Hypnosis Secrets for Medical Professionals

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Welcome to this week’s episode of promising young Surgeon. This week, Melisse Prusinski joins us to discuss hypnosis, the role that it can play for physicians, and she will then lead us in a guided hypnosis session together. First, we’ll start off with an introduction to hypnosis. In the realm of psychological therapy and personal development, hypnosis stands out as a powerful and intriguing tool. It’s often portrayed in media as a mysterious technique involving a swinging pocket watch and a person being put into a trance. But the reality is far more nuanced and scientifically grounded. At its core, hypnosis is a state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a form of unconsciousness or mind control. Instead, it’s a state in which the mind becomes highly receptive to suggestions and imagery, allowing individuals to tap into their subconscious resources and make positive changes in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The process of hypnosis typically involves inducing a state of relaxation and deep focus, often through guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, or rhythmic breathing techniques. Once in this state, individuals are in a place of increased creativity and more open to therapeutic suggestions aimed at addressing specific goals or concerns, such as overcoming phobias, reducing stress and anxiety, improving self confidence, or even managing pain. While the exact mechanisms underlying hypnosis are still being explored, research suggests that it involves a combination of neurological, psychological, and physiological processes. For example, a Stanford 2016 study used functional mris to show that hypnosis can lead to changes in brain activity, particularly in regions associated with attention, cognitive control, and self awareness. Of course, hypnosis is not a one size fits all approach. Different individuals may respond to hypnosis in varying ways, influenced by factors such as their level of suggestibility, personality traits, and prior experiences with hypnosis or related practices such as meditation. Overall, hypnosis offers a fascinating avenue for personal growth and self improvement, as well as self awareness, harnessing the power of the mind to facilitate positive change. As we delve deeper into the world of hypnosis, in this episode, we’ll explore its applications, benefits, and misconceptions, shedding light on this captivating practice and its potential to transform lives. Melisse Prusinski is a highly skilled therapist with a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University. She is also a, trained and certified hypnotherapist by the National Guild of Hypnotists. She’s a mom and just started her worker owned wellness center, watershed wellness cooperative. Thank you so much for joining me today, Melisse.

Melisse Prusinski: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Frances Mei, I’d love to kind of get into discussion with you about a few items, and then we can jump right into the hypnosis session.

How is hypnosis different from traditional forms of therapy for healthcare professionals

Melisse Prusinski: Great.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Just to kind of start off, you know, I did do an introduction to hypnosis for people who are totally new to this, but especially in the world of healthcare. You know, I know that you have worked with healthcare workers for years, and of course, like, we face our own unique set of stressors at work and things like that for people who haven’t heard about this or been exposed to it before, in what ways is hypnosis therapy different from, like, traditional forms of therapy? And what can it help treat for, like, medical professionals?

Melisse Prusinski: Traditional forms of therapy? People usually think of talk therapy. They think of coming in, just trauma dumping or telling their week, having a placed event and checking it off and saying, I went in and I did therapy. especially with healthcare professionals who are busy and solution focused for hypnosis. It’s like, you can come in and I say, you can get three months of talk therapy within one session. You can get down to the heart of it within one session. The root, figure out the changes you need. so I think it’s much better. And also, people often think with healthcare professionals, like, oh, you need to give up control with hypnosis, but you actually don’t need to give up control. You’re always in control. So it’s really good for people who they would say, oh, I have control issues. Hypnosis won’t work for me. I have to be in control. That’s who hypnosis is perfect for. High achievers, more creative can problem solve. Like, hypnotherapy is great for that population. So a lot of my practice has been word of mouth from other healthcare professionals. That’s how it, that’s a big part of it.

I personally found hypnosis extremely helpful when dealing with PTSD in training

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Yeah, I really appreciate you kind of, like, taking down that stigma, because definitely agree, you know, I do want to share a little bit about my experience with hypnosis and everything. You know, when I graduated from my surgical residency and you know this, I was dealing with PTSD from trauma in training. I personally found hypnosis extremely helpful as part of, like, kind of a multimodality approach to heal from that. And I, I would echo the sentiment you just shared, and I feel like I was able to do a lot in just a couple sessions. And I was arriving at answers that I think would have taken me years to reach in talk therapy, if ever. Like, honestly, probably things that I wanted to go to the grave without ever, like, really looking directly in the face. Of course, now I’m glad I did. And I can also personally speak to the increased creativity and problem solving ability that is available when under.

