When Understanding Is Not Enough: A Conversation with Juliana Sloane on Imagination, Hypnotherapy, and Deeper Transformation
Practicing meditation can bring remarkable clarity. Over time, practitioners often become aware of their thoughts, feelings, and repetitive patterns. But awareness alone does not always translate into change. Many meditators can clearly see mental habits like worry, self-criticism, or people-pleasing and still find themselves repeating the same patterns.
Maybe it’s the same relationship that keeps coming back. Or the same inner voice of doubt that comes up again and again during practice.
What happens when you notice a pattern that still doesn’t go away?
So what happens when recognizing the pattern still doesn’t remove it?
Juliana Sloane, a meditation teacher and hypnotherapist, works with processes that explore how the deeper, subconscious layers of the mind and nervous system shape our behavior. In this interview with Mindful, he discusses why understanding our patterns doesn’t always lead to change, how thinking and changed situations can open up new avenues for change, and how mindfulness experts can recognize when something in practice needs serious attention.
Angela Stubbs: The topic I raised at the beginning of this discussion was “when understanding is not enough.” Many people cannot recognize their patterns or understand why certain behaviors repeat in their lives. But understanding alone does not always bring about real change. In your opinion, why is that?
Most of the people who come to work with me already know a lot about themselves. But despite that realization, they still feel stuck. They can’t stop worrying. They can’t stop holding themselves to impossible standards. They keep getting into relationships that aren’t right for them.
Juliana Sloane: There are certainly situations where understanding alone is not enough. One has an “aha” moment, something changes inside, and the pattern loosens. But honestly, that’s a small percentage of the cases I see, especially when it comes to ingrained patterns and habits.
Most of the people who come to work with me already know a lot about themselves. They often have meditation practices, go to therapy, and are interested in personal growth. They can clearly define what their patterns are.
But despite that realization, they still feel stuck. They can’t stop worrying. They can’t stop holding themselves to impossible standards. They keep getting into relationships that aren’t right for them.
These types of patterns are not just intellectual. They are ingrained habits of the mind and nervous system. People have been repeating themselves for years, sometimes their entire lives. Over time those repetitions form strong emotional pathways that guide the person back into the same habitual pattern.
Understanding the pattern can be helpful, but we also need ways to work with the depth of the situation we keep recreating.
The most common thing I hear is, “I’ve done a lot of work on this issue. I understand it intellectually. But something is still stuck.”
Angela Stubbs: How do people begin to recognize when something may require deeper examination than further observation or reflection?
Juliana Sloane: Usually, when someone comes to see me, they have a feeling that something deep is happening. The most common thing I hear is, “I’ve done a lot of work on this issue. I understand it intellectually. But something is still stuck.”
The feeling that there is ‘something deeper’ to explore is often a good sign that someone may benefit from working with these layers of knowledge and experience that lie beneath.
A great time a person can be not you are ready when they hope for a quick fix that does not require their full participation. We don’t wave a magic wand, we engage the mind, body, and nervous system to create the necessary change.
The work I do is about helping people develop tools to navigate their inner world and access their resources, understanding, and wisdom. Ultimately, the goal is for people to feel more empowered in their own process and realize that many of the answers they seek are already within themselves.
Angela Stubbs: If many of these patterns live without awareness, what happens below the level of the conscious mind?
We tend to think that if we understand something intellectually we should be able to change it. But most of our behavior and emotional responses are shaped by processes that occur above the level of conscious thought.
Juliana Sloane: Many of the patterns people struggle with operate without realizing it. We tend to think that if we understand something intellectually we should be able to change it. But most of our behavior and emotional responses are shaped by processes that occur above the level of conscious thought.
Over time repeated experiences form strong patterns in the mind and nervous system. Those patterns can become automatic, to the point where they start to feel like part of who we are. Even if a person understands the pattern, they can still find themselves drawn into it again and again.
Awareness can help us see what’s going on, but the deep state that drives those patterns may still be working underneath.
In many ways the conscious mind is only a small part of what shapes our experience. If we work only at that level, we leave many concepts untouched.
Angela Stubbs: He often uses the word the idea in your work. For readers who may not be familiar with that concept, what does it mean the idea?
Juliana Sloane: When people hear the word trance, they often think of something strange or mystical. And it sure can feel magical, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of reach. Trance is actually a natural state of consciousness that people go in and out of all the time.
