How long is a session? Which option is right for me?

Coaching and other wellness sessions are generally 50 minutes long. Extended sessions of up to two hours in length are also an option, to provide extra time for even more focused, in-depth work. During your initial consultation, we’ll work together to determine the best series structure and session length to meet your individual goals and needs.

How many sessions will I need?

Since each person is entirely unique, with different experiences, challenges, strengths, and goals, this is a highly individual question that involves many factors. What we offer is a complete departure from the “cookie cutter” or “one size fits all” pre-programmed approaches found in many coaching programs—each session at Forest Path is entirely individualized and uniquely your own.

Coaching: Our Stress Reduction Skills Coaching series are generally 4-12 sessions in length, although this number can vary depending on your goals for the work, level of dedication to the process, and prior experience with various stress-reduction practices. Open-ended, ongoing series with sessions scheduled at regular intervals (e.g. biweekly, monthly, or quarterly) are also an option.

Hypnotherapy: Although work with a hypnotherapist is generally brief and goal-based, it is not a panacea or “miracle cure”. Rather, think of it as a tonic to aid you in more efficiently reaching both your short- and long-term goals. As with coaching, it is a collaborative process utilizing your active effort and focused commitment between sessions. Depending on what we are addressing, the number of underlying factors involved, and your level of overall commitment to achieving your goals, you may need between 3-10 or more sessions—similar to what is involved in a Structural Integration series. If you have not already experienced this type of work as a part of our coaching offerings, we generally recommend an initial 4-session commitment to start.

Do you offer phone-based or online sessions?

To schedule online Integrative Wellness Coaching, Hypnotherapy, or Somatic Resilience sessions that utilize Zoom videoconferencing, visit Forest Path Wellness.

How should I prepare for my Coaching or Hypnotherapy session?

To maximize the benefits of each coaching or hypnotherapy session, we recommend that you come to each appointment prepared with a theme or topic for discussion. Coaching clients are welcome to email topics/updates/insights the day before their scheduled session, to optimize use of available time during the next day’s session.

Can Stress Reduction Skills Coaching help with other issues?

Yes, both Stress Reduction Skills Coaching and Hypnotherapy can aid in addressing other health and wellness goals that are directly or indirectly related to stress and chronic tension. Here are some examples of how coaching and hypnotherapy can help:

Support for sleep issues: When under a high degree of stress, sympathetic nervous system activation (the “fight or flight” response) can cause difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep at night. By learning to utilize various stress-reduction techniques from restorative yoga, yoga-based breathwork (pranayama), meditation, or self-hypnosis, one can efficiently move their nervous system back into a more neutral, restful state to prepare the body for sleep. After gaining some familiarity and proficiency with using these techniques, a few minutes of practice in the evening is often all it takes to effectively calm the nervous system for this purpose.

Support for health challenges and fatigue: High levels of stress and sympathetic nervous system activation can also place additional load on the body’s other systems, requiring extra energy to sustain them—this can cause stress-related fatigue or affect one’s health and vitality over time. As you begin to progress through your coaching series, you explore and get to know your nervous system’s habitual responses through a variety of awareness- and insight-building processes, discovering personalized ways to move into a more consistently regulated state of ease. As you improve your mind-body connection and move into a state of embodied awareness, these kinds of stress-based issues become less and less of a problem as they naturally fade away. In addition to our coaching and hypnotherapy offerings, we also offer a somatically-focused wellness option for this purpose—our integrative Bodywork for Somatic Resilience sessions.

Transforming habits and behavior patterns: While transforming unproductive habit patterns can sometimes be challenging with coaching alone (depending on the underlying subconscious reasons for maintaining the habit), this is an area in which hypnotherapy excels. By working more directly with the subconscious processes that perpetuate the pattern, and gaining conscious insight into the well-intended purpose the habit has been attempting to serve, the pattern becomes much easier to work with and resolve via integrative coaching methods.

These and many other related goals can be addressed during the course of your sessions—if you have a question about a specific issue you’re interested in addressing with coaching, hypnosis, or somatic bodywork, feel free to contact us with your inquiry.

How do Coaching and Hypnotherapy differ from psychotherapy?