Hypnosis therapy taps into the subconscious mind to help people cope with traumatic experiences

In terms of, the role of the subconscious mind in processing and coping with traumatic experiences. Can you explain the role of the subconscious mind in processing and coping with traumatic experience and then how hypnosis therapy taps into that aspect of the mind?

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah. so in the basic language I use, it’s, you know, when a traumatic event happens, or, like, even people often think, oh, this was a big traumatic event, like a car accident. and so they’re pinpointing everything around that. They’re saying, oh, I’m responding to, you know, abandonment or a fear of rejection, because I already know what this one major trauma is. What they’re not realizing is many times there’s been wounds of vacancy, I’ve heard them be called, that are all kind of jumbled together, and they don’t really realize it. And so when I say it’s basic brain science, it’s like, as we’re falling asleep, you’re going through the theta waves and you’re coming up through the theta waves, and that’s where a lot of change can happen. You can recognize things. And so it’s like we just stay in that state and, when we do exploratory or suggestive, ask questions when you’re in that beta wave state and maybe do some internal family systems parts work or inner child work, and people might be surprised, they’ll think, oh, I need to go back and handle this car accident or handle this major trauma of being in residency. And that’s part of it. But there’s more stuff that comes up that’s been stuck in there strangely. Many times it’s been, like, kicked out of a group when you were in middle school, like, kicked out of. And that stuck in there. And then it’s like, re reminded when something else happens. So I think when you say the subconscious, it’s like, what got set in there for survival? You’re doing things for survival and you don’t even recognize you’re doing it. So it’s like figuring that out quickly. And also, the other part is people often call me and say, I’ve been doing coping skills for panic attacks, but it’s not working. I’ve been doing these coping skills. I step outside, I hold ice, I do everything I read online, and I’ll say, yeah, we’re not. You can read how to do, like, read coping skills. We’re going to figure out what you specifically need. So that’s the more creativity when you’re in that subconscious space of being creative of like, you may have never read it out loud online, but it might be, you know, every day you need to anchor yourself and put your hand on your doorway and remind yourself, like a mantra, you know, it’s like it takes everything that you’ve read and has come into your mind, but brings it forward of what is specific for you.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Yes, totally. And with the personalization of coping sales and things like that, like, I know that, you know, we have worked together where you’ve said, okay, what about like this? You’ll say, hey, would this work for you? Do you think that if you were over activated and you did this, would that take you out of it? Like, do you think that that would be effective? Is that practical for that to be, you know, your escape, you know, jump off? And there have been times I’ve been like, no, I wouldn’t do that. I don’t like that one. And we just, you helped me come up with a different one that absolutely is a good substitute. Action thought, something like that. And then, you know, I’ve had much greater lasting results. And just like, overall a better outcome with that, like, level of personalization.

There are two types of hypnosis: exploratory and suggestive

What I think would be great to review is just broadly, like, those two types, exploratory and, suggestive hypnosis. And, like, what they’re, what they entail, what each one’s used for.

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah. So, I think most people think of suggestive when they think of hypnosis. It’s the people who call in for smoking cessation. And I say, that’s super easy. You know, we can do that in one session. Smoking cessation is easy, but the thing is, you have to really want to quit. That’s what makes it easy. or healthier habits, being more productive. The people who say, I’m working from home now, and I’m not, I’m just playing around on my phone. It’s like, if you know exactly what you want to do, we just suggest it back in. When you’re in those theta waves and it sticks, having to study for a test, it’s like if you stick it in and say the times you’re going to do it and you would actually have time to do it, it’ll just stick. So that’s, the client is laying there quietly and I’m just talking, putting in the script that we have come up with together. exploratory is more of that, trauma work and exploratory. I also do if someone comes in for suggestive, and they’re calling me saying, oh, I’m still having a lot of cravings. So someone comes in for smoking, they’re not smoking anymore, but they call back and they say, I’m having a lot of cravings, and we’ll go in and we’ll ask questions. So they’ll talk back and forth, and I might ask questions like, you know what? it’s different with every person. So it’s like, what need does this serve? And many times, it’s like the smoking that was the person’s last device. Everything in their life is so cleaned up, they have nothing else to hide, and they need some rebellious part to come out. So we’re figuring out what is that rebellious part? A big one people come to me for is anger. Having so much anger or loss, and, you know, that it’s loss of control, fear of something, and it’s just getting down into that. And a lot of old, working on the old traumas, like going back to a younger time and talking to yourself at a younger time, or talking to a part of yourself and asking that part what you need. So that’s more exploratory. And from the exploring, then we get answers on what to suggest it.

