Dr. Liz: Hi, lisa, welcome to the Hypnotize Me Dr. Liz: podcast. Dr. Liz: Hi H, dr Liz, thanks for having me. Dr. Liz: was very excited to have you on because I Dr. Liz: think you're going to make a difference in Dr. Liz: a huge amount of women's lives. Dr. Liz: Because this episode is focused on women, I Dr. Liz: mean, obviously someone could listen for Dr. Liz: their girlfriend or wife or partner, Dr. Liz: whoever.
Dr. Liz: I mean, obviously someone could listen for Dr. Liz: their girlfriend or wife or partner, Dr. Liz: whoever, but, but probably mostly women are Dr. Liz: going to be listening to this because it's Dr. Liz: about bladder leakage.
Yes. Dr. Liz: Yes. Yeah, A really big. I think it's can be a secret for some of us because it can be embarrassing. Dr. Liz: Yeah, absolutely, yes, yes. Dr. Liz: So let's talk about how we met and then how Dr. Liz: you started doing this work and tell people Dr. Liz: what kind of effects it has and all that Dr. Liz: good stuff. Dr. Liz: We're going to get to all of that. Okay, great. So yeah, I met you in Orlando at a hypnosis conference, the ICBCH hypnosis conference.
It was my first conference and we was it. It was my first. Dr. Liz: Oh, I didn't know that, okay. Yeah, yeah. And we were at a table and I think one of us invited you to sit with us or you said can I sit here? Because a lot of people didn't know each other and we just got talking about how we got into hypnosis, what brought us to become hypnotherapists, consulting hypnotists, that type of thing.
And I was very impressed when I met you that with your vast background and knowledge and then just your belief and the knowing of the power of our subconscious mind and how we can really change it pretty easily. So then I think what occurred was that I started sharing my story of how I got into hypnosis.
So my quick background is I started out in the dental field and then I eventually progressed to being a teacher of dental assisting in the career in tech high school and then, when I had some life changes, I decided that I wanted to do something that could help people and as well, be kind of flexible with my schedule and location and stuff like that. So I had suffered with incontinence for a while, suffered with incontinence for a while.
I believe when I gave birth to my son it kind of started where it sort of felt like I had a weak bladder and then I. It just got worse. Uh, especially when emotions arise in my life stresses and different life changes came up, such as divorce, such as death, so anything that made me nervous. So what happened was I was seeking all different therapies for it and I ended up with my chiropractor and I mentioned to her, like you know, I'm struggling with this and she said why don't you try hypnosis?
And she gave me a card of a gentleman who did hypnosis. I never thought of hypnosis, never even experienced anything around hypnosis. So I I went, I trusted her advice and went to this man's home and, like part of me was a little nervous about that, but uh, had you ever had hypnosis before that? Dr. Liz: Never never, didn't know anything about it. Didn't know anything about it. I mean, maybe I saw a little bit of stage hypnosis, but I don't even think that was live.
That was like on TV or something. I just was never present to experiencing it. So I went to his home and it was just a really great process and the way my bladder control worked for me, or lack thereof, was kind of like little strange triggers. So, I would pull up to the house after work and as I turn the doorknob to go into my house, I feel this urge to just go and I'd have to race into the bathroom like, not even greet the dog, just like race into the bathroom.
And when I got home from hypnosis that didn't happen. It was. It was the cure. I was blown away. That one session in my mind cured me, but then I was was a bad client because I didn't follow through with the homework. I didn't do much of what he had advised me to do to keep it going and looking back, I think, wow, even though I didn't do much, I was pretty good for a good month or so. None of those triggers. That's wow, I'm great. And prior to that it was really, really rough.
It was, it was really altering to my life. Dr. Liz: I mean, at that point, before you went, Dr. Liz: were you like wearing pads, were you yeah? I was not willing to get too heavy into like big pads but I would wear like panty liners. Dr. Liz: Okay. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to recall because this story kind of shifts, because then I got back into it worse. Dr. Liz: Okay, let's hear the worst then. Yeah. So then I life got so crazy, so busy and I slowly slipped back into struggling.
