Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
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Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
From Hair Pulling To Healing: Hypnotherapy, BFRBs, And Recovery with Kisha Reynolds
The urge feels harmless at first: a tiny bump on the scalp, a rough edge on the skin, a moment of boredom. Then comes the pull or the pick, the trance-like focus, the fleeting relief—and the shame that follows. We invited certified clinical hypnotherapist and hair loss specialist Keisha Reynolds to help us unpack body-focused repetitive behaviors like trichotillomania and dermatillomania, and to share a roadmap that actually works.
Keisha explains how BFRBs differ from OCD: they’re deeply sensory and tied to the brain’s reward system, which means “just stop” doesn’t work. She walks us through proven supports including cognitive behavioral therapy, habit reversal training, stimulus control, and compassion practices. Then she opens her toolkit: personalized hypnotherapy scripts recorded for nightly listening, anchoring techniques that redirect urges in real time, and small environment shifts that prevent autopilot behaviors. We also explore the role of alpha and theta brain states in making suggestions stick, plus how faith-based language can strengthen commitment for those who want it.
As a certified hair loss specialist, Keisha connects the emotional and physical sides of recovery, explaining follicle health, growth phases, and realistic paths to regrowth after pulling. Her coaching background comes alive in a standout story: a client isolated in a toxic relationship rebuilds confidence, earns a promotion, reconnects with community, and sees the urge to pull lose its grip. The throughline is hope grounded in practical steps—tools you can use today, whether you’re navigating BFRBs yourself or supporting someone you love.
If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who might need it, and leave a review to help others find these tools. Your story could be the spark that helps someone else begin.
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Well, hello, and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and today we've got a very special guest. Her name is Keisha Reynolds, and she's a certified clinical hypnotherapist and a certified hair loss specialist and a life coach based out of Philadelphia. She's a leading advocate for body-focused repetitive behaviors. She blends expertise with a lived experience to bring awareness to these often misunderstood OCD-related conditions. Keisha, I don't need to go any further than that. That's a great uh slice of repertoire there. And welcome to the show. So glad you could join us.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Joe. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. I'm glad to be here.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful, wonderful. Well, as we get started, um, I always like to introduce a guest by sharing sort of their Genesis story. Like, how did you you you've taken off a pretty big slice of credentials there? A hypnotherapist, a certified hair loss specialist, and a life coach. What brought you to all these uh amazing places?
SPEAKER_01:Well, they actually all kind of lead into one, actually. So I started out in uh hypnotherapy. I've always had a love for uh mental health. And um this is my way of being able to do that. I am continuing on with my um academic journey to become a clinical um uh side D for a clinical, clinical psychologist. So I am continuing on my uh academic journey with that. But um I did along the way, I did stop and I did get my certification, which was a uh two-year program at a lovely school called um HMI, which stands for Hypnosis Motivational Institute out of Tarasana, California. And at the end of the two years, you graduate with a clinical uh hypnotherapy uh certification. But where that ties in to the hair loss is because I experience firsthand uh body focused repetitive behavior called trichotillomania. There are a few, but that is one that is associated with the BFRB. It is a BFRB. And what that consists of is one uh pulling their hair out. Um, and typically you pull it out, you know, like by the root. Um it's a sensory thing. It's um uh it's very similar to um OCD, but does have some differences. OCD usually people are aware of when they are doing things. They usually do it because they feel that there is a reason. Like if they don't wash their hands, they're gonna get sick. You know, if they wash their hands, they're gonna get too many germs, things of that sort.
SPEAKER_00:Body focused not like uh it itches or I've gotta get this thing out of me.
SPEAKER_01:It's just kind of uh Well, it ha well, it depends. So with me, it was also because I also typically when you have one body focused repetitive behavior, it is not uncommon for it to morph or develop into another. So another very common one, which was some someone that I uh suffered with, is uh dermatilomania, which basically that is the uh skin picking or um taking off scabs and digging and picking and things of that sort.
