Through hypnosis, Astrid finally found the job that suits her

From scientific detours to a down-to-earth hypnosis practice in Aachen, Germany.

Some people know exactly what they want to be when they turn eighteen. Astrid knew, above all, what she was good at: math and physics. So she chose electrical engineering, a field where jobs were plentiful—especially for a woman. There was just one small problem: her heart wasn’t in it.

“I could pick and choose jobs—people were coming to me. But my heart wasn’t in it. I found it boring and didn’t enjoy it.”

She really just wanted to help people. So she changed jobs and tried other lines of work. She even studied psychology in Maastricht, where she also earned her Ph.D. But that wasn’t quite what she had expected from a psychology program. It remained primarily academic work centered on research, writing, and thinking.

She has conducted some really interesting studies, such as one on the chocolate “craving” you get when you smell chocolate, and on how those cravings disappear as long as you keep smelling it without actually eating the chocolate.

In the brain, this craving is visible through activation in the brain’s reward centers. And the longer you smell the candy without eating it, the less active these areas become—though you don’t consciously notice this until a few minutes have passed.

Another study examined how overweight women respond to images of food compared to women who are not overweight. This difference might explain why, over the course of a day, overweight people can no longer resist the temptation and end up reaching for that tasty snack they didn’t actually want to eat.

Still, she missed the connection with people she could help.

“After completing my degree in psychology and earning my Ph.D., I still found myself wondering: Is this it? I didn’t just want to study people; I wanted to be able to truly help them.”

Finally, working with people

The breakthrough came when Astrid, who was living in Germany at the time, discovered that, in addition to the standard training to become a psychotherapist, there was also an alternative pathway available there. By passing a standardized written and oral exam, she was able to become a Heilpraktikerin für Psychotherapie. This allowed her to treat people with mental health issues, although her services are not covered by German health insurance.

“Once I completed that program, I was finally able to do what I’d actually wanted to do my whole life: practice psychotherapy and truly help people.”

She started out as an independent practitioner working within existing practices. At first, practice owners referred clients to her; later, people began coming specifically to see her more and more often. That word-of-mouth recommendation gave her the confidence to go into business for herself full-time in 2022. At her practice in Aachen, she works with people experiencing stress, panic attacks, low self-confidence, symptoms of depression, relationship problems, psychosomatic pain, and anxiety, among other issues.

“I’m glad I don’t have to specialize in just one problem. The variety keeps it interesting, and every client brings something different to the table.”

Lockdown brought liberation

Astrid was introduced to hypnosis through her sister. Together, they signed up for a multi-day HIN seminar in Den Bosch. Due to the first lockdown, the seminar was canceled, but her curiosity had already been piqued. She continued to follow the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands and took a one-day online workshop where, among other things, she was introduced to arm levitation.

“At first I thought, ‘Who is this guy with that accent?’ But I found that one online session so interesting that I wanted to explore it further.”

One of the practices where Astrid worked at the time offered hypnotherapy. When a colleague left, she was asked if she wanted to take over these treatments. She first took a short course in Germany on quitting smoking, but it mainly consisted of reading a script aloud.

That didn’t give her enough confidence. She wanted to understand what she was doing, learn how to respond to what was happening with a client, and master more techniques. That’s why she started the HIN 1.0, also known as Hypno Principles, in 2021 .

From an outsider to a toolbox full of possibilities

Astrid took the course mostly online from Aachen. That saved her hours of travel, but at first, the group still felt a bit awkward. “At first, I felt like an odd one out. There were a lot of people who relied on their intuition, and I wasn’t used to that back then. Now, with more practical experience, I trust my intuition more myself, but at the time, that was really new to me.”

As a result, she initially preferred to keep her academic background to herself. Gradually, she discovered that her down-to-earth perspective and the experiential approach of hypnosis actually complement each other beautifully.

As early as the Hypno Principles course, she learned techniques that she immediately applied in her practice, such as the symbol journey, IMS (ideomotor signals), the 1.0 regression, and the Fast Phobia. She then completed the HIN 2.0 (Hypno Playground) and 3.0 (Hypno Pathfinder) courses. This progression not only provided her with an ever-growing repertoire of methods but also the freedom to choose what works best for each client. She still uses the techniques she learned in the initial training.

“The training has given me a real tool—actually, a whole toolbox—from which I can draw what’s needed for each client at that moment.”

How HIN 3.0 Changed Her Conversations

For Astrid, the value of HIN 3.0 lay not only in new hypnosis techniques. It was precisely the analysis of conversations that made a big impression on her. Edwin critically reviewed participants’ conversations with their clients, which led Astrid to listen more closely to language, assumptions, and the “problem behind the problem.”

