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Hypnosis as a method for actors?
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Hypnosis is so well known in popular culture that the average person could tell you about it: A hypnotist on stage swings a pendulum like a pocketwatch in front of a person's eyes and no mater how much he tries to resist, he falls asleep. The hypnotist implants a suggestion while he's asleep and after he snaps his fingers, the participant awakens. When the hypnotist says the word “chicken,” the participant can't help but cluck like a chicken, embarrassing himself in front of the audience. According to hypnotherapist, Toni Attell, nothing can be further from the truth.
“The biggest misconception about hypnosis is 'Will I lose control? Is this mind control? Will I sleep through it and wake up embarrassed? Will I tell secrets?' The answer to all that is No,” says Attell, who has won the Transpersonal Therapist of the Year Awardfrom the International Hypnosis Federation. “You will do exactly what is correct for you. In other words if there is a problem, you can talk about it as if you were just talking to a person but you are working on many levels with your unconscious and subconscious personality and there is not ego involved and therefore no inner babble.”
Actual hypnosis involves getting relaxed into a meditative-like state, guided by the hypnotherapist 's care and instruction. While in this state, you are conscious enough to deal with issues and experiences of past without the need for self-constraint. Because you are conscious, you are fully aware of your actions and thoughts and will therefore not do anything that you would not want to do, including harming or humiliating yourself. When you are brought out of the state of hypnosis, it will feel like you have been awoken from a nap and you generally feel refreshed with a bit more energy.
In addition to being a certified hypnotherapist, Toni Attell is also an Emmy-nominated actress who taught acting at UCLA, Chapman and other colleges all around Southern California. However, she combines both acting methodology and hypnotherapy in one of the most unique acting coaching classes that she offers: “Hypnosis and Acting.”
“Using it with actors, it helps them memorize scripts and long monologues they cannot get a handle on. It helps create character and can also allow you to go deeper into the character even creating accents and becoming a whole different person that is correct for the audition and or role. It also loosens up the actor. Even with improvisation, in this relaxed state you are able to co-ordinate movement and dialogue in an easier fashion and it totally relaxes the actor into a state of 'going with the flow of what is happening' rather than overthinking it.”
Even though one can get explore the depth of character or a role, Attell strongly points out that it's not healthy that you get so deep into character, that you cannot get out of it. “One thinks of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Batman series. He got so into it; he couldn’t separate from the character and couldn’t even sleep, which may have led to his death.” Hypnosis prevents taking on the worst traits of a character onto your own real-life person when preparing for difficult or challenging roles.
“I think with hypnosis, you are able to go as deep as you want and then bring yourself back up to who you really are in life. It gives you tools that you can use yourself and then when you are finished with what you are doing, bring yourself back into reality of the moment with different modalities of breathing and or other tools you learn with Hypnosis and Acting and go home and have a nice dinner.”
As an experienced actress with knowledge of the business, Toni Attell, not only teaches acting skills with hypnosis, but with improvisation, comedy, and traditional dramatic techniques for her students. What makes Attell probably one of the most practical acting coaches is that she provides one-on-one work with her students, steering them to the right managers and agents so that they are able to audition and land commercials and parts on television and movies.
Attell teaches Hypnosis and Acting at her office on Tuesday nights. She will be teaching “Hypnosis and Intuition for the Actor in Acting” at Los Angeles Valley College in San Fernando Valley this Fall starting September 9th.
For more information on Hypnosis and Acting, Attell can be contacted at either attell@attell.com or by phone at 818-787-8685.
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