And and then I recall I had a extra set of panties in my drawer at work and I would wear scrubs to teach. So I would have a pair of scrubs there in my car too, like it was out of control, really bad, trying to limit how much I'm eating stuff like that. And I know my triggers were when stress would come up, you know, like I had a meeting or something. Then I would just feel like, oh, you know, losing it. Um, so then I forgot, and that was about four years in between.
Wow I forgot that, what I had done to cure it. So then I started on this whole cycle. I went to a pelvic floor specialist. I was doing a million Kegel exercises. I had the vaginal weights oh yeah Working with them. I was just doing everything possible. And so Then I kind of tapped into my divine source and I said guide me, to help me get, like, solve this problem. And then it came to me you did hypnosis four years ago, like don't you even remember.
So then I called him back and this time I went for more sessions, because that was only one session. I went for like four sessions. I followed through, was really great with it, really consistent, and learned how to do it myself self-hypnosis, and that really helped me. So since then I can say I'm about 90% cured. Wow, if something really massive is going on, like really a crisis, a trauma, I can say I might have a little problem.
Okay, then I have to just take a step back and reflect on that and do my practice. Dr. Liz: Okay, so what was the home practice that he Dr. Liz: gave you? Basically it was, as you're familiar with self-hypnosis, really tapping into your imagination, which to me hypnosis is a lot of manifestation, meditation, as one of my clients says, on steroids. So really tapping in.
And with other things that have come up in my life, I'm just constantly being reminded of how much I have to tap into my feelings around it and really see and imagine. So one of those examples is I had Achilles heel trouble and it was. It was awful. I couldn't go up and down steps easily. I couldn't walk real good, like it just hurt. Couldn't walk the dog, it just hurt a lot.
Dr. Liz: I had it recently due to um, I had to take Dr. Liz: around a Cipro, which is an antibiotic Dr. Liz: which caused Achilles heel tendonitis. I would never even know that, oh my gosh. I wonder if I was taking an antibiotic then that's interesting. Dr. Liz: It's really painful. Dr. Liz: It is you feel like you can't walk. Dr. Liz: I know I can't walk. I love to walk. Dr. Liz: Yeah, yeah Great. I love to walk my dog and with my husband and all. So the saving grace was I could bicycle.
That wouldn't hurt me. So I was going to physical therapy and it was kind of like helping somewhat. And I'm doing my own self-hypnosis around it and I'm just getting really frustrated because I'm not seeing the results I want. And then I realized you're not imagining it, All you're doing is going through your words and just like a robot. So then I started imagining myself flying up and down the steps walking the dog.
Telling my husband or my friend like, yeah, I can go for a walk and just feeling like how good that's going to feel Took about four days. I haven't had the pain since. Once in a while I'll feel a little tinge and I say to myself this will pass and it's not eventful. Fantastic, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's really good. And then around the incontinence, like I was invited this was around the time I was divorcing. I had so much going on.
That was really rough in life Starting a new career, my mom had passed away, my dad had a stroke, I was divorcing, hurricane Sandy, everything all at once. And I was invited to a bar mitzvah in Nashville, like my best friend's son, and I said that I would take her mother, who was in her 80s, and we went to the Philly airport. You made our way. I visited probably every restroom and this 80 year old never went until she arrived to her daughter's house.
Year old never went until she arrived to her daughter's house. Wow. And so that was another thing. I was like, yeah, something has to change. Yeah, this isn't right. So, uh, that was for the second round. Like then I I knew you know I gotta do something. But it was funny how I completely forgot what cured it. Dr. Liz: Yeah, and then you remembered yes, yeah. Dr. Liz: So that experience did it lead you to seek Dr. Liz: training in hypnosis?
Dr. Liz: Is that how, eventually, you became a Dr. Liz: hypnosis consultant? Yes, eventually I was in transition. My husband and I wanted to make some changes. He was thinking of downscaling what he did and we wanted to just make changes and not this was so helpful for me and learn about it. So then I got my training and that was in 2020. So perfect timing around that, okay, because it was a virtual training and just did that, and it's been wonderful since then.
Life altering totally life altering yeah. Dr. Liz: Yeah, it's a wonderful, I think career way Dr. Liz: avenue to help people. Dr. Liz: It makes a huge difference in their lives, Dr. Liz: so for me that creates a lot of meaning for Dr. Liz: me. Yes, yes, absolutely. That's how. That's exactly how I feel around it and and I feel so blessed that it's it's easy to deliver virtually. It's easy to do in person. Know how to do self-hypnosis and you've experienced it.
