this, actually get better productivity. And that was actually done, those numbers come from a study back in 2000. I’m trying to think of the doctor’s name, but it will come to me and I’ll send it so you can.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:37:52] Sure. No, no, it doesn’t come as a surprise. I know that you coined this term organic unconscious therapy, organic unconscious therapy. I wonder if you could unpack that for us or.
Dr William Diehl [00:38:06] Organic unconscious therapy. I’ve been kind of taking it and talking about it through the whole process a lot of therapists look at Individuals and try to put them in a box Okay Your life experiencing it’s complete experience is definitely different than mine. You’re in Sydney, Australia I’m in Phoenix, Arizona so You know what Vegemite is, I have no idea what it is, okay? So you have all these little things, you grew up differently in everything else. So when someone comes and says, I’m anxious, oh, let me do anxious. Oh, this is the script for anxious. Let me put you in a box. The reality is you will create anxiety much different than I will create anxieties. Let’s be organic. Let’s see how you grow it yourself. Unconscious is what is happening behind the scenes. So let’s talk, I’ll give you a little example. You probably have some stress going through your life every once in a while, right? Happens. Yeah, it happens. So how do you manifest stress? Do you get sweaty hands? Do you heart race? Do you gets tired? Become avoided under your manifest stress.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:39:34] Yeah, interesting. I probably avoid it and try to avoid it. You know, that would be my first response.
Dr William Diehl [00:39:40] You know, avoiding, okay. And when you’re, how do you know when to avoid it?
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:39:46] Yes, well, that’s an interesting question, isn’t it? I mean, it depends on how easy it is to avoid, because it’s not always easy to avoid is it?
Dr William Diehl [00:39:56] And when you avoid it, what do you get out of it?
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:40:00] Well, I get relief.
Dr William Diehl [00:40:03] Okay, and now we’re going into, we’re finding out you need to avoid the stress. So you handle stress than me. My thing is I tackle, I go after the stress, I try to get out of my life and probably end it. But you kind of start avoiding it, looking for that relief. I look at it differently. So can I do the same treatment or same programme with you? Than I do with me. No, it has to be different. So it has be organic. I have to look at you as your own universe, your own structure, your own being, and I have look at everybody that way. There’s probably some common factors. Stress attacks the nervous system. When you’re under stress, you burn up more B vitamins. So yeah, certain things can go in that box, but the things that are gonna make a big difference has to come outside the box. So it’s really organic and understanding that individual and his own environment he lives in to help them change.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:41:07] Time management is another area that I know you’re you’re focused on. And how can we use this in a positive sense to better manage our time?
Dr William Diehl [00:41:15] Well, it’s understanding what you really want to accomplish. All right, what’s the outcome you want to achieve? And it really comes down to goal setting at the same time. Because if you don’t know what your goals are, what you wanna be, and what you want to do, how can you manage your time? So a lot of times people go, I wanna manage my time. They come to me and they don’t have a reason to manage their time. Oh, I have to be on time. I don’t, I don’t have a reason, or I don’t have a purpose. I just wanna be better on time, well, let’s talk about this purpose. This goal that you want. And then we find out what their goal are. And I like using the smarter process for goal setting. Okay. I don’t know if everybody’s heard about the SMART but the E and the R at the bottom of SMART(ER). I dunno if it’d be some specific measurable achievable relevant time bound. Yep. And the next one is the E is get excited. Okay, get excited over it. And the R is reward. And if you have a reward to it, so now we have a goal, we can now put parameters to do that and set it into small increments to work with individuals to help them break down. So we find out where the procrastination is and then we eliminate that procrastination out of their minds and let their minds naturally now focus on what their outcome wants and not the avoidance or the pleasure or something else like that.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:42:56] I like that, William, the adding of the E.R. Onto the smart goals. You know, that’s that’s a that’s neat. Listen, you’ve given us a lot to think about and some wonderful tools to use. I want to just finish up by asking you this question, because we’re all on a health journey as individuals and putting stepping aside from your role as a psychologist and just looking at looking at yourself as an individual on that journey in this modern world. What do you think the biggest challenge is for us as individuals on that journey?
Dr William Diehl [00:43:29] I’d probably say the biggest hurdles we have to go and get over is that we don’t lose ourselves. We are at the centre of this journey. We are the, you know, really the catalyst of our world and a lot of times we take the time and try to change ourselves, be something completely different than everybody for every individual in your life, and that’s exhausting. You know, the people that need to be in your life will be in you life by you being yourself. So, don’t lose yourself. Be yourself, love yourself, and take the time to really understand what you want in life and focus on it. If anything with hypnosis, I can put it down to one word, is to help yourself focus, to get what you in life, not being stuck what everybody else wants.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:44:29] Well, that’s a great note for us to finish on and you’ve given us some wonderful tools to get the most out of ourselves. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Dr William Diehl [00:44:38] Well, thank you very much. It was an honour to be a part of this, Dr. Ron.
Dr Ron Ehrlich [00:44:44] That’s a pleasure. Thanks, William. Thank you. Well, what a great tool to use in a psychotherapy session in psychology, putting your client or patient into a relaxed state and being hyper focused. And although we didn’t discuss it in the episode, I did talk to William afterwards and just was struck by what a powerful tool this must be. And in fact, he says it significantly shortens his time with his patients, typically that is somewhere between six and ten appointments, which is often very difficult for different from the typical psychotherapy course of treatment, which can go on for a long time. And that’s not to say his don’t as well. But it certainly is a wonderful tool for opening up people’s potential to explore what is going on inside your head. I hope this finds you well. Until next time, we’ll of course have links to Dr Williams’ website in the show notes, look out for that. But I hope this finds you well, until next time this is Dr Ron Ehrlich, be well. Feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? It’s time to unstress your life. Join the Unstress Health community and transform stress into strength. Build mental fitness, from self-sabotage to self-mastery. And together, let’s not just survive, but thrive. Expert led courses, curated podcasts, like-minded community and support and much more. Visit unstresshealth.com This podcast provides general information and discussion about medicine, health and related subjects. The content is not intended and should not be construed as medical advice or as a substitute for care by a qualified medical practitioner. If you or any other person has a medical concern, he or she should consult with an appropriately qualified medical practitioners. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experiences and conclusions.
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