SPEAKER_00:And um the way I'm assuming you weren't uh a tweaker. You were this had nothing to do with crystal met.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no. This stemmed for me with uh it started out with pervasive nail biting when I was six. I was uh unfortunately I was in a situation where I was um unmercifully bullied as a six-year-old by kids that were much, much older than me. And um, at the time, um, the term body focused repetitive behaviors had not been coined yet. That didn't come along until Christina Pearson named that in the 90s. Okay. So when I was going through this at first with the nail biting, was when I was uh about six. I we're talking early 80s here. I know I'm dating myself, but talking early 80s. So by the time we got into the 90s, uh, when there was a term coin for it, I still wasn't exactly sure what it was. Is at that time I was a teenager, but it went from the nail biting into the hair pulling. Okay. Now, these repetitive behaviors are typically lifelong once you get them. Okay. Now, what I use hypnotherapy is a way to significantly reduce the urges. Okay. So you will sometimes go in and out of remission. You know, you'll go out of it where you won't be picking anymore, but then something could happen that may cause you to pick again. And unlike OCD, um, body focused repetitive behaviors are more sensory. So it could stem from anxiety, it could stem from uh as simple as being bored and you know, watching television, but it is a um uh self-soothing uh uh behavior that one takes on in order to be able to release uh anxiety or anything else that they may be going through at that time.
SPEAKER_00:So I I'm I'm just trying to understand this. You know, we have so many different guests that have so many different specialties and expertises and slices of of ailments and illnesses, and you know, I I try to get in and understand this, and this is really pretty new to me. I mean, I've known plenty of people that have bit their nails, and you know, um most of the people I've ever known that picked themselves had other problems that had nothing to do with this. But the hair pulling, I I I I've heard of when you when you mentioned it, it was like, oh yeah, I have heard of something like that. But I I just didn't never understood it. I never it I never I never immersed myself in it, or I never certainly knew anybody that that suffered from it. So when you're going through this, I can understand a trigger, I can understand um, you know, the the reasons that can cause a behavior, whether it's a combination of things. In your case, it seems that it was a combination of uh of trauma and a condition that you already were dealing with. Um but when you're doing it, does it give you a reward in the sense Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:So I I believe, okay, that it is the same, it's almost like I believe it probably releases the same endorphins that you would that somebody would get um if they were, say, for example, um an addict. Okay. Um I would speak. Yeah, yeah, it it it very very much so. And what ends up happening actually is um you when it happens, you kind of go into almost like a like a trance like, if you will. Okay. So it is not uh very, very easy, you know, to to stop. Okay. Um it kind of something it just it just kind of takes over and you just you know, you continue, you know, to pull, pull, pull, you know, or pick, pick, pick. For me, it was um the feeling of something on my scalp, like a pimple or something. Okay. And then for someone with a body focused repetitive behavior, that will cause that's all you need to start picking at that pimple, or if there's a scab over it, picking at that scab and re uh repicking it and then uh pulling, you know, uh while you're doing that. And so then, of course, while at that time you're getting this temporary release, because that's what it is, um, you are actually damaging your hair follicle.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. I can't imagine that being good for you.