Dr. Liz: It applies to everything that can crop up Dr. Liz: in your life yes, it can certainly help a Dr. Liz: lot of things, like we're not going to Dr. Liz: regrow an arm, but smaller stuff it can Dr. Liz: certainly. Dr. Liz: I mean some of the larger stuff too. Dr. Liz: All kinds of gi problems, migraines, Dr. Liz: headaches, um cancer.
Dr. Liz: There was a study that they had two groups Dr. Liz: of women with breast cancer and the ones Dr. Liz: who attended a hypnosis group lived 18 Dr. Liz: months longer on average. Dr. Liz: So it yeah, it's incredible when you really Dr. Liz: look at some of the medical research, cause Dr. Liz: sometimes people think about it just for Dr. Liz: like, stop smoking, lose weight. Dr. Liz: You know things like that. Dr. Liz: Those are life altering for sure. Dr. Liz: Stop smoking or stop vaping.
Dr. Liz: I do a lot of stop vaping these days. Dr. Liz: I mean that affects everything in Dr. Liz: somebody's life, but it sort of feels like Dr. Liz: small beans compared to some of the medical Dr. Liz: things like cancer and burns and that type Dr. Liz: of thing. Dr. Liz: Really so well, my side of the story is Dr. Liz: after that lunch, like I kept your contact Dr. Liz: information. Dr. Liz: I think you gave me a card. Dr. Liz: I also had your email.
Dr. Liz: I think you had reached out to me about ADD Dr. Liz: or something like that, and so I kept your Dr. Liz: email because I was starting had reached Dr. Liz: out to me about ADD or something like that, Dr. Liz: and so I kept your email because I was Dr. Liz: starting to have some leakage and my best Dr. Liz: friend had like a ton, a ton. Dr. Liz: She was wearing a full on pad to go for Dr. Liz: like an hour walk or something and having Dr. Liz: to change it too.
Dr. Liz: Yeah, during the walk. Dr. Liz: Yeah, it's bad. Dr. Liz: It wasn't too bad for me yet. Dr. Liz: I mean, after my kids I couldn't jump on a Dr. Liz: trampoline for the life of me. Dr. Liz: you know, nothing like that. Dr. Liz: But finally it got to the point where I was Dr. Liz: out to dinner with my husband one night and Dr. Liz: sneezed I think it's. Dr. Liz: Oh no, I had a cough, that's what it was.
Dr. Liz: So before I sneeze I'd have to, like you Dr. Liz: know, do my keg off right, Just to be sure. Dr. Liz: But with a cough, forget it. Dr. Liz: It was bad sometimes and I was thinking Dr. Liz: should I wear a panty line or a pad or Dr. Liz: something like that? Dr. Liz: So I was out to dinner one night and I I Dr. Liz: had a cough and felt like, oh my God, like Dr. Liz: I just wet myself, Like I don't even have a Dr. Liz: jacket to tie around my waist, but I would.
Dr. Liz: I would have like we used to do in middle Dr. Liz: school when, like our, you know, our period Dr. Liz: would come and you tie the jacket around Dr. Liz: your waist and be like all humiliated, yeah. Dr. Liz: And so after that incident, I reached out Dr. Liz: to you and said, hey, can you do this for Dr. Liz: me?
Dr. Liz: Cause I remembered that that's how you had Dr. Liz: gotten into it, and it was incredibly Dr. Liz: effective, incredibly Like it went to Dr. Liz: almost zero for me, to the point where I Dr. Liz: didn't really I don't think about it that Dr. Liz: often anymore, Occasionally when I'm Dr. Liz: sitting in a certain position which is sort Dr. Liz: of like on the couch and relaxing and I Dr. Liz: have to sneeze or cough.
Dr. Liz: It's like, oh, like occasionally a little Dr. Liz: leakage, but hardly ever. Dr. Liz: Even so, I just found it incredibly Dr. Liz: effective and thought if more women knew Dr. Liz: about this it could help them. Dr. Liz: It could really change their lives, because Dr. Liz: it really does impact our lives. It does and yeah, you just have to navigate like almost it's a fear thing, I think.
