One of the elders of an Indian tribe told his grandson:"Grandson, there are two wolves in each person, and between them every now and then a struggle takes place throughout man's life.Yes, a battle that takes place within each of us is between two wolves.

One wolf is the bad, the negative wolf; it has anger and resentment, jealousy, sorrow, lust, self-pity, feelings of guilt, inferiority, pessimism, lying to himself and others. His ego gets often hurt.

The second wolf is the good, the positive one: it is optimistic and has joy, hope, peace, love, humility. He is kind, empathic and has the ability to forgive, compassion, and generosity."

The grandson pondered deeply his grandfather's words. "Grandpa, who is the winner of the struggle?" He asked. And the grandfather replied: "The one you feed."

This story actually defines cognitive therapy, the approach that deals with negative thoughts and mistakes in our thinking. There is an argument that the average person thinks about 40,000 times a day but is not completely conscious of it. Moreover, most of the thoughts repeat themselves, over and over, and are therefore ineffective. The main problem is that most of the thoughts of the human race are wrong, distorted, irrational, or negative. And by the way, not a few of our positive thoughts are wrong. A common example of this is: "If I win the lottery, I will be the happiest person." Reality has proved that this misconception of satisfaction with life is not necessarily the amount of money we have in the bank, or the property we hint at, or anything materialistic.

Our thoughts affect the reality of our lives, our relationships, our relationship with ourselves, our emotions and our behavior.

Anything that happened or happens in our lives began with a thought. for better and for worse. If we know how to identify it correctly and sometimes accept our cognitions (thoughts, perceptions and beliefs), being aware of the advantages and disadvantages, and change our interpretation or interpretation glasses, we will improve our personal, interactive and professional lives. We will control better our lives and our surroundings, and create a peaceful and healthier reality.

Most of the time we shape the reality of our lives by the beliefs, perceptions and thoughts we generate.

Cancer – is to a large extent an emotional illness too. Repression of negative/unpleasant emotions and thoughts are able to prime the human body for a tremendous pathophysiological cascade resulting in an overloaded immune system and increased susceptibility for cell mutations. Emotions and beliefs are created and stored in the unconscious mind and are very often not available to the conscious, rational mind. In my 20 years of clinical work with cancer patients at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and in my private practice, CBT showed to be a helpful means for creating a golden bridge to this unconscious emotional reservoir, allowing to release and resolve the negativity contributing to cancer. Furthermore, hypnotherapy, can help develop and internalize positive strategies of coping with stressful, or unpleasant emotions, pain and other physiological effects cancer patients may suffer from. Thus, it was not only beneficial in increasing the effectiveness of modern medical treatment in cancer patients but, from my and others point of view, also a necessary ingredient to provide emotional and mental balance on a long term. The lecture will give an overview of my favorite hypnotherapeutic approaches, combined with Cognitive-Behavioral psychotherapy in dealing with cancer patients.

"I heard you're doing hypnosis, can you hypnotize me and I'll lose 10 pounds?". "You hypnotize, maybe you could help me forget or erase the past?". "You cannot hypnotize me, I do not lose control.". "I'm sure I got the cancer because of something I did in my previous life, if you could hypnotize me to see what happened and why I got sick..."

These are just some of the examples or questions I am asked about hypnosis. Indeed, many myths, opinions and perceptions related to hypnosis live in people's mind. And why these opinions or stigmas are mainly negative is quite clear. We have seen many films about hypnosis, or hypnotic hypnosis, and we have witnessed the loss of control of the "patients" or of the things that made the audience laugh in an entertainment hype. (that is strictly forbidden by a law in Israel)

So what is hypnosis? There are quite a few confusing and different definitions, but in short I wold say that hypnosis is an extraordinary and sometimes powerful therapeutic tool. The goal of hypnosis or imaginative work is to get the person to accept positive suggestions (guidance, self-persuasion). You can also do this without entering in an hypnotic state, but the world of imagination is rich, varied, creative, and entering the visual and imaginary world, we bypass our intellectual control mechanisms. The goal is to add control to our lives, to control our problems and not let them control us and to transform negative suggestions to positive ones.

A very common question is what is the difference between hypnosis and guided imagery. So, in all hypnosis there is a guided imagination but not in all the guided imagery there is hypnosis. In both of these tools, there may be an entry into a trance state. There are about 4 or 5 states of consciousness: wakefulness, sleep, dreaming, meditation, imagination. Hypnosis is a condition or process that causes us to experience changes in feelings, emotions, thoughts, behavior, beliefs and more. Most of us go through hypnotic processes everyday. Such as driving, self-persuasion, reading a book, or watching a fascinating film.

