Category: Interviews

Keith Munyan – Making the Transition from Model to Photographer Look Easy

Keith Munyan – Making the Transition from Model to Photographer Look Easy

Keith Munyan has modeled for fifteen years and has been on calendars, appeared on “EXTRA,” “Hard Copy,” and “Access Hollywood.”   He was featured on billboards for Bud Light, modeled for Diet Coke, did countless commercials, and was a very successful swimsuit model. One would never expect to see him—with those rugged good looks of his—behind the camera. Keith uses his modeling experience to create great photographs, capturing some of the biggest celebrities on film.   His client list reads like an all-star cast with celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Cindy Crawford, and Hilary Duff.

Was it hard to transition from modeling in front of the camera to moving behind the camera?

Because of my experience from working in front of the camera, I listened a lot regarding lighting, and shooting. I found it easier for me because I enjoyed working with people.

Do you think having been a model helped your eye when shooting other models?

Yes, I do.  One of the things I’ve learned is patience.  Don’t rush.  I’m more laid back.  When we’re doing shoots, if you have an idea, let’s try it.   I’ll try anything, because I’m not always right.  If you can give your input and enjoy the job, it goes by faster, and everybody has a fun day.

Who are some of the people you have shot?

I knew a guy from a magazine who found out I was shooting.  I shot Beth Broderick, whoplays Aunt Zelda on “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”  The television show used all my photos in the background as they did a story on her character.  Because of that show, and from knowing me as a model from Popstar!Magazine, he called me and asked me if I was interested in shooting.  And I said sure, why not?  I’d be glad to do it.  The first person I shot was Jessica Simpson.  Then later, I shot Cindy Crawford, Carmen Electra, Hilary Duff, whom I’ve worked with for over four years now, as well as countless other celebrities, and just recently, Rachel Melvin for Agenda Magazine.  All my work is by word of mouth or by referral.  I do not advertise.

In Rachel’s shoot we used a lot of wood elements.   We kept it very vogue, very high fashion, but we threw in the wood elements to keep the warmth, to keep it grounded to make it more special and individualized for her.

I did like the idea of the wood.   How do you come up with ideas for different shoots?   Do you ever end up duplicating your ideas?

I look.  I shop.  I find elements and things for backgrounds.  And then once I see the clothing and get the feel, we started pulling things in.  The Yucca tree that we used forAgenda Magazine for Rachel Melvin was actually from off of my property. It was just a dead yucca that had bloomed and it died, but we saved it.  The vase from the Malibu fires went with the elements; something rustic, something used, but then you’ve got elegance with it.  I see a lot of photos and ideas from other magazines… Yes, I look; I shop.  You’ve got to keep your eye going, you’ve got to stay up on fashion with your shooting, and know what’s happening with photographers.  So you’ve got to keep up.

Do you have any secret tips for yourself when you’re actually shooting, like trade secrets that you use to pull a photo out of someone?

Sometimes I do.  The best thing to do when you’re working with a celebrity is to remind them to think of the people they love and care about or their pet.  And they laugh.  Like with Rachel, we brought up Murphy, her cocker spaniel, and her eyes lit up, and she was very relaxed.

Have you ever had a disaster shoot?

When you’re dealing with celebrities, you’re dealing with personalities.   Some PR people do not get along with their celebrities.  And then you deal with celebrities that think they’re bigger than other people… and I can’t mention any names… but everyone thinks she is a diva, but she’s a clock-watcher.  They only give you so many hours to shoot this editorial for a hair magazine,Sophisticated Hair, and we were doing the hair stuff on her and she saw the clock and decided it was time for her to leave.  I told her she’d only been here an hour.  Her mother told her she wasn’t going anywhere.   When she excused herself and turned her back, I took the clock down, told her mother to hide her watches, hide everything… and she stayed for three more hours.   She was trying to rush us through our job, and without these photos, she didn’t have the publicity.  They were doing the story on her.  She had the cover already.  Just be nice.  That’s the only bad experience I had.  Everybody else who I’ve worked with has been amazing.

I enjoy doing the celebrity stuff because everyone is usually so pleasant.  I do not do the paparazzi, and very seldom will I do weddings.  No! (He shrugs.)  Weddings are not fun.  People do not understand that weddings are the hardest thing on a photographer or because you have no control.   The mother does.  (Laughs.)

I noticed when you were shooting Rachel, you had a very elaborate light setup.   Can you tell me how you came about doing textures through lighting like you did on her shoot?

