You Can Use Hypnosis to Drink Less Alcohol???

Hypnosis and moderation rarely share the same sentence—until you understand how your brain decides to drink. We sit down with Australian clinical hypnotherapist Georgia Foster to unpack a practical, science‑aligned approach to reducing alcohol that starts by changing state, not shaming behavior. Georgia explains why the amygdala’s fear and urgency often override the best intentions, how the inner critic fuels that cycle, and what it takes to bring the prefrontal cortex—the calm, planning center—back online when it matters.

You’ll hear how two common patterns show up in overdrinking. The perfectionist white‑knuckles through the week, then binges on relief because there are no references for slow, present drinking. The pleaser says yes to keep the peace, struggling to stay alcohol‑free in social settings. Georgia shows how hypnosis creates new “future references” by rehearsing success in the alpha‑theta window, the natural state between wake and sleep. By pairing imagined events with emotions like confidence, ease, and clarity, the brain encodes a different blueprint—so at a wedding, work dinner, or solo evening at home, choice feels obvious and safe.

We also dig into mindless home routines, the difference between emotional and habitual drinking, simple tactics like “drink one, water one,” and why many people discover they don’t even like what they were pouring once the inner critic quiets down. Georgia shares who responds fastest to hypnotherapy, when to seek additional support, and why building self‑esteem is central to long‑term change. Along the way, we talk about privacy, digital programs, and her goal to help one million people drink less by replacing shame with skill.

If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who could use a gentler path, and leave a quick review—your words help others find evidence‑informed help and start their own change.

To learn more about Georgia's work: https://shop.georgiafoster.com/

To contact Dr. Grover: ammadeeasy@fastmail.com

Transcript

Host Intro And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hi, I'm Dr. Casey Grove. I spent years practicing emergency medicine before shifting my focus to addiction medicine. This podcast grew out of caring for patients, hearing their stories, and wanting to do better. Here we talk about recovery, medicine, and compassion. This is Addiction Medicine Made Easy. Today, we are going to be talking about hypnosis and how it can be used to reduce drinking. And if you're like me, you're thinking, wait, what? Hypnosis? Isn't that just from movies where some wizard waves a watch back and forth and puts someone in a trance to make them do something they don't want to do? And it turns out the answer is no. This episode is an interview with Georgia Foster. She's an Australian clinical hypnotherapist who helps people drink less. And it turns out that hypnosis is not what I thought it was. It's actually putting people into a meditative state that naturally occurs in the process of going to sleep. And in that state, as I learned, you can accelerate changing how you think. I'll let Georgia explain the rest. A few clarifications for the non-clinical folks to help them understand this episode. Georgia frequently speaks about the prefrontal cortex. It's a part of the human brain, and it's the most advanced part of our brain. It's what allows us to reason and weigh out decisions. And apparently, sometimes it's referred to as the third eye as it sits right behind the forehead. She also discusses the amygdala, and this is a very primitive part of the brain. It's responsible for emotional responses, and it's particularly active with anxiety, fear, and rage. And foreshadowing, you've probably already figured out that reducing drinking involves making our prefrontal cortex more active and our amygdala less active. Next up, Georgia references dopamine. It's the pleasure chemical. If you've listened to this podcast before, you know what this is, but it's the chemical in the brain that makes us feel good, and it's a big part of the brain chemistry involved with addiction. And finally, I wanted to clarify one term that Georgia used. She speaks of references when talking about her work. And she used the term differently than I was familiar with. References for her represent a point of reference to understand what a person is feeling. Okay, enough banter from me. Real quick, if you haven't yet left a rating on your podcatcher for this podcast, please do. And with that, let's get started. All right, well, good afternoon, my time, good morning, your time. Why don't we just start by you telling us who you are and what you do?