At least for me it was like because you're scared, Are you going to have a problem and then what are you going to do? Or where is every bathroom when you're out? Yes, If you go on a road trip, how many miles till the rest stop? And that's really unsettling. It is Now with you. Did you feel like it connected to any kind of feeling inside you? Dr. Liz: I never identified like it's related to Dr. Liz: stress, or it gets worse then, or it gets Dr. Liz: worse.
Dr. Liz: I think I reached out before it got really Dr. Liz: bad, like I thought it was bad at the time Dr. Liz: until I heard like other people's stories Dr. Liz: including yours I was like, oh mine's, Dr. Liz: mine's not actually that bad. Dr. Liz: So, yeah, let's do this now before Dr. Liz: something like that happens. Dr. Liz: Yeah. Dr. Liz: Yeah, it was never like rushing to the Dr. Liz: bathroom, nothing like that.
Dr. Liz: More those type of actions where I had to Dr. Liz: like sneeze or cough or brace or something Dr. Liz: like that. Yeah. Dr. Liz: I'm trying to remember. Dr. Liz: If it was, I mean, it had to be a little Dr. Liz: more than that before. Dr. Liz: I think it's really interesting. Dr. Liz: Like after we have a problem, I sometimes Dr. Liz: have difficulty remembering how bad it was Dr. Liz: before. Dr. Liz: Does that happen to you too? Dr. Liz: Yes, yes, it does.
Dr. Liz: I think it was the volume for me, so it Dr. Liz: wasn't even like frequency, it was just Dr. Liz: more like that dinner I felt like whoa, Dr. Liz: that's not a little leak, that's not like a Dr. Liz: spot in my underwear that's going to dry, Dr. Liz: that's like we have to leave the restaurant. Dr. Liz: You know, yeah, yeah, we have to leave the Dr. Liz: restaurant.
Dr. Liz: You know, and I don't know, with with um, Dr. Liz: the second husband, it's like the only time Dr. Liz: he's ever seen me use the restroom. Dr. Liz: This may be TMI for some people is when I Dr. Liz: was in the hospital and I had to after Dr. Liz: surgery, and even then I thought about Dr. Liz: asking the aid like no, he can't do this. Dr. Liz: Like like you're gonna have to do it Dr. Liz: because I don't. Dr. Liz: I keep some things just private, I just Dr. Liz: like exactly.
I don't want that whole like. Dr. Liz: I don't know. Dr. Liz: Some people are way more open about that. Dr. Liz: Yeah, so it's not like I could be like Dr. Liz: honey, I wet myself. Dr. Liz: We need to leave, like I didn't want to say Dr. Liz: that. You know, it's like yeah, yeah, I mean, I eventually did tell him. Dr. Liz: but you know, it was that point where I Dr. Liz: reached out for help from you. Dr. Liz: Yeah, and I actually enjoyed the homework. Dr. Liz: The phrase I came up with.
Dr. Liz: It modifies some in my mind, but I think Dr. Liz: the original one was I am dry and Dr. Liz: comfortable and fully in control. Dr. Liz: I am dry and comfortable and fully in Dr. Liz: control and so sometimes I will say that Dr. Liz: right before a sneeze or a cough. Dr. Liz: I'll say it to myself and it works, it Dr. Liz: works. You have to say that pretty quick, I do. I'm not saying it at the pace.
Dr. Liz: I'm just more like I'm dry and comfortable Dr. Liz: and fully in control Achoo or in between Dr. Liz: right, yeah, that's really good. Dr. Liz: It continues to help me. Right, right, yeah, it's a nice reminder. It is, it is. It's a good reminder. Mine's very simple, it's just I'm okay, I'm okay. Yeah, simple, it's just I'm okay.
Yeah, like I feel like mine is a combination of how yours there's a term, and I'm not able to recall it, about the kind of incontinence, so yours is sort of prompted by you know, like you said, jumping on the trampoline or the cough or sneeze. Mine's like urgency With mine. Definitely it's prompted with my emotions, yes. So that's why I think simply saying I'm okay means like I'm okay, I'm safe. Yes, means like I'm okay, I'm safe. Yes, you know, there's no reason to be scared with this emotion.
