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The following profile looks at one of several Chamber members featured in the summer edition of our INSIGHT Magazine promoting health and wellness

Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius once said: “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

It’s a philosophy closely related to the work Renia Pruchnicki accomplishes daily as a professional hypnotist and director of Loving Hypnosis in Paris, Ont., helping others harness the power to achieve their personal goals, such as losing weight or to quit smoking.

“I’ve always had an interest in the power of the mind and spirituality and how people seem to be able to do things,” she says, describing the circumstances that led her to this calling several years ago.

At the time, Renia was operating a successful and unique vegan belt business called Truth Belts out of her small downtown Toronto apartment, which she had founded in 2001 when belts had become a ‘must have’ fashion item. Fashion itself had always been a passion in her life since she began making her own clothes as a teen growing up in Kitchener.

“I’ve always been creative and used to be really into sewing,” she says. “I always thought I was either going to be a fashion designer or some sort of an interior designer.”

She graduated in 1994 with a BA in Fashion Design from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and spent the next seven years in the fashion industry as a product designer where she had a hand in creating a variety of items including ski wear, outdoor gear, backpacks, and soft sided coolers.

After the company she worked for laid her off, Renia discovered a government-funded program to assist people in opening their own business and decided to take the plunge.

Strong entrepreneurial spirit

“I always kind of had an entrepreneurial spirit about me,” she says, which she clearly demonstrated early on as a child by having two newspaper routes and operating a dog-walking business. “I also had this dream of creating a whole line of clothing but how do you that when you don’t have the money? So, I decided to create belts since they were the hottest fashion accessory at the time.”

However, unlike other designers, Renia went in a bold direction by creating non-leather belts.

“Truth Belts was a vegan company, but I wasn’t even vegan at the time,” she laughs. “I didn’t know how to work with leather since my experience was in technical ski wear and insulated products. I just used materials that I knew.”

Although knocking on doors of retailers in Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West area helped lay a solid foundation for her burgeoning business, going online proved even more fruitful as Truth Belts gained international attention. This also led to a meeting with the late Steven Levy, Vice-President of Toronto’s One of a Kind Show, who visited her apartment and wound up purchasing nearly $300 worth of belts.

“He thought Truth Belts was a bigger company, perhaps from New York,” laughs Renia. “I was so grateful and then he invited me to exhibit at the show.”

She became a regular exhibitor for more than 20 years and at other tradeshows nationwide, while continuing to sell her work on Amazon, eventually from her home in Paris where she moved during the pandemic. 

“I had a fulfillment centre in Vaughn that would fulfill my orders. So, I’ve never had an actual storefront,” says Renia, who is planning to retire Truth Belts now in its 25th year, in order to pursue her work full time in hypnosis after being certified as a clinical hypnotist by Hypnosis Training Canada, the Master Hypnotist Society and the National Guild of Hypnotists in the U.S. in 2021. She is also a certified as an NLP (Neuro- Linguistics Programming) practitioner. 

“This was always in the back of my mind,” she says, referring to her interest in hypnosis and describes her work as a way to empower people to ‘break’ patterns that were likely established when they were very young. 

“They may know logically they shouldn’t smoke or overeat, but there’s something safe about it that was established way back when their unconscious mind believed it was the best thing to do to keep them feeling ‘safe’. If a person can become more conscious of their patterns and create new ones, it can be seemingly like a miracle in their lives.”

Hypnosis a relaxed state of focus

While weight loss, quitting smoking and stress management are the three primary areas of care at Loving Hypnosis, Renia also can help clients tackle a variety of fears, as well as sleep and relationship issues.  However, before taking on a client, she provides a free 40-mintue session which helps her determine if her services would prove worthwhile.

“The reason for that is because I have to see if that person is open, ready and willing to follow instructions, and if I see that they’re not, then I won’t accept them as a client,” she says. 

“My personal belief is there’s all kind of healers in the world, but another person can never heal you. They can only create the atmosphere or particular energy vibration and if you are open to matching that, then the healing will happen but you’re the one who is doing it, not your practitioner.”

On average, Renia says clients usually require a minimum of three sessions for smoking cessation and six sessions for all other programs. She doesn’t provide a ‘one off’ service.

“The reason for that is because you don’t know if my services worked and they might need more support,” she says, adding her clients come from all walks of life which is clearly reflected in a huge binder on her desk filled with testimonials and a collection of framed photos of satisfied customers adorning one of her office’s walls. “I have one client who has been smoking for more than 40 years and was up to more than a pack a day. She is now down to four cigarettes a day which is a huge step for her, but she will need a little bit more support.”

Keeping that in mind, Renia does provide a guarantee to clients, which includes a free ‘tune-up’ session if they sense they may be reverting to former patterns and admits there are misconceptions about her profession. 

“Sometimes people are afraid to come see me because they think I’m some sort of a witch and will cast a spell or something,” she laughs. “It’s not like that all. Hypnosis is a very relaxed state of focus and if you’re wanting to achieve a goal you must have focused attention.

"My goal is to help as many people as possible create positive changes in their lives through this work because I know it works and empowers people. They already have the tools to not just react to things in life, but to create the reality they prefer.”

Visit www.lovinghypnosis.com to learn more.