This story was produced in partnership with Aaron Justice.
Often, it’s those who once needed help themselves that are best at giving help to others. Certainly, those who have received support before understand the need to provide that support for others. It’s that experience that led Aaron Justice, CIHt, to leave his career as a restaurateur and forge a path that would allow him to give the same peace to others that he had finally found for himself.
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A certified Clinical and Interpersonal Hypnotherapist in St. Pete, Justice specializes in treating anxiety, depression, and stress, as well as the addictions that can come from them. His passion for helping others, and the methods he employs to do it, comes from having dealt with the same issues for decades before he finally found the treatment that worked.
For most of his life, Justice just thought anxiety and depression were things he’d have to deal with forever. They were a part of who he was, and his failed attempts at traditional counseling and other more widely known therapies had proved it. Then, in a last-ditch try to see something different might work, Justice signed on for a session of hypnotherapy.
“I walked out of my first session with more peace than a full year of my previous therapy,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is wild. Why don’t people know more about this?’
“I kept going, and eventually I woke up one day and realized, I hadn’t been anxious or depressed in five months. I hadn’t come home wanting a drink at night. I wasn’t gorging pizzas. I actually wanted to go to the gym.”
With those sessions helping Justice overcome his anxiety and depression, he discovered a new purpose for his life: return that favor to others and help as many people as he could. So, he left his career in restaurants behind, went to school for hypnotherapy, and now runs his own practice. His dream has come to life.
“I genuinely care, because I know what it’s like to be in those dark places,” he said. “I want people to get out of that and get past it. I want people to know that there is hope.”
What is hypnotherapy, exactly?
Justice is aware that the term “hypnotherapy” can make people a little wary, and even ring alarm bells for some. But he’s quick to point out that it’s nothing like the tropes from TV and movies. There’s no “getting very, very sleepy” or clucking like a chicken after a magic word is spoken.
Justice compares it more to meditation, interspersed with meaningful conversation. The sessions and discussions are meant to engage the conscious and subconscious mind alike, helping to find the true roots of issues so they can be addressed directly and solved.
For instance, Justice said, think about the experience you have watching a movie or TV show where you get swept up into the story, get into the narrative and feel emotions from it. Or consider the moments that you’re lost in thought while driving and realize you have no idea if that light you just went through was even green. Did you even stop at that stop sign?
You’re not unconscious or out of control; you’re just allowing your brain to go down new roads (while still obeying the traffic laws on the literal one).
“You’re just in a relaxed state,” Justice said. “It’s a very enjoyable and pleasurable meditation. It’s not weird, it’s not kooky, it’s not dangerous. I just talk to you and put you in a relaxed state. When you’re in that state your subconscious mind will be open. That’s why this is so important. We speak to your subconscious and help you heal.”
Free consultations offer a window into the experience
The key, Justice believes, is taking the step to try it out. That’s why he offers a free consultation to anybody, no strings or fees attached. He’s experienced for himself what hypnotherapy can do, and he’s seen the results of what the counseling and treatment have done for his clients.
The hardest part isn’t always knowing where to go, he said, but being brave enough to try.
“A lot of people are suffering with things quietly,” he said. “I just want people to know, there’s hope out there. People can get help and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a very healthy and beautiful thing to ask for help.”
Asked what the indications are that one might need treatment for anxiety or depression issues, Justice listed several behaviors and experiences that should be signs of something that needs treating.
Eating or sleeping habits changing in an extreme manner, and prolonged times of sadness (more than two weeks) are among the more subtle indicators. If anxiety is so bad that someone has trembles, physically shakes, or regularly feels a great sense of fear, that is a clear sign that help is needed. Even something as seemingly simple as prolonged stress can become problematic if the stress levels spike but never drop back to normal.
As Justice likes to explain it, mental health should be treated the same as physical health. For example, consider the reactions one has to a purely physical injury.
“Let’s say your cutting wood and you chop an axe through your calf muscle,” Justice offered. “You don’t think, ‘Eh, maybe I should see a doctor, but maybe it’ll just heal on its own.’”
“In that situation,” he continued, “there’s a part of my body that’s suffering and needs to be healed, so I go to the doctor. But we don’t treat mental and emotional and spiritual health that way. We end up suppressing these emotions that are crying out to be dealt with. But if we deal with them in a healthy way, we can heal these things immediately and go on.”
Pandemic has led to greater need for therapy
Now, especially, things have gotten more difficult. Since the onset of covid, the state of America’s mental health has taken a severe hit. Anxiety, depression and addiction have all skyrocketed. Overdoses have hit new highs. Blood pressure has risen and satisfaction has fallen.
To Justice, that makes his work even more necessary. People are experiencing new and difficult hardships, and he believes the time to help them is now.
“I always say, if it comes to your mind that maybe you should see somebody, then you are past the point of needing to see somebody,” he said. “It’s not my aim to keep people in therapy. It’s my aim to get to the root of the cause and implement healing.”
Learn more about Justice and his practice at aaronsjustice.com, where you can also read more about hypnotherapy and schedule a free consultation.
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