We recently caught up with Cristina Popovici, a complementary therapist based in London. We learnt more about her therapist experience including her journey into complementary therapy and what you can expect as one of her patients.
1. Can you tell me about your journey into complementary health?
I was always fascinated by therapies and healing work and have been practicing meditation since a young age. I got initiated into Reiki when I was 19 and became a healer. Some years later, a friend of mine who was also a Reiki healer introduced me to the clinic where he was working. I became the manager of that clinic and also practiced from there and that is when I also discovered the fascinating world of hypnotherapy and NLP. The many different approaches to working with the body and the mind made me want to train in this kind of therapies and study them further.
2. How would you explain the benefits of the complementary therapies you practice to someone unfamiliar?
I am always going to the root of the problem, I am not treating the effects but the cause. As I mainly work with the unconscious mind, the effects are rapid and long-term. This applies to all the therapies I practice: hypnotherapy, timeline therapy, regression therapy, REBT, energy healing etc.
3. What do you wish more people knew about the complementary therapies you practice? What is the biggest misconception?
The biggest misconception is that they won’t work because people find it hard to relax or meditate therefore I won’t be able to work with their unconscious. All these techniques use clinical hypnosis, which is like a talk while you sit down relaxed on a chair, like a guided meditation let’s say. You don’t need to go deep, you don’t need to lose your consciousness, you don’t need to even be able to meditate because it’s not about that. The therapist has the wheel and it directs the process while the healing takes places in an unconscious way. When the client comes out of a session, they have no idea why it worked but they are amazed how differently they feel.
People don’t realise that we naturally go in and out of hypnosis states throughout the day, as we switch from gamma and beta brainwaves to alpha and theta (that is when we are in a relaxed state, we see friends, we watch a movie, we go for a jog, we daydream, we reflect etc). It is not some woo-woo concept but reality. Also, our unconscious or nervous system drives most of our life and is behind the functioning of our bodies and also our emotions, impulses, desires and actions.
4. What advice do you have for individuals interested in exploring complementary therapies for their own wellness?
We are a mind-body-energy system so we need to look at all of these aspects. Just have an open mind.
5. How do you approach appointments and series of appointments with your patients?
We first have a short discussion about what they need and what they seek to achieve from therapy (either via email or phone), then I suggest which type of session would be most beneficial for them and why. Once we agree on the session, they can either opt to book one to start with and then continue to book as they go, when they feel they need another, or they can commit to a therapeutic plan of multiple sessions to work on multiple issues or on a complex matter (such as long-term PTSD) and opt for a package.
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