For one thing, dealing with celebrities, you have to make sure everything is perfect.   And Ilearned over the years to test the lighting, and use more light because most of the time, not everyone always has the perfect skin and complexion, and not everyone gets Photoshopped.  So I’ve learned how to adjust my lighting around my clients.  I figure out how to make it hotter, warmer, darker, depending on their skin tones, their hair, their makeup.  I like to mix my Tungsten lighting with my daylight to give you that blue hue, which gives you that porcelain look, almost China doll.  Not everyone has that perfect warm skin.  Not everyone’s a fitness model.  Not everyone’s tan.  Like Rachel, the lighting we used on her was the Tungsten lighting, but I shot it as daylight to give her that porcelain look, yet the tones stayed rich and vibrant.

Tell me about your partner.   I noticed it was a joint effort.   You’re shooting, and he’s directing the model.

The funny thing is, Dean’s my partner for almost eighteen years.  He’s been my business partner, and he was actually a photographer first.  He would always do the shoots, and I would always direct the models, but now it’s reversed.  He’s taken over my business part in running my business, whereas I’m doing the shoots, and he does the directing of the models because sometimes I get very quiet and more involved in what’s going on with the elements, the shots, the angle I want, the lighting… I make sure that everything is perfect and I’ll get quiet sometimes.  There’s always going to be somebody ballsy on the set anyway, so why not have somebody who’s got a lot of energy.  He is so funny.  He can get hysterical.  He’ll show people how to pose and they’re laughing, and everybody enjoys it.  It’s fun. It’s entertaining.  Everybody loves him.  We’re sort of a team.

Before you shoot with a client, do you consult with them first?   And how do you learn their angles?

I ask, before I shoot with someone, if they have an old photo, bring it.   Show me what you like and don’t like about a photo.  Bring it in.  Because they’re going to have a side they like better.  It’s about the lighting that you use with the person and still know their angles.

Do you miss the modeling?

No, I don’t.  I miss the auditions, the cattle calls, where 300 people show up, and they’re looking for one model.  I did that for fifteen years and I enjoyed it. I loved it. I traveled a lot.  I got a lot of experiences.  I did things I thought I’d never do.  In Barcelona, I went up and down an escalator, dressed coming down, and naked going up.  I didn’t think I would ever do that.  But hey, they paid us triple.  Why not?  I was a starving model then.   I was in my 20s. But I prefer being behind the camera now.

What’s next for you?

I want to make videos.  I like the energy of music videos.  It’s a little more pushed.  I like the idea that it takes a lot of energy.  You have to stay up and going all day, but you still treat it like a still shoot.  The elements you use are almost the same.

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

Marlene Forté – It Wasn’t Too Late to Follow Her Dream

Marlene Forté – It Wasn’t Too Late to Follow Her Dream

Marlene Forté has been acting since 1988.   She starred in “Lost,” “The Unit,” “My Wife and Kids,” “The George Lopez Show,” etc.   The film Adrift in Manhattan, where Marlene is featured along with Heather Graham and William Baldwin, recently premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was a big hit. She has produced and starred in several of her own productions, including Lena’s Dreamsand Cuco Gomez-Gomez Is Dead.   Hers is a face you will immediately recognize.   When asked how she broke into acting, her answer was surprising and encouraging.

How did you know you wanted to be an actress?

I always wanted to act, probably since I was ten.   I started acting at almost thirty years old against everybody’s logical advice: I was too old; lived in Jersey, etc. Eighteen years later, here I am.   I starred in my first movie, The Bronx War.   I played a stripper.    As a young Latina actress at the time, you pick and choose.   Even though The Bronx War was not a great movie, it moved my career and the director’s career forward.   I learned not to take anymore stripper roles. I did it early.   I got all that stuff out of the way early in my life.

You are a very animated person.   As an actress, how are you able to use that personality in each role?

I’m very bubbly and I can be on stage and 800 people can see me, but when I’m in front of a camera and TV, it’s very different.   My challenge is to sit still and let that bubbly personality come out through my eyes and my voice and the words that I’m saying.   Being in front of the camera is a big challenge for me.

What’s your favorite role?

They are all my favorites when I’m working on them.   I become the person, and there’s no judging the character.   So at the moment, they’re all my favorites.   Right now my favorite is “Lost” because I just finished.   I played Detective Murphy.   I’m dying to play a cop on TV, little girl with big gun.   I am hoping it will lead to more of that.

Tell me about your personal life.   Have you been married?   Have any kids?