Unfortunately, we are "champions" in doing self hypnosis. But negative. Yes, negative. Do you know the law of : "I have no chance, it will not work, certainly not ..., it's hard, it can not be ..."? These and more are auto-suggestions that often create reality. The reality of our lives.

A very important detail: Any hypnosis is a self-hypnosis.

Breathing is a necessary instinct for life. It’s a physical and chemical miracle. The average person breathes between 10-20,000 times a day, 500,000,000 times throughout his/her lifetime, but many times takes it for granted. Our breath may influence our mood, our stress, our emotions, cognitions, and body.

Like hypnosis, Breath Therapy, is a method of (breath) control that is meant to give rise to altered states of minds and to have an effect on cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual and mental well-being. Derived from various spiritual traditions from around the world, breath work was pioneered mainly in the west by Wilhelm Reich.

The workshop will enable the participants to learn & experience the introduction of Breath Work, as well as to discover how these can enhance the hypnotic experience. This will be an experiential workshop wherein we will learn what 'type of breathers" we are, and exercise different breath work techniques (like circular breathing, fast and full breathing, and more), which offer opportunities to enrich our lives and the therapeutic, as well as, hypnotic process.

The workshop enables the participants to learn & experience the introduction of various musical stimuli, and movements in non-verbal ways, as well as to discover how these can enhance the hypnotic experience. This is an experiential workshop wherein we exercise different hypnotic techniques using exciting and inspiring music from around the world, with the introduction of various instruments (i.e. Tibetan bowls), which offer opportunities to enrich the therapeutic process.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy is an integrated psychological psychotherapy employing clinical hypnosis and cognitive-behavioral therapy.

The use of CBT in conjunction with hypnotherapy may result in greater treatment effectiveness. A meta-analysis of different researches revealed a greater improvement for patients undergoing an integrated treatment to those using CBT or hypnotherapy only.

In these lectures, workshops and therapy, we focus on CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and integrate it with traditional hypnotherapy. We talk about and demonstrate different techniques, such as Voice Dialogue, Clearing Technique and Cognitive Bridge.

Aquatic Hypnotherapy, like any water based methods and hydrotherapy (watsu, waterdance, healing dance, and so forth) is a form of holistic body work performed in 34-35°C warm water. It is creating a therapeutic space and inviting to playfully experience relinquishing and indulgence, flow and harmony, silence and meditation. It is using rhythmical sequences of above and underwater movements alternating with stretching techniques. The purpose is to harmonize the energy flow, enhance flexibility, mind-body consciousness and wellbeing.

After a number of minutes in the water while the client is floating weightlessly, moved and stretched , he/she is provided with a nose clip, invited to go underwater, let go, and trustingly let him/herself be carried by the hydrotherapist in a three dimensional flow of circles and spirals through the water. This is an amazing emotional, psychological, and physical experience. A chance to experience the essence of ZEN: to just be, let go, without doing anything, and/or going into deep hypnotic trance.

Both client and therapist are attuned to one another like in a gentle dance, at times reminding of aikido, tai chi, or even the floating of a fetus in his mother’s womb. This is likely to initiate deepest hypnotic trance states that may be accompanied by age regression or beneficial subconscious processing and healing.

In this workshop we will experience and utilize aquatic therapy as a means of physical, psychological-mental, emotional, and spiritual process.

There is an argument that we think on average about forty thousand thoughts a day. Yes yes forty thousand. What's wrong with that? Part of these thoughts are judgments and criticism. In addition, most thoughts are not related to this moment. They are mostly related to the past and the future. To there and then, not to here and now.

The judgment / criticism interferes with us, blocks us. It is something that is not always necessary but it largely manages us, our lives, our relationships.

In meditations and conscious attentions (Mindfulness) we observe our experience. The attention to this moment is to observe, to pay attention to what we feel, do, think. To be in the here and now with all the senses. To pay attention to the space between thoughts. Let thoughts pass and let's watch them as one watches a passing cloud.

Some people and studies report the positive effects of meditation. There are reports of higher self-awareness, pain reduction, emotional regulation, mood improvement and anger management, empathy reinforcing, less judgment and criticism, and self-satisfaction feeling in relationships.

So take five minutes a day to sit, observe your thoughts, listen to this moment, because for this moment there is a lot of power.