SPEAKER_01:You're but you're damaging the hair follicle. And you have on top of that, you have already now picked a either dime, nickel, or quarter size, you know, spot, you know, in your head, you know. Um, so it's one of those things where you know that it is going on, but for many people, they are powerless to stop it, you know. And you know, you will have people that will say, okay, well, why don't you just like stop, you know, right? It's it's it's not as there it's not as easy as just stopping. And the reason why is because these are neurological behaviors, okay, that are rooted in the brain's reward and sensory processing systems. Okay. So it's not as easy as just saying, okay, well, you know, I could just, you know, get over it. Um it, it's it's it's it's deeper than that because if we could, we we would. Nobody wants to do this. And then what on top of that, it becomes a cycle. So typically you do the act in and of itself, and then you survey the damage by looking in the mirror, you know, you survey the damage that has been done, and then now you go through the guilt and the shame piece of it of you're trying to now hide it or cover it up, because things like this are done, you know, in private. This isn't something that is done in person where everybody can see. This is something that you want to keep secret, like a dirty little secret, if you will. And then the cycle starts over again. So it's like, okay, you'll make the decision, okay, I'm not going to pull anymore. You know, I have to be stronger. And again, this also hurts the person because then they feel that they don't have willpower. Okay, but this goes deeper than willpower. Okay. This is a real disorder, okay, and you need real help with it. Unfortunately, there isn't anything in terms of medication-wise that can help with this. Okay. So we people use a lot of different things. Some people use um cognitive behavioral therapy, HRT, which is habit reversal training uh therapy, mind-body relaxation, stimulus, control tools, compassion practices. I typically end up with doing hip with the hypnotherapy and anchoring techniques. So an anchoring technique would be something that I add into the hypnotic script. For example, I may bring awareness. So for someone who has a body focused repetitive behavior, and so that you are, if you're not aware of it, I make it so that that person is aware of their action, and then giving them something else to do with their hands to give a better choice, or something like whenever you feel the urge to pick, what you are really feeling is that urge to study. And I'm just saying that as an example because I'm also a student. You see what I'm saying? So it's relative to me. So when I then feel that urge to pick, for me, now that then translates to, okay, I think I want to study. Do you see how then you can kind of replace one thing with something else that is a little bit more positive? Okay. And that is known as an anchoring technique, or something like whenever you feel the urge to pick, you immediately bring your forefinger and your thumb together, and you press them and hold them for two seconds and then release. And immediately you feel calm and you no longer have that urge that you want to pick. At that point, I'm building in bringing your forefinger to your thumb to be able to release that. So a number of different things can be used for anchoring techniques. Uh, usually during my first session with a client, I ask questions in terms of what was their perfect scenery, what's the perfect scenery for them? What are things that make them feel calm? And I do that because when I then build an anchoring technique, I use whatever that individual has said and create an anchoring technique out of what they've said. People tend to receive and take in things that they've already said that are known to them way more than they would, I think, than somebody else. So I like to incorporate many of the things that I put into the script. They may be a script that I've created for them, but a lot of it has words and things that they have already said to me. And then I just implement those words into the script and then repeat it back to them.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that makes sense. So it it seems like you treat this very similar to how you might treat an addiction, but it seems that it would be much more difficult because an addiction, whatever you're addicted to, you have to go out and get and prepare. And there's a whole process that you have to go and do, whether it's a drug or food or whatever.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Right.
SPEAKER_00:You gotta go and do a thing.
SPEAKER_01:Right. You gotta seek it out.
SPEAKER_00:You don't have to do anything, and you can do it mindlessly. And on next thing you know, you know, like nobody thinks about when you're scratching your head or your face or whatever. I can imagine it being like that where you you're just not even aware that you're doing it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um, and usually it takes place, you know, somewhere that is you consider it to be private, like I said. For me, it was, you know, um, in my bedroom, you know, when I'm at, you know, late night, when I'm by myself, you know, reading a book or whatever, it may be watching TV or whatever I'm looking at, you know, for me, it could be something, you know, like that. So what I did also was I also much how somebody would do if they do have an addiction, you know, I had to also change my scenery. Okay. Okay. So for me, and again, this worked for me, I would leave the bedroom and then start sitting in another part of my home. Okay. So now the scenery is different. Now I'm out, you know, in the living room and I'm out to where, you know, everyone, it's I'm stuck around people, so you're not going to do it.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So now, right. So now I'm I'm I'm not going to do it, you know. So um doing things like that. And it didn't necessarily wasn't indicative to a specific time, you know. Okay. It could have been during the day at two o'clock, you know, it could have been any time that whenever I I had that urge, okay. But um changing my scenery. And for me, okay, one of the things that I have brought into my life, you know, and I don't know what your uh in terms of your audience, you know, I don't know in terms of where they are faith-wise, but for me, I'm a believer.