I have been married several times.   I just got remarried July 2, 2006.   I married a lovely man called Oliver Mayer, and yes he is my third husband.   I am a hopeless romantic.   But I finally found my partner.   You know, that prince in the Cinderella story, it does exist, but they don’t tell you that you have to kiss a lot of toads before you actually find him.   I have an amazing 26-year-old daughter, Gisella Rodriguez, who lives in New York, and now she’s acting and lives in my old New York apartment.

Highest High

I remember the first time I booked a legit job.   I ran a video store for six years.   I am submitting myself to Backstage.   I get a call to do stand-in work for Talia Shire in New York Stories.   Coppola was directing.   I was ecstatic!   I remember hanging up the phone in the video store and I was just so happy. I told my actor friend that I was doing stand-in work for Talia Shire, isn’t that fantastic?   And she asked me if I knew what stand-in work was?   I said, “No!   It doesn’t matter. I am going to be on the set with Coppola and [Vittorio] Storaro.”   That’s all I knew!   I have not matched that feeling yet.   Every time I book a job, I get that high of “Oh my god I’m gonna work one more day.”   That moment stands in my head so clearly, and when I tell people that it was stand-in work… but it didn’t matter. I worked two weeks, and everyday Storaro put a light meter in front of my face, and I said it’s gonna happen some day again.

Lowest Low

Telling my dad I was playing a stripper for really not a lot of money (laughs). Nothing harder than that has ever happened to me.

Have you ever turned a role down?

I turned down another stripper role.   And even now, I am part of LABrynth Theater Company back home, and I find myself having to turn down a lot more theater work these days, just because it just doesn’t pay as much.   And I’m not in a position yet where I can take off three months and not work.   I’d like to be in that position where I can go home and work at LABrynth for $200 a week and do eight shows.   Somehow the money doesn’t work out.   $200.00 at eight shows a week, and six weeks of rehearsal, and three months of your life where you can’t audtion for anything else.   Or you go and do a week on “The Unit” and make $7,000,00.   It doesn’t weigh out.

You’ve been acting for eighteen years.   Would you say that the industry has changed since you started?   And what do you think about the Indie revolution?

Yes. It’s slow. It’s like the ant rolling that big boulder up that hill.   But it is changing.   When I started acting back in 1988, submitting myself (booked The Bronx War through Backstage West, by the way) I ‘m still married and my name was Rodriguez, my husband’s name, I’m in Jersey with this little Jersey management that is telling me Rodriguez is so Latin., and that I can pass.   I should change it.   [I ended up with Forte’.]

There was a slow period where I couldn’t even get arrested in New York as a legit actress.   I was working with LAByrinth Theater Company, which was not the phenomenon that it is now.   I was doing really well commercially and doing a lot of theater work.   Thank god because I needed insurance.   I couldn’t be a starving actor.   I had a kid to feed. I did a lot of production work, too, and I met Gordon [Eriksen] and Heather [Johnston], and they were doing this very low budget independent movie.   This was 1989, and they hired me to be a PA for $200 a week, plus room and board in Queens on location because somebody had to stay with all the equipment at night.   So here I am living in this big house in Queens with the condition I can go in and out of the city and audition.   We started doing this movie, and shot it on 16-mm… and an exhausted cast and crew… I had all these crazy stories about being an actor and they kept saying they were going to write me a story and they did, called Lena’s Dreams in 1995.   This film brought me to L.A., and put me in the eyes of the independent world.

What do you think about the “Indie” revolution?

The “Indie” revolution is old for me.   I think the digital world has brought accessibility to people, which is wonderful.   But it has dropped the quality of stuff. Anybody can become a filmmaker now.   But it has opened things up. If I had the digital capabilities back then, wow!   We shot Lena’s Dreams on a short end [A short end is a partial roll of unexposed film stock which was left over during a motion picture production], because they lost all their money on that other movie, by the way.   $61,000.00 we raised, selling $2500 shares after six readings.   The odds were so against us!   And yet that’s the one movie that really brought them a lot of attention as filmmakers, and it really put me into the “Indie” scene, and that was in 1996. It’s an old revolution as far as I’m concerned.

You almost need a name now.   If I had done Lena’s Dreams now, I don’t know if we would have gotten as much recognition.

Where do you see yourself in five years?   Or do you have a plan?

I see myself working.   I don’t have set plans. I think you have to be like a palm tree in the wind out there in a tsunami and just be willing to move.   When the doors open, you go that way.   I have done a lot more television lately than movies.   I love acting… from doing radio plays to commercials, to doing live sitcom comedy [“George Lopez” and “My Wife and Kids”].   I love it all.   My plan is to keep working.

