The Hypnotist
Guest Hypnotist Alexandra Janelli on Advanced Hypnosis and the Challenges for Hypnotherapists
25 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to The Hypnotist, the show that gives you inside access to cutting-edge hypnosis with real clients facing genuine issues. Brought to you by the hypnotherapist demanded by celebrities, CEOs and even royalty, Adam Cox. These recordings took place live from Evans Glen in London's world-famous Harley Street. So, get yourself comfortable and enjoy today's episode of The Hypnotist.
Hi, it's Adam here and welcome to The Hypnotist. Only today, I'm not your hypnotist. We have a guest hypnotist, Alexandra Gianelli. Welcome to the show.
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
So first of all, tell us where in the world you currently are and how you found yourself in this wonderful world we call hypnotherapy.
Yeah, so I'm a hypnotherapist and also a certified coach. I live over in the United States on the other side of the pond here in Philadelphia, but have a practice up in New York. And I landed in hypnotherapy on a lark, I would say, similar to so many people. For my whole life, I'm 45 now, but at the time was 26 or so. And I was a very...
curious finger picker, meaning I would pick the skin off my cuticles, thumbs, you name it, I would want to pick it. And while there's parts of that that might be reasonable if you have a hangnail, it was to the point where my hands would be bloody. My friends called me hamburger hands. It wasn't a cute look, always embarrassing, always had my thumbs sort of tucked in, hands in pockets. And
my doctors wanted to put me on high doses of OCD medication of which I'm a complete advocate for medication you know if you need glasses you get glasses and but I just knew in my heart of hearts that wasn't the path I wanted to go down but I didn't know what else to do about it so I tried everything gloves certain creams I tried you know you name it I've probably tried it
And so finally, I was at a nutritionist and he noticed my hands because you can't not notice that and asked if I'd ever seen a hypnotherapist that he had one within his center. And I said, I haven't. That's crazy. Should I try it? And he's like, what do you have to lose? And I said, maybe a couple hundred bucks, but it can't be any more expensive than the embarrassment I feel with my hands. So
on a lark, I booked that appointment and within one session it stopped. And it was crazy because it wasn't, as you know, you're a hypnotherapist. It's not like you don't want to do these things, right? There's this part of you that routinely wants to follow that pathway of like, oh, I'm going to go, I'm on the couch. I'm going to go do that thing.
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Chapter 2: How did Alexandra Janelli become a hypnotherapist?
That is what people think of. Disney uses it. The Jungle Book, right? Everything, when you hear the word hypnosis, you're going to think you're under someone's control. You're going to think you're... I'm not going to remember anything. You're going to think you're going to say things that you don't want to say. And that's just not how it is, right?
So when I started my private practice, it was really important to me that everything be presented in a very logical, rational, and scientific-based way. And it was my mission at the time to really bring hypnosis to the forefront as an alternative therapy that works. And why? Because I think there is a lot of woo-woo out there and I'm not opposed to woo-woo to each their own.
I'll be the first to admit I owned a 5,000 square foot, 16 treatment room spa that went from crystal healing all the way to plastic surgery and stuff. So, you know, I've seen it all, I've done it all, but I wanted my practice to be very like really outline, here's what happened. Here's why it happened. Here's what it is, what not it is.
Cause I think the more context you can give someone what it is and how it's going to work, the more expectations are set and the better the progress can happen. So, you know, I've heard it all in my office from, I don't really want to be here. I'm doing this for my wife, which you and I both know is never the motivating factor. That's going to help create the change. It has to come from internal.
Um, Um, but you know, you do hear people with all these misconceptions and it's a, I see it as an opportunity, uh, to set expectations. And again, there are people who just aren't going to do it.
I can't tell you how many negative comments I get on my YouTube videos that it's like, oh, these are for weak minded people or, uh, you know, all of that wonderful stuff where you're just like, sounds like this modality is not free and that's okay. Uh, if you're open to trying it, then, you know,
where there's opportunity there's potential is my thinking yeah I I agree with you and I think it's it's the nature of a meta belief that if you believe the thing is mind control you're not going to be receptive to the very thing that could facilitate the change whereas
I think because of things like YouTube and kind of podcasts there is I think more ability for people to do real research and figure out what hypnotherapy actually is. And therefore that can also help them if they let's say they've had a good experience or they know someone that has had a change then it doesn't feel like this.