Who Georgia Helps And Why

From Personal Struggle To Practice

SPEAKER_00 3:03

My name is Georgia Foster, and as you can hear, I'm Australian, and I help people drink less alcohol. And I've been in this business for nearly 30 years. Actually, coming up 30 years in a few months. I am an Australian, but I lived in London for 23 years, where I ran two clinics. And I had one in the financial district, one in my home. And British people like to drink like Aussies do, right? So there was a bit of a commonality there. And what I found was a lot of people coming to me and say, George, I'm stressed and I'm bored, I'm anxious, I'm fearful. And, you know, it's not impacting my life in terms of my job or my family, but I just know I'm drinking too much and I'm relying on it more than I want to. So as I am a drinker myself, I really kind of got the whole thing. So I created a method with hypnosis, which I'm a clinical hypnotherapist. And actually I trained in an amazing union psychology in California called Voice Dialogue. And together I combined those and was helping people to be in a better space with their drinking. And people started to comment, and then it kind of just grew from there, and I realized that there was a big demographic of people who needed my services. So I created an online program so I could meet the needs of people further afield than just London. And to this day, I haven't changed my mind. I think there are a lot of people who are emotionally conditioned drinkers. They're not what I would call classic AA people. They do drink too much. I'm not saying they don't, but it's become a habit. And I help them with that emotional conditioning and that habit to be in a better space. I'm very protective of my audience. I don't like shame. I don't like the guilt. Because a lot of that manifests more what's wrong with me. And that in itself can cause more drinking and more anxiety. So I'm like, whoa, no. Drinkers are just told, quit. That's it. And I don't like that. I don't like that we're all put in one box. You know, we should be able to be free-flowing with more opportunities to how we want to do that. How did you get started in this work? In my 20s, I was I would say I had a bit of a breakdown, and I I was a big overeater, big drinker, and I used food and alcohol as a way to connect with people. And I had a lot of self-esteem issues. And I went to a health farm. I just basically ran away to this health farm where I didn't want to drink. And I went to this health farm, but I didn't realize that it was not about just going to a health farm. It was an intensive group therapy session for an entire week. And it like blew my mind away. I'm like, I'm 24. This woman's beautiful, she's slim, she's rich, she's got a gorgeous husband and children. Why is she in this room? You know, this guy is like, you know, really successful. And I kind of was looking at everybody in the room, and slowly as the week unfolded, I realized that we all had this common theme, is we didn't like ourselves, right? We didn't believe in ourselves. And that was when I noticed a penny drop for me. I thought, I don't know the answers. I have no idea where to go. But I came back from that health farm a very changed person, and it wasn't my mum. She's retired now, but she was a therapist, and she had this book on her coffee table. And I opened this book up, and it was a book called Embracing Ourselves by these union psychologists. And I just like, I want to train with them. So that was the beginning. I went to California and trained with them, and then I went to London because my family of British background, I couldn't get a working visa. And I was reading in a magazine that there was a hypnotherapy training course. And I thought, ooh, that sounds interesting. And I went from there.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

So you mentioned that your work is around helping people to drink less. And I agree with you. It's very interesting. In my world of addiction medicine, if you're injecting drugs, we'll say, are you ready for treatment? No, no problem. Here are some clean syringes. Let's do harm reduction. But with alcohol, it's you're either sober or you're not, and there's no middle ground. And in my practice, really any reduction in drinking is a win. For many of my patients, I feel like they need to be all the way off of alcohol, but I do have some that can moderate. So I think you're onto something, and I've never had a chance to geek out with someone on this topic. So I'm so glad you came today. Can you just give me an overview of what you do?