SPEAKER_00:So we have a lot of, it's a pretty wide-ranging audience, but we have a lot of believers, and I'm okay.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, okay, okay. So what I do is I lean into prayer. Okay. I lean into, I don't know scripture well, but thank God for Chat GPT at Google, because I am able to find a scripture that I want, okay, and I'm able to read that and decree and declare on that scripture, okay, and to and and and and be prayerful, you know, and and doing that also when I create for me personally, because I do create my own hypnotic um scripts, even for myself. Um, for me, I do create faith-based uh hypnotic scripts. Now, not everybody may want that. Some people, and if you don't, that's fine. But for but for me, I do. I believe in uh getting scripture and bringing in prayer, and actually the scriptures become the hypnotic suggestions, okay, and being able to say that. And then what happens is when I'm with a client, when they are telling me initially what they are going through, that's not the part that I record. When I start to do the actual script and the detailed imagery and going into the induction and all of that, that's the piece of it that I record. So then what I do is I then send that recording, which is about anywhere from 20 minutes to 25 minutes long. I will then send that recording to the client and they will listen to that nightly, or if they can't nightly, at least maybe four to five nights out the week or first thing in the morning when they get up. So what happens is by listening that in between the time that we have our one-on-one sessions on Zoom, that doubles down everything that we have been talking about. Okay, and it really allows it to get in there, even if you happen to fall asleep on it. Because remember, beta is where we are now, okay. Okay. Then after that, you have, I believe it is theta, is no, that's underneath. So you have beta, and you may have to help me with this if you know. I'm kind of blanking on it. Do it before I got on here. All of a sudden now it's a blank, but I know it's beta and then alpha. I'm sorry, alpha is next, and then you have beta and delta.
SPEAKER_00:Delta, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Delta. So delta is typically our sleep, okay. However, when you are in hypnosis and you are in between that sleep and awake, right in that section right there, that I believe is when you are in that theta state of mind, okay. And that that, yeah, then that you're right in between sleep and awake. And typically that's yeah, and that's typically how hypnosis makes you feel. It kind of makes you you kind of go in and out. You're in between, like that, you know, sleep and awake feeling, okay. But you are still very much aware of what's going on, and um, that's typically that's gets then into your subconscious, okay. So even if you do happen to fall asleep, I hope that you don't, but I've been told I have a relaxing voice. So if someone does go to sleep, it's still getting in there, it's still playing into the the data, the data state as well, you know. And alpha, that's more of when you are very creative, that wakes up that creative state when alpha that's when some changes and things like that are able to take place, you know. So for me, I lean into all of that. And you asked before about the different certifications. So the hair loss specialist was something that I added, and I added that because when you are going through something like a body focused repetitive behavior, and the one thing that bothers you is the hair loss because you pulled for trichotillomania, that that hair is able to grow back. Okay. So we are I'm able to be able to take a look at that through a scope and get a look at your hair follicles, see in terms of what stage are they in. Is it the antigen phase and the telegram phase to see which phase that the hair is in, and then be able to prescribe at that point supplements.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That and that then helps with the hair to be regrowth. Now, obviously, hair does not grow back overnight, but it does something for the self-esteem and for you as a person to know that okay, what I've done can also be remedied. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:With the hair, with the hair loss that you treat, is it typically or exclusively due to the repetitive body focused repetitive behaviors, or it could be anything?
SPEAKER_01:It could be anything. Um, and and not everyone is able to hair is not able to grow back. Some people it's not, but for those that are that it does, it's not just for this. I brought this in as a way for me because I came from that experience, okay. So I thought this would be something as really, really good to be able to add to really help people, but it is not just for um people who go through and deal with trigotillomania. Um female pattern hair loss, okay. Um DHT, okay, which is the hormone that as we get older, especially women when you kind of get into menopause, you are not making as much estrogen. You're making more testosterone. So DHT that then comes out and that prohibits it by it messes with the hair follicles and inhibits the hair to grow full. So that's why sometimes you will see um people where they may have hair around the sides and around the back of the head and maybe even the very front, but the crown may be very, very thin. Okay. Or with women, as they get older, when they part the hair, the hair, the part gets wider and wider and wider. That's where that kind of comes into play.
