The Power of Saying No
About this Event
The Power of Saying No
Guided Group Hypnosis in Downtown Toronto (to join virtually, please refer to the FAQ)
A guided group hypnosis session designed to help you set clearer boundaries, communicate more directly, and tolerate the discomfort of disappointing other people.
You may know that you need to say no and still hear yourself agreeing.
You accept another responsibility when you are already overwhelmed. You remain available when you need rest. You soften your answer until it sounds negotiable, offer lengthy explanations, or delay responding because you are afraid of appearing selfish, difficult, ungrateful, or unkind.
Later, you may feel resentful—not only toward the person who asked, but toward yourself for agreeing.
The difficulty is not always knowing where the boundary should be. It is believing that your needs, time, energy, and priorities deserve consideration even when another person wants something different.
This session uses guided hypnosis to help you communicate your limits more clearly and remain emotionally steady when your answer creates disappointment or disagreement.This session may be especially helpful if you:
- Agree to requests that you do not genuinely want or have capacity to fulfil
- Feel responsible for preventing other people’s disappointment
- Struggle to say no to family members, friends, colleagues, clients, or authority figures
- Overexplain your decisions in the hope that others will approve of them
- Avoid difficult conversations until resentment has accumulated
- Feel guilty when you prioritize rest, privacy, time, or personal goals
- Worry that setting a boundary will make you selfish or unkind
- Allow persistence from others to change an answer you had already made
- Find it easier to advocate for other people than for yourself
- Say yes automatically and regret it afterward
- Become anxious when someone is displeased with you
- Want to become more assertive without becoming hostile or inflexible
What to Expect
The session begins with a brief introduction to the evening’s theme. Participants may suggest situations they would like addressed, such as workplace demands, family expectations, social obligations, emotional labour, requests for time or money, difficult clients, unwanted advice, or repeated pressure after a boundary has been stated.
You will then be guided through a shared hypnosis experience centred on ideas such as:
- You are allowed to consider your own needs before giving an answer.
- A request is not an obligation.
- Another person’s disappointment does not automatically mean that you have done something wrong.
- You can be kind without making yourself continuously available.
- A clear answer is often more respectful than reluctant agreement followed by resentment.
- You do not need to make your boundary emotionally painless for everyone involved.
- An explanation may be useful, but you do not need to argue your way into permission.
- Other people are entitled to have feelings about your decision without gaining authority over it.
- Saying no to one request allows you to say yes to another priority.
- You can tolerate temporary awkwardness in service of a healthier relationship.
- Assertiveness is not aggression; it is accurate communication.
- Your time, energy, attention, and consent remain yours to allocate.
Depending on the needs of the group, the session may also address people-pleasing, fear of conflict, guilt, resentment, overcommitment, difficulty asking for space, discomfort receiving pushback, or the tendency to abandon a boundary once someone questions it.
The exact content varies slightly from one session to another, while the central purpose remains the same: helping you communicate an honest no without treating another person’s reaction as an emergency.
Saying No is Not Rejection
A boundary describes the limits of your participation.
It does not necessarily mean that the other person is wrong, unreasonable, or unimportant. It may simply mean that you do not have the time, energy, interest, responsibility, or willingness to provide what has been requested.
You can care about someone and decline what they are asking.
You can understand another person’s position without agreeing to it.
You can be generous without becoming endlessly available.
You can disappoint someone without disrespecting them.
The goal is not to become indifferent to other people. It is to stop treating their preferences as automatically more legitimate than your own.
A More Useful Definition of Assertiveness
Assertiveness is often confused with forcefulness.
In reality, assertiveness is the ability to state what you think, want, need, or will do without attempting to dominate the other person—and without requiring their approval before you are allowed to mean it.
A proportionate boundary considers:
- The importance of the relationship
- The nature of the request
- Your actual capacity
- Your responsibilities and prior commitments
- Whether compromise is appropriate
- Whether the pattern is occasional or repeated
- What you are willing to offer instead
Sometimes the appropriate answer is yes. Sometimes it is no. Sometimes it is a negotiation.
The purpose of this session is not to predetermine your answer. It is to help ensure that fear, guilt, and automatic compliance do not make the decision for you.
Who Can Attend?
No previous experience with hypnosis is required. You may participate quietly, and you will not be required to describe your relationships, conflicts, or personal circumstances to the group.
You may attend with a specific boundary or conversation in mind, or simply work on becoming more comfortable expressing your preferences and limits.
Each session stands on its own. You are welcome to attend once or return regularly to reinforce the ideas and apply them in different personal and professional situations.
This event is an educational and experiential group hypnosis session. It is not individualized legal, employment, relationship, or mental-health advice. In situations involving coercion, abuse, threats, or significant power imbalances, additional professional support may be appropriate.
Event Details
Location: Morpheus Clinic for Hypnosis, 49 Elm Street, downtown Toronto
Format: In-person guided group hypnosis
(To sign up to join virtually, please contact us at 416-556-4068, or [email protected])
Admission: $50 plus HST for non-members
Members: Included with an active Morpheus membership
Capacity: Limited to maintain a calm and focused group environment
Morpheus Clinic for Hypnosis has provided practical, results-oriented hypnosis in downtown Toronto since 2006.
Reserve your seat and practise giving an honest answer without making your self-respect dependent on how it is received.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 56.50