Coaching and hypnotherapy are not a substitute for psychotherapy or counseling, and are not intended for treatment of any mental health disorder.

Psychotherapy focuses on the treatment of diagnosed mental health disorders and clinical symptoms, while moving various personality traits, pervasive thought patterns, and aspects of the self from a state of dysfunction to function via ongoing talk therapy or counseling. In contrast, coaching and hypnotherapy focus on cultivating and enhancing well-being and vitality, moving the whole person forward from function toward a higher level of wellness by serving as a guide on one’s path of inner exploration and self-transformation. All of these approaches can be quite valuable, but each has a different focus, set of goals, and scope of practice.

Coaching is a creative, collaborative process that facilitates one’s ability to develop and better utilize core strengths and inner resources, cultivate and deepen awareness and connection to self and others, proactively enhance personal well-being, and accelerate progress in achieving goals.

Hypnotherapy is a highly efficient tool for assisting in discovering, accessing, and utilizing one’s innate resilience and inner resources to achieve goals, develop motivation, transform habits and behavior patterns, and deeply relax the mind, body, and emotions.

Do you accept insurance?

Unfortunately, we do not accept insurance; all payments are due at time of service. Coaching and hypnotherapy are not covered by insurance, as they are non-diagnostic services that focus on personal well-being rather than medical necessity. However, some employers may offer additional employee wellness incentives or wellness reimbursement programs that include coaching, hypnotherapy, or various stress-management practices such as meditation, bodywork, or yoga.

Coaching update: The American Medical Association recently approved a set of Category III CPT codes (temporary five-year insurance billing codes for emerging technology, services, and procedures) for health and well-being coaching with NBHWC-certified coaches (NBC-HWCs) that went into effect on January 1, 2020. Insurance companies usually wait until a code has Category I approval to begin reimbursement, but this is a step in the right direction towards specialized health and wellness coaching becoming a widely-recognized, reimbursable health expense in the not-too-distant future. Check with your FSA/HSA and insurance providers for more information.

Hypnotherapy update: Under certain very limited circumstances, some FSA and HSA providers may potentially reimburse for hypnosis or hypnotherapy to support medically necessary health-related behavioral changes (e.g. weight management, smoking cessation) as part of a medically-prescribed treatment plan from your physician. This would require, at a minimum, a Letter of Medical Necessity from your medical doctor. Check with your FSA/HSA provider to determine specific eligibility requirements under your plan.

Can we incorporate Guided Meditation into other session types?

Yes! If you’d like to experience tangible benefits far beyond what one gets with a few minutes of savasana at the end of a yoga class, we also offer combined sessions as an option for wellness-minded clients seeking to deepen and enhance the body-mind-spirit aspects of their bodywork or movement series. Each combined session includes your Structural Integration, Pilates, or Yoga session, followed immediately by 15-20 minutes of Restorative Yoga, Guided Meditation, or Yoga Nidra to enhance the integration process and deepen the mind-body benefits of your session.

What types of meditation practices do you offer?

Traditionally, meditation practices were not standardized into a “one size fits all” format designed for mass consumption via apps and large-group classes. Instead, students were individually mentored through a personalized series of meditative techniques, selected based on each student’s specific physical and mental characteristics, to bring the body and mind toward a state of integration and equilibrium. Each student’s path would be unique, perhaps starting with a contemplation meditation to balance mental tendencies, a mantra or object meditation to build concentration and focus, or mindfulness meditation to cultivate awareness and develop a sense of non-attachment to wandering thoughts and emotions.

We follow this time-tested individualized approach, suggesting meditation techniques that address your specific goals or balance for particular attributes, and offering additional technique recommendations as your practice evolves over time. We also offer the added benefit of supplementing your meditation with hypnotherapeutic techniques or somatic bodywork to aid in efficiently addressing any hindrances that might arise during the course of your practice.

What should I bring to a Guided Meditation session?

All equipment, including Manduka Pro mats and a full complement of restorative yoga props and bolsters, are provided for use during your session. Wear stretchy workout clothing that you feel comfortable in, as you will spend some time seated in meditation postures and reclining in supported, restorative yoga poses.