Beyond the Stage: Professional Hypnosis Secrets with Janet Philbin

Professional Hypnosis vs. Stage Hypnosis, Plus a 100-Hour Hypnotherapy Certification Program (with Janet Philbin)

In Season 8 of Villages Vitality Life: Senior Life Unscripted, host Mike Roth interviews hypnotherapist and mental health professional Janet Philbin, who has practiced hypnotherapy for about 26 years and also wrote “Show Up For Yourself: A Guide to Inner Awareness and Growth” (available in print and as an audiobook). Janet explains how stage hypnosis differs from professional hypnotherapy: stage work is entertainment that screens for highly responsive volunteers using quick tests (like arm levitation or balance/leaning techniques), while therapeutic work focuses on healing and change. She discusses hypnosis for issues such as pain management (only after full medical evaluation and with physician coordination), anxiety, sleep problems, procrastination, relationship patterns, and emotional wounds rooted in childhood coping strategies. Janet outlines her typical 3–6 session approach, noting six sessions as a “sweet spot,” and shares details of a live, Zoom-based 100-hour certification training through Krysalis Institute starting January 22, 2027, including schedule, cost, class size limits, and how to enroll.

00:00 Season Eight Welcome
00:40 Meet Janet Philbin
01:13 Her Book and Audiobook
01:53 Stage vs Therapeutic Hypnosis
03:33 Smoking and Weight Myths
05:20 Pain Management Ethics
07:11 Emotional Healing Focus
08:46 Results and Session Counts
10:46 Alzheimers Tip GLP Ones
12:48 Hypnotherapy Training Program
14:49 Schedule and Cohorts
15:52 Who Should Take It
17:37 Tuition and Certification
19:00 Websites and Enrollment
21:37 Practice Setup Not Marketing
22:50 Closing Thanks and Credits

Villages Vitality Listeners, I've got some good news for you. In season 8 most new episodes will released as both audio & video versions. Videos on Apple Podcasts, Busssprout.com and YouTube. If you're listening via our Buzzsprout feed, you can ask questions via the Fan Mail button or leave me comments as a text or in our new feature, you can send it as a voicemail. If you'd like a response, make sure you leave your name, email address and cell phone number.

Transcript

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Speaker: 0:09

Welcome to Season eight of Village's Vitality Life, Senior's Life unscripted. In this new season, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around The Villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in and around The Villages, Florida. In addition, we will add more information for all seniors.

Mike Roth: 0:34

This is Mike Roth on Villages Vitality Life, a Senior Life unscripted. I'm here today with Janet Philbin. Thanks for joining me, Janet.

Janet Philbin: 0:43

Ah, glad to be here.

Mike Roth: 0:44

Today we're gonna be talking about professional hypnosis. There's lots of different types of hypnosis, stage hypnosis therapeutic hypnosis I think some fake hypnosis. But Janet's wanted to tell our listeners how long you've been involved with hypnosis.

Janet Philbin: 1:01

Perfect. Thanks. I have been a hypnotherapist for. 26 years or so, give or take. And I've been in the field of mental health for more than 30.

Mike Roth: 1:12

Good. So Janet also wrote a book called, okay.

Janet Philbin: 1:17

Show up for yourself. A guide to inner awareness and growth.

Mike Roth: 1:21

Okay. And that's really about how do you help your inner child?

Janet Philbin: 1:26

Yeah, it's a, I don't like the word self-help. It's a self-growth book, so it's part memoir and part how do you do this work? How do you find out what's really been bothering you and help yourself feel better, do better, heal, and grow

Mike Roth: 1:42

Good and. You turn the book also into an audio book, so it's available on Audible and available on Amazon.

Janet Philbin: 1:49

That's true. Anywhere you get a audible book, you'll be able to get the book.

Mike Roth: 1:53

Good. But today we're gonna be talking about professional hypnosis. What's the difference between professional hypnosis and stage hypnosis?