SPEAKER_00:Got it. Wow. Wow. So I I imagine, and I always like to get a story, you know, this sounds like really profound work that you're doing. And I imagine you've helped a lot of people in a profound way, especially yourself. But there's generally a story or two that stick out as somebody that you just really made an impact on that that touched you. Would you like to share a story?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, I actually um uh mentioned this on another podcast, and I mentioned all the time because it's very near and dear to my heart. There was a um a woman I was um working with, and um, she had a couple of things that were going on. She had the trichotillomania, okay, but on top of that, she happened to be in a um a very difficult uh relationship with someone um who was had very high traits of narcissism. So she was really, really in a hard situation. And the relationship itself exacerbated, you know, the hair pulling, okay, that she was going through. So uh she was isolated, you know, um, and because of the relationship, she was isolated. She wasn't in a position where she was able to um have the financial means to be able to move out and do what she needed to do, mainly because the partner she was with um would uh was manipulative and would gaslight her, make her think that she was didn't have a chance to be able to get anything more because she was a nobody. That's pretty much what he said. So in this, I worked with her and I combined the coaching, you know, aspect of it. Um, and I use um what coaches typically use is the grow model. Okay. So grow stands for goal. R is for um growth for your reality, O is for like what options are out there, and W is for your way forward or how you're going to proceed. So when I started working with her, I actually first asked her questions based on that model. Okay, um, what would your goal, what was that look like if you didn't have to deal with this type of behavior, this toxicity and your life? What would that look like? And it was so much she wasn't able to even really put it into terms at that point. So I made it a little simpler. I said, so imagine that you have gone on vacation with your friends, okay, and or with family. I said, and this person is not there with you, and you're just there either by yourself or with your friends and family. What's the goal there? Like, what would that look like?
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And just even saying that, to imagine that her face lit up, right? Because even just that allowed her to feel free. Right. So what we did was I put together a plan for her and with the coaching, we looked at okay, her goal, okay, kind of where she wanted to go, okay, um, where she is now and what options. So when we got to the options piece of it, she indicated that there was another position that she wanted to get a promotion for. I said she met the criteria for being the time met. Usually, you know, you have to be in a position for a certain length of time before you can post out into another position in the workforce. Okay. She had been in the role for quite some time, so she had the time, but because of the put down and feeling so devalued, okay, and that she wasn't able to do anything right. This is what she was getting from her partner, okay. She doubted herself if she would be a good fit for this position. So I worked with her, okay. Um, my background prior to coming into hypnotherapy, I was a recruiter for about 25 years. So HR is my background. So this felt was right in line with me in terms of knowing what to do with this because I've been a recruiter and have been placing candidates with positions for such a long time. So for me, um, I worked with her. I helped her in terms of doing uh um um rewriting her resume and encouraged her to have a conversation with the hiring manager of that particular job that she wanted to go for. And in doing so, you know, he allowed her to then be able to saw where she was strong with certain things and then allowed her to pair with a peer at her job, a peer coach, to be able to help her become stronger in the other things she needed to do in order to be a success in that role. And in four months, she was able to apply and did get the position. And I was very happy for her. So, with that, brought now a sense of confidence, okay, and a confidence of seeing this is something that I did. So now we have now completely destroyed the distortion, okay, that she can't do it.
SPEAKER_00:That's now been displayed. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's lost his power.
