PTSD, Procrastination and Insomnia

PTSD Nightmares
"Traumatizing experiences that have happened in my life have caused me to have terrible nightmares.  Can hypnosis possibly be used to help me forget about these experiences?"

While some websites advertise hypnosis recordings to help eliminate PTSD nightmares, a better bet from my viewpoint would be EMDR, also known as Rapid Eye Movement therapy.  This is a cognitive therapy that does not erase the memory of what happened, but helps to remove the fear, anxiety and other negative emotions that come up in nightmares and other flashbacks to the traumatic situations.  I found a link to EMDR therapists in Michigan and you could narrow your search by location even more.

Another approach would be simply to share your experiences with a non-judgmental counselor or pastor.  I have had clients who were haunted by traumatic experiences talk or write about their experiences and learn to forgive themselves for being a victim, and to understand and tell a new story about why they had those experiences.  Their flashbacks and nightmares gradually diminished and their joy in life returned.

Procrastination
"I have a really bad habit of procrastinating.  Is there a possible way I can condition myself to not procrastinate?"

I often talk to my classes about my friend David, a young attorney in Las Vegas, who told me he was possibly the world's worst procrastinator.  But he changed his life with three words:  Do it now.  He repeated these words like an affirmation, thousands of times over a period of months, and he soon began to take action.  He became known as the attorney to use if you wanted swift and effective action, because he got things done -- on time or early.

You could experiment with his technique:  Tell yourself over and over, perhaps 100 times each morning, "Do it now."  Whenever you need to accomplish one of your tasks, again tell yourself, "Do it now."  And get up and do it.  In a short time, the reward of your feeling of pride and accomplishment will motivate you to do even more.  This would be a way of conditioning your mind to expect and be prepared for action, and then when you move into the behaviors and accomplishing your goals, you will become self-rewarding.

You might also want to make lists of all the things you need to complete and start tackling them one by one.  Either highlight the things you have completed, or scratch them off the list.  Or get some happy stickers to put by items on your list.  In the beginning, you might want to reward yourself for taking action promptly.  A small treat at the end of a successful, productive week might help.

Insomnia
"I have a family member that I live with who suffers from insomnia.  Mainly I think it is from stress, but she doesn't want to take medication.  Can it be cured naturally?  Through classical conditioning, teaching her to sleep?  I thought this might be a cool, non-drug-related method."

I don't think classical conditioning (predicting outcomes that trigger reflex reactions) would work, but cognitive learning and behavior change could help tremendously, and some self-rewards (operant conditioning) might help to reinforce her efforts.  The best book I have read on this subject is Desperately Seeking Snoozin, which was out of print a few years ago, but available used, inexpensively.  A popular website dealing with the subject gives standard tips for good sleep hygiene.