Meet Brenda Williams

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brenda Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brenda, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

Making a difference in people’s lives has always been important to me. Even as a small child, I knew I wanted to be a teacher, which became a lifelong calling, whether I was helping with preschoolers at church at age 12, teaching and caring for little children was always something I felt a deep pull toward. The other piece of it is, why are people the way they are? I’ve always been fascinated by the forces shaping and molding people’s lives.

It’s easy to see, looking back, how those drew me into education, ministry, and now a career as a certified hypnotist, especially as a hypnotist. Most people wouldn’t see the parallels between the role of educator and hypnotist, but both specialize in drawing people into a better life path, behavior changes, and more. What no one seems to realize is that good teachers use hypnosis all the time. They don’t realize it, but when students are hanging on the teacher’s every word, meaning the teacher gives a suggestion and students instantly and automatically comply, that’s a light level of hypnosis. I certainly feel that teaching has given me a strong foundation for hypnosis work.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

YouTube version: Brenda’s Story

As a first year teacher in Arizona, I was undercertified to teach what I was teaching, which is actually quite common in certain states. I came to a place where I needed help and no one was there for me. A long story shorter, I finished that year with “a little PTSD. Summer vacation eventually came, and I expected to just move forward and put it behind me, but when I sat down to do my certification homework, I’d be right back there in the classroom. Several times, while visiting my new school I found myself sitting in my car, trying to force myself to get out of the car and go inside when everything inside me that likes to feel safe and secure urged me to run, to leave and never come back.

Obviously, there was some emotional baggage I needed to process. So I was reaching out in faith and searching for something, I didn’t know what. I met with my doctor and my old psychotherapist, but neither had a great solution for me. When I ended up at a family church camp with a friend of mine, Christian Skoorsmith from Seattle Washington, who had been a hypnotherapist for a couple of years.

We accomplished as much in those three sessions as I had in the two year period with my psychotherapist. It was mind-blowing. With those three sessions, I was able to successfully reprocess the early fears and misperceptions that are at the root of PTSD. I’d let go of a lot of baggage and the PTSD has never been a problem since. I moved on with life, but with a new dream, I wanted to become a 5-PATH ® hypnotist. It took a couple of years, but I became a certified hypnosis professional in 2021. However, starting my hypnosis business was always on hold so long as I was teaching full-time. In 2023, I had reluctantly signed my contract to teach another year. The following summer, I had this deep sense of knowing that it would be last year teaching. Indeed, if I didn’t make a change, I never would. So, in May 2024, I left my full-time position to follow my dream.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Every family has a little dysfunction to some degree. Mine is no different. My father and my eldest half-brother were kind of a mismatch. While my dad was a good man, very kind, disciplined, and moral, he was also very quiet. He didn’t like noise, he didn’t even like music. My brother was loud, has ADHD, and was incredibly verbal. He would entertain himself by talking and that had to have driven my dad up the wall. After a couple of years, Dad didn’t want him around. There’s a lot of pain there, layers of it. When I look back on this, I greatly appreciate how my mom carefully and honestly explained the dynamics to me, why my father and brother behaved as they did. She did not make either one of them the bad-guy, a victim, or a hero. She was very honest with me. She helped me understand that awesome people can also do terrible, damaging things. It doesn’t make us stop loving that person, but it has allowed me to appreciate and love the complexities of the human experience.

As a result, I have an aversion to living with dysfunction. If there is a problem, I’m going to find a way to fix it. Perhaps that is a legacy of being raised by a scientist, there are lots of ways to solve a problem, and if you try something without success, there’s bound to be something else to try, a variable that can be changed, or a different approach. This is part of what lead me to hypnosis in the first place.

I certainly feel empowered to never give up. I was driven by a refusal to give up when I was between teaching jobs, struggling with PTSD, to seek options, and find tools to heal myself. I believe that my intent seeking was part of what drew my hypnotherapist and I together. My other two qualities also relate to this: faith and perseverance. There was no sense of doom, or helplessness. I was very on finding whatever I needed to make my emotional health and career compatible again. I wouldn’t give up. That same summer, one of the teachers at a neighboring school never showed up for work. She came in during the first days of the school year to clear out her classroom, left her keys behind, never made her intentions known to the school, she just didn’t come back. I never met this teacher, but after hearing the story, I felt an emotional connection as to why she handled simply walked away. But that wasn’t an option for me. I wasn’t going to let my new team down, nor was I ready to give up.

How would you describe your ideal client?

Anyone can benefit from the transformational work we do in hypnosis, but not everyone is willing or ready to take a risk, step out of their comfort zone, and try something a little different. So my ideal client is someone who is ready to make a change.

Several of my clients have come to me because they’re tired of having anger issues, and general feelings of worthlessness. They carried around a lot of baggage for a lot of years, and just wanted to be peaceful and improve their relationships. They found what they are looking for and more. People who frequently blow up and lose their tempers become people of profound peace and joy. They literally let their baggage go and become their best selves. They are peaceful now, they’re happy!

The ideal client is motivated to make a change; maybe they want to leave behind their bad habits, or overcome a fear or phobia. When they are done working with me, they have accomplished their goal, and they are a happier, more peaceful version of themselves than the one that came to see me. What’s more, they learn a powerful tool in the form of 7th Path Self-Hypnosis® . Using 7th Path™, they can continue to shift their thinking in positive directions, continue to process and reprocess the baggage they’ve always had, as well as the normal stress that comes with life.

Everyone of my clients becomes a better version of themselves.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Taigen Williams Photographer

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Highlighter Series
What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?

We asked folks a question that led to many surprising answers – some sad, some

Confidence
Being Effective Even When No One Else is Like You

Inevitably you will find yourself in a room where no one else is like you.

Confidence
Stories of Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Learning from one another is what BoldJourney is all about. Below, we’ve shared stories and