Practitioner Anna Edwards helps people recover, relax, reset
Long before she became a certified practitioner, Anna Edwards knew first-hand the benefits of hypnotherapy.
Her and husband Jesse Edwards’ 11-year-old daughter, Leiloni, is a competitive gymnast who enters meets across the western United States and realized enhanced performance levels after working with Anacortes hypnotherapist Kelly Woods.
“She told Leiloni that she loves what she does and makes good money at it,” Anna says of Woods, who has practiced hypnosis for more than 20 years.
Later, when Anna found herself between careers, she remembered what Woods had said to Leiloni. Hypnotherapy intrigued her as a fulfilling venture going forward, she had seen it work, and envisioned hypnosis as an outlet that could help others achieve their true potential.
“I gave Kelly a ring and she recommended training at the Cascade Hypnosis Center in Bellingham,” Anna Edwards recalls.
The field interested Edwards and appealed to her empathetic nature. She enrolled in classes and completed an extensive course of study 13 months ago. In September of this year, after securing a Swinomish Tribal Community business startup grant, she opened Kai-Zen Hypnosis Services at the Thrive Direct Health Care Clinic in La Conner.
Her office moniker is inspired by the Japanese philosophy that values making small improvements daily over time. Anna notes that hypnotherapy is intended to improve all aspects of everyday life — from stress relief and pain management to reducing anxiety and visualizing success. It can even curb harmful habits, she says.
“One of my goals is to dispel the myth of hypnosis,” she says, referring to dubious Hollywood-inspired images of magical mind control methods inducing hollow trances and brainwashed behavior.
In reality, she says, hypnosis fosters a state of deep relaxation and heightened awareness. Mental imagery and verbal cues are employed to access inner resources for positive change. Anna says undergoing hypnosis is comparable to being absorbed in a good book or movie.
The idea, despite popular depictions, isn’t to achieve unconsciousness. It’s to reach the subconscious mind and enable it to become more receptive to helpful ideas.
“The power of hypnosis,” Anna says, “is to get to the subconscious.”
In other words, to connect the brain with the heart and create the synergy necessary to address specific needs.
“It’s a great tool to help with trauma,” she says. “People with trauma need to feel safe to receive heart-based healing.”
Anna said that Jesse, a Swinomish Fish & Game Enforcement Officer and current tribal senate candidate, is relishing his role as co-owner of Kai-Zen Hypnosis.
“He’s been super supportive,” she says. “And while I’m here for anyone and everyone, we know that tribal communities tend to be underserved communities. Our hope is to make inroads with tribal communities up and down the coast.”
In keeping with that outreach effort, the Kai-Zen Hypnosis logo was designed by another of Jesse’s daughters, Nakiya Luna, a Swinomish Tribal Community member and acclaimed artist.
Anna says her approach with Kai-Zen clients is gently paced, comprehensive and collaborative.
“We come up with solutions together,” she says. “I give my clients all the credit. They’re the heroes in all this. They do the work.”
For Anna Edwards, helping others isn’t work at all. It’s a calling she feels blessed to have discovered.
“I love seeing everyone,” she says. “My belief is that when one person heals, we all heal.”
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
