Interview with Dr Dorothee Struck, Author: Nina Ebert, M.Sc. Biology
Hypnotherapy has had sensational successes in medicine, among other things with long-standing, painful complaints in women's health, such as fibroids and endometriosis, as well as with the unfulfilled desire to have children. Hypnotherapy is also used as a valuable tool in birth preparation and obstetrics.
In an interview with Dr. Dorothee Struck we gain fantastic insights into the self-healing powers of our organism. What exactly is hypnosis? How is it used in medicine as a therapeutic method? Which forms of nutrition, medicinal plants and nutritional supplements should be integrated into the therapy? The charming and fun-loving gynaecologist had fibroids herself at the age of 28 and after a hypnosis session, a healthy mindset as well as suitable nutrition she is myoma-free to this day, which she tells about impressively in the following article.
Dr. Dorothee Struck - Gynaecologist & Hypnotherapist
Dr Dorothee Struck has been working integratively for many years as a gynaecologist, naturopathic doctor and clinical hypnotherapist, trained by British hypnotherapy luminary Marisa Peer. As a certified RTT® and IACT hypnotherapist, she helps women with fibroids and the desire to have children, and also uses the 3-keys® hypnobirthing method to prepare for childbirth. She runs an established gynaecological practice in Kiel and also offers online courses on learning self-hypnosis, among other things, in order to be able to help as many women as possible to activate and establish their self-healing powers. Her group hypnosis courses are also popular, especially for those who wish to have children, as well as topic-specific individual sessions.
With her warm, powerful and life-affirming attitude "Positive Gynecology & precious pregnancies", Dr. Struck achieves great therapeutic success in women's health and encourages women to live a life free of obstructive beliefs: Focus on the positive - and we can learn to do that.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a type of trance of varying depth in which we consciously control the process of this experience. The control is usually taken over by another person, while the person in trance, by the way, always remains in control. Contrary to many assumptions, it is not the classic "show hypnosis", where the person is beyond their own capacity to act and is completely at the hypnotist's mental mercy. In self-hypnosis, you are the guide through the trance state, but it cannot go to as deep a level as guided hypnosis.
"In hypnosis, we invite the mind to explore new ways of influencing the body and mind".Dr Struck explains.
Hypnosis: Natural state of mind
Trance is a very natural state and exists in many different forms. This includes, for example, being absorbed while reading a book or watching a series. The trance state is usually only noticed when an external stimulus abruptly ends the trance, for example, when someone unexpectedly enters the room and you realise that you have been somewhere else entirely.
Even under the influence of drugs, one gets into a trance state, which can also trigger so-called "horror trips". These are trance states in which the mind uncontrollably brings up emotions and reactions from the subconscious that can no longer be influenced, controlled or stopped. "Of course, that is not what we do with hypnosis", smiles Dr Struck. "With medical hypnosis, patients remain in control the whole time."
Relaxed & open to suggestions
"We put the mind into a completely natural state where the brain waves slow down." The brain waves transition from the active day beta wavelength to alpha or even lower to theta waves. In this state the mind is open and receptive to suggestions. Suggestions are merely suggestions that we give to the mind.
"I cannot go against the participant's inner beliefs, convictions or ethical morals during hypnosis. The patient remains in control all the time in medical hypnosis".says the gynaecologist.
Vehicle into hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy goes one step further: the induced trance, i.e. the state of consciousness where it is possible to communicate with the subconscious, serves only as a vehicle to then treat. This makes it possible to get deep into the cause of something. In this way, a person can be taken back to childhood to capture early childhood trauma. "We cannot undo experiences, but we have the tools to put them into a new framework"., the hypnotherapist pronounces. Once the subconscious is accessible, various individual therapy techniques are used. Dr Dorothee Struck uses techniques from family therapy according to Virginia Satir, NLP or others.
Conclusion Hypnosis vs. hypnotherapy: Hypnosis first means the total relaxation of the mind and the creation of a receptive state. Here too, blockages can be released to some extent, but not as specifically as in individual hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy makes it possible to put the past into a new framework. Traumas as well as negative beliefs are released, the self-healing powers are activated and the body is encouraged to reprogram itself.