Janet Philbin: 2:02

There is a big difference because stage hypnosis is purely for entertainment. Though the principles of hypnosis are always the same, the purpose is different in stage hypnosis. You are getting volunteers from the audience to raise their hand and essentially say, Ooh, please hypnotize me. I wanna do this funny thing on the stage. And so anyone who raises their hand, the hypnotist is going to call them up onto the stage and then do further hypnotic testing on them to see if they're hypnotizable easily. And the people that easily pass these tests. We'll get to stay on the stage and the ones that show even the slightest resistance will be sent back down to the audience. It's purely for entertainment and for fun. There's nothing therapeutic about it at all.

Mike Roth: 2:55

You said test. What would be a test?

Janet Philbin: 2:57

So a, a stage hypnosis might use a test to get someone into hypnosis and have them. Fall forward. So the hypnotherapist can catch them. They might have them do an arm levitation and see how they respond to that. There were certain quick induction techniques that a stage hypnotist will use to test their level of depth of hypnosis and their ease and agreeability, for lack of a better word of going into hypnosis and.

Mike Roth: 3:28

Hypnosis can be used for a lot of things therapeutically.

Janet Philbin: 3:32

Correct.

Mike Roth: 3:32

Okay. The most common ones that I think most people run across are stop smoking. Lose weight. And maybe even pain or anxiety management.

Janet Philbin: 3:42

Yeah, I don't do stop smoking or lose weight. There are hypnotists out there, which is different than a hypnotherapist who just truly put someone into a hypnotic state and give them very strong post hypnotic suggestions, which are repeated and taken into the unconscious mind. And then the person follows through on them. But if a person has even. The smallest bit of doubt, a fraction of a percent of doubt that maybe they don't wanna lose weight or maybe they don't wanna stop smoking. It won't work. You have to be 110% in

Mike Roth: 4:17

110%.

Janet Philbin: 4:18

Yeah. No, you need to wanna do it 110%. That's how committed you have to be because it's a habit.

Mike Roth: 4:25

And

Janet Philbin: 4:25

it needs to be broken. And so there are very strong post hipnotic suggestions that can be used, but you're not getting to the underlying reason of why someone put on the weight or began smoking. I'll only work with someone for weight loss or smoking cessation if they wanna do the deeper work. And by that I mean. We're going back. We're going back to your younger self to find out what happened at 13 when you picked up a cigarette for the first time, or what happened when you first started hiding the fact that you were eating in secret to soothe your emotions or stop eating in order to control something in your life, right? That's how disordered eating would begin. So those aren't quick fixes. Yes. We're gonna put in post hypnotic suggestions, but it's not a quick fix. It's going to take a three to six sessions at minimum.

Mike Roth: 5:20

The second one was pain management.

Janet Philbin: 5:21

Pain management.

Mike Roth: 5:22

Yeah.

Janet Philbin: 5:23

Yes. Pain management. I would never recommend to someone to do hypnotherapy or hypnosis for pain management if they have not had a full and complete workup with a physician. If I was the first or second stop on someone's journey to feel less pain and they had not done a full workup, I would make them go do a full workup and then I would want to get consent to talk to the physician. To make sure it was medically advisable for that person to do hypnosis. So if you've ever just gone to someone for hypnosis, for pain management and they have not also been consulting with your doctor, I would say you should probably find another hypnotherapist, because that's not the most ethical thing.

Mike Roth: 6:05

So someone who's had an MR mri a CAT scan. A medical exam by specialist and Their general physician. And they were told that, yeah, they're going to have to endure this pain. And they were offered the choices of using marijuana Or some of the drugs like Gabapentin. Which have terrible side effects With side with. Hypnosis be a better solution for that type of person.

Janet Philbin: 6:30

I would encourage that type of person to work with those skilled hypnotherapist who could help them with the pain management.

Mike Roth: 6:37

In your practice over the past 27 years have you run into any cases where you've worked on pain, physical pain management?