Machiavelli, you know, or kind of Anton Mesmer, you know, kind of mesmerism.
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Chapter 3: What are common misconceptions about hypnosis?
they can be in conflict quite often when you're running your practice.
They certainly can be. And I think that that's what gave me an edge when I started is that I'd already run a business before then. So the metaphor I used is that, you know, you don't learn to swim by reading a book. You have to jump in the pool. And I think the equivalent of that for being a hypnotherapist is you've got to work with real clients with real issues.
And there is this strange comfort blanket that I think that actually beginning hypnotherapists want certainty. And I think the script is this idea of, well, if I it's almost like a magic metaphor that if I read this script, the spell will work on this particular client.
But the script can't know the dynamics of the client and it can't know for every actions or kind of history and any of those things. But you get this strange dynamic where because certainty sells, you get trainers and you get people that are saying, right, the reason why it's not working is because you're doing it all wrong and you have to do it this way and this is the way.
But any experienced hypnotherapist that I know says there is no one way. Actually, it's the sensory acuity of being able to ask great questions and pick up what you're getting from the client. That's what makes it work. Not because you're following a modality, a protocol, a system, a structure.
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Chapter 4: How does neuroplasticity relate to hypnotherapy?
It's because you're putting the client first and you're paying attention to them. Yeah.
there's a weird dynamic with hypnotherapists because there's too many hypnotherapists not with enough clients and therefore they're all looking for how do I do it and the certainty that gives them the confidence is kind of the thing but that's also the unethical bit that gets people paying for the training so there is this really odd dynamic in this world of hypnotherapy where it's all about integrity and congruency and yet you see so much
lack of integrity and incongruency by the very nature of the of what makes the money and i don't know if you've picked up on any of those kind of things where you think like yeah how did we get to this place well
I will say I agree with everything that you're saying, and it's been really interesting to watch. I've had a little inside perspective also. The business I used to own in New York City was called Modern Sanctuary, and it was like a WeWork for wellness, where we had wellness rooms that you could rent out. We had a Himalayan salt room, and we all collaborated.
you would get people who would come in and it doesn't matter what industry, acupuncture, therapists, hypnotists, Reiki practitioners, who everyone would come in going, I'm really good at what I do. And it's like, OK, well, what's your marketing plan? Right. And they're like, well, I'm going to be here. So you'll just find clients.
And I think there's always this fallacy of just because I'm good at it means that people will find me. And that's the tricky part that, you know, I think the one lesson I've learned in business over and over again is one. you need a good marketing plan always.
And it doesn't mean that you're spending ads, but I know for me networking, and I think this is, it's funny because it's kicking me in the butt a little bit now, but back when I started, I was not on social media. Like I had an account, but I really didn't do anything with it. And yeah, That was fine. But now I've sort of, you know, I diverged for a little bit. Like I kept my private practice.
It was all about building it in real life, networking, connecting with people, inviting them to my office for a complimentary session. You know, it was all about reviews and facing forward, being out there. I ended up like stepping back, obviously, from my private practice a little bit from full-time to part-time to run the business, the Modern Sanctuary, have kids and all of this.
And now I'm looking at, you know, all these people out there who Instagram, you know, it's like they're Insta celebrities, but I always wonder, I'm like, do they really have clients, right?
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Chapter 5: What challenges do hypnotherapists face in their practice?
You can always have better and it keeps getting better. And I think because I kept that curiosity and I will say like there are moments where I was excessively hard on myself and faulted myself. not be, I think I will say I was always a really good person, right? I was always good at rapport. I was always good at setting expectations, but sometimes the techniques didn't work.
And it was like, why is this not working?
Chapter 6: What changes have been observed in the hypnotherapy profession?