Exploratory hypnosis is more difficult than suggestive hypnosis

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Would you say that it’s fair to rate exploratory as much more difficult than the suggestive type? Like, for the client?

Melisse Prusinski: yeah, for the client and the hypnotherapist, too, you know, so, I mean, they have scripts online that, you know, you could just get your how to do something script and read it to a group of people and it should stick.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Yeah.

Melisse Prusinski: And that’s a lot of what the hypnosis trainings are, are just a suggestive thing. And so it’s, you know, more difficult and a little more nuanced to do the exploratory because with hypnosis, it’s not regulated. So anyone could just go and take a hypnosis course. And with the exploratory, you would want, you know, a trained therapist that is not afraid to get someone out if they are, go into a panic or have a panic attack or go into a dark place. So you would definitely, with exploratory, would want a trained hypnotherapist that understands different modalities to work with it.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Absolutely.

Hypnosis can contribute to overall well being and resilience, you know

And so for, like, doctors, medical professionals specifically, how would you say that, like, hypnosis can contribute to overall well being and resilience, you know, and, like, a lot of skills that. That doctors often are trying to hone and perfect over their careers.

Melisse Prusinski: stress resiliency, for one. Being more productive with, like, the hierarchy of what they need, being more empathetic with the people around them that they have to work with, because people have to, healthcare workers have to work within teams of people, and they don’t always like their personalities. So being more empathetic and being more like, okay, that’s having those boundaries, those energetic boundaries of, that is their issue. This is mine. Their energy isn’t going to cross mine. reminding themselves why they even did it. Because a lot of people, by the time they get through and they’re doing, it’s like, why did you even go into this career? What do you love about it? So every day having that intention of, like, this is the work I want to do in this world. This is why I chose this work. Not everyone does it, but this is why I chose to do it. So it’s reminding themselves of, like, who they are, and then they can take the skills and do it themselves. And I know people who’ve done it. That’s a big part of it, too, is self hypnosis. So people will, like, get to work early and spend 1015 minutes in their car before they go in to set their day. Right, totally.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: So kind of, you know, one thing that you were just mentioning is, like, taking ownership of one’s decisions. And then right before that, you were talking about, like, separation of tasks, which, again, yeah, both of these things are like, they should make every doctor go through a boot camp for both, before they’re, like, set loose on the hospital.

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah. Yeah.

Are there any other misconceptions or myths surrounding hypnosis that you frequently encounter

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Are there any other misconceptions or myths surrounding hypnosis therapy that you frequently encounter, especially for your healthcare workers? And how would you address those? I know you already talked about one.

Melisse Prusinski: I think a big one is people are concerned that it’s not evidence based or there’s not research around it. And they’ll say, I want EMDR. And I just think that EMDR has a good marketing around it. I’m like, this is like, the quicker, faster, like, EMDR or brain spotting. so that’s a common thing that healthcare workers want to see, research or have it evidence based. Another misconception is that it’s like stage hypnosis, where you’re going to lose control. you’re going to let. People are concerned that they’re going to let secrets out, that it’s. That’s a misconception. you know, rarely do I hear someone afraid that they’re gonna get stuck in it and can’t come out. But that does come up once in a while. But it’s like you can always come in and out of it. another misconception is I can never relax. I’m not going to be able to relax. This isn’t gonna work. And so I’ll say, you know, there’s testing to see if you’re in those theta waves or not, but even if you’re just relaxed and not fully in those theta waves, it’s still going to work. And so I always say the data is in. If the behaviors you want to go down, go down, or the positive behaviors increase, and we can count those. Like, we can see those. So that’s the data for each person.

Sometimes smoking cessation can be one session, but sometimes it takes several

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Does it sometimes take several sessions to fully get rid of, like, a specific behavior, though, or something like that? I know you mentioned sometimes, like, smoking cessation can be one session, and I’ve definitely anecdotal, totally heard that from people, but.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: You know, can it, can it just take several? Is that very person dependent?

