Spa Magazine has a report on the business management style used by Ai Aoyama, Japan’s premiere SM Hypnotherapist . . . S&M hypnosis therapy serves up soothing sadism . . . paranoid, much . . . "soothing" hypnotherapy, not from the sound of it . . . but . . . to each their own:

"When I was still an S&M dominatrix, I was whipping this masochistic guy into shape one day and the thought suddenly occurred to me that what I was doing was very similar in a lot of ways to counseling. I decided right on the spot that I’d be better off going into counseling on a full-time basis," Ai Aoyama, Japan’s main proponent of S&M Hypnosis Therapy, tells Spa! Aoyama operated a number of flesh trade outlets before hitting the jackpot with her S&M Hypnosis Therapy. She employs women as counselors, whose job it is to soothe male customers by providing them with a session of S&M Hypnosis. "(S&M Hypnosis) involves first hypnotizing the customer so they believe they’re something small and weak, like a child or a little animal. While they’re still in a trance, you subject them to a brutal session of sadism. After they’ve borne that, you lavish them with praise," the dominatrix cum madam says. "The therapeutic effects of S&M Hypnosis are dozens of times greater than a normal session of S&M." Aoyama currently employs five dominatrixes. Aoyama set up her business pyramid style, with herself placed firmly at the top. "My biggest problem when running a sex business is dealing with other people. So many times, I’ve had girls gang up on me in secret and then stab me in the back. It’s happened many times up until now. I took on one woman to run a business for me. She took all my best girls and then opened up a place right near mine, using all the techniques I’d showed her and working in direct competition to me," she says. Aoyama argues that strict discipline in dealing with staff is essential if trying to run a successful S&M Hypnosis brothel. "I make absolutely sure that none of my girls have any social links with each other. They’re banned from exchanging e-mail addresses or mobile phone numbers and I never let them go home from work together," Aoyama says. "Then, if there’s anything they’re worried about, even if it’s a personal matter, I order them to talk to me about it first so that we can solve it together." Perhaps, the weekly suggests, the dominatrix is being a little too dominating? Never, the mistress bellows. "Lots of women running ordinary companies take the same approach to dealing with staff," she tells Spa!

While the parnoid business practices may leave much to be desired . . . pretty much those used by someone who is afraid that her staff will realize they don’t need to work for her and can just as easily walk out and start their own businesses with better conditions and more money . . . Aoyama’s "clinics" do work on an "informed consent" model for the customers.

For those with less "colorful" interests in recreational or therapeutic hypnosis and sexuality, there is worthwhile information in the Erotic and Sexual Hypnosis sections here at Life of Brian.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com