We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Judith Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Judith, thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, I had been treating my patients with the known modalities for my field. And I came to realize that I could add hypnotherapy as an additional way to help certain of my patients. I learned how to do hypnotherapy at the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, an organization of doctors, nurses, psychologists and social workers who are skilled in this form of treatment.

I also learned how to do self-hypnosis, which is actually identical to certain forms of meditation. (Not mindfulness, but meditation.) And I read about a man who, while in the self-hypnotic state, imagined that he had a panel of advisors, famous people from the past, to whom he could ask questions and get wise answers. I was intrigued, and wanted to see whether I could acquire this for myself.

But to my amazement, I acquired something better: an entity that I call my Inner Guide. Rather than simply answering questions that I ask, it has its own agenda for helping me gradually eliminate all of my discomforts, and solve problems (including new problems that arise). Realizing that this was better than all the previous treatment modalities I had been using, I had no further use for them, nor for my library of books; I gave them away. I’ve taught this technique to my patients and hundreds of others. My goal now is to help as many people as possible acquire an Inner Guide.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. The summer after my freshman year at Bryn Mawr College, I worked as an attendant at a mental health hospital and I found the patients there to be very interesting. I also stumbled upon the works of Sigmund Freud, and was similarly intrigued. I decided to become a psychotherapist, but I learned that one had to be a psychiatrist in order to do psychotherapy (back in “olden times” this was the case) so I went to medical school instead, at Yale; and then did my psychiatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Along the way, I learned that the ultimate in treating patients was to become a psychoanalyst, so I did that, too, at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

I had a private practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Chicago, taught and supervised at several of the medical schools there, and held faculty positions at Northwestern Medical School, first as Associate Director of Graduate Education in Psychiatry and then as Associate Director of Inpatient Psychiatry. I developed psychotherapy training programs at the Institute and at Northwestern.

During the course of my practice, I realized that it would be beneficial for certain of my patients if I were to use hypnotherapy, so I learned how to do that at the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. I also learned how to do self-hypnosis and then, to my amazement, I discovered a special twist to self-hypnosis: one could create a new mental pathway that would be extremely helpful in ending painful emotions and solving problems. I call it an Inner Guide. I also, with my Inner Guide’s help, elucidated the theory that explains its existence. It is based on sound scientific principles. I taught most of my patients how to do self-hypnosis and how to acquire their own Inner Guide.

I wrote a book about the Inner Guide and how it can help you, titled Emotional Comfort: The Gift of Your Inner Guide. In the course of promoting the book I taught hundreds of people how to do self-hypnosis and how to acquire an Inner Guide at book talks, retreats, and other venues. But most of my psychoanalytic colleagues didn’t understand it, because they were trying to integrate it with the psychoanalytic theories that they were familiar with, and it just didn’t fit. It was different.

I did a study in which I helped one hundred volunteers, individually, in my office, to do self-hypnosis (they all learned it in one session) and to acquire their own Inner Guide. I followed them for a year. All who persisted in doing self-hypnosis got meaningful results: lessened stress and help with various painful feelings that they had, such as anxiety, irritation, and guilt; and various problems and unhelpful habits.

I decided to commercialize this discovery and I now offer an online video course Achieving Emotional Comfort on my website: www.emotionalcomfort.com. The website offers much information about the course, with descriptions of the Inner Guide and all that it can do for you.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I was very lucky. I knew what I wanted to do ever since my sophomore year in college, when I chose a pre-med major so that I could become a psychiatrist. Most of my friends didn’t know what they wanted to do after college; I was an exception. And once into psychiatric training, I realized that I wanted to be a psychoanalyst; the ultimate therapy at that time. My colleagues and I marveled at the pleasure we experienced when treating our patients. We occasionally confessed that we should be paying our patients, not vice-versa, because they were so interesting. By the time that insurance coverage for psychoanalysis was disappearing, I had learned about self-hypnosis and had created my Inner Guide, so my practice changed and became even better. Without all that previous training and experience, I would never have been able to do what I am doing now, which is the most rewarding work I can imagine. It gives me great pleasure to show someone how to do self-hypnosis and acquire their own Inner Guide.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve described how I came to my new goal of helping as many people as possible acquire an Inner Guide, but I ran into an unexpected roadblock. I offered to teach it pro bono to various organizations that I thought would be open to it, but none of them were interested! Two different Public Relations professionals told me that nobody wanted something that was free, and they suggested that I commercialize it. This thought was very foreign to me, as I had never done anything like this before, and knew nothing about how to do it. But I decided that I had to take the plunge. Now, after acquiring a business coach and taking various marketing courses, and with the additional help of an array of other people (a webmaster, graphic artist, social media expert, etc.) I have created an online video course, Achieving Emotional Comfort®, which will teach people how to do self-hypnosis, acquire their Inner Guide, and develop a regular routine for doing self-hypnosis so that their Inner Guide can fulfill its promise for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emotionalcomfofrt.com