Hypnosis in gynaecology
Dr. Struck gives an impressive account of her time at the Institute for Integrative Psychiatry in Kiel, which was connected to one of the only two clinics in Germany at the time that carried out artificial insemination. She wrote her doctoral thesis there in the early 1990s on psychotherapy-effect research and came into contact with hypnosis for the first time in this field between gynaecology and psychology. "In the second hypnosis session, my colleague who was leading the hypnosis brought me into dialogue with my fibroids - it was incredible. After a year they were gone."
Myomas and hypnosis
At the age of only 28, Dr. Struck, then still an assistant doctor, palpated two Myomas and turned directly to her gynaecologist. She had learned: Myomas are dangerous, can grow, cause heavy bleeding, pregnancy is impossible and probably my uterus will have to be removed. Negative beliefs, she learned. Her gynaecologist at the time diagnosed two fibroids, about 3 cm in size, and offered two alternatives: 1. take the pill, 2. first examine her lifestyle, i.e. take a close look at stress and diet. Dr Struck admits: "At that time I had a lot of stress due to my studies and parallel part-time jobs, which meant that I lived almost exclusively on cheese sandwiches. Maybe I had a yoghurt once in a while, very rarely with fresh fruit in it, but I didn't have time to cut vegetables." Seeing a homeopath and eating more consciously for the time being meant that the fibroids did not grow any more. However, one of the fibroids was right at the cervix and the carousel of thoughts continued to revolve around questions like "Can I get pregnant like this?
Dialogue with fibroids
The hypnosis session mentioned above allowed Dr Struck to enter into a dialogue with her fibroids. Her eyes still light up when she talks about the insight she received from this session and the miracle that happened. "Don't believe everything you learned at university!" That was the main message of this session. "Maybe fibroids are not so dangerous and maybe I can do something myself to take care of myself."Ms Struck then reported that the fibroids had not been found since then. They had disappeared, as had the head circling. "It is extremely important to me to share this with all the women out there."
Hypnosis for infertility and fertility
At the beginning of 2000, Dr Struck began to work on the topic of infertility. This led her to sensational successes at a London fertility clinic: "With one to three hypnosis sessions, doctors increased the success of artificial insemination from 25% to 55% - Better egg rate, better fertilisation rate, better implantation rate."
The therapist was Marisa Peer, with whom Dr Struck trained in RTT Hypnotherapy, the Rapid Transformation Therapy, went through.
RTT Hypnotherapy - Rapid Transformation
There are various approaches to hypnotherapy, often designed on the model of classical psychological psychotherapy sessions, i.e. 10-20 sessions of 50 minutes each. "What I like about RTT hypnotherapy, Rapid Transformational Therapy, is its high and effective transformative power. The sessions go particularly deep and usually take longer, but usually much less is needed. Everything that comes up in a session is also cleared up. It is about finding the deep causes of symptoms".affirms the hypnotherapist.
Recognise the message behind the symptom
In the state of trance, the central messages behind an illness can be explored: What does our subconscious want to say with certain illnesses and symptoms? Where is the root? When did it start? "At some point, the soul usually says to the body in pain: You do something, it listens to you".Dr Struck illustrates the traumas of the soul that have often been kept under the surface for many years. This means that emotional pain or trauma accumulates until it turns into physical symptoms and often only surfaces as a symptom much later than the actual cause. Then the symptom is usually treated, but not the deep root.
Transform negative beliefs
One thing is to recognise the message or to be taken back to early childhood situations. It is a matter of feeling once again which emotions have taken hold and have stored a physically detectable belief system. The other thing is to turn this belief system around and reprogramme it. "In hypnotherapy we cut the bug out of the system, so to speak, and write a new programme over it".illustrates Dr Struck. "With RTT, patients are given a recording of the hypnosis session and subsequent tasks. For women, a period of 28 days is ideal. This corresponds to one cycle, one revolution of the moon, to listen to the new beliefs again and again, to repeat them and to internalise them."
