TEXAS MONTHLY
Forget the Facial—I’ll Take the Hypnosis Session
Thoughts can wander to some unexpected places during a spa treatment. After one memorable rubdown a few years ago, the massage therapist correctly guessed that I had been reliving a recent argument with a former coworker. (“I felt anger in your left shoulder.”) She also somehow knew that I was thinking a lot about my father, who’d passed away almost five years ago to the day. (“I also see the number five.”) It was a little unnerving, but it cemented my belief that a good massage can be almost a spiritual experience.
So I was intrigued by the new hypnosis offerings at the Spa at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin. Earlier this year, I signed up for a 65-minute, $245 “Mind Map” appointment with Dallas native Nicole Hernandez, a.k.a. the Traveling Hypnotist, who regularly visits Austin from her home base at the Four Seasons in New York City’s Financial District. Although I was tempted by another popular offering, the “Time Traveler”—a “90-minute past life regression”—the Mind Map promised to help me take action in a specific area. I decided that if I were trying something like this, I should be as practical as possible.
“As I lay back on the table and closed my eyes, she asked questions about what I was seeing (books, desks, and, inexplicably, a lifeguard stand); whenever an obstacle appeared, we made it go away. ”