Inner Critic, Amygdala, And Drinking

SPEAKER_00 8:07

So I just want to clarify before I go into the technique, because I think that a lot of people need to have tools today if they really understand what's behind the work that I do. So first and foremost, is I generally don't treat people who have had a lot of trauma in their lives, right? Because I think that's a little bit more complicated. And I and I not that I'm suggesting that it's not solvable with the work that I do, but I think that generally people, you know, when you go to college and it's all fun to get drunk and it's all cool and et cetera, and is acceptable to be drunk. But then you get into your 30s and you think, well, I need to be a bit more career-focused, and I need to be a little bit more aligned with success and money and building myself a bit of a reputation. And you think, well, you know, in your 20s, I'll deal with the drinking later on. But then later on happens and you realize it's become a habit. So a lot of people will say to me, Georgia, I really do want to drink less, but I don't know how. I've tried everything, I've tried abstaining for a few weeks, but then I go back to the same situation. So really what happens is the mind works on on memory. And I call it the histrionics of life. So when you experience a sense of vulnerability, shame, guilt, anxiety, loneliness, boredom, I mean, boredom's a big gig for a lot of people to drink. And I'll explain why in a moment. But really, the the the crux of it is that we all have vulnerabilities. And if your mind has trained itself that alcohol is the way to extinguish that vulnerability, it will go on default. It just thinks, even though you might have these grand plans on a Monday that you're not going to drink on Monday night, but then all of a sudden, bang, you have an argument with your boss, argument with your wife, one of your kids breaks down and says, this is going on, and your mind says, Oh, the last time you experienced this emotion, you did this. Do you had your gin and tonic or your beer or your tequila or your wine? So a lot of people feel, I don't have any willpower, Georgia. What's my problem? I'm like, hang on a minute. This isn't to do with willpower. This is to do with the fact that your mind genuinely thinks the alcohol gives you some reprieve, a break from that emotional space. So I always say that if you want to make a change in terms of your consumption, it doesn't have to be alcohol. We're talking about addictions here, it could be food, cigarettes, sex, it could be anything. Is that your mind genuinely thinks is protecting you by this behavior. And the mind is impersonal, it doesn't know the difference between what's right and what's wrong, it just knows what makes you feel safe. Safe is the important word. So it doesn't take long if you're socially shy or you have grown up in a very critical family, or once again, if you've had some trauma in your life, where you then uh tune into alcohol because what people don't understand is alcohol it shuts down the critical part of the brain. So this brings in the psychology that I'm trained in is that we're all made up of many parts or subpersonalities. And there's one particular part that drives us to drink, to take drugs, to overeat, and it's called the inner critic. And the inner critic, we all have one, but it's that inner saboteur and it can be really silent to the outside world. Like when I went to that that group therapy, you may look good on the outside, but what's happening on the inside can be a very different story. So the way that I work is working with the parts that hinder your success. And the inner critic is always at the helm there. So when I realized my inner critic was driving my life, I thought, you know, the opposite part is that intuitive calm part. And what people don't understand, they've studied the brain when we have all those negative emotions such as cortisol adrenaline popping through your bloodstream. But you're going to the amygdala part of the brain, the fight or flight part, where obviously is where you are in a very get me out of here space. But when you've trained your mind over a group of years or time or whatever, that alcohol is the fix. So if your conscious mind wants to drink less, but the deeper part of your mind says, but when we feel anxious or bored, we drink, it's always going to override your conscious wishes. And that's where willpower isn't true. You've got to get both parts of the mind to be congruent. You've got to get them married. You've got to say, hey, let's do this together. Let's join forces rather than be in an arguing state all the time. Because every time that happens, then that overdrinking experience occurs, then the inner critic goes, see, I told you so. You can't do this, right? So that's where I step in and say, Okay, with the power of hypnosis, which I'm I'll talk about in a moment, but if you've got a really strong inner critic and it says, all of these references you have about not being able to drink less, this must be the way it is. But when you change your inner dialogue, and you can do that through hypnosis and introduce that calm intuitive part, instead of being in the amygdala, you end up in the prefrontal cortex. And you know, the sages, the meditators of the world have said for many, many thousands of years is this third eye is when we're in that space, we're in a calm, intuitive place. And they were correct. I mean, the neuroscientists have now come up to speed with what the these beautiful gurus and sages have been saying for such a long time, is that when we're in this space, we actually make better decisions, we're more graceful, we're more poised, we're more thoughtful. And that is really where I help people tune into that self rather than automatically going to the inner critic and thinking this is the truth, because it's not the truth. It's just it's just a habit. It was a method to cope. And we're saying now let's do another method that copes better.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Gets a better result.

