Dr. G Fredric Mau

Dr. Fredric Mau is a National Certified Counselor, Distance Credentialed Counselor, Board Certified Hypnotherapist, and Certified Instructor of hypnosis. He was awarded the Research Award by the National Guild of Hypnotists in 2016 and the HypnoScience award for research advancing the profession of hypnosis at the 2013 international Hypnosekongress in Zürich, Switzerland. I regularly speaks at conferences in Europe, including presentations in Zürich, London, and Berlin.

He has been the keynote speaker for the Tennessee Counseling Association and Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, as well as plenary speaker for the South Carolina Counseling Association and the South Carolina Association of Licensed Professional Counselors.

People often ask how I ended up being a hypnotist. "I lost a card game with the devil," I say. Some look startled, as if I maybe meant it. Then I explain. I'd been laid off from my corporate job, and was doing some consulting work and looking for honest labor. I ran into a guy who owned a local hypnosis center - "You should come work for me," he said. "You'd be great at this."

My reply - "That's completely crazy."

But I was intrigued. Hypnosis seemed like such a mysterious process. Why not, I decided.

As I began working with these beautiful, poetic processes I found out just how powerful this is in helping people create real, substantive changes. I trained and was certified, began my own practice, eventually a national board certification as a hypnotherapist. I eliminated the pain of a herniated disk in my back using hypnosis. Eventually I became a professional counselor to be able to treat, diagnose, and provide the best for my clients.

It is interesting working through the looking glass. Almost all models of change are cognitive, but emotion drives behavior. Relaxation processes allow me to work much more directly with emotion, to facilitate faster, deeper change. Even after all the understanding I've gained of how these processes work at the level of brain physiology, I am still amazed at the changes people can achieve through this means.

As a practicing therapist I never know who will walk through the door next. The truck driver who became afraid to drive, the pilot who became afraid to fly. Then there was the woman who told me she was afraid of horses.

I'm thinking, how bad can that be? So I ask, "Are you around horses much?"

"I'm an equestrian! I love horses. I raise horses. I train horses - horses are my life."

Clients bring in not just phobias, but all sorts of stress, anxiety, trauma, and even physical pain. Every person is a puzzle. Each day is an exercise in giving people their lives back.

At any rate, I live in on a wooded acre in Columbia, South Carolina, which turns out to be a fantastic arts town. I hope you enjoy the book.