Debra Messing
Debra Messing is an American actress best known for the role of Grace Adler in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. In 2005 while filming the movie ‘Lucky You’ in which she played a Las Vegas aquatic showgirl, Debra used hypnotherapy to help her overcome long standing her fear of being underwater.
She went back to the hypnotherapist who helped cure her of her smoking habit five years earlier. She asked him to give her a quick fix so she could cope with a proposed 16 hours filming session scene dressed as a mermaid. She says, “I had a full mermaid costume… They put me in a tank with 2,000 fish and I had to lip-sync and dance underwater with sharks and stingray. It was the most traumatic thing I have ever experienced in my entire life but I’m proud I got through it. Sadly, the scene was later cut from the film.
Susan Calman
Susan Calman is a Scottish comedian, writer, television and radio presenter. In April 2021 she wrote extensively about her experience with Hypnotherapy in the Good Housekeeping magazine.
For example, she used hypnotherapy to overcome her fear of flying. She said, “A few years ago I tried hypnosis to get over my fear of flying, and it’s fair to say that the first time you try it, it’s a bit strange. For starters, I had always assumed I would be difficult to hypnotise, that my mind would be an impregnable fortress. Truth be told, I was under in the blink of an eye. Seriously. And it worked. I went from being physically sick even thinking about an airport, to being able to get on a plane”.
Amber Tamblyn
Amber Tamblyn an American writer, director and actress. She first came to fame in her role on the soap opera General Hospital as Emily Quartermaine at the young age of 11.
Amber suffered from arachnophobia (fear of spiders). While filming for General Hospital the script called for her character to pick up her pet tarantula. She went to the writers and asked them to change the scene. So her character was given a rat instead.
In 2006 she appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show with Hypnotist Paul McKenna. McKenna was there to help Ellen stop smoking, but was also able to cure Amber of her fear of spiders.
Florence Henderson
Florence Henderson was an American Actress and Singer best remembered for her role as Carol Brady on the 1970s sitcom ‘The Brady Bunch’. While working on the Brady Bunch, she commuted by plane to Los Angeles and developed a fear of flying.
In a 2009 interview with Life Extension magazine, she said, “I thought to myself, ‘all of this responsibility and I’m on a plane’. It made me very anxious”. At the same time she was also battled stage fright. So she decided seek help for these fears through hypnotherapy at The Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI) in California.
Later she even trained as a Hypnotherapist herself and married Dr. John Kappas who she met at HMI. She went on to say, “I took classes at The Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI) and eventually became a certified hypnotherapist,” she says. “Hypnotherapy is such a powerful tool, with many potential benefits.”
Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes is an American actress, model and businesswoman. She is a brand ambassador for companies including Calvin Klein, Cartier, Reebok and Pantene. Since childhood she has suffered from arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and she use hypnotherapy to overcome it.
She said, “Ever since I was a little girl I had this problem. When I would see a spider, some sort of psychological blockade would activate, and my reactions were indescribable fear and I would go crazy. I would call somebody to kill it, and after that I would have to see the dead spider in order to believe that it was no longer there”
When talking about the Hypnotherapy she said, “You lay down, relax, and then go through a few different kinds of relaxation. When you finish, you have the feeling that the whole process took three minutes, but in reality it lasted an hour. I do not know what they did to me, but it definitely helped. Now when I see a spider, it does not bother me at all. My life is a lot easier”
Mark Watson
Mark Watson is a British stand-up comedian and novelist. He is well known for his regular appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe comedy festival. In 2010 he talked to Birmingham Live (local news website) about him having hypnotherapy to cure him of his phobia of storms and specifically lightening.
Talking about his phobia he said, “It wouldn’t be good for my son to see me shaking with fear, but unfortunately that’s exactly what happens during a lightning storm. I once had to perform an open-air gig in a storm and I could hardly speak. Afterwards I was drenched in sweat and couldn’t stop shaking. I get very anxious and anti-social in a storm”.
Talking about his coping strategies he said, “Ideally, I’d go underground and not come out until it’s over. In fact, I have gone into Tube stations in London to avoid storms. I know the danger of being struck by lightning is really small and there’s an intrinsic stupidity and comedy to my fear, but it’s not something I can rationalise. It’s not an easy fear to conquer, as I can’t get much practice at facing my phobia. I am prepared to go to a hypnotherapist, though.”