I do want to do production, and I do produce.   I think that’s really important. Because people aren’t writing for us as much, even though it is changing, we need to infuse the market with more work, more stories—our stories, us telling the stories, directing the stories.   The idea is to keep working. And not judge how much you’re getting paid for this, but just move forward, produce, and do, and act.

You didn’t start acting until you were almost thirty.   Wouldn’t you say that you probably did well at thirty, and are doing well now because you had those thirty years of life experience?

Oh, absolutely!   I hung up my college diploma to wait tables for several years.   I met people from all over the world.   That’s what I do as an actor.   I have to recreate people, live—4-dimensional people, if I can.   And the only way of doing that is by living and by experiencing things.

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

Rachel Melvin – Much More Than Just the Character She Portrays

Rachel Melvin – More to Her Than the Character She Portrays

Though she clearly is the actress who plays Chelsea on the popular soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” you would never believe it if you closed your eyes and engaged in a dialog with Rachel Melvin—you’d think you had spoken to somebody else entirely.  She is nothing like her character, a saucy, fast teenager who has a turbulent relationship with her biological parents, Bo Brady and Billy Reed.  In reality, Melvin maintains a loving relationship with her parents, and had only kissed two boys her entire life before being cast for this role.  She is sweet, unassuming, and terribly gracious.  They say great actors are born, and that describes this actress completely.  Only being a “natural” could explain how Rachel Melvin not only landed a role on her very first audition, but also gained her coveted soap opera part.

Since Melvin’s arrival in Los Angeles three years ago, she has appeared on several television shows, and starred in the soon to be released film, Boo.  She is very involved with the Diabetes Foundation, and she spends time with Murphy, her cocker spaniel.  She was blessed with delicate features, porcelain skin, and is a size 0.  We just had to put her in a fashion shoot.

Rachel is tucked away in a modern condo in Burbank, very near NBC Studios, where she works.  On her living room wall are posters ofBreakfast at Tiffany’s and Gone with the Wind.  “In the old days I liked Audrey Hepburn.  I also really liked Vivien Leigh.  Gone with the Wind was my favorite movie ever.”

Rachel Melvin was engaging and delightful to interview.

How long have you been acting?

I’ve been acting for three years.  My dad just told me to take a chance out here and pursue my acting, and I did.  I did plays in high school, but not too many, and one that I did was called “Any Number Can Die.”  It’s a play that took place in the ’30s.  It was a murder mystery.  It was really fun.  After I did that, I was just addicted.

Where are you from originally?

I was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, and I was raised in Phoenix, Arizona.  I moved out to California three years ago, first Chatsworth, then Camarillo, and now finally, Burbank.

Tell me about “Days of Our Lives.”

It’s a lot of hard work. The character of Chelsea, before it was made a contract role, was a recurring role, and was played actually by an actress who is also with my agency.  They decided about two or three months after she started working that they wanted to make the character a contract role.  She had coincidentally booked a role on another show, and she told my agent she was going to give up the role of Chelsea.  So my agent obviously had the heads up before she even told production.  They told me to start watching her and get a feel for the character, and I had actually gone out for the character before when they first brought her on the show, and I didn’t get it because I was still playing like the sweet wholesome girl thing.  So I just went out on the audition like everybody else, made it through callbacks, pre-reads, and then I did a screen test, and then I got the role.

What made you decide to become an actress?

It’s kind of a funny little story, and I know two or three other people who’ve actually said this, too.  When you’re driving home, you’re making your own movie trailers in the car, and not a lot of people do that; so I just kind of took that as a sign that I wanted to be an actor.

Tell me about your first audition?

I was taking acting classes in Larchmont Village in Los Angeles, and the coach knows a bunch of casting directors, people he’s grown up with and worked with.  And this one casting director from Danny Goldman Casting was casting this movie called Boo, and she needed a bunch of people for the lead character; and so Scott called me and said to “just go out.  It will be really fun.  I know you’ve never done it before, but you’ll get a feel.”  So I just went out there and did it, not even thinking anything, and then they said thank you.  I went to leave and they chased after me.  “We need you to come back tomorrow.  Here’s a script for you.  Read it, and we want you to read for this other character, Meg.”  And after reading the script, I wanted that role anyway because I felt more of a connection to that character, and one thing led to another.  I ended up doing my project within six months of being out here.

