CUENCA EXPAT PROFILESHypnotherapist Carlita Shaw discovered her passion early

By Susan Schenck

Q: What do you offer the community here in your practice?

A: I offer hypnotherapy, qigong, and meditation. My office space is above the Nectar vegetarian restaurant.

I have also had a longstanding interest in alternative health and medicinal products, due to re-occurring tumors and health issues since I was very young, which is why I practice qigong and hypnotherapy.

Q: What got you into the practice of hypnotherapy?

A: Ever since I was a young child, I have had abstract experiences. When I was 14, I had an operation to remove a large tumor and had an out-of-body experience during the operation. On a journey with another being, I saw a grid with large white spheres floating above random squares across a large expansive area. I was taken to random spheres, each containing a fragment of my life in the past, present, and future. Some of those spheres contained situations that had occurred, though some hadn’t, kind of like Nassim Haramein's research and the quantum physics of particles being in any one place at any time and parallel universes.

Q: How did you wind up in Ecuador?

A: I am also a wildlife biologist and deep ecologist. The main reason I am in Ecuador is because I run a foundation called Evolve to Ecology for Sustainability and Rain Forest Conservation. Therefore, some my mentors are mutual friends and fellow scientists, while others I have personally interviewed. Their work is a fascinating integration of new alternative Earth energies with quantum science, consciousness, exopolitics, free energy, and other repressed sciences. These people are paving the way for an awakening of humanity with the research of scientists at the Institute of HeartMath, along with Susan Joy Rennison, Dr. Donald Epstein, Nassim Haramein, Dr. Eugene Jussek, Dr. Brian Wiess, Mary Rodwell, Neil Kramer, Dr. Alfred Lambremont Webre, Sir John Searl, Jason Verbelli, Sir Trevor James Constable, Janis Ericson, Keith Livingston, and more. We are living in exciting times amidst chaos where the exploration of consciousness, physics, and spirituality is merging into something very profound for humankind: our connection with the universe and other existing non-terrestrial life forms.

Q: How does hypnotherapy fit into your world view?

A: I feel that hypnotherapy can tap into the multidimensional universe of consciousness and can be used for great healing. We are only just discovering the immense healing potential of the power of the mind, barely scratching the surface of what can be achieved. I have had tumors all my life and am living proof that the power of the mind can heal the body through hypnotherapy and cultivating chi, life force, through Taoist yoga and Tai Chi.

Q: Where did you learn hypnotherapy?

I trained in San Francisco three years ago with Janis Ericson. A master hypnotherapist, she works with Richard Bandler, who founded Neuro Linguistic Programming, which we combine to use with hypnosis. I also learned from Keith Livingston, who is at the forefront of hypnotherapy.

Q: Do you run into a lot of skeptics who consider this just “parlor tricks?”

I think most people understand that “stage hypnosis” is very different from “therapeutic clinical hypnosis.” Many people say, “I cannot be hypnotized.” What they don’t realize is that they’re being hypnotized every day, while driving long distance, reading a good book, listening to good music, watching a movie or television. Why do you think a TV program is called a “program?” Or actors and actresses are called a “cast?”

Jordan Maxwell talks about how Hollywood uses a lot of esoteric and hypnosis techniques on the public, which is why it is a multi-billion dollar industry. Each film has the ability to implant suggestions into the human subconscious by casting a spell, the same with advertising. The human mind is highly suggestive and everyone has the ability to be hypnotized whether they think so or not. The media take full advantage of how easy it is for all of us to be hypnotized and so do politicians. Many are beginning to realize this.

Q: Can you explain why or how it works?

Most don’t understand how hypnotherapy works. I have had clients receive treatment who were skeptical that hypnosis could resolve their issues, but despite their skepticism they were still cured of their physical or emotional issues. And perhaps they don’t or can’t acknowledge it was due to the hypnotherapy working on the subconscious mind. But we do not need acknowledgement, as our job is to implant suggestions so that our clients don’t have expectations during the session, plus remove existing expectations, and implant positive suggestions during the session. This creates profoundly positive and successful results.

