Frequently Asked Questions

The cost of a two-hour hypnotherapy session with Dr. Stone is $175.00. The $175.00 fee includes two hours of private hypnotherapy, a DVD or CD of your entire session and a custom made CD specifically recorded to help you meet or exceed your reasons for your office visit. Please note the $175.00 is for two hours, not one. Dr. Stone believes you and he can accomplish more in one two-hour session than two one-hour sessions. Dr. Stone’s longer hypnotherapy sessions follows the example set by the great psychiatrist and hypnotherapist Dr. Milton Erickson.

Dr. Stone also makes house calls and hospital visits to those who are disabled or can’t come to his office because of illness or injury. Besides Dr. Stone’s normal $175.00 fee for two hours of hypnotherapy, a CD of the entire session and a customized hypnosis CD, there is an additional charge for time and travel expense to the home or hospital. When you set your home or hospital appointment, Dr. Stone will tell you his extra time and travel fee. Please note the hospital’s medical director and the patient’s personal physician must approve all of Dr. Stone’s hospital visits.

A good hypnotherapist is creative, compassionate, confident, intelligent and persistent. Skill levels and training vary, so exercise caution before setting an appointment. It is recommended that you interview your hypnotherapist before your initial visit. Skilled hypnotherapists will convey their ability and talent to you during a phone interview. Ask your prospective hypnotherapists if they teach classes or write articles; communication skills for writing, teaching and hypnotherapy are very similar. For added protection and extra benefit, ask your prospective hypnotherapist if he or she is willing to record your sessions on CD or DVD and provide you with a copy. So Dr. Stone potential clients can further assess his knowledge and skill, Dr. Stone encourages you to call for a free phone consultaion, attend one of his classes or read his articles or book.

Dr. Stone’s office is at 3166 N. Lincoln Ave., Suite 206, Chicago, IL 60657, near the intersection of Lincoln, Ashland and Belmont. Street parking is easy to find during the day, and there are three parking lots located within two blocks of my office.

Dr. Stone has a Pleasant Prairie home-office that serves Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois residents. Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine are just some of the Southern Wisconsin cities near Dr. Stone’s Southern Wisconsin office. Dr. Stone’s Pleasant Prairie office is approximately 40 minutes from downtown Milwaukee.

Dr. Stone’s Pleasant Prairie office also serves Northern Illinois residents. For example, the cities of Gurnee, Waukegan and Lake Forest are respectively 20, 30 and 35 minutes away from Dr. Stone’s Southern Wisconsin office. Dr. Stone’s Southern Wisconsin office is about 1 mile East of I-94 and Highway 50/75th Street. Dr. Stone will give you his exact Southern Wisconsin address when you schedule your appointment.

Dr. Stone maintains regular Monday through Friday daytime hours, and often schedule evening and Saturday appointments. If you truly desire hypnotherapy, you and Dr. Stone will be able to book an appointment that will fit your schedule.

Since Dr. Stone started practicing in 1983, only a few of my clients did not experience a medium or deep trance. Hypnosis has been proven to be effective for very light trances. Occasionally a client will say, “I was not hypnotized; I heard everything you said.” Hypnosis is not a sleep state, so it is natural for clients to recall some or all of what occurred during a trance.

Hypnotherapy requires a team effort. Dr. Stone guarantees that he will carry out his share of the therapeutic process. As part of his guarantee, he is willing to record your entire session on a DVD or CD. If you choose to record your session, you go home with the only copy. Dr. Stone has nothing to hide. All his words and actions are recorded on the DVD and CD you take home with you.

Clients can schedule as few or as many sessions as they like. Dr. Stone tries to help patients accomplish as much as possible in every appointment. He assumes each client does not have an unlimited amount of funds and an unlimited amount of time. Because hypnotherapy sessions are so intense and powerful, they usually occur two to four weeks apart. Setting appointments involves a combination of each client’s instincts and Dr. Stone’s own sense of when it is best to meet again.

Yes. Very often clients come for help with one problem and discover hypnosis can benefit them in other ways. For example, one client came to quit smoking and her psoriasis disappeared. Another client came to lose weight and soon decided she wanted a new job. Shortly thereafter she found employment with higher pay and better benefits. Because hypnosis is good for the mind and body in general, hypnosis can help you with each of your specific problems.

Yes, Dr. Stone often meets with patients who are under the care of medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. The purpose of hypnotherapy is to complement and support other health care professions; hypnotherapy does not replace other traditional forms of treatment. Please discuss your intention of seeking hypnotherapy with your current health care provider before setting an appointment.

Yes. Physically and mentally hypnosis is the exact opposite of stress. During hypnosis, the body relaxes with decreases in blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen consumption and muscle tension, and the mind is extremely focused, which is contrary to the stress symptom of inability to concentrate.

Concentration is a characteristic of hypnosis. It takes concentration to succeed at anything, including successfully losing weight. The 20 to 30 minutes a person spends in hypnosis concentrating on eating more fresh, wholesome foods and smaller meals carries over for the remainder of the day. Repetition of weight-loss suggestions can help replace old eating habits with healthier new ones. Interactive visualization and regression help identify the source of bad dietary habits and the steps necessary to alleviate them. Hypnosis can motivate people to exercise, which is usually a key component of any successful weight loss program.

There have been 22 medical studies on visualization and healing. In 18 of those studies, the conclusion was that visualization helps fight cancer. For more information on visualization and healing, read Getting Well Again by oncologist Dr. Carl Simonton.

Although Dr. Stone does not follow patients over long periods of time, he knows his success rate is high because he often makes a follow-up phone call two days to two weeks after a stop-smoking appointment. Dr. Stone has had good success with severely addicted smokers and people with asthma, bronchitis, cancer or emphysema who continued to smoke until their smoking-cessation appointment with Dr. Stone. Before leaving his office, Dr. Stone tells stop smoking clients to call him if they have any questions or problems.

Dr. Stone’s goal is to help you quit smoking in one appointment. You leave his office with a personalized stop smoking CD to reinforce your new, fresh, clean smoke-free mind and body. You can listen to your CD as often as you need to remain a happier and healthier ex-smoker. Sometimes, underlying anxiety, fear, nervousness, resentment or stress is addressed during a quit-smoking session.

Do not let the fear of gaining weight stop you from quitting smoking. If putting on weight is a concern of yours, Dr. Stone will give you suggestions for eating healthier. If Dr. Stone’s suggestions work for quitting smoking, then most likely his suggestions will assist you in curbing your appetite.

Dr. Stone has several ways for you to end your procrastination habit. You can remove your procrastination from its roots by uncovering the source of when it began. Because hypnosis grounds you so firmly in the current moment, you leave no room for your past procrastination habits to creep into your present thoughts and behavior. Hypnosis also allows you to mentally rehearse the activities you used to procrastinate so when it is time to perform them you do so timely and successfully.