About Michael Stevenson MNLP, MTT, MHt
Hi, my name is Michael Stevenson. I'm the founder of Transform Destiny, a full-service hypnotherapy office and training center in Fountain Valley, California. I'm the author of the best-selling book Learn Hypnosis... Now! and creator of the music CD, Hypnotic Trancescapes Vol. I - Mystical Forest. In the following paragraphs, I'll share with you a little about myself. I hope to learn more about you at one of our events, or perhaps one-on-one.
I began my professional career, not as a programmer of minds, but as a programmer of computers. I developed a love of computer programming at ten years old when my grandparents sent me to a computer day-camp put on by Radio Shack.
I grew up knowing that I wanted to help people. As a child, when people asked me "What would you like to be when you grow up?", the answers shifted from fireman, to policeman, to doctor, and many other helping professions. I began to think more and more about being a doctor or psychologist, but honestly didn't have very much trust in people I had met in either career. Plus, the idea of adding more years of school to my life wasn't an attractive prospect to a teenager. So, I ended up developing my computer skills and focused on that as a career. Eventually, I opened Liquid Mirror Enterprises, a small, independent publishing company where I published my own software titles.
As many teenagers did at the time, I took up smoking. I fully admit it – I hated smoking at first, but I did it because I thought it would make me look cool in front of my friends. By the time I had been smoking a couple years, I started to realize the stigma around smoking and regretted starting. But it was too late – I was hooked. Not only was I hooked, I was smoking as much as two and a half to three packs of cigarettes each day. I landed myself in the hospital several times with bronchitis and just hated it. But I loved it at the same time. I was a slave to my cigarettes.
At the age of 25, some friends and I went to the Orange County Fair. One of our favorite things to do is see the stage hypnotist, Mark Yuzuik. He's got a phenomenal show that I could watch a thousand times. On the way out of the show, I noticed something I had never seen before – Mark's product table. The first thing that caught my eye was "Stop Smoking." So, I bought the tape and went home and listened to it for three days.
Normally, the first thing I would do in the morning – sometimes before even opening my eyes – is grab my "smokes" and a lighter and head for the front door. On the third morning after listening to this tape, for some reason, I just didn't. I decided I'd have a cigarette after breakfast. When breakfast was done, I decided to wait until after my shower. When my shower was done, I figured I would wait until I got in the car. And so on and so forth, until before I knew it (literally!), it dawned on me that I had been a non-smoker for three days. I was still skeptical at first, but amazed, and I began to seek out information about hypnosis on the internet.
My first three purchases on the internet where ebooks — one in particular, which came from a reputable trainer in the industry, but which told me practically nothing for nearly $30. I was livid. I couldn't believe people were selling such junk on the internet. After reading nearly every book in print (and many which are no longer in print) and taking a live certification training, I began thinking back on those original ebooks. I realized, when people want information on hypnosis, they are searching the internet, and they were finding those same three junk ebooks I was finding. I couldn't stand for that. I knew I could do better, and I set out to do just that. Within nine months, I released "Learn Hypnosis... Now!" which has gone on to be published in paperback and audio book, and has become a best-seller in its field.
I am now a certified trainer of NLP, Hypnotherapy and TIME Techniques™, so in addition to seeing clients regularly, I also train students in those fields in my office in Fountain Valley, CA and around the nation.
If you have any questions about my favorite subjects of hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming or TIME Technqiues™, send me an email from the contact page and I'll be happy to get back to you.