And that's where the curiosity comes up. It wasn't about me. It was just that I wasn't understanding how to read the client. I wasn't understanding the body language. I wasn't really asking the right questions to get to the root. Or I let the client get away in the session by continuing to keep telling the story as if they needed my validation or buy-in for the work to work.
And it was that the expectation wasn't set that I don't need to know the whole story. That's just the story. I need to know the emotions behind it, the context, et cetera. So I would tell myself, keep failing. It's not always about you. But keep asking the right questions to get the answers that you need to keep getting better. And that changes everything.
I think it's one of my favorite belief systems is you either win or you learn. So if a session goes great, great. But if it doesn't, there's some real gold there that you can kind of harness from that session.
Yeah. And I think you're right. We all want certainty. Certainty is wonderful. And I think the certainty that I had to hang my hat on because you don't know what's going to walk through your door. You can ask a million intake questions so you can prepare.
But the truth is, if you know how to ask questions, you understand the arc of how your session flows and you know what information you need to get to the root of You can handle anything else that comes through the door. Like that is the truth that a good practitioner goes. It doesn't matter what comes through my door. I can handle it. I got this.
And that comes through learning and that comes through failing and that comes through practicing. But it also comes much easier when you have a team or a mentor or someone you can confide in to normalize it to that person.
you know I was like why is why are so many people one-off sessions and it didn't work until you hear a year later that they come back and they're like that was the best thing that ever happened to me and I wanted to come back now and you're like no
I think interestingly, I've mentored a bunch of people and the, the trip up that a lot of them go through is they're like, I need more certifications. I need to go learn breath work. I need to go learn EFT. I need to go learn this.
And it's like, that's wonderful to have a whole variety of tools, but just because you have more tools doesn't mean it's necessarily going to make you end up having too much to promote and practice and not enough like in-depth skill in the practice.
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Chapter 7: What should clients look for in a qualified hypnotherapist?
And if you're a visualizer, not everyone is. Some people, they visualize very strongly. Some people, it's more an image. But I want you to think about how that air that you're drawing in toward the nose and up into the center of the forehead is like a ribbon of air. So you're going to breathe it up.
And then as you blow that ribbon of air down and away, whether it's through your nose or your mouth, whatever is more comfortable, I want you to just feel like Each down and away is allowing you to sink down into the chair or whatever it is that's supporting you. And you're just going to continue this breath very gently. And what we're doing, there's no magic happening here.
We're just utilizing your focus and your awareness to turn inward, right? We're drawing the air in. from the surrounding area up into the forehead, right? Your mind's third eye. We're beginning to notice the air as it moves up to the center of the forehead because when we do that, we're beginning to work on that eye roll, right?
And then when we're blowing the air down and away, we're getting the body permission to relax. We're instigating this feeling of down because when we go into that down sensation, we're allowing the body to feel gravity and get grounded.
Now, as we begin to loosen the breath and we begin to think about that space behind the eyelids and space right in the center of the forehead, I like to have people imagine or visualize what it would be like if there were a zipper that started in the center of the forehead and then moved all the way across the top of the head and down the spine.
And when we do that, we can think about what it would feel like if we could get out of our head. If all of your thoughts could begin to lift and rise and rise and lift up as we begin to move up. So it's sort of like you could visualize, I like to visualize swimming up into the space above me.
And what begins to happen is we're beginning to think and look up as we're beginning to visualize moving up, body goes down. But it's that upward momentum that begins to push us into a different brain wavelength. We begin to disassociate from the body a bit more and the mind and we just become our thoughts in this freedom, this openness, this space.
And it's here when we work on self-hypnosis or guided hypnosis where we begin to talk that we can just begin to think of a positive affirmation. It can be as simple as that. You could begin to imagine writing a word like the word calm. Whatever it is you'd like to have or infuse a belief system, I like to think that these are the moments that we can work with ourself and put it in here.
It's like, I am love. I manifest abundance, right? And we find the one that resonates the most that we feel it. We believe it. Then when we have it, we sort of ball up that energy, bundle it up, and we bring it down into the body. And we can zip it in, keep it in the back of our mind as a truth. And then you can just go ahead and in your mind count from zero up to five.
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