The human mind likes to rebel against suggestions. My tutor Janis Ericson always used the analogy, “When you tell a child not to jump into the puddle, what does the child usually do?” This is how the human mind is so contradictory. Mostly the ego likes to step in and mess things around a bit and there are always parts of us that can be in conflict that are really wanting to work toward the same goal. Hypnotherapy achieves integration and inner harmony for such issues.

So much of our work is being several steps ahead of the ego and logical mind. By passing these major elements of our consciousness and taking a client into deep trance, a deep state of relaxation, we implant positive suggestions and with this lot of powerful transformation can be achieved. Whatever you want to see changed in your life can be achieved. There are some quite fascinating parallels with the work of a shaman and the work of a hypnotherapist, as the beat of a drum and chanting also induce trance, so that the medicine man or woman can work their medicine on their patient.

Q: What was the decisive incident when you knew you had talent?

I have always had a fascination for psychology, consciousness, and the inter-dimensional, as I had some very abstract and challenging times before I was an adult. I feel that hypnotherapy brings a lot of healing to the fragmented human mind, in addition to being an ecologist, and wildlife biologist conserving the Earth. I feel we can help heal the Earth by healing the human mind, as much of the pollution we create outside of ourselves is a reflection of the lack of understanding and healing required within our fragmented selves.

To be a hypnotherapist, you need to be able to be a good listener, to be able to create good rapport with a client, to build trust, to be intuitively sensitive to a person’s needs and sympathetic with constructive solutions. I have most of these skills. They have been tested by some very intense challenges in the training ground of life. If you care enough about people and enjoy bringing joy and positivity to someone else, this qualifies for a good hypnotherapist or counselor. You just have to have compassion for people and understand that much of our suffering can be healed by creating inner harmony.

Q: Where are you from and what did you do for a living there?

I am originally from the UK. I am primarily here for my work as a wildlife biologist and ecologist. Since graduating with a wildlife biology degree in London in 2003, I have set up projects and run a research and conservation foundation, Evolve to Ecology. I developed various projects here with various different indigenous people in the rain forest. We also focus on sustainability and ecology. I have only been living here a year, but I have a 10-year history with Ecuador, through my connection with Pascual Kunchikuy, who is from the Shiwiar territory of Ecuador, a territory only accessible by a small plane.

Pascual has a website for his people and for you to take excursions out to the Shiwiar territory at www.ikiam.info/.

Pascual was taken out of the territory by missionaries who discovered the Shiwiar people and made them follow the Bible. They took Pascual out of the jungle when he was only 12 to be trained as a priest. Instead, he chose to go to America to learn English, then since his return has been fighting to protect the Shiwiar heritage and the Amazon rain forest ever since.

He has written two small books on his people, language and culture. I first heard about Pascual from the work he did with Sarah Dixon, who during 2002 was advertising for volunteers to take part in a project documenting Shiwiar culture. As part of my wildlife conservation training, we were recommended to take a year out for work experience and I was scheduled to work with the Shiwiar.

Unfortunately, around that time a friend was shot dead in Colombia, so my family and friends did not want me to go and I didn’t; however, I endeavored to keep connections open with Pascual and the Shiwiar as I was very inspired by his work and the rainforest. I set up a foundation called Down to Earth International, based out of London, and we sent volunteers to Pascal’s projects. I also taught ecology in Central America at two different Mayan schools. This was my first charity for projects in Latin America and India. However, the fellow directors I invited on board, who previously were friends, took the foundation out of my control after I returned from Central America very sick, as I did not protect myself as the founding director. I’m not sure what they thought they would get out of achieving that. However, I continued to maintain my project work hence setting up this foundation.

Q: How much do you charge and what is your contact info?

A: I charge $25 for a preliminary session, which includes questions to the client and understanding their goal. This includes a 40-minute hypnotherapy session to see how they respond to different hypnosis techniques. The follow-up session is $35 and addresses their requirements and the positive changes they want to make. I also make them a personal CD so they can practice self-hypnosis at home. I provide ongoing support to clients if they require it. Anyone who refers me new clients gets a discounted session if they want another session.

I am based above Nectar Vegetarian Restaurant, 10/42 Benigno Malo, the corner off from Parque Calderon. My phone number is 06-976-5010, or email me at bethechangehypnotherapy@gmail.com and visit www.bethechangehypnotherapy.com.