I had shared this experience in a thread and several people seemed to respond positively to the…read moreinfo, so I thought I would post it as a review.
Success Strategies Unlimited is owned and operated by Jennifer Dunham, LPC. She offers a variety of services including coaching, corporate resources, counseling and hypnotherapy.
Her office is located on Bee Caves Rd. in Westlake. They are not super fancy, but the counseling room itself is comfortable and welcoming.
We were lucky enough to find about about her through a friend, who had seen her to help overcome his fear of public speaking.
So here's the deal. My daughter has horrible teeth. The dentist says its not her fault. Its just the way it is. So we found ourselves with her needing not only two cavities filled, but a root canal as well. We were to do the two cavities in office and then go to a specialist who, because of her age, would have a pediatric anesthesiologist come sedate her. (I tell you all of this so you can see the ridiculously expensive direction and hassle for which we were headed.)
Anyway, getting my daughter to sit through the two fillings was NOT gonna happen. She was FREAKED out and didn't want the guy touching her. (This is why we call it an IRRATIONAL FEAR....it wasn't based on any prior experience.) So the dentist suggested we just wait until she was sedated for the root canal. Mind you, this would have now meant getting THREE doctor's schedules to match up...oh, and did I mention it was December and we were in a hurry to get it all in on insurance before the new year (and new deductible) kicked in?
I wasn't happy about this. What were we going to do the NEXT time she had a cavity? It was something that was going to have to be dealt with eventually.
Then I remembered Jennifer Dunham, LPC (Licensed Private Counselor) and her remarkable job of hypnotherapy that she had done for my friend. I called the dentist and begged him to give us another chance in-office. They were skeptical (I could tell they didn't want to waste their time) but I finally convinced them.
My daughter had one two-part appointment with Ms. Dunham. The first half was pretty much like an interview. She got to know my child, her interests, and finally, a little about "the fear"...how it made her feel, if she could think of other times she had felt like that and what had happened or how she handled it. The second part was the hypnosis.
First off, for those that don't know.....NO you don't go to sleep. NO you don't watch a swaying crystal or anything weird. She just talks. Kind of in a nice, soothing, sing-songy way. She moves her voice up....and then back down....the whole time talking about your issue, what you should envision and how it doesn't scare you anymore (or something to that nature). You don't have to look at her, you don't even have to pay attention. She is talking to your sub-concious. Easy enough, right?
One trip to Ms. Dunham and my daughter was completely over it. I'm not kidding. She went on to the next visit and got BOTH fillings done in one sitting. After the first filling was nearly done, she had tears rolling down her cheeks and the dentist said we had better stop. Asking her if she was ok, her reply was "I'm not crying because I'm scared, I'm crying because I'm SO. PROUD. OF MYSELF." (Still brings tears to my eyes!) Needless to say, they completed it all (and insisted I leave her card for future patients) and she's never had a problem since. Amazing! Not only was this all very convenient (and cost-saving) for me, but what a wonderful lesson for my daughter to learn...that she can overcome her biggest fears:)