This interview is with Marcelina Hardy, Certified Hypnotist at Intuitive Clarity Hypnosis.

Marcelina Hardy, Certified Hypnotist, Intuitive Clarity Hypnosis

Can you introduce yourself and share what drew you to specialize in hypnosis and past life regression? What makes your approach unique in the healing and coaching space?

My name is Marcelina Hardy, NBCHt, a certified hypnotist from the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists and certified regressionist from The Edgar Cayce A.R.E. Center. As someone who worked as a counselor for a decade, I was highly impressed by the therapeutic effects of my first past life regression. I decided to continue seeking regressions to learn more about myself and little by little, I found myself not only feeling better emotional, mentally and spiritually, but I was better able to deal with challenges I faced from day to day. With this new insight, I decided I wanted to do the same for others. So now, not only do I help people with traditional counseling and coaching, but I use hypnosis and past life regression to help people find more clarity, healing and insight in their life.

Walk us through your journey from wherever you started to becoming a certified hypnotist specializing in regression work. What pivotal moments shaped the path you’re on today?

I was in a past life regression session and my regressionist took me to the period of life between lives. In that session, I was communicating with my soul and Spirit Team and the mission of my soul in this incarnation was discussed – I was meant to help people with their life’s challenges using my spiritual gifts, which include clairsentience and a strong intuition. It was communicated that if I didn’t do it in this lifetime, I would have to come back again with the same mission until I did it, so I might as well do it now. The insight I received in that session propelled me forward into finding a way to use my spiritual gifts along with what I already wanted to do, which was counsel/coach people towards a better life. Now, I not only use talk therapy, but I use spiritual hypnosis guided by the information I receive from the Spirit World and my intuition.

When working with a new client who’s curious about hypnosis but perhaps skeptical or nervous, what’s your approach to helping them feel safe and open to the process? What can other practitioners learn from this?

Lack of information is usually the reason many people are skeptical or nervous. They often rely on what society and the media have portrayed hypnosis to be instead of learning about it for themselves. By explaining to people what the experience is like and how it can help their life, they often start to open up to the idea and ask their own questions. Sharing some experiences that others have had also helps people understand that it’s not quite what they suspect. I recommend that practitioners not give up on their client when it comes to hypnosis. If someone says they don’t know how they feel about it, explore the reasons they are against it to see if it’s possible they just need more information about it. After they have all the information, they can then make an informed decision on whether or not it’s right for them.

You’ve mentioned working with past life regression—can you share a memorable session where regression work helped a client break through a pattern or belief that was holding them back in their present life?

Yes! I love sharing stories because they are so inspirational. I had a client who was struggling in her love life. She was married before but the marriage was abusive. She came to the session wanting to know if she would ever be married again and if she would have children someday. During the session, she wouldn’t go through the door to the past life that would shed light on if she was carrying some past life karma preventing her from having a successful relationship. While exploring the reasons she wouldn’t go through the door, she started having a vision of being in a body of water and it was raining. The water was rising and she couldn’t get out of it. She started to feel as though she would drown. During the analysis part of the session, she realized that she felt like she was drowning in her last marriage, and that was what she was afraid of when it comes to her relationships. That was the block that she didn’t realize she had… During the next session, she was able to go through the door, but this time, she met with her grandfather who let her know that she has been focused too much on trying to make her love life happen and worried too much about the future. Her grandfather reminded her that there’s so much more to life than marriage and children and that serving those in need (particularly children) is like having her own children to care for and that is truly what life is all about. She left that session with a renewed sense of purpose and went on to serving others and reports that she’s had a much easier time going with the flow when it comes to her romantic relationships.

In your experience as a hypnotist and coach, what’s one common limiting belief you see showing up again and again across different clients? How do you help them recognize and shift it?

Trust. Most people don’t trust themselves. They don’t trust their intuition. They don’t trust the Universe. Many of the problems in people’s lives are because they don’t trust themselves to be able to handle the situations effectively. This is what causes fear, anxiety, and turmoil. Being able to trust themselves allows them to move forward with confidence and strength. I help clients recognize their trust issues by helping them visualize ways in which trusting themselves could change the way they react and deal with challenges. By seeing the impact of trust on their lives, they are better able to feel as though they can take on the struggles they face. It’s amazing when people realize that one of the fundamental hurdles is self-trust, they are able to move forward easier.

Hypnosis is often misunderstood or portrayed dramatically in media. What’s one misconception about hypnosis or regression work that you wish more people understood, and how do you address it with clients?

Thank you for bringing this up because it’s such a disservice to the wonderful benefits of hypnosis. The most common misperception of hypnosis is that people lose complete control to the hypnotizer. This is 100% untrue. A person who is under hypnosis has full control. As part of my training, I was taught to remind people that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, which means if someone at any time feels uncomfortable or wants to come out of the experience, they can do so on their own without harm. I always assure people that I will not be making them do anything they don’t want to do and they are aware during it, so they do not have to worry about anything happening they are not aware of. Most people who are not completely against hypnosis due to fear understand what hypnosis really is once they hear the real explanation of it.

When guiding someone through deep inner work—whether hypnosis, regression, or coaching—how do you know when a breakthrough is happening? What signs do you look for, and how do you support the client through that moment?

I love when I’m on the trail of a breakthrough! The #1 sign is when they start to communicate the experience with me freely without me needing to prompt them. In the beginning, I will have the person ask questions, look around, or move around. I always know that the person is about to get the meat of the session when they start to take control of the experience and begin exploring on their own to find answers to their questions (ones they had before the session or ones that have come up due to what they are experiencing during the session). When I know they are at that point in the session, I turn from the guide to the encourager. To help them find and embrace the insight, clarity and healing, I will use positive reinforcement with praise.

For coaches or healers who want to deepen their practice or incorporate hypnosis and regression techniques, what’s one piece of advice or a practical step they can take to begin exploring this modality responsibly?

Get the training and education, but also work on your connection to Spirit and your intuition. That’s really where the guidance and skill comes from when helping people. This is a message I received during meditation, and it’s something that I see when I’m in sessions. Just know that it’s really Spirit that is leading you – all you have to do is follow Spirit’s lead. When you know that it’s not all you, it takes the pressure off and miraculous things happen. Just always remember, learn how to do it, but then remain flexible to do what you need to do to help the client receive what they need to from the experience.

Looking at your own growth as a practitioner, what’s one lesson or insight from your work with clients that has transformed the way you show up—not just professionally, but personally as well?

Be yourself. When I try to be what I believe I should be, I end up stumbling over my words and losing my train of thought because I’m more concerned about how I’m coming across than the value I’m providing. Once I realized that all I had to do was be myself, sessions were easier and smoother. That’s when I can speak more eloquently and guide sessions with confidence and success. Professionalism isn’t what most people think it is – it’s not about being perfect – it’s about showing up as yourself in a way that helps you provide a service that clients find valuable. That’s it.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Hypnosis is something that people don’t give enough credit to when helping people through emotional, mental and physical challenges. It’s an amazing technique that bypasses the Ego, which blocks people from getting to the root of inner issues that are affecting many areas of life. When people can calm the Ego down to be able to tap into the foundation of problems, they can see dramatic changes in the way they think, act, and feel.