People’s ideas about hypnosis often come from stage shows or old models where someone appears to be ‘controlling’ another person’s mind. But that’s not how modern hypnotherapeutic work works. Hypnosis is more interactive and empowering than people often think. A person entering a trance remains aware and engaged in the process at all times.
For example, if you are completely absorbed in a movie or a book and you lose track of time, that is a kind of trance state. Your attention becomes focused and the normal analytical mind quiets down.
In those moments the mind is more open to images, feelings, insights, and deeper realms of knowledge. In trance-based practices we deliberately work with that state of concentration so that people can explore those deeper levels of their inner experience.
Angela Stubbs: There are many misconceptions about hypnosis. What do people often misunderstand about it?
Juliana Sloane: People’s ideas about hypnosis often come from stage shows or old models where someone seems to ‘control’ another person’s mind.
But that’s not how modern hypnotherapeutic work works. Hypnosis is more interactive and empowering than people often think. A person entering a trance remains aware and engaged in the process at all times.
What happens is that the analytical thinking mind starts to relax a little. We begin to get out of our own way, which allows the deeper layers of our mind and awareness to become more accessible.
Rather than controlling someone, the therapist helps to create conditions where the person can explore their inner experiences in a different way and become an active agent of change in their unconscious mind.
In many situations today we think of imagination as something childish or irrational. But thought is actually one of the most powerful ways the mind communicates.
Angela Stubbs: He talks about the role of imagination in this work. That may come as a surprise to people who tend to think of fantasy as unreal.
Juliana Sloane: In many situations today we think of imagination as something childish or irrational. But thought is actually one of the most powerful ways the mind communicates.
During an intensive meditative or hypnotic process, things like imagery, metaphor, and archetype often come into focus for meaning. It’s not just our ‘thoughts’ that run wild, rather, they are symbols written about our beliefs, experiences, worldviews, memories, and much more. In our daily lives, we often crawl over the power that this holds. When people enter a hypnotic or trance-like state, those hidden metaphors, somatic experiences, and images naturally emerge for us to work with.
Rather than dismissing those experiences as “just imagination,” we can begin to see them as powerful tools. Sometimes these experiences point us to deeper emotional patterns and allow us to process and integrate our experiences more fully. Sometimes it allows us to experience what it’s like to overcome obstacles or respond differently to things that caused anxiety, doubt, or fear. For example, professional athletes do this all the time when they are mentally training to break a record or do their best. Your mind doesn’t discriminate that much whether you’re shooting a basket or thinking about shooting a basket– it takes that information and goes with it. So when you work with a hypnotherapist, you use these tools to help your mind, body, and nervous system explore and integrate new options and ways of being.
Angela Stubbs: How do you see this work related to psychology?
Juliana Sloane: I don’t see this exercise as a substitute for practicing mindfulness. In fact, I think mindfulness creates the basis for this to happen in the first place.
Meditation helps people develop awareness of their thoughts, information, feelings, and patterns. That awareness is incredibly important because you can’t work on something if you can’t see it.
What often happens is that when people practice meditation, they begin to clearly see patterns in their thinking, their reactions, and the way they approach their world. They find that they can see those patterns clearly, but it doesn’t necessarily change things in their daily lives.
Practices that engage deeper layers of thought can allow people to explore what may lie beneath those patterns in a different way. Rather than replacing mindfulness, this type of activity can deepen the process through which mindfulness begins.
Practices that engage deeper layers of thought can allow people to explore what may lie beneath those patterns in a different way. Rather than replacing mindfulness, this type of activity can deepen the process through which mindfulness begins.
Angela Stubbs: Are there signs that something from practice might invite deeper examination?
Juliana Sloane: It’s often when a pattern—for example, anxiety, or self-criticism, or a recurring problem with work, relationships, or life—continues to appear again and again, even when someone is more aware of it.
One may recognize a pattern in meditation or therapy. They understand where it’s coming from and can see it happening in real time. But despite that awareness, it keeps repeating.
That can sometimes be a sign that the pattern is rooted in deeper layers of the mind or nervous system.
Those moments can be invitations to examine the pattern differently and approach it with curiosity rather than trying to force it to change through understanding alone.
Editor’s note:
In the next Mindful article, Juliana Sloane explores how meditation and hypnosis practices can support people living with chronic illness, including how these techniques can help people relate differently to the pain, fatigue, and emotional challenges of long-term health conditions. Keep checking our homepage.