Nutrition for fibroids
"Nutrition is always the basis. It's like computer science: GIGO - Garbage in Garbage out. If I eat badly, the programme can't run," the doctor compares. "Medicinal plants are absolutely important I work a lot with my patients. There is so much that women can do themselves." As important supportive diets and diets for Myomas Dr Struck also provides important tips.
- No soy and dairy products for more than 3 months
To begin with, it is important to very strictly eliminate all products made from soy as well as dairy products made from sheep's, goat's and cow's milk, including cheese, yoghurt and cream from the diet. All these products contain many growth factors and have an oestrogen-promoting effect. Oestrogen stimuli promote fibroid growth.
- Eat warm & warm up digestive organs
According to TCM, dairy products are cold and high in protein. They cost the body a lot of energy to transform. If the spleen meridian is weakened for various reasons, it has difficulty with this and this leads to stagnation. Stagnation is a contributory cause of fibroid and cyst formation in the reproductive organs. That is, always eat soup before salad, eat hot meals in peace.
"A quick salad, raw vegetables or yoghurt for a quick lunch is the worst thing a woman can do, especially in these cool latitudes like we have in Germany," says Dr Struck. "Frutarians and raw foodists also have a hard time. Hot meals like porridge are great, and I always recommend Green tea extract."
- Sort out plastic
Plastic bottles, shrink-wrapped food or plastic bowls at the snack bar are not only bad for the environment, but also contain plasticisers that have a xenoestrogen effect in the body, i.e. they promote oestrogen, and thus stimulate the growth of fibroids or the development of endometriosis. It continues with cosmetics, for example non-organic sunscreen cream, which is applied to the whole body and exerts its oestrogen-promoting effect.
Myomas: Green tea & warm meals
Dr Struck advises warm porridge for breakfast.
"People eat because they are struggling with loneliness, because they are afraid, because they put on a "protective coat", because they were sexually harassed in puberty and experienced that the weak girls are harassed more - there are so many reasons. This can be remedied in hypnotherapy. "The will for a sustainable, stable, individually healthy diet then comes automatically from the subconscious".summarises the gynaecologist.
Conclusion: First and foremost, it is not about giving people knowledge about nutrition, but about bringing the mind into a stable state of well-being, that women want to eat healthy from the inside out. Hypnosis is important for this.
Nutritional supplementation in myoma therapy
According to Dr Struck, the basis of therapy means giving women responsibility and trust. For the first three months, the diet, especially the avoidance of dairy and soy products, should be very strict. "After that, things can loosen up a bit"says the doctor. "After all, you want to go out to a restaurant with your girlfriends again sometime or enjoy your aunt's favourite cake." However, targeted nutritional supplements, especially green tea extract and various medicinal plants, as well as an individually adjusted vitamin and mineral supply are indispensable for this. The vitamin status of vitamin B12, vitamin D and the iron stores should always be checked, as should the value of the red blood cells.
Are fibroids really a disease?
"Before, I only had a picture of fibroids from the university clinic," sighs Dr Struck. "You have to watch myomas because they can grow and degenerate. Today I know that's not quite right. In 20 years in my practice in Kiel, I have only had one patient where we had to operate and remove the uterus because of a rapidly growing myoma. However, the fibroid grew rapidly, from 4 to 12 cm within 4 months. That is very rare".
What is the natural course?
According to Dr Dorothee Struck, fibroids should be observed; however, they rarely degenerate in a way that requires surgery. It is only through her own practical experience that she learns about the natural course of a fibroid. She describes an impressive experience she had as an assistant doctor in the countryside:
"An 83-year-old lady came to the hospital with lower abdominal pain and wanted me to do a gynaecological check-up. I found 3 to 4 small "lime beans" in the uterus and did not know what they were. My colleague at the time explained, based on my questioning expression, that here in the country they only operate if the woman really has problems. What I found in the lady's case were dried-up fibroids. After the menopause, fibroids shrink if they are not operated on. In old age, the uterus becomes very small and the fibroids calcify."
For Dr Struck, this was an eye-opening experience for her handling of fibroids and fibroid therapy.