Janet Philbin: 6:43

Yes, I have. I used to actually consult with a pain management doctor, and he would send me all his pain management people in order to try to keep them off of. Opiates, which are very addictive. And I worked closely with that doctor.

Mike Roth: 6:55

I think they're just plain addictive.

Janet Philbin: 6:57

They are plain addictive. Yeah.

Mike Roth: 6:58

But

Janet Philbin: 6:59

That's a whole other discussion.

Mike Roth: 7:00

So professional hypnosis can be used to control pain. Anxiety. Eating disorders. Smoking. What other. Symptoms. Have you seen that? Professional hypnosis has really helped.

Janet Philbin: 7:13

For me, in my practice. People come to me because. They are in emotional pain. They'll sometimes say, I feel blocked. I'm stuck in this pattern. I'm procrastinating all the time. I'm not able to stay in a relationship. I always pick the wrong person. Or I'm continuing to stay with someone who I know the relationship isn't healthy. Or I have parents that come to me because they're like having real trouble parenting their kids, but they know they're bringing their behaviors. Into that relationship with their children and they want to fix what is hurting inside of them. So that's really where I focus when someone's hurting inside of themselves emotionally, I work with them to find the source of that emotional pain, heal at the origin of that pain so we can rescue that wounded younger self. And then we put in. Healing paradigm and good, positive, strong post hypnotic suggestions, new coping skills, and if that person was suffering with sleep problems, anxiety, sadness procrastination. Then I would also be putting in post hypnotic suggestions to improve those symptoms as well. But by getting to the origin of the problem when it began. Probably in childhood for most people, and we go back in and we rescue that younger self and we let them know, okay, the adult self is in charge now. We really don't need that symptom anymore because it's not really a symptom, it's a coping skill. Okay.

Mike Roth: 8:46

So you've had 27 years of experience in hypnotherapy. When you're dealing with your patients, what percentage of them actually achieve a successful outcome?

Janet Philbin: 8:57

I can't give you a percentage,

Mike Roth: 8:59

a wild guess

Janet Philbin: 9:00

I, my clients, I would say for the most part, feel that when we're done with their three to six sessions, they have achieved a level of success, if not complete success. I have a client right now who I've been working with, we've done five out of this person's six sessions, and by the third session she started telling me, I'm really feeling a subtle. Shift. I'm really noticing. I'm showing up in relationships differently. I'm holding boundaries. I realize I was putting myself dead last. Now I'm not doing that anymore. So to me that's a huge transition for her, and that's a big success. And we still have one more session. So we'll see where it lands.

Mike Roth: 9:42

What percentage of your clients need more than six sessions?

Janet Philbin: 10:27

Few. I find six sessions to be a sweet spot. I don't have statistics because it's not. Something I have ever kept is statistics.

Mike Roth: 10:37

But you feel like most

Janet Philbin: 10:38

Oh.

Mike Roth: 10:38

Patients by six the succession they're really fixed.

Janet Philbin: 10:41

They are. I don't like the word fixed because no one's broken. So if you say something, someone is fixed, that means they were broken.

Mike Roth: 10:48

The problem they brought you is no longer a solid issue.

Janet Philbin: 10:52

It is no longer getting in the way of their daily functioning and the way it was, even my. Clients I've had with very, very significant childhood trauma. I think there's one client in particular, I think we did 13 sessions, and that's probably someone who could have been in regular psychotherapy for 20 plus years.

Mike Roth: 11:13

Oh.

Janet Philbin: 11:13

But I do find six sessions to be a sweet spot where either someone feels so much better. And they can take a break for a little while because you have to process and integrate everything we've done. Or they really feel done and that's wonderful. Yeah.

Mike Roth: 11:27

Good. We're gonna take a short break and to an Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis. And Janet's going to tell us a little bit about something very special and exciting that's going to be happening later this year.. talked about using GLP one drugs to help Alzheimer's. What's the story on that?