Or you know, in this moment I'm okay. And taking that breath and kind of anchoring in those positive thoughts and those feelings. Dr. Liz: Yeah, I like that. Dr. Liz: Yeah, and I think that varies from person Dr. Liz: to person, Like when you come up with a Dr. Liz: custom phrase that's put into a hypnosis Dr. Liz: that's specific to you.
Dr. Liz: I think that's really important for what's Dr. Liz: going on with this type of problem bladder Dr. Liz: leakage because it is influenced by so many Dr. Liz: different things. Dr. Liz: So sometimes people just try a download, a Dr. Liz: free download, or when they even pay for on Dr. Liz: the internet, that's not custom to them and Dr. Liz: it misses that piece of like. Dr. Liz: Oh no, like. Dr. Liz: This varies by individual.
Dr. Liz: So what is it for you that's going to help Dr. Liz: you tell the subconscious mind you don't Dr. Liz: need to leak, yes, you have full control Dr. Liz: basically yes, exactly what words are going Dr. Liz: to resonate with you? and and, as well, I'm interested to see if you agree, dr Liz, that the words have to be the right words. Like I was taught, that if we say I will, if we say I will, will, is kind of it's loose, it's not like I am, yes, we're going to.
You want to phrase it in the present yes, I start the same thing, absolutely yeah, and and also ends with the feeling that you want the good feeling that you want, yes, mine, mine is always um, it's easy for me to have control and I feel calm. Yes, right. So having that feeling, because then our subconscious it definitely wants to do what we want it to do. But the messages kind of get mixed sometimes and then I think it can become habitual, almost. So this is that retraining, you know.
So it works out really well, giving us that strength and just that proof around it that it's going to work and the confidence that you get from that, yes, agreed, and yeah. Dr. Liz: it is interesting because, as I began to Dr. Liz: read more about it, it's like you're not Dr. Liz: supposed to start wearing pads or panty Dr. Liz: liners or have changes of clothes, because Dr. Liz: it does teach your body like, oh, it's okay, Dr. Liz: it's okay to go now.
Dr. Liz: It's like, oh, that's the last thing you Dr. Liz: want. Dr. Liz: You know Exactly, yes, but of course. Dr. Liz: I think, we all do that when we're trying Dr. Liz: to figure out the solution before we really Dr. Liz: know, like, what to do. Dr. Liz: We obviously don't want to walk around in a Dr. Liz: wet pair of panties or scrubs, right? Right, right, exactly, yeah, yeah, it definitely gives us that message.
I even read maybe um tmi, but you shouldn't pee in the shower, really, because that's not the appropriate place to pee, and it's like it's kind of, once again, you're giving your body this mixed signal like standing up like women. Don't go standing up, Got it. Dr. Liz: Yeah, oh, really interesting.
Dr. Liz: I didn't come across that piece, so it Dr. Liz: really is retraining ourselves, retraining Dr. Liz: our subconscious mind and the conscious Dr. Liz: mind like all right, pee in the toilet, Dr. Liz: that's it, that only time. Dr. Liz: Yes, we're the woods if we have to, exactly Dr. Liz: if you're forced. Yes, sometimes you just have to. Dr. Liz: Yeah, okay, interesting.
Dr. Liz: Well, we're coming to the end here, so can Dr. Liz: you let people know how to contact you if Dr. Liz: they'd like hypnosis for bladder leakage, Dr. Liz: or we could? Dr. Liz: What would the positive be? hypnosis for um dry and comfortable yeah, exactly um hypnosis for complete bladder control and confidence there you go. Dr. Liz: hypnosis for complete bladder control and Dr. Liz: confidence. Dr. Liz: Okay, we've got the title of the episode Dr. Liz: now. That sounds good.
Yeah, how can they reach you? Okay, so my website is actually my first and last name, lisaviviano-chcom, lisaviviano-chcom, and my email is chlisaviviano at gmailcom and you can always text or call me at 267-808-1533. Dr. Liz: Lisa L-I-S-A, viviano V-I-V-I-A-N-O. Dr. Liz: V as in Victor V-I-V-I-A-N-O. Dr. Liz: All right, and that will be in the show Dr. Liz: notes and on my website if you want to Dr. Liz: contact Lisa.
Dr. Liz: So thank you so much for joining me today Dr. Liz: and sharing your wisdom and your journey. Oh, thank you. It was my pleasure and I hope that this helps people Me too.