Training The Prefrontal Cortex

SPEAKER_00 14:48

What is that different method? Okay, first and foremost is there may be many examples of overdrinking, but the point is that's your past. You can't change your past. Now, what I love about my work is I mean, I'm trained in regression work, but I really believe, I'm very much with the neuroscientist world, is that your brain can change, it's malleable and pliable. And that your story is not your story. It's something that happened, it's something that you did because it was what your mind thought was normal and acceptable. But now you understand that your mind is open, adaptable to change. So instead of going to the amygdala and getting the alcohol to get you to the prefrontal cortex because alcohol produces dopamine. And a lot of people don't understand when when you drink alcohol, the inner critic goes away and you have a bit of space. Think, oh, this feels great. I love this, you know. People get hooked into the feelings, the space from the inner critic. But with the work that I do, it's really about training the mind to then tune into the prefrontal cortex, to tune in to that healthy part, the part that wants to make the change, the part that's listening to what we're talking about now. And that part is within all of us. And I always challenge, you know, those uh, you know, sitting there saying, but minor critic is saying that's not true. Well, it must be true because you're here now, right? You're listening. If it wasn't true, that part would not be present. And it's that part that unfortunately, through a lifetime of experiences, has never had its voice loud enough, strong enough, present enough. And then when you're in this beautiful prefrontal cortex, which you can train yourself to do through hypnosis, you can create new references. So before you drink, you go here to the prefrontal cortex rather than meet the layer when you're when you need to make decisions, here when you're bored, here when you're sad, here when you're feeling angry, where you can start to have choice in the decisions that you want to make because you're in that calm space. And when you're in a calm space, there isn't that frenzy. You can't have stress and calm in the body at the same time. You have to make a choice. So with the power of hypnosis, you can train your mind to be in this space. So you are in a, you know, in a much more discerning place. Now, of course, it takes practice, but we had to practice being good at over-drinking, right? So you can practice not drinking so much. And, you know, now I'm talking about the regular drinking. You know, most people were talking about the drinking is in the home. It's not in the bars, it's not in the restaurants, it's the regular, you know, hamsterable drinking of like, why am I doing this again? What am I doing? And I always say that when you learn to manage your inner critic, you learn to manage your alcohol better. Because you're managing it rather than it's managing you.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

So if I make sure I get this right, a lot of your work is helping people to turn down the emotional part of their brain that brings them to alcohol and turning up the analytical part of their brain, the prefrontal cortex, which allows them to think through the process more. And is that because the inner critic is more active in the amygdala or the amygdala is more sensitive to it and the prefrontal cortex can recognize it as an inner critic?

Perfectionists And Pleasers Explained

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Well, the inner critic is part of the amygdala. So it's the language behind the amyla. I mean, don't get me wrong, we all have fair moments, but a lot of them are habitually based. So, and and and even if you look at the point of view with the amygdala, I do believe it's overused generally, right? And we have a lot of things, as we know, that we have to deal with that we didn't have to deal with before. Social media, we are very heavily influenced by by that. And and I think that when it comes to a sense of self-worth and a sense of balance, is we often look outside of ourselves for the answer and the solution. But really, it comes from within. And and the solutions come when you're in a really good space. And this is not just to do with drinking. So maybe I'll introduce the other parts that can drive us to drink. There are two big personality traits that the inner critic gets into bed with. And the one is the perfectionist. Now, the perfectionist is the all-or-nothing drinker. They're either abstaining or they're completely binging. There's no middle ground. And that perfectionist personality trait, I'll give you a really good example. Somebody who is, you know, really good at their job, they're highly driven. From Monday to Friday, they don't touch a drop at all. And they thinking, right, okay, I've done my work all week. I've been vigilant, I've been eating well, I've been exercising, we go to the gym every day, and Friday hits and they go, bang, get me that seven, eight beers, bang, get me that bottle and a half of wine, get me that tequila or whatever it is. And so their mind has trained itself. I've been so vigilant all week, and being a perfectionist is exhausting because you're always on the game, you're always on the watch, you never rest. So having alcohol gives them that break. But the downside of it is that they don't have any references in their mind where they drink in a relaxed, calm way. They drink in a fast and furious, frenzied way. They drink quick. And so the perfectionist drinker tends to be drink quickly, memory loss, lose their phone, in the doghouse with their partner. And in the end, that type of drinker tends to want to quit because they just can't find the space. They have just realized that you know what, this isn't getting me anywhere. And I just can't do the balanced drinking. And it's not because they can't, and don't get me wrong, you know, if anybody wants to quit drinking, fantastic. But when the perfectionist is so finite about things, it's either all or nothing drinking, if it's become a habit, then that perfectionist will say, I just can't do it. I have no references. But with hypnosis, you can start to create those references. A great example of the perfectionist is they're not really good at being present. They're thinking about the past or the future. And when they drink alcohol, Because the perfectionist goes away, they relax. They're in the moment. And they get hooked into that space once again, away from the perfectionist. But I'm saying, but what if you introduce those moments into your life before you drink? What if you introduce those moments where you are in this beautiful prefrontal cortex phase where you are able to be present before you drink? And learning that training the mind to be able to be present without consuming alcohol or any substance for that matter is quite extraordinary on the sense of self-worth and realizing that you don't have to be perfect the whole time to achieve what you want to achieve, right? Actually having some space away from being driven is magical. It gives you space to be more creative, right? That beautiful statement we have in hypnosis called silence is golden. The same rule applies to life. In silence, in moments of boredom when you're not listening to the inner critic, extraordinary things happen. And I think we live in a modern, crazy, busy world where we don't give ourselves the space. And hypnosis is that part that trains the mind not just to have the space, but not to be driven the whole time, to just be present. And hypnosis is the same as meditation, of course. It's it's the same brainwave activity, it's just utilized slightly differently sometimes, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