Dr. Craig Curtis: 11:53

So that was breaking news a few months ago. They released the results that showed it was not a positive study, which means there was no statistical difference between the placebo group and those that received GLP ones for the length of the trial, which was approximately two years. Now. What they did find is that those. On the GLP ones did have trending biomarkers. The levels of tau and amyloid seem to be moving in the right direction, so it's possible they didn't receive the treatment long enough. Maybe a two year trial was not enough, sort of what we just referenced in hyperbaric oxygen. Maybe you need it for a longer amount of time.

Mike Roth: 12:35

Yeah, longer than three months.

Dr. Craig Curtis: 12:36

Longer than. Three months. So there's going to be more data released at a big meeting coming up in Copenhagen in March that I'll be attending, called the Alzheimer's PD International Parkinson's Disease International Meeting. And they're going to release more information about the biomarkers, in that study and whether or not they will do more. So stay tuned. I don't think they quite have answers yet, but the overall study was. A failure if you wanna look at it from a totality or the study in full.

Mike Roth: 13:06

Yeah. But the study kind of indicates from what you're saying, that they need an additional study to go beyond two years.

Warren: 13:12

With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate The Villages community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, CraigCurtisMD.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

Mike Roth: 13:28

Thank you, Dr. Curtis. Now, Janet, we talked about what Professional hypnosis was. Why don't you share with our listeners what that professional program is that you're gonna be offering? Starting in January.

Janet Philbin: 13:39

Yeah. Thank you. So I have a secondary business and it is called Krysalis Institute, spelled with a K and myself and my two colleagues, Paul Reese and Franziska Bernhard. We are all certified hypnotherapist and certified teachers. For the American Board of Hypnotherapy, so we have a training program where you can join us and learn to become a hypnotherapist or a hypnotist, and it is a 100 hour. Training program where we meet live on Zoom so you can meet from the comfort of your home. It is not recorded, so you must attend live. And we do that on purpose because we care about our students and we care about their future clients. And we want to know our hypnotherapist are trained. Correctly. So we will be meeting Friday evenings from six to nine Eastern time, and then the Saturday and Sunday from nine to five Eastern. We begin on January 22nd, 2027, and by the end of the four months you will be able to hypnotize someone. You will be able to. Do guided visualizations with people. You will be able to teach people self-hypnosis. You will be able to conduct quick inductions and understand how deep into hypnosis your client is. You'll be able to do uncovering work and help people heal the parts of themselves. That are wounded, injured, and in pain, and put in very strong, powerful post hypnotic suggestions that will help people improve their lives.

Mike Roth: 15:30

So a couple of questions.

Janet Philbin: 15:32

Sure.

Mike Roth: 15:33

Those, Saturday and Sunday sessions To get to a hundred hours. You do take a lunch break, don't you?

Janet Philbin: 15:38

We take a lunch break. And we have short breaks. During the day so everyone can get a snack or do what we need to do during a break. And

Mike Roth: 15:47

so you can take Your classes are. Chunked, let's call it.

Janet Philbin: 15:51

Okay.

Mike Roth: 15:51

Into inter intercessions of what? 90 minutes each. And then there's a break, and then there's another 90 minutes, and then there's a lunch, and then there's another 90 minutes,

Janet Philbin: 15:59

Essentially not that precise though. The breaks are all, it's all scheduled out. A hundred percent. And we know exactly when we're stopping and starting. But I don't wanna say it's at a 90 minute mark. Because sometimes it's not because the students do practice sessions, so we'll take a break before they go into a practice session so everyone's fresh, so it, it's fluid. And it works really well.

Mike Roth: 16:21

How many times have you done this before?

Janet Philbin: 16:23

This year will be our fourth cohort.

Mike Roth: 16:27

The fourth cohort? Okay. And or

Janet Philbin: 16:30

maybe fifth. It might even be the fifth. I might have lost count.

Mike Roth: 16:33

How do people know if they're ready to be take part in this kind of training

Janet Philbin: 16:39

first? Are you interested?

Mike Roth: 16:40

A lot of people would be interested.