SPEAKER_01:That's gone. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:You ever see that movie Labyrinth? No, and the Muppets. It's a great movie, it's a little cult movie, anyways. It it's a story about this goblin king who runs this whole world and this girl who finds her way into it at the very end of it. It's you have no power over me. That was and and it just broke the spell. And you know, it seems like that's kind of like what you did is you you got just break that spell. You don't have any power anymore.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and and and and in getting that and getting that position, that really made a big difference. I then encouraged her to take baby steps, start back with getting in contact with friends, okay? Um, getting your support system back because one of the things that being in those types of toxic relationships does is they do isolate you and divide you from friends and family and people who care about you. Okay. So she felt very alone. So slowly but surely she was able to uh join clubs even at work. Okay. And then within about another few months after that, she was able to then move out because she was able to then kind of return home to her mom's house and stay until she was able to then move back out into her own place again. So that was that was just like, and you know, I don't work with her anymore, you know, but she is somebody who was very uh it's it was a client who was very near and dear to my heart, and still I still you know check in with her to this day.
SPEAKER_00:You have to feel proud about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, listen, as I suspected, we're gonna be we got into all this stuff. We didn't even trap the surface, we didn't get into your uh drink that, eats this, travels, right? Yes, but yes, I would love to invite you back to continue this conversation. Um, but I'd like to always give you an opportunity to kind of circle back around and and and leave our listeners with sort of a parting thought. What would you what would you do with that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I will say this just know wherever you are, whoever you are, you don't deserve to be treated less than, okay. Many times when you think you are alone, you're really not. Um, there are more people going through what you are going through than you think. Okay. Do not isolate yourself. That is the worst thing you can do. Okay. Talk to someone, tell someone. If you are in a relationship where you are you are with someone who is an abuser, then you do have to tread lightly with that. But find other resources in a sense of if you are out, being able to form a group, okay, group of people or friends who may be going through the same thing. And even if they're not, even if it's at your job, getting involved in different peer groups and things of that, even at your job, many times if you are in an abusive relationship, trying to To go out with friends is not an option because you are prohibited from doing so. So whatever you have to do, you have to do while you are already out of the home. Okay. So doing things at work, making friendships, you know, um, talking to a manager or a supervisor director who you trust, letting them know that there's things are going on. And if something happens, what to do? Creating safe little small spaces like that for yourself. And if you are a believer, prayer.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Please do it. Please do it. Please do it. God has not forgotten you. In fact, He wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00:Where you can get the most closer, the closer to God is when you're in your difficult time. Absolutely. Absolutely. 100%. Absolutely. Well, I know that you're based out of Philadelphia, but do you do only in-person work or do you remote work?
SPEAKER_01:I do I work remotely majority of the time. I work remotely. But for those that are in the Philadelphia area that would like to meet in person, I will do that. But I typically work a Zoom platform, you know, and if that doesn't work, then you know there's WhatsApp or, you know, any other, you know, platforms out there, you know. But I I work um remotely.
SPEAKER_00:Well, based on that, um, if any of our listeners wants to uh reach out to you or get a hold of you or learn more, how would they do that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you can do this a couple of different ways. You can reach me on my website, which is um www.three two one deepsleep.com. And 321 is just the numbers, 321. It's not spelling out the word for 32 and one. It's just the numbers 321dee.com. And uh my email address is my first name, Keisha, which is K-I-S-H-A at 321deepsleep.com. And then I have another email address, which is a Gmail address. It's 321 Deepsleep Hypnotherapy at gmail.com. So those are uh three different ways to be able to get in in contact with me. Um give me about maybe uh a day to be able to get right back to you if you leave the information, but I will uh respond and be able to kind of set up something where we can talk. And anybody listening on your show, if they, you know, um let me know, like in the beginning, that they heard from me on your show, I will give um 10% off of the 10 15 off of the package.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's beautiful. Well, I appreciate you joining me. And again, I hope you take me up on my offer to continue. Oh, I will transition. We've got a lot more to talk about. And uh I didn't ask a bunch of questions, I wanted to because I you were on a good roll and I I didn't want to derail you. So so I look forward to that. But most importantly, I'm just grateful that you came out here and and and shared your experience with everybody. And uh just want to thank you for being on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely, and thank you for having me. I absolutely appreciate it. And I will be back. I will be back.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful. Well, this has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumban. I want to thank all of our listeners for making this show possible, and we will see you next time.