So I'd like to learn more about hypnosis because I don't think I understand it. But what was the other personality of drinker? You mentioned perfectionist. What was the other one? The pleaser.

Hypnosis Basics And Brain States

Future Pacing To Change Habits

SPEAKER_00 23:46

So the pleaser is the nurturer, the one that's looking after everybody else, the part that's saying, I need to be liked and loved. I'll give you a really good example of both personality traits. So, one, there's a 50th birthday party on Saturday night, and the perfectionist is training for a marathon. They won't drink alcohol. But the pleaser will tend to go and say, oh, it's a 50th birthday and I need to support the host and celebrate with them. I'll just have one or two, right? But the perfectionist doesn't really give a monkeys what other people think. But the pleaser will worry incessantly. Am I socially acceptable if I don't drink? So a perfectionist will be very good at alcohol free days, whereas a pleaser will not be. And learning to communicate in sober ways is really important. And a pleaser is terrible at them. A perfectionist doesn't have a problem with them so much, but a pleaser will have a major problem with that. But everybody tends to have a bit of both. Some may earn more on the side of the pleaser, some may be more on the perfectionist side. It could be maybe in your career you're very perfectionist-driven, but in your personal life, you're very much the pleaser and the nurturer. So it's a lovely combination. And it is lovely when you get them to work with you rather than against you, then extraordinary things can happen. You start to please yourself, you start to say, no, I'm not going to have that drink, because pleasers will have heavy drinking friends around them, or it could be a partner or a work colleague, and they want their little cohort with them to drink with, to cover up their drinking issues. And that's when I say, No, no, you need to say, hang on, why am I doing this to please you? I don't want this hangover tomorrow. I don't have to have this hangover tomorrow. So my program, so digital program, and it's really about training that that language, that inner dialogue to be in a better space. So you're not feeling that drive to drink, and without a doubt, that you have a lovely moment to say, hang on a minute, no, I don't want to do that. That's not, that's not what I want, you know? So, and that's really building the sense of self-worth. That's really developing that intuitive, charismatic part that can can extinguish the inner critic and can start to move away from that inner dialogue that's hindering the success of that person. Um, and underpinning that obviously is that when you manage your alcohol rather than it manage you, life changes. Things change. And to be fair, I know this from many years of being in this industry that a lot of people don't like it when my mate doesn't drink as much. Right? But you have to decide what do you want to do? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be with them? Or do you want to be free? And when you're in a negative state, it tends to bring you down. But when you're in a good space, things happen, doors open. So that's where obviously hypnosis kicks in. And it's an incredible tool. When I was first training to be a hypnotherapist, and I was working in London on trading floors as a personal assistant while I was working part-time and I was training to be a hypnotherapist, and my boss would say, Georgia, um, I've got a terrible fear of flying, and I have to have at least two or three vodka and tonics before I get on the plane. And I never get a morning flight. I always do a night flight because I know that's when I can justify having a few gin and tonics. This is kind of how my business started, right? And so really, actually, fear of flying is a very good example. So the inner critic has what it thinks is your crystal ball. And it thinks that if it forewarns you about what might happen, you will be able to get prepared. But it prepares you for the worst case, the what ifs. And it says, Oh, look at these references. When you went here last time, this is what happened. And then you think, well, this is what's going to happen. But with the power of hypnosis, you can because when you close your eyes and you go into that lovely space between being awake and asleep, it's about a 20-minute window of time. And you can be very alert, but once your eyes are closed, and that's why I guide people into that state of hypnosis, the magic happens. It's when your mind, whatever you suggest with the power of positive emotions, you don't have to be a really good visualizer for it to work. It's more about feelings that make the difference. When you ignite that a great example of fear of flying, is when you show that person events, situations, places, and times that haven't happened with emotions that relate to calm and confidence and feeling a sense of I'm able to do this, your mind thinks that what you've just done is real. It doesn't know the difference between reality and imagination. So that's why people can come and see me and fail the driving test six times. But the seventh time, we work on the inner critic, we we work into their future, we create new, new future references. And then when they go into the situation, the mind says, Hey, we've got these references. These are the ones we use rather than the old ones. So it's really about creating a new foundation. And it sounds really simple because it is that simple. I mean, you don't have to buy my programs to do it. I mean, it's nice to be guided, of course, especially with a perfectionist who wants to get it right the first time. But hypnosis is such an incredible tool to fast track, not because people are lazy. But if you're getting on the same train, you're stopping at the same train station, it's not because you can't go to a new destination. You've got to give the mind the information that you want to go somewhere different. You want to train your mind that you want to go to the prefrontal cortex, not the amygdala. And that is really what hypnosis does. And it's not just about drinking. When you realize drinking is the secondary thing, it's what goes on before the drinking. What is the emotional driver? What's taking me to this vulnerable space? And when you shift it, you switch it out to being in this prefrontal cortex and you train with the power of hypnosis to be present in this space, amazing things happen. And people then have choice. And when you have choice, you realize I don't have to be like that anymore. And then your mind says, Wow, I don't have to drink a bottle and a half of wine to run away from my life. I actually like who I am before I drink. So I can drink in this way. And the feedback I get from my programs is that they actually realize they don't even like wine. I'm not even drinking it for the taste of it. I'm drinking it to forget, to run away. People say, you know what? Instead of getting that cheap, nasty bottle at the store, I'm actually spending more money because I'm enjoying what I drink. I'm discerning because I'm not using it as my way to go somewhere else. And hypnosis can do that actually in 25 minutes or less. I mean, it's really powerful stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yeah, can you talk to me about kind of how hypnosis works? While we're talking, I was just looking up some things about hypnosis. And I mean, I it's from cartoons when I was a kid. The person dangles the watch in front of you, or there's a spiral design, and a person's in a trance and helpless. And I'm realizing cartoons just depicting hypnosis when I was a kid is very different than what you're actually doing clinically. So, what does it look like as a clinical hypnotherapist to actually put someone under hypnosis and to treat them?