Janet Philbin: 16:42

Yeah. And why do you wanna use hypnosis? Maybe you are in an adjunct profession. So what I mean by that is maybe you're a therapist already working in the mental health field. Maybe you're an acupuncturist, maybe you are a Reiki practitioner. Our co-teacher. Francisco Bernhard is a aesthetician and she incorporates the hypnosis techniques in as

Mike Roth: 17:07

Someone who works on the basis,

Janet Philbin: 17:08

yes, when she's giving facials and other treatments. And she has private clients that come in for hypnotherapy with her. So it really depends why you want to use it. Or maybe you are someone who wants to. Help people stop smoking or lose weight.

Mike Roth: 17:23

Let's pretend you're a life coach. There are a lot of 'em out

Janet Philbin: 17:26

there. Yes. Oh, life coach is a great option.

Mike Roth: 17:28

Okay, and what about sales trainers?

Janet Philbin: 17:30

I

Mike Roth: 17:31

Some people have big problems.

Janet Philbin: 17:33

I'm not so sure only because hypnosis isn't mind control, and I would never want hypnosis to be used to talk someone into something because it can be misused.

Mike Roth: 17:46

No, I guess you misunderstood what I meant. Okay. What I meant is someone who's in the business of sales training using hypnosis. To get his clients to be able to sell more of whatever they're selling to get them over their mental hurdles, which are holding their careers back.

Janet Philbin: 18:02

Okay. That would be different that what you just said there. It would be a little different if you were going work with people who are in sales to help them unblock the areas that were blocked

Mike Roth: 18:13

them

Janet Philbin: 18:13

working, that were stopping

Mike Roth: 18:14

them from getting to the next level in their

Janet Philbin: 18:16

business.

Mike Roth: 18:16

Yes.

Janet Philbin: 18:16

Yes. Then yes.

Mike Roth: 18:18

Then

Janet Philbin: 18:18

yes.

Mike Roth: 18:18

Good. Did you tell our listeners what the investment is going to be for your course?

Janet Philbin: 18:22

Sure. The 100 hour certification class,

Mike Roth: 18:26

a hundred hours?

Janet Philbin: 18:27

Yes. I know it sounds like a lot. He keeps saying that it's not that bad. It goes so fast, and part of that a hundred hours is a little bit of homework in between each class four practice sessions. So it equals about four hours and we meet. In between each class to answer questions, provide support, go over the cases if you have them. It's so fast, it doesn't even feel like a hundred hours. But the total cost is 2,495. And when you're done, you will come away with a certification from Krysalis Institute and you take that and you send it into the American Board of Hypnotherapy, which is where we are certified through, and you become a certified hypnosis or hypnotherapist. Through the American Board of Hypnotherapy, which is recognized around the nation and internationally.

Mike Roth: 19:16

That's good. Did they get anything else? Like a book?

Janet Philbin: 19:19

Oh, yeah. As, as a student, of course, you get a textbook, which you will get as a PDF. That you'll download and keep, or you can print. Yes, it's very comprehensive. Every single thing we do in the class will be in that book.

Mike Roth: 19:33

Like the, the people who take your class get an autographed copy of your book.

Janet Philbin: 19:37

No, but if someone wanted one, I'd be happy to give that.

Mike Roth: 19:39

Okay. That, that's an important thing. Why don't you tell our listeners. Who might be interested, the one or two websites that they can go to find out more and to sign up for your course in January.

Janet Philbin: 19:50

Wow, that's great. So you can always go to my website. I'll spell it out, but it is my name, which is JanetPhilbin.com And our training institute is Krysalis Institute. So that is K R Y S L A S I S institute, I N S T I T UT E com

Mike Roth: 20:14

So if they went to Janet Philbin. Com.. Janet Philbin: Okay. Where would they find information about the course?

Janet Philbin: 20:20

So on the top of my website, it, there's a little tab that says Become a certified hypnotherapist, and you click that and that'll bring you over to Chrysalis and you'll get all the information you can sign up for. You can send an email and I'll send you all the information you want. I'm always happy to get on a phone call with someone and answer any questions.