Myomas: oestrogen-dependent growth
So when the oestrogen stimulus decreases after the menopause, the fibroids also become smaller. Usually fibroids grow one, maximum two cm during pregnancy when there is an oestrogen stimulus. They usually shrink by themselves when the oestrogen level drops after birth and the breastfeeding hormone rises. "Whenever oestrogen levels drop, fibroids also shrink." This is ultimately what GnRH analogue therapy does. The organism is artificially put into menopause by hormones and the fibroids are dried out as a result. This is now also available as an add-on therapy so that women do not have so many menopausal symptoms. Mostly, the fibroids recede naturally when women come out of the high hormonal fluctuations during menopause and the hormone levels settle at a lower level.
You don't see hormone chaos in the ultrasound
On the subject of vitamin supply, fibroids and heavy bleeding, the gynaecologist reveals another observation from her practice: "Myomas and heavy bleeding do not have to be causally connected. Often it is not the fibroids that cause heavy bleeding, but a lack of iron or vitamin B12. You don't see the hormonal chaos in the ultrasound, you only see the fibroids. During puberty, the menstrual cycle is not always straight. Myomas are a sign to look. This means changing the diet and ensuring that the body is in balance with conscious self-care and high-quality nutritional supplements such as green tea extract and vitamin D. According to Dr Struck, this is a good way to control the growth of fibroids until the menopause.
How do hypnotherapy sessions work?
Both online and in practice, there are various techniques to bring the person into the trance state and to make sure that the person is there. If the subconscious is then receptive, various techniques exist to ask the subconscious questions: When did it start? What happened there? What is the meaning of a symptom? Depending on the individual, a session runs very differently. Some people function very visually and describe detailed scenes from childhood. Other sessions run through other sensory channels. According to Dr Struck, there are never two hypnosis sessions that are the same; each patient's reappraisal of the experience and the therapy are very individual. The important thing is: "In all sessions, the participants are always in control. In medical hypnosis, the patients are always in control. This is not Show hypnosis. After all, the participants should always tell me something from their childhood."
With Dr Dorothee Struck, a single session online or in the practice takes about one to three hours. If there is a specific problem, three sessions are usually enough. "For fibroids, it rarely takes more than 2 sessions in my practice".says the hypnotherapist.
Group hypnosis sessions for infertility
The online group programme for infertility patients with live hypnosis in the group is a complete success. You can join at any time. It always starts with a "subconcious purge", as the experienced hypnotherapist learned from the American hypnobirthing luminary Lynsi Eastburn. Lynsi Eastburn leads with her Hypnofertility programmes only hypnosis for fertility and unfulfilled desire to have children for 25 years. Dr Struck's infertility hypnosis programme is very successful. She also works with a fertility clinic for this and she records almost 70% success rate of pregnancy, which is also in line with an Israeli study. By the way, hypnotherapy is also tax deductible when it comes to the desire to have children.
Subconscious Purge
Here we are again with "Positive Gynecology". A cleansing of beliefs in the subconscious that block women is done. These include, for example, "fibroids are bad and often lead to a hysterectomy". Dr Struck speaks powerfully: "We hear so much from the medical establishment, for example that only hormones help and that the pill must be taken. Questioning helps, also one's own morals and beliefs." How often do women become entrenched in the belief that "Ah, the desire to have children over 35, and then myomas too, yes, you can forget it"? Hypnosis gives women the opportunity to let go. Hypnotherapy provides positive suggestions and in the group sessions we look at what needs to be done.
In summary: Positive Gynecology
If we focus on the good, the positive, great changes can occur - in a positive way - for the whole organism.
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How can women from anywhere get in touch with you?
Contact Dr Dorothee Struck:
Practice Kiel:
https://www.frauengesundheit-kiel.de/
Her gynaecologist's practice in Kiel, where she is particularly active for her heart's desire for children and pregnancy.
Online hypnotherapy:
www.dorotheestruck.de
All information about hypnosis, as well as individual and group sessions on infertility and other gynaecological topics.
The whole interview on YouTube view
