A few people have come up to me this week asking about the recent episode of the Mentalist on CBS where hypnotism and NLP were central to the plot-and not in a positive way.

For those of you who have never seen the program, the show is about a gentleman named Patrick Jane who has Sherlock Holmes-like powers of observation and the ability to the ability to sneakily influence people in the course of criminal investigations. And for the record, I normally enjoy the show.

In the episode in question, Patrick and his team investigate a self-improvement center that is involved in serious criminal behavior because they are allegedly able to hypnotize people into acting out their antisocial wishes. The whole take was that anyone who had sufficient training and skill in hypnotism could use their powers for evil.

Although more people are becoming aware of the benefits of hypnosis counseling for relieving stress, releasing negative beliefs and toxic emotions and much more, there are still a few folks that cling to the outdated notion that being hypnotized represents a loss of control. And apparently this includes the scriptwriters of the Mentalist.

What many people do not realize is that going to a hypnotist differs significantly from standard medical or psychological care in that we act as a catalysts and teach you how to do your own healing. Since it is under your control, hypnosis has a built in level of safety that few healing modalities have.