PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE premier issue Summer 2003
When artists and writers find their ideas imprisoned, hypnotherapist Dr. Stephanie Q. Hancox of Amesbury is often called on to help uncage the muse. What does she do…and how does it work?
By Kristine Malpica
Creativity is elusive and mysterious. Ask any writer, artist, musician, dancer, teacher or sculptor about her process of creation and you will get any number of answers…some mystical, some concrete, some heady, some physical. Take is a step farther and ask about the obstacles that sometimes bock the creative process. Once again you will be faced with an assortment of answers. When describing the challenges confronted as a dancer, Martha Graham said, “Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to the paradise of achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths.”
Inevitably, all of us experience similar obstacles in our paths, whether we’re dancing a world-famous ballet or teaching math to a third grade class in a small Oceanside town. Such obstacles can appear in the shape of procrastination, depression, fear of speaking in front of a crowd, and so on. They become so overwhelming that we feel confined and unable to work and live freely.
Is there a solution to creative inertia? Dr. Stephanie Q. Hancox, a licensed psychologist and graduate of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, would answer in the affirmative. Although her specialties include clinical hypnosis, cross-cultural transition/adaptation issues, and behavioral medicine, a large part of Dr. Hancox’s work centers around the development and expression of creativity. And this is where Performance Coaching comes in.
Performance Coaching provides solution-oriented problem solving for clients with a variety of issues: procrastination, decision making, public speaking, general apathy in life or overall stress. “Usually,” says Hancox, “something in their business or creative life isn’t clicking. Performance Coaching helps them bring their lives or business to the next level.”
The seeds for the program were sown in 1991, when Dr. Hancox was working on a strategy to overcome writer’s block. The results of the six-week program she created- a program in which artists, writers, scientists and Hancox herself participated- were so successful that she finished her dissertation six months ahead of schedule. Since that time, through field work and research, Dr. Hancox has revised, augmented and streamlined the process.
Who benefits from Performance Coaching? “Writers, artists, acrhitects, therapists, composers, lawyers, scientists, engineers, teachers, software designers, students and managers,” Hancox answers. “However each program is highly individualized. I don’t ask anyone to fit in a box.”
Hancox points out that there is a difference between Performance Coaching nd Personal Coaching, which was popularized by Newburyport’s Cheryl Richardson. “The latter usually involves a more ongoing contractual relationship between the client and the coach,” she explains. “I am more interested in giving the client problem-solving tools that will quickly help them establish and prioritize goals, and take action on their own. Once they have mastered these tools, they can implement change rapidly, with surprisingly little effort, and the results are permanent.”
For example when a talented dart thrower who wanted to join a professional team found his game performance stunted by family problems, he turned to Dr. Hancox. Through Performance Coaching, she helped him realize and address the issues that confined him. Several months later, after their work was complete, Dr. Hancox turned on the TV and saw this man’s name as part of the national dart throwing team.
Performance Coaching usually includes weekly sessions, homework and the incorporation of stress reduction, relaxation and self-hypnosis techniques. For clients looking to make more dramatic advances, Hancox often incorporates traditional (?) hypnosis, editor’s comment, and or Dynamic Dreamwork, now known as the Savvy Dreams (DreamGenesis) Method, into the program.
“You know the old adage that says we use only ten percent of our brain?” she asks. “That 10 percent is the conscious mind. Hypnosis is a great way to maximize the other ninety percent of our mind- the unconscious part.”
Hancox acknowledges that hypnosis is vastly misunderstood- and often feared- by the general public. “Some people think the unconscious is a dark and dirty place where they don’t want to go,” she says. “In reality, the unconscious mind is full of resurces that you can use to generate creative thinking. Hypnosis is simply a way to access these resources and put them to work for you.”
That’s what Lee K. Riethmiller, founder and president of The Intercontinental Foreign Language Program at Harvard Square, discovered when he took advantage of Hancox’s coaching. Riethmiller teaches 26 of the 114 languages offered at the center, and first met Hancox when she was a student at the center in the early 1990s.
“At the time I was struggling with my thesis on teaching several languages simultaneously,” Riethmiller recalls. “The only time I was able to write was when I was abroad. What I really wanted was to be able to write at home. Dr. Hancox’s method appealed to me because it combined conscious and unconscious elements. It’s like an unexcavated pyramid. Who knows what treasures are hidden inside?”
Riethmiller brought his unfinished scripts to his weekly sessions with Dr. Hancox. She would hypnotize him and ask him questions related to the scripts and writing. “I found that these sessions helped me to focus. You could say it was a guided revelation. Over the course of six months, it became increasingly easier to reconnect with my creative flow and write my scripts at home. This method proved to be very successful for me.”
Although Riethmiller’s coaching program spanned several months, Hancox says clients often reach their goals in two or three sessions. It’s a great moment when someone says to me, ‘I get it. I’m there. I know what to do now.’ At that point I just sit back, and watch them spread their wings and soar.”
Is there any one piece of advice Hancox would give to people who are bogged down by creative inertia? She pauses, and then smiles. “Don’t be discouraged, and don’t be afraid to get some coaching,” she says. “We have all the tools we need for a healthy life, but sometimes we forget. Sometimes we need an outside influence to change our patterns of risk taking. My job is ot help people realize what they already have inside, just waiting to b released.”