Mike Roth: 20:42

Are there any prequalifications. No. Prequalifications, no. I assume they have to pay in advance for this course.

Janet Philbin: 20:47

We have two payment methods, so if they pay in full there's, we take$200 off the total price, just

Mike Roth: 20:53

count. Okay.

Janet Philbin: 20:54

Or you can pay 'em monthly installments.

Mike Roth: 20:57

Okay. For

Janet Philbin: 20:57

four months.

Mike Roth: 20:58

Four months. Okay. And how many openings do you have in the class of January?

Janet Philbin: 21:03

Right now the class is fully open because we're just starting marketing in September. So I'm sure the class will fill, we really limit it to 10 students max because we want all the students to get personal hands on attention from the three of us as instructors. And

Mike Roth: 21:19

how often a year do you do this class?

Janet Philbin: 21:21

We do it once a year.

Mike Roth: 21:22

Do you keep a wait list?

Janet Philbin: 21:23

We do keep a wait list, yes.

Mike Roth: 21:25

And occasionally the people from the wait list get into the class?

Janet Philbin: 21:28

Yes.

Mike Roth: 21:29

Okay good.

Janet Philbin: 21:30

But right now they could a hundred percent reserve their spot and get him.

Mike Roth: 21:34

Okay. So if we went to the site right now, we could buy it.

Janet Philbin: 21:37

Yes.

Mike Roth: 21:37

This take credit cards.

Janet Philbin: 21:38

What you do is you click the link to register and then we send you the link to pay.

Mike Roth: 21:43

Okay. Good. Janet, have I omitted any questions that you'd like to answer today about hypnosis and maybe your course?

Janet Philbin: 21:51

I don't think so. All I like to say, and I say this all the time in my course, is hypnosis is fun,

Mike Roth: 21:57

good,

Janet Philbin: 21:57

and it's amazing. And every time I do a hypnosis session with someone, 26 years later, I'm still in awe of the amazing transformations people are able to achieve. And so if you wanna be part of that for yourself and be part of helping someone really transform something significant in their life, then this course might be for you.

Mike Roth: 22:19

Okay, so someone pays. Roughly$2,500 for the cost. And they want to set up shop as a hypnotist in their

Janet Philbin: 22:27

City.

Mike Roth: 22:27

Or town. Does your cost include what they need to do to market their services?

Janet Philbin: 22:32

Great question. We do not include anything about marketing, because that's not our specialty. But we do go through everything. Someone will need to. Get set up in order to open their practice. We have a link for malpractice insurance. We tell you how to keep files. We give you starting intake forms that people can then personalize. So we give you a lot of information. You're not just sent out there with nothing.

Mike Roth: 22:58

So someone who sets themselves up as a hip hypnotherapist Needs to buy professional. Malpractice.

Janet Philbin: 23:05

Malpractice. You should.

Mike Roth: 23:06

What does that cost? Round numbers?

Janet Philbin: 23:09

I don't know, because I'm a, it varies by state. It varies by your credentials, like if you are and where you're getting it through. So we get a discount through. This one particular malpractice insurance because of the American Board of Hypnotherapy. So our students get that discount.

Mike Roth: 23:28

Okay, that's great.

Janet Philbin: 23:29

Yeah, it's significantly discounted.

Mike Roth: 23:31

Janet, I wanna thank you for being on Villages Vitality, Senior Life Unscripted, and you just never know what's gonna come up on this show. I tune in again next week to see what the next surprise is going to be.

Dolores: 23:45

Remember, our next episode will be released

next Friday at 9: 23:47

00 AM. Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters, Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Roemmich, Paul Sorgen, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K 2 in The Villages. We'll be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show. Contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help. Text your friends about this show. If you enjoyed listening, use the fan mail button on our homepage, VillagesVitality.Life to leave comments, be sure to include your name, email, and phone number. We thank everyone for listening. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2026, all rights reserved.