About Jean Hobgood - Hypnosis Practitioner

My life purpose, as I understand it, is to help others overcome blocks to their success so they can be their best. Before retirement I fulfilled this purpose through my work as a teacher. Since retirement, I am doing so as a hypnotist working with both children and adults.

I have had a lifelong interest in the power of hypnosis to enable positive change. I learned self hypnosis in my early twenties and have used it regularly and successfully since in both my personal and professional life. For example, I have used self hypnosis for stress management; relief of chronic pain; experiencing minimal pain during the first stage of childbirth; weight loss; guidance in developing plans of action for goals; improved piano and choral performance skills; decreasing performance anxiety; changing limiting beliefs to life enhancing beliefs; and achievement of a variety of other personal goals.

I am particularly experienced in working with children with lack of self confidence, ADHD, minor fears, test taking and study skills, school avoidance, avoidance of medical treatments such as shots, and more. In addition to typical issues such as weight loss and smoking, I have strong skills and training in the area of medical applications such as stress and pain management and staying motivated to follow treatment plans such as necessary diets and regiments prescribed by the physician. With both children's and medical issues, a medical referral will be requested when needed.

Education:

B.A., English, Florida State University
M.Ed., Special Education, University of Florida
Ed.S., Counseling and Human Systems, Florida State University

Hypnosis Training:

Certificate of Professional Education in Client-Centered Parts Therapy, by C. Roy Hunter, PH.D., FAPHP, Certified Hypnotherapy Instructor and Certificate of Professional Education in 5 Phases of Regression Therapy, by C. Roy Hunter, PH.D., FAPHP, Certified Hypnotherapy Instructor.

Certified Hypnotist, National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH), by Charles Skillas, Ph.D., Board certified and Certified Instructor of the NGH

Certified in Advanced 5-PATH® and 7th Path Self-Hypnosis® by Cal Banyan, M.S., Board certified and Certified Instructor of the NGH, Cal Banyan Hypnosis Center. This training is approved by the NGH.

Certified in Hypnotic Anaesthesiology and Pain Management by Bruce E. Kaloski, Ph.D., of Success Trak Professional Hypnosis Training Institute.

Experience:

I am a retired teacher with experience in many subjects with both regular and special education. Regular education high school teaching included English and American and World History. Special education experience included students with a wide variety of diagnoses and intellectual abilities from pre-school through high school ages. Settings included public schools: a psycho-educational center; as a clinical teacher in a community mental health center; as a behavioral specialist in a public school special education center; and a community program for intellectually handicapped students aged 3-12, at a time when there were no programs in the public school for these children. My responsibilities have included counseling with parent and students. These sessions helped parents learn to understand their children and to develop techniques to encourage more confidence and better behavior. I have particular expertise with children and teenagers with mild to severe behavioral and emotional problems. For 5 years I taught a small (5-7 high school students) daily decision making class where we worked as a group to learn techniques to manage emotions, to set and reach behavioral goals, and develop successful skills of relating to others. I successfully used hypnotic techniques, such as relaxation, visualization, and positive suggestions in my educational work. Additional related experience included serving as a consultant with the Crippled Children's Association, Pensacola Florida, in their residential center to help develop behavioral interventions for problematic behavior; as a consultant to the Baptist Hospital, Pensacola Florida, Speech and Language Pathology Department, assisting in developing plans to encourage appropriate behaviors in a 2 hour preschool language group; working as a rehabilitation counselor for those recovering from work related injuries; working as a "head hunter" for medical professional, including physicians, hospital administrator, department heads, and occupational and physical therapists; and as a Consultant to the State of Florida's Division of Retardation, doing educational and psychosocial evaluations. I was certified in the State of Florida to develop level three behavioral intervention plans.

Related Training:

PSYCH-K™: basic course that allows me to facilitate individual clients in changing using this method. Like hypnosis, "Psych-K is a user-friendly method to rewrite the software of your mind and change the printout of your life."

Transactional analysis: 300 hours, under contract, with a Certified Teaching Member of the International Transactional Analysis Association, which gave me a broad understanding of human emotions and behavior and the opportunity to observe effective techniques for assisting others to change. One of my teachers, Paul Ware, M.D., stated that his methods were a "hypnotic" process.

Lakeview Mental Health Center, Pensacola, Fl, (formerly The Escambia County Mental Health Center): more than 400 hours of psychologically oriented workshops and courses ranging from 1 hour to 40 hours relating to both children and adults.

STEP™, Systematic Training for Effective Parenting, a training course to be used to teach this method individually or in classes.

Was certified in Non-Violent Crisis Intervention™ (Later took this course 2 more times in public school settings)

50 + hours in understanding and using the DSM III manual. (American Psychological Association's Diagnostic manual)

Family therapy 3 hour course sponsored by Lakeview and The University of West Florida, taught by a practicing psychologist

Behavior Modification Certification Course by the State of Florida

Sexton Woods Psycho-Educational Center, DeKalb County Schools, Atlanta, GA: 250+ hours of course work, in-service training, and conferences relating to educating and treating students with emotional and behavioral problems.

Other: During graduate school at the University of Florida, I took a semester of courses for Rehabilitation Counseling. This included an in-depth course called "Medical Aspects of Rehabilitation Counseling," taught by physicians who were the department heads of their specialty at the Shands Teaching Hospital, University of Florida Medical School. This course greatly enhanced my ability to understanding medical information and helps me in consulting with medical professionals when using hypnosis with clients having medical diagnoses.

I also took two courses in Behavior Management from the Department of Psychology. This trained me to help adults and children set a goal, make a plan, and ways to develop the motivation to stay with the plan and reach success.

Classes taught and groups led:

Parent Management Skills, Lakeview Mental Health Center
Adjusting to Divorce, Escambia County Mental Health Association
Relaxation and Visualization Skills, Escambia County Mental Health Association
On-going adjustment to divorce group, Escambia County Mental Health Association
Stress Management, beginning and advanced courses, Escambia County Schools In-service Training

Hypnosis with Children, 2 hour talk to the GA Chapter of the NGH