Melisse Prusinski: It’s very person dependent because it’s like what you uncover in one session, you can keep needing a few more to uncover a few more. So I. When I first talk to someone on the phone or do our first intake, I can kind of know. Then I’ll be like, I think this is going to take two to three sessions, but sometimes there’s just more and more things come up, and so that needs a few more sessions of why something is happening. You know, like taking anger, for example. Like, someone can have one session and say, oh, I get it. Now I understand how my anger is protecting me from, you know, feeling rejected. So I get angry before I get rejected. But then they come back the next week and they’re like, okay, I understand it. I’m in relation. It’s not stopping. So then we have to do another one of, like, what do they need to stop it? So it just takes a few. Sometimes.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Yeah. Like just pulling on this loose thread.

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah, but it’s like five or six at the most. It’s not like years.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Totally.

How can you tell when someone’s in theta waves? Okay, two questions

I do have just two more kind of like, technical experience questions for you. Number one, how can you tell when somebody’s in theta waves?

Melisse Prusinski: Okay, so for me, I tell by their eye movements they’ll be moving or they’ll be doing, like, little jerks, like when you’re falling off the bed, like, or when you’re falling asleep and it feels like you’re going to fall off the bed and you do a little jerk. That’s your theta waves. And, like, for creativity, they used to say that. Or I’ve read somewhere that Salvador Dali, he would fall asleep in a chair with his keys in his hands, and he’d start to fall asleep. And as soon as the keys dropped, that’s when he would start painting, because he knew that’s right. Like, right when his data waves were there. So that’s. So people will twitch in the chairs and their eyes will move, and that’s how I will know they’re there. But, I mean, I’ve been surprised, too, or someone has said, wow, this is the deepest that I’ve ever went doing this with you. And they didn’t look that deep to me at all. So it’s usually the eye movement is what I notice.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: And then in terms of, like, every person’s experience and the sensations with it, like, of course, there’s, yeah, popular movies like the movie get out by Jordan Peele and everything. but I mean, how many people kind of feel sunken like that? Versus, like, are there other sensations that people describe?

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah, that. So what was shown in that movie, the sunken feeling, I mean, that is a common feeling that I feel. I feel that way when I am. I feel sunken in. Other people say that they feel floating around the room or elevated or that their body isn’t even there. And they’ll say it during it. They’ll say, this is really weird. I don’t feel my body. And I’ll say, yeah, that’s common. That’s common. And whenever you want, you can go back into your body. And so, but so some, you know, you’re always in control, but people will say, this is weird, or, I’ve heard my body takes up the whole room.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Whoa. So, yeah, I would say I also feel sunken like, it’s only ever been like that. I kind of. I kind of wish I’m, like, jealous of those other people. Like, I want to fly around, do stuff. Yeah, no, I feel sunken, like, but it’s pretty cool. And I really appreciate you coming on today, and I’m excited to get to the hypnosis session, so we’ll jump into that next.

This technique can help you relax when you’re stressed at work

Melisse Prusinski: Okay, so for this session, it’s going to be to help you, let go of some things and bring some, other things in for abundance to help you with your everyday work, whether you’re a healthcare provider or not. I just want to start by saying, if you are driving a car or any other moving vehicle, you m probably don’t want to listen to this during that, you want to be in a comfortable place where you don’t have to worry about anyone but yourself. As you get comfortable, you want to make sure that your head has somewhere to lean back on. And you’ll just start by noticing your out breaths. Let your in breaths go to wherever they want to go. M you don’t need to attach any story to where they’re going. They’re perfect, just like you were born perfect. M and then every out breath just dipping more into your knowing. And your body knows what your knowing is. So m every out breath just going deeper and deeper inside of yourself in the simple act. Noticing your out breath slows down your whole parasympathetic nervous system. So it’s something you can do when you’re stressed at work with the amount of things you need to do. M if you’re in a courageous conversation with someone, you can just notice your out breath and the other person doesn’t even need to know you’re doing it. And if your eyes aren’t closed at this point, you can just allow them to feel heavier and heavier, unable to keep them open until they close. And then now notice as you were breathing out where your body was dipping down to many times it’s somewhere in your midline, your chest, your sternum, or, way deep down, the space between your belly button and your tailbone. Just continuing to dip into that significant area and allow your hands to be heavy, loose and limp like a wet dish rag. Just heavy, loose and limp with your eyes. Feel as if there is a magnet holding them together and it’s getting stronger and stronger and stronger where there’s glue holding your eyelids shut. In a moment you’re going to try to open them, but you’re going to be unable to open them because you’re choosing to have your eyelids stuck together. So just try now and try to open your eyes and see if you can. M then just letting them relax, allowing them to stay closed. And now you will open them and open your eyes and m close your eyes and just allow yourself to go deeper. Every out breath just going deeper. Any sounds you hear from now until the end of the process will just serve to relax you even more. Any sounds outside your room that you’re in outdoors or yourself shuffling around will just serve to relax you even more.