“Thanks to the 3.0 program, I’ve become much more focused and also more provocative in the questions I ask. You see other people’s conversations, analyze them critically, and learn an awful lot from them.”

She also uses this in-depth approach when someone does not want formal hypnosis. In such cases, she can work with conversational techniques (with a conversational-hypnotic slant), sharing exercises using a chair arrangement instead of under hypnosis, or the social panorama, which works just as well without hypnotic induction.

Sometimes she invites a client to try a small experiment, such as a feeling reversal technique or a SWISSSHHHH. This allows people to easily experience what’s possible with hypnosis, without Astrid forcing anything.

“Not everyone wants to close their eyes or go into hypnosis right away. That’s perfectly fine. I adapt to the client and find an approach that feels safe and appropriate.”

A first “Fast Phobia” session that confirmed everything

One of Astrid’s first experiences with Fast Phobia became a defining moment for her confidence in hypnotherapy. A woman had lost her husband under traumatic circumstances. Because she had no cell service to call 112, she couldn’t be with him at what was, for her, the most important moment.

“She was at her wits’ end. She had already been undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy for a year and a half, and her anxiety medication couldn’t be increased any further.”

Astrid tailored the technique to this woman’s specific needs. The session addressed not only her fear but also the guilt she felt for not having been with her husband when he died.

Subsequently, her anxiety had decreased so significantly that, in consultation with her doctor, the woman no longer needed anxiety medication. She didn’t even need a tapering-off plan.

For the hypnotherapist, this was the moment when her years-long search came to fruition: “I just realized: bam, it works. The fact that I could help her after she’d already tried so many things really moved me.”

When the body suddenly reacts differently

The allergy technique also made a deep impression during the training. During a demonstration, HIN trainer Bart worked with participant Wendy, who was allergic to cats. During the break, Wendy went to a neighbor’s house, petted and cuddled the neighbor’s cat without any discomfort, and shared photos of this with the online training group. Wendy was overjoyed, and the whole group thought, “Wow!”

Astrid also saw examples where gluten sensitivity not only changed subjectively but was also no longer detectable in medical tests. The concrete nature of this appealed to her scientific side.

“That was truly a moment of: it really works. Not just because someone says it feels different, but because when you test it, nothing happens anymore.”

Later, in her own practice, she treated a client with an apple allergy. The woman had brought an apple with her at Astrid’s request. After the session, she cautiously took a bite, waited, and took another. No itching, no reaction: eventually, she ate the entire apple. Astrid emphasizes that safety and the severity of an allergy are always taken into account (for example, she knew in advance that there was no risk of a life-threatening situation for the client mentioned above when eating the apple), but it is precisely that visible result that she finds fascinating.

“Normally, after a session, you ask someone how they feel when they think about the situation. But this time, someone actually bit into that apple, and nothing happened. I find that incredibly convincing.”

Talk therapy and hypnosis: a powerful combination

Astrid does not follow a set formula in which every problem must be solved within one or three sessions. Her clients come for therapy and are often accustomed to longer treatment processes in Germany, partly because the public healthcare system has long waiting lists. She compares a problem to an onion: as soon as one layer is peeled away, another layer may become visible. Sometimes a single session is enough to address a specific fear or phobia, while a broader issue requires more time.

“You can get somewhere through conversation alone, but when combined with hypnotherapy, progress is often much faster. One layer is peeled away, and then you can get to what lies beneath.”

This also means she has learned to carefully manage expectations. Right at the beginning of her training, she told a client with a fear of driving too emphatically that the problem would be solved after just one session. As a result, the client felt she wasn’t being taken seriously. It became an important learning moment: a therapist must not only believe in rapid change but also align with the pace and beliefs of the person in front of them.

“I don’t have to challenge a client’s own belief that it will take time for his or her problems to be resolved. I can show what’s possible while respecting what feels credible to that client.”

A down-to-earth practice in Aachen, Germany

Today, Astrid sees clients at her practice in Aachen and also works online. She offers therapy in Dutch, German, and English, which suits the international students and academics associated with the city’s major technical university. Some analytically minded clients choose her precisely because of her background as an electrical engineer and researcher. They feel she speaks their language.

“One client literally said he came to me because I used to be an electrical engineer. Fine—apparently, that’s the approach that makes him feel safe enough to talk.”

Scientific thinking, human curiosity, and practical hypnosis techniques are what define Astrid. She enjoys continuing her education and, even after completing HIN 3.0 (Hypno Pathfinder), attended additional seminars, such as the one led by Justin Tranz. In Astrid’s practice, hypnosis is a flexible component of therapy that helps her guide people to the core of their issues more quickly.

“I often feel a deep sense of fulfillment because I realize that I can truly help people. After that long detour, I’m finally doing the work that suits me.”

More information about Astrid’s practice and her online sessions can be found at www.frankort.de

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