You hear about actors and actresses always training, taking classes.   Did you go through that at all?

I did.  At one point my dad was working out here, and he met people in the industry at his job, and one of them was a casting agent, and she wanted to give my dad a few pointers if his daughter was really serious about acting.  Her first advice was move out here and take acting classes, because that’s where everything stems from.  So I took the acting classes.  You learn a lot.  Before I was debating about going to college or actually coming out here.

I’ve been looking around your condo, and I notice you have Audrey Hepburn on the wall.  Tell me, are there any particular actors or actresses that you like?

Nowadays I am a big fan of Rachel McAdams and Sarah Jessica Parker. Mainly because they just have this certain authenticity and truth to their acting, which is something I kind of strive to have or maintain, and I just really look up to them for that.  They’ve made great choices in their careers, so have Leonardo Di Caprio and Johnny Depp.  I know they’re male, but I really look up to them, too, for taking on these challenges and always doing something different.

Now, you mentioned violin.  Do you play violin?

I played a lot in elementary and middle school.  I did it more for fun, and when I hit the eighth grade, I was in Texas and they were so hardcore.   “This is serious; this is your career; this is your life”  [I didn’t feel that way]. I just kind of wanted to fool around and play on it.  I stopped playing, but I never sold it, just because I think it’s one of the most beautiful instruments in the world, and I actually just bought an electric violin.  I don’t have any amps for it.  I have to get those.  So I haven’t played in a while, but when I do pick it up again, I want to play stuff that I’ve heard like “Even Essence” and “Yellow Card.” They use violins in their music.  I just want to fool around and play the songs I know and have fun with it.

Highest High

I play opposite Blake Berris on “Days of Our Lives.”  He plays Nick the geek.  He brings a lot to my story line and to the show in general, and we play off each other really well.  We’ve had these cute little flirting scenes.  It’s just really good stuff.  I describe it as magical.

So you are involved in the American Diabetes Association.  How did that come about?

I joined it because my dad has Type 2 diabetes, where you have to inject yourself with insulin, and he’s had it for about twelve years.  I remember how his getting diabetes has changed him and all of our lifestyles. I joined because my dad is not a very good diabetic.  He’ll buy a pack of Oreos, and they’ll be gone in three days, which is not good for a diabetic.  My mom is always on his case, bringing him to doctors to make sure he is more aware and more healthy, but he’s a man, and he’s older, so he’s set in his ways; and he’s going to do what he wants to do.  But since I joined ADA and I have been getting more educated about it, I tell my dad certain things.  I went to one event and they had those FUSE drinks, which are supposed to be good for diabetics, and I told my dad about them and now he’s addicted to them, which is a good thing.  It’s easier for me to be in a charity and get the information and then pass it on to my dad than it is for him to actually get up, schedule an appointment with the doctor and go… or a nutritionist… because he is so busy.  It was something I wanted to know more about.  And I just thought my family should be more aware of it and a lot more Americans should be more aware of it, too.

Diabetes is not a disease that I feel a lot of people take seriously because the death toll doesn’t happen immediately.  It’s more dragged out, so people don’t see it as an immediate problem, where with cancer people are more on it, because it takes lives so quickly.  I felt that diabetes is a disease, and it deserves to be treated just like everything else.

What is your involvement in the association?

I’ve been to a couple of walks that they’ve had.  I actually participated in the walk because it was something I always wanted to do.  I brushed up a little bit on the facts about it, and did a little public speaking at one of their events, and got the rally going before they went out on the walk.  I also work with the kids that are there to encourage, then do things that take their mind off what they have and open them up to the other more positive things in life.  Because I like art so much, it usually entails drawing.

I want to write a children’s book, not necessarily for the kids with diabetes, but just to have a children’s book, and then work out something with the proceeds that would go to ADA just because I think that they should have the opportunity to have the finances to really look into getting a cure.

How is your dad doing now?

My dad’s good, but the thing that’s bad about diabetes is it starts out fine, then it gradually gets bigger and bigger.  He’s had the neuropathy in his feet.  My dad’s the only guy in our family.  He’s always done everything, for example, Christmas decorations.  Now, he can’t be on his feet too long.   His feet have neuropathy, so it doesn’t enable him to do a lot.   He has to inject himself with insulin, and because of his neuropathy, it’s very difficult for him to exercise, so he gains weight, which makes him not as happy as he used to be.  But there’s nothing he can do about it, so it decreases his self-appreciation and confidence.  It tears you up emotionally and physically.  And eventually you’ve heard about people getting their feet and legs amputated because it just crawls up.  Because it’s not killing them immediately, people say, “It’s sad they don’t have legs, but at least they’re still living.”  It’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked.