Breaking Mindless Drinking At Home

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Well, visually it's very boring for the person observing it because they're asleep, basically. Well, not asleep, they're in that half brainwave activity. So you've got your waking state. And when in the waking state, you're rushing to a meeting, got to pick the kids up, or whatever you're doing, or get the golf course. That's where you're very aware of time. And then you've got your alpha state, which is more your daydream state where you might be reading a book and think, where have I been? Or driving the car and on autopilot. That is a form of hypnosis. You're actually thinking your deeper mind is taking you to that destination without you thinking about it. So we know it runs the show. And then you've got theta, which is the deeper part, which is the more meditative monk style, deep meditation. And that's the state just before you go to sleep at night. So between being awake, which is beta, and then you've got alpha, theta, and then delta is sleep. So then alpha theta is that little wave in the middle. And they say generally it's around about 25 minutes before you go to sleep, generally. And a lot of some people will use alcohol to help them get to sleep, which is an inner critic busy brain syndrome problem. But what you've got to kind of understand is when we're in that space, when you bring in certain emotions and sensations, your mind thinks that you're genuinely there. And the more you're in that space, educating your mind, it's safe to drink less, it's safe to be assertive, it's safe to say no, and really rehearse it and practice it. Then your mind, when you're in the conscious world, thinks you actually have done that. It really thinks you've been there. And this is a beautiful technique that anybody can use, which is a future-paced technique. And what it does is it trains you to go past an event and see it being successful. So, for example, if you were going to a wedding and you know that it's going to be a big boozy night, a big long day of drinking, for example, then what I would suggest, and I would with a client, I would take them forward past the wedding event to the next morning and show them waking up, remembering the conversations, having a lovely time, pacing their water with their drinking. So I call it dough, drink one, water one, hydrating themselves with fresh waters to really balance out the alcohol and rehearsing that over and over again. And so then when you rehearse it in hypnosis over a period of time, like 25 minutes, you could do it three, four times. And then you go back to the present, go into the future, back to the present, into the future. But in hypnosis, in that alpha theta state with the eyes closed, the mind actually thinks you did it. So it will go into that space. When that person gets the wedding and say, Oh, I've been here, you don't have to know what the room looks like, you don't have to know the guests that you meet, you just have to know the feelings. And that is the power, and you can do it with public speaking, you can do it with food, anything. And just starting to practice that your response to that situation is not where you've been. And the more references you have in your mind, the more your mind will use that as the recall event because the mind doesn't work chronologically about what you did when you were 10, 20, 30, 40, 50. It just knows the power of emotion. So the more positive emotions you put into that, the stronger it becomes. And this is for anything. You know, a great example is if you wanted to improve your tennis, your golf. Oh, we said the golf, the golf course has a lot of inner critics and perfectionists on it, right? So, so really what we're talking about is bringing into your mind the tools to intuitively go into your future and create a different reference that reflects where you want to be. And then your mind thinks where you are is safe in that future moment. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Yeah, almost what I'm getting is that you're helping someone visualize and meditate and reflect. Does that sound right?