I’ll have you see yourself at the top of a staircase

Then I’ll have you see yourself at the top of a staircase. And this staircase has ten steps down. In each step down, you’re going to go deeper inside of yourself. So starting at the top now ten another step down. Nine. Allowing yourself to drift. Eight. Deeper and deeper. Seven. Going down. Six. Sinking down to all your subdermal layers. Five. Almost to the bottom. Four. All the way down. Three. Even deeper inside of yourself. Two, and m. One, deep, deep. Letting go. In m this space, you are more creative. You have the increased ability to problem solve. You have access to your midbrain, where survival, obsessions, addiction set. You have access to planes of reality that have been trained out of us within our current culture. You have access to that which is unseen, that we can’t explain in this space. Notice what you see in this space, what you intrinsically feel, allowing it to come into your awareness. And m then just, feeling inside of you anything that wants to be lifted out that’s holding you back. Is there any negative core beliefs, old internal messaging? Any thoughts that might be holding you back? These are the things that you usually go to therapy about or talk to friends about. The shadow parts of you that are not your favorite parts. I want you to feel those lifting up and out of you. The I’m not worthy. I’m not good enough. I’m an impostor, I don’t know what I’m doing. All of that feel it lifting up and out of you, out of your body and pixelating into the air. Also m feeling lifting up and out of you. Anything that you’re not even aware of that’s holding you back, anything you picked up from the media, society, the family you grew up in, just see it coming up and out of your pores, pixelating into the air. And then get it out of all your nooks and crannies behind your head, out of your spinal column, m in between your elbows, wrists, out of your ankles. Get it out of everywhere. Anything that no longer serves you. You m. May notice a giant breath as you’re releasing. And then just notice how much lighter you feel when you’re not carrying that all around. How much more free and abundant, how much more open you are to new experiences. Changes everything that keeps you in flow. And then invite to come into you and fill you up. Any of that m which would be helpful on your journey. Anything that you want to bring in. Worthiness, validation, confidence, being seen. Feel that coming into you and filling you up, pumping through your veins, down to your fingertips and toes. Every breath in. You could envision breathing in white light or white steam, bringing in all the, juicy, succulent abundance that is yours. And feel how good that feels having all that oxygen come in and then allow it to come into your awareness.

Make an agreement with yourself to look for opportunities for joy

What are the activities and events you do every single day where you feel completely connected to yourself and others? You completely enjoy it. You lose track of time, where it speeds up. Is it connecting with your family? Doing a hobby or sport at work? Connecting with the patients or other coworkers? Helping with systemic change, really allowing it to come into your awareness? What puts you into a state of that energetic flow, the mark that you are leaving on this world and making a new agreement with yourself. That you will notice the opportunities to put yourself in your own energetic flow. Whenever you can, you will go towards those opportunities. You’ll take the risks for the opportunities. M see yourself in six months from now, in November. See how you’ll be living your life differently. What will be different in your life? See yourself. How you would look, the clothes you’d be wearing, where you would be if you were truly living. M doing the things that bring you true joy. Who would you be close to? Would there be new people in your life? Where would you be living or visiting? Just m really experiencing that. M and then coming back into yourself. Going back to that knowing from the beginning, noticing m it knowing where it is in your body. Just noticing if it feels more grounded, like a weighted blanket. Or if that knowing feels more open and free and expansive. Just noticing that that is specific to you and your knowing. And then I’ll just count you up from one to five. One, just feeling where your body is connected to the surface underneath you. M two, noticing any sensations in your body now, any differences from when we started? Three, wiggling your fingers and toes, making any movements that are needed.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: M.

Melisse Prusinski: Four, getting ready to flood your eyes open.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: M.

Melisse Prusinski: And five, fully fluttering your eyes open and coming back into the room or wherever you’re at. Just reminding yourself of the new agreement you made to look for opportunities for joy. And thank you for participating in that.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you so much.

Melisse Prusinski: I’m,

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Sometimes, like, a little bit discombobulated afterwards.

Melisse Prusinski: Did you do it, too? Did you do it?

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: I did. I did it with everyone.

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah, you did it with everyone.

Some people question whether hypnosis therapy is evidence based

Yet what did you notice, Francis May? Did you notice anything?