To learn more, or to make a donation to the American Diabetes Association, go to www.diabetes.org.

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

Dr. Geoffrey R. Keyes – Proudly Setting the Standard for Safety in Plastic Surgery

Dr. Geoffrey R. Keyes – Proudly Setting the Standard for Safety in Plastic Surgery

I don’t want to bore you with confusing medical jargon, or cloud the issue with terms of accreditation and cosmetic procedures. Of course, I want you to get the gist of this article. I spoke with plastic surgeon Geoffrey R. Keyes, and he shed some light on the importance of surgeons and their facilities following certain guidelines for safety. As a “lay” person, I could barely decipher some of the medical terminology he tossed at me. Yet he did his best to explain how crucial it was that I parlayed this information to my readers. So here is my dilemma. Because I like to dumb things down, or rather get to the meat of the subject, and really explain clearly any topic that may come off as nefarious or just plain nebulous, I decided to do a little research of my own.

I went online and landed on a few prime cosmetic surgery blog sites. I read with great interest how people are doing research via word of mouth to decide on just the right cosmetic surgeon. I was astounded to find that most of what I read was not based on logic or credentials, but price and instinct. Even Dr. Keyes’ name came up a few times, and he was looked at with great skepticism by these bloggers. “He is a stickler for proper procedure and comes off too concerned about his fellow patient.” Why this would be a negative point is clearly beyond my comprehension. I continued to read and was shocked to learn that one blogger decided to drive to Tijuana after meeting with Dr. Keyes to get a nose job by a less qualified surgeon. He shared with his fellow bloggers that it was worth saving the thirty-five hundred extra dollars, and that he was going to recommend that his family members follow suit. After reading this I decided to look at the material Dr. Keyes showed me during our interview with greater scrutiny.

Dr. Geoffrey R. Keyes is certified by two medical boards: The American Board of Plastic Surgery and The American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. Both these surgical specialties substantiate training for cosmetic surgical procedures. He has published and lectured internationally. He belongs to a staggering list of associations, including: American Society of Plastic Surgeons, California Medical Association, California Society of Facial Plastic Surgeons, California Society of Plastic Surgeons, and Los Angeles County Medical Association.

I list these credentials to support the following position—that patients need to arm themselves with the proper information in order to make an informed decision while choosing a plastic surgeon. But just having a list of impressive credentials is not enough to substantiate this position. Shouldn’t the intended plastic surgeon also be board certified?

So what exactly is board certified? According to Dr. Keyes, A true plastic surgeon spends 4 years in medical school, a year in surgical internship rotating through all the different procedures to learn general information about how to handle patients pre-op and then post-op. Then they do 3-5 years in a surgical specialty. It might be general surgery, orthopedic surgery, or it could be neurology. Then they do 2 more years in plastic surgery. So it’s 7 years of surgical training to be a plastic surgeon after medical school. Then after they’ve been out in practice for a year, they’re allowed to take their written or oral examination. If they pass, they’re board certified.

You don’t need that to practice. People confuse board certified with licensure. So many people are traveling overseas to have surgery done and they know nothing about where they’re going. They don’t know the doctors as well as they should. They don’t know what accreditation is. Board certification is an honor.

Dr. Keyes recently appeared on the Montel Williams show to stress the importance of patient safety. He wanted to reach the consumer and spread the importance of being accredited and board certified. He warns us that several “plastic surgeons” on TV shows aren’t board certified.

It’s a very important distinction because if somebody’s board certified, they’ve demonstrated to their surgical specialty-plastic surgery, that they have what it takes to pass a written and oral examination. Only 14 states require accreditation of surgery centers. There are 37 states that you might walk into the doctor’s office and he may not be a true plastic surgeon. He may just be a surgeon who calls himself a cosmetic surgeon. So he may not be accredited. And you don’t know what safety standards he’s putting you to sleep under. That’s important information.

Most people are intimidated when they come into a doctor’s office. They don’t know what to look for; they don’t know what to expect. They don’t know what board certification is. It’s outside the realm of their daily life, but it’s crucial as far as a credential to know about it.

The Keyes Surgicenter for Cosmetic Surgery is designed to provide advanced and comprehensive surgical services for those who wish to improve or refine a facial or body feature. The Surgicenter is accredited by the American Association for Accreditation and Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF), an agency whose scrutiny of surgical facilities assures they meet the highest safety standards for patient care.