Who Responds Best To Hypnosis

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Yeah, it's it's it's creating references that is where you want to be. And so I think what people need to understand is your history is not you, it's what you chose to do in that situation. So you as a person have choice. And I think a lot of people who feel addicted to alcohol feel that there is no choice, they have to quit. And I agree that that is true in a lot of cases. But there are a lot of people who are using alcohol as a habit of coping well, sleeping, social anxiety, boredom. See, what boredom is a big energic problem. So I always say that, you know, drinking on your own, there's nothing wrong with drinking on your own. But when you're drinking, you know, I call it that solo party, you know, it can creep up a little bit because people forget that we become tolerant to alcohol, that that one glass, we get used to it physically. And that one glass, that emotionally medicinal glass, then we need two. And if you're a quick drinker, before you know it, you're chopping the vegetables and think, where is that bottle of wine gone? Right? That's habit. That's not emotions, that's pure habit. So part of the drinking is habit, and part of me with the hypnosis is guiding that person so that they're not chopping the vegetables, having the wine that is just at their computer desk and realizing that they've had four beers. And think, where have I been? Right? That's mindless drinking. That's not being present drinking. So when you're present, it makes a big difference to how you consume. So your hypnosis, once again, is you've got the emotional part and you've also got the habitual part. And both of them are really effective.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

And tell me, you've talked about two parts to the drinking. You've talked about the emotional part and then just the habit part. Do you approach it with hypnotherapy differently if you're working on one part versus the other?

Program Reach And Privacy

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Look, to be honest, in my experience, I think there's always an emotional part to it. So those who are more habitual, when they do hypnosis, it works straight away. Like it just works straight away. And a lot of them end up quitting. The ones that are more emotionally conditioned, like your kids have left, maybe you've retired and you're a bit bored and you're twiddling your thumbs a bit, when we're bored, the inner critic loves it because it starts going, well, you could be doing this and you should be doing that. And then you just say, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna have a wine just to shut it off. You don't know you're doing it for that reason, but you are. So what I'm saying is that's when you need things that do stimulate you to be in the prefrontal cortex without the alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Does the hypnosis work because the inner critic is silent in that state and they can unpack more things?

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Yeah, you're not in the fear-based part of your brain. You've trained your mind to be in that more centered, focused, more graceful, more accommodating to choice. Because the inner critic doesn't give you choice.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

So is just based on the brainwaves you had described, is the hypnotic state more of a prefrontal state as opposed to an emotional state?