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: You know, one thing I’ve noticed, just, like, because this is like a years long journey, you know, over a year now for me. And so I I’ve noticed, like, it’s so much easier for me to get to that place. Like, that’s for sure. It’s not, you know, it hasn’t been, like, a one time thing in my practice or anything like that. And so, yes, it was very easy for me to get there. I always like the exercises kind of like energy renewal, where we do those visualizations. So I really enjoyed that. I just feel like this is such a great practice that, yes, can augment, like, everything else that we’re trying to do in life. Maybe like, read self help books, maybe, like, shift from a fixed into a growth mindset. Like, even from the business side of things, a lot of us are trying to do that. Okay, well, you know, I really, of course, love this as part of a multi modality, you know, approach to becoming the best people we can be.

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: One thing that I did want to mention real quick, just as a callback to when you talked about, you know, some people question hypnosis therapy, or they kind of say, well, like, show me the data. I mean, there are instances in the literature that are very supportive of this type of therapy. And so I did want to just kind of, like, point that out really quick. List a couple, and we can always put them in the show notes and things like that. But, like, Oxford University Press published in 2008 the Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis Theory, research and Practice. And that’s, like a comprehensive handbook. There’s also a meta analysis that came out in journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, you know, decades ago now, but supportive journal of behavioral Medicine, things like that. So there is literature out there that supports this therapy. So I guess if somebody told me, like, wow, you’re doing something that’s, like, not evidence based, like, you’re. You’re pretty out there, I’d be like, well, it is evidence based.

Melisse Prusinski: So, yeah, yeah. And maybe that is why I get more healthcare workers, because I do feel like it is, you know, it goes. It goes along more with neuroscience. And so maybe that is often why I do get more healthcare workers, but I get, overall, I often hear, is it even evidence based? And then overall, I also am saying to people, you can grad school, like, anything, like, get into your body. So I’m always often being like, but I’m so glad you brought that up, Francis May. And I’m so glad you’re gonna have that in there. And that is a good idea. I should have that.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Totally have it on the ready. I think that the one that I liked the most that I had seen from my lit review before this was the Stanford 2016 study, because they actually used functional mris in that, like, a very hard science to say, okay, hypnosis leads to changes in brain activity, particularly in regions associated with attention, cognitive control, and self awareness. Like, I will just definitely and, you know, like, as an early career surgeon, like, a lot of us get on the conveyor belt of medicine early on in life. Like, a lot of us are teenagers when we make that decision that this is what we’re going to pursue professionally and dedicate our lives to. And you get on the conveyor belt and it is quite time consuming and attention consuming to become a surgeon. And then you kind of, you know, then you’re an attending. So maybe you’re in your thirties and, like, you don’t really know yourself and some of us don’t want to know ourselves. But I think that particularly some of this, like, self awareness and exploration work has really changed my life. You know, even though, yeah, I’m not really in my formative years anymore, but some of us skip those.

Do you believe in karma or past life regressions

So I do want to close by asking you my favorite question. Do you believe in karma?

Melisse Prusinski: Yeah, no, I believe in karma. I mean, yeah, I mean, I believe in past life regressions too, you know, which is, you know, I believe in all of that. I believe that we are all meeting each other for a reason, and there’s a bigger universal thing going on. I mean, I don’t know if I believe in karma as if you do something bad and then something bad is going to come back to you, but I definitely believe it in it as there’s a bigger universal energy that we don’t understand. And we all meet each other for reasons that we don’t fully understand at that moment. And we might, in multiple lifetimes, re meet the same people over and over.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: I love that. Wait, have you seen the movie past lives?

Melisse Prusinski: yes. Yes, I love. Yes, I love that.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: It was so good. I cried so much. But that’s what I think of when you say that.

Melisse Prusinski: Oh, yes.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: That was incredible.

Frances Mei: I really enjoyed chatting with Dr. Meleese

Okay, well, thank you so much for joining me today. Melisse. It’s such a privilege to learn from you and, you know, really enjoyed chatting about this and then doing the hypnosis session with you.

Melisse Prusinski: Yes, thank you for having me.

Dr. Frances Mei Hardin: Follow me on Instagram at Frances Mei, MD and rethinkingresidency. Visit my website, rethinkingresidency.com to learn more about resident physician stories and ways that residents can most effectively navigate the game of residential. I cannot wait to connect with you on the next episode of promising young Surgeon.