I designed WWW.AAAASF.ORG for them and it’s all their business issues. For example if I was a doctor and I want to be accredited, I apply to this organization and I adhere to all of the standards. I get inspected and the inspection is done online. Somebody comes in and reviews the Surgicenter. (He shows me his operating room, which this standard is based from). In looking at the checklist, each thing has to be complied with, like exposure control medium and hazard communication. It operates like a little hospital, and every one of these things has to be complied with for safety. So that’s why accreditation is so important. If you’re going to an outpatient accreditation facility, how do you know that the properly inspected equipment is used in the operating room? My equipment is inspected twice a year. If you look at it, you’ll see stickers on it. These are all important safety issues.

According to Today’s Surgicenter, the article entitled Breast Augmentation Safety in Outpatient Surgery Facilities, posted 4/11/2005,http://www.surgicenteronline.com/hotnews/54h111338777018.html, Dr. Geoffrey Keyes, along with a long list of doctors compiled information from 246,552 breast implant procedures.

(AAAASF) released today a preliminary analysis of data collected on 246,552 breast implant procedures performed in AAAASF-accredited facilities.

These procedures were either for reconstructive or aesthetic purposes and yielded an extremely low incidence of unanticipated sequelae. An unanticipated sequela was reported in only one in 143 procedures performed or less than 1 percent (.70 percent) of the time.

It is important to note that AAAASF requires all physicians operating in AAAASF-accredited facilities to report all unanticipated sequelae every six months as part of the organization’s mandatory Quality Assessment/Quality Improvement Program. AAAASF has been a staunch proponent for data collection in the outpatient surgery facility having required physicians to report random cases for review and unanticipated sequelae for the last five years.

Dr. Keyes designed the first quality insurance Internet-based program in history, and he is on the board of directors for this organization.  

Thousands of surgery centers entered their information on their cases for safety into this web-based program. And we have been able to analyze them, and as a result we have been able to write papers on statistics relative to safety on outpatient surgery. We have a million cases after bleeding episodes of how many breast augmentations, how many deaths occurred from outpatient settings and what they were attributed to. Nobody ever had this information before we did this.

You wouldn’t want a dermatologist to do rhinoplasty. Dermatologists have no background for it. Nor would you want an OBGYN to do a facelift. Make sure the person is trained in the specialty that he’s saying he’s operating. There’s no specialty in cosmetic surgery. It is performed by different doctors in different specialties. Cosmetic surgery itself is not a residency trained, recognized by the Medical Board of Medical Specialties.

When seeking a plastic surgeon be sure to ask the doctor what specialty are they board certified? If he or she doesn’t say ear, nose, or throat or opthamology, and somebody wants facial cosmetic surgery, then most likely he hasn’t had a surgical residency to train them to do this type of work, and that ought to raise some further questions.

Highest High

You touch people in different ways. In doing cancer surgery, you’re dealing with people in probably the worst times of their lives, and guiding them through it. That’s very important to me. But even when you do a cosmetic procedure like a rhinoplasty and you have a 16- or 17-year-old girl, she’s kind of shy because she has a bump on her nose, and you refine her nose and you bring out what’s good about her nose, it’s fun to watch them blossom. It’s very inspiring. There’s a little bit of an instant gratification with plastic surgery that you don’t always see in other specialties in that you do something and there’s a result right there that you can look at. A lot of other specialties like doctors that treat diabetes. It’s a long-term process that’s very gratifying but it’s not as instantly rewarding.

We have heard horror stories of people getting procedures like liposuction dying on the table, are those just freak accidents?

Well, this is very serious business. And all the things we discussed before are a prelude to answering that question. A complication can occur with any surgery. Patients are always warned that they can die from anesthesia. Generally speaking, cosmetic surgery is done on healthy people. For example, I wouldn’t perform an operation if somebody had severe cardiac disease, and even somebody with a relatively minor problem would be taken to a hospital to do it because there’s more support there. However, if you are in a situation where you don’t have an accredited facility, you don’t know the capability of the doctor and the anesthesiologist, there’s always a risk. And that’s why I stress accreditation as part of the process of researching who you’re going to. People who die from cosmetic surgery from unrelated issues are due to the competence of the doctor. For example, pulmonary embolism is a blood clot going from the calf to the lung, and it essentially deprives you of oxygen. You could die from that. That could happen from any surgery, whether you’re an outpatient or in a hospital. This is something to be taken quite seriously. There’s a tendency with the media to make it look more like fashion or having your hair done. It’s not. It’s surgery. It’s as complicated a surgery as any surgery. People think because it’s your appearance and there is some vanity involved, that it must be simple to do. Not at all, it has to be done correctly.