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Both. When you're in a calm space, naturally you're in the prefrontal cortex, but the hypnosis takes you to that space. And that's a really good question. Is that the more your mind is familiar being in that space here, the more it things are normal. So hypnosis is a really good way if you're doing a 25-minute recording once a day or three or four times a week. And I always say to people, before you have your drink o'clock time, put one of the recordings on to break the state. And then when you come out of the hypnosis, you're in that prefrontal cortex. And when you're in that space, you think, oh, well, I'm going to do something else, or I could have a drink, but you're in a different place because the activity of the old style of unhelpful drinking was frenzied, amygdala, fear-based driven. But when you're in a calm space, you don't need to drink so quickly or so negatively.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

I'm almost picking up, and maybe I'm reading this wrong, but the hypnosis allows people to make more progress because the inner critic isn't there to pull them back. Does that sound right? Correct.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Wow. You're training your mind to be more present in the space where there's no negative dialogue. And the more your mind becomes familiar at being in that space, the more it says, Well, I know I can go there, but I know it's not where I have to be all the time. Do you ever have clients that don't respond to hypnosis? Yeah, oh yeah. But generally those people don't want to change. Like if you really want to change, a lot of people, and to be honest, maybe one or two in my life, but there have been people who've chosen that they don't want to make that change. And it could be because their partner's a heavy drinker. Or it could be that their partner has sent them, but they don't want to make the change because really they're unhappy in their relationship. Right. So that's what you end up unpacking, right? Right. Because as I said, once again, the drinking is the secondary bit. What happens before it is what you really need to focus on. The neural pathways continue to work on automation until you change the neural pathway, change the train station, change where you're going to. And hypnosis is the quickest way to do that.

Big Goal: One Million To Drink Less

SPEAKER_01 42:24

From what I can tell, your program has a pretty big following. I just pulled up your work and it says Georgia Foster's alcohol reduction digital offer called Seven Days to Drink Less is an amazing proven online program with over 108,000 customers worldwide. Wow. Nice work.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

I haven't hypnotized all of them personally, I might add. That'll be very tired. So well, the reason why I did that was because, you know, people couldn't afford to come to see me in London and couldn't afford my clinic prices. But also, which is I wasn't, I wasn't serving people because I couldn't get to them, right? I mean, now is a very different story, of course. People now understand the power of the internet. But a lot of my audience, they don't want people to know what they're doing because it's very taboo, they feel ashamed. So a lot of people actually come to find my work because they just want to get on, right? They just want to make a change. And I say, you know, it's very hard for me to find people to go into the media because obvious reasons. But when I do have somebody who says yes, I'm going to go into the media, it's extraordinary because people can relate to the situation. A mom at home, a retiree, an executive. I mean, we're talking about all aspects of people's lives alcohol can affect. Or I should say infect.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

Well said. So as we're wrapping up our time here, what are you working on next?

Resources And How To Start

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Well, well, what I'm really interested in that I've got a really big goal is to help one million people. People globally drink less alcohol to send the message out that we need to get rid of shame or the taboo and really support people with their emotional coping strategies. And if they choose to quit, that's fine, that's their option. But uh obviously my my method is about drinking less. So my goal is to really help stop this unhelpful thinking about drinking before it can become a big problem for a lot of people. How close are you to your goal? Well, I think I haven't that number about 108. I think we're about up to a hundred and I think up to a hundred nearly 120 now. So just slowly but surely growing the database with people. And you know, not everybody wants to do the program. They can buy my book on Amazon, The Dreckless of Seven Days, which has a hypnotherapy program in the back of the book, which you download digitally from from a membership site. Those who just want to dip in and just say, I'm not sure want to have a the bigger investment. But actually, you know, all of the programs have the boot camp, which is a more intensive six-week program, which really is a big dive deep into the work that I do and stages like a clinic situation over six weeks coming to see me. But you know, that's my goal is to really it's about helping people feel better about themselves and have have better self-esteem. And thus drink less.

SPEAKER_01 45:29

Correct. Correct. Yes. So it looks like your website is georgiafoster.com. Very nice.

Final Thoughts On Self-Esteem

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Thank you. Well, any questions, please shoot me an email at support at georgiafoster.com and I can help you with any of your queries. Anything you want to leave us with as we wrap up? Yes. Just want to say that, you know, self-esteem is something we're we learn we're not born with it, and we need to constantly update it and maintain it. So, you know, if you're struggling with an inner critic moment, remember that the inner critic is just one voice, is not you. And the goal is that it doesn't become the habit of thought, that there are other parts that can save the day within you. So just developing that inner dialogue is really key.

Closing And Support Thanks

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Well said. Thank you so much for listening to Addiction Medicine Made Easy. If you found this helpful, please leave a review. It really helps others find the show. And a huge thank you to Central Coast Overdose Prevention for supporting this podcast. And always remember treating addiction saves lives.