Clinical hypnotherapist Kimberly Blair (above) guides clients through breathwork, energy, sound, and Reiki therapy, as well as offering them treatment for grief, including pet loss.

Her business, The Guides Holistic Therapies, has two offices in the beach area at 2204 Garnet Ave., Suite 208 in Pacific Beach, and 7734 Herschel Ave., Suite I, in La Jolla.

An Indonesia native and a Bird Rock resident, Blair, with a background in psychology and an MBA, has immersed herself in the holistic wellness industry. Driven by her transformative journey of recovering from the profound loss of her mother to cancer, Blair uses clinical hypnotherapy to empower clients to overcome limiting beliefs and traumas.

Through her Reiki master (Japanese energy healing) practice, Blair helps restore an individual’s balance and vitality. By way of holotropic breathwork, she aids clients in finding inner peace and emotional release. As a grief counselor, she offers compassionate support and evidence-based interventions, helping people through recovery.

Pet-loss therapy is “one of my specialties,” Blair noted, adding, “there was a big (treatment) gap in the marketplace for this type of therapy. Your pet is such a companion; the love is really deep and profound. Over half of the households here have a pet. When the pet is passing away, what happens to the owner with their unresolved grief?”

Answering her question, Blair noted: “Most of the time I encounter people who think, ‘What could I have done better, differently or more.’ And we address that in our sessions.”

Blair offers a six-session therapy program for those recovering from pet loss so the pet owner “knows there’s an end point where they’re able to find some type of peace, remembering their pet in joy, not the last moments of their lives.”

Before delving into holistic wellness, Blair tried her hand at higher education, tech, and property management. “I’ve had different life paths and careers,” she said. “But when I worked at a holistic clinic for seven years and was introduced to different modalities that I’d never heard of before, it opened up my eyes to preventative (therapy) and things (philosophies) that were not necessarily mainstream.”

Blair’s newfound career calling helped her overcome her grief. “Then I went through clinical hypnotherapy training as well,” she said, pointing out “there are levels of how far down you can go” in treating clients hypnotically. She added there’s even one hypnosis level called the “coma state, where I go down deep to treat people with issues like sleeping.”

The clinical hypnotherapist utilizes a specific method from the Grief Recovery Institute in aiding clients to overcome psychological difficulties. “It is action-based steps that grievers need to take to have emotional completion around any unresolved grief within a relationship,” said Blair. She added, “There are over 40 different life events that are associated with grief. I encounter people who have had death, divorce, career loss, loss of a child, miscarriage, pet loss, loss of health – all kinds of loss. It’s a beautiful program.”

Walking through her therapeutic process, Blair said: “Typically, we’ll do a complementary wellness consultation. We’ll talk about what type of loss they’ve experienced. And then I’ll answer any questions they have and see if we’ll be a good fit for each other. The grief recovery program that I run is either six or seven sessions depending on the client and what type of loss they’ve experienced.”

Blair concluded about grief therapy: “What we’re talking about are (psychological) triggers. But there are also glimmers, the opposite of triggers, where we have our ‘wins.’ This is not all doom and gloom. What I’ve noticed is everyone has a different timeline – and that grieving is not linear.”

THE GUIDES HOLISTIC THERAPIES

Where: 2204 Garnet Ave., Suite 208, Pacific Beach; 7734 Herschel Ave., Suite I, La Jolla.

Info: theholisticguides.com, 619-333-0532.

Reiki: A Japanese energy healing technique that uses gentle touch to promote relaxation and balance. It’s based on the idea that a person’s energy level affects their health and well-being.

Clinical hypnotherapy: A type of psychological therapy that uses hypnosis to treat mental and physical health conditions. It can also help change habits.

How it works: A hypnotherapist triggers a trance state in the patient. The patient uses the trance to access helpful cognitive, emotional, or physical responses.

What it can treat: Anxiety, chronic pain, fears and phobias, smoking, high blood pressure, insomnia, and panic attacks.

Hypnotherapy benefits: Helps reduce stress and anxiety. Helps manage symptoms or some conditions. It can help change habits and can increase the effectiveness of other psychological treatments.