How do you assess a potential patient, when you do consultations with someone and maybe there’s something a little bit askew about their face that they want to change. I was reading your website where you say people have very specific things that they want to change, particularly with rhinoplasty—they know exactly the nose they want. You obviously go based on what you feel is correct, but a lot of times, are a lot of the patients wrong about how they’re going to end up looking?

Well, the first thing you have to assess is the mental health of the patient and what they’re looking for. If somebody doesn’t have an idea about what they truly want, they’re probably not a good candidate for surgery. We have patients come in and ask what we can do for them, and that’s a general overall confusion of who they are and what they’re all about. When patients come in with specific pictures like a movie star’s and their nose has no resemblance of what they’re asking for, that’s another red flag. There has to be a realistic approach. You can only do so much with an individual nose. You can refine it. You can take a bump off. You can narrow it. But if somebody, for example has thick skin, sometimes what you do doesn’t show as much. So, a realistic attitude is one of the most important aspects to judge a patient in this type of surgery.

Do you have an age limit? Do they have to be 18, or does it matter?

It depends on the procedure. For example, we don’t like doing breast augmentation on children or adolescents because we don’t think they’re in a proper frame of mind at that age of maturity to make that kind of a decision. However, a rhinoplasty for a young girl who’s 15, 16, 17, 18, or fully-grown, you can do a rhinoplasty. It can have a dramatic effect on their self-esteem and appearance. It’s okay to do it at that time. But there’s a difference between rhinoplasty, and liposuction, and breast augmentation. You have to pick and choose which procedure you’re going to do.

Have you had any low points as a surgeon?

Complications are part of doing surgery. We’ve had patients that have had setbacks, nothing major; but it’s always disappointing when that happens.

Have you ever had an ultimate failure? Where somebody came in and there was just nothing you could do to help that person?

Absolutely. Somebody comes in for revision surgery and there’s nothing we can do. That’s why people need to use good judgment.

I think it’s good what you’re doing by educating the public. I think of plastic surgery and I think celebrities.

That’s all hype. That’s not the reality of it. When somebody comes to the office and wants plastic surgery, the first thing I do is fill out the paperwork about their general health. I have them write down what they’re interested in seeing from their procedure. It educates them about all the aspects of what they’re looking for. It sets up questions, and then by the time I do the consultation, they’re more educated. Sometimes people are educated because they have been on the web. Sometimes they know things before the doctors do, because it’s new and they found it online. The best way to have a successful outcome is to start properly. And that’s an educated, well-informed patient, and a patient who knows exactly what they want. There are people who have terrible things occur related to surgery. You can’t correct everything. It’s not like you can take an eraser and erase them.

What are some of the hazards of chin implants. Infection?

Bleeding and infection are potentials after any surgery. If somebody has an infection after surgery, it doesn’t mean somebody did anything wrong. Luckily in plastic surgery it doesn’t happen very often. We use prophylactic antibiotics. You can also have nerve damage and loss of sensation.

What is your ideal patient, then?

Well-educated [about their procedure], emotionally stable, who knows exactly what they want, is realistic about the potential outcome, and is in good health.

According to Dr. Keyes, in order to do cosmetic surgery well, the doctor should be well versed in reconstructive surgery. Most of cosmetic surgery evolved from what doctors learned in the war, taking care of the wounds on faces.

Plastic surgeons are really experts in wound care—that’s really what we are. People don’t realize that. They think of the glamorous stuff.

Because there are still 37 states that permit unaccredited facilities, you could easily walk into a doctor’s office, and he may not be a true plastic surgeon. Your safety is not guaranteed. Do your research, ask well-informed questions, and don’t put yourself at risk.

To learn more about Dr. Geoffrey R. Keyes, visit his website atwww.nasalsurgery.org, or www.keycare.com. For a consultation, contact Dr. Keyes at (310) 859-9388. His office is located at 9201 Sunset Blvd., Suite 611, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Interview by Kaylene Peoples

Nora Catherine – Lavishly Original Jewelry Made from Semi-Precious Stones

Nora Catherine – Lavishly Original Jewelry Made from Semi-Precious Stones

Spiral cut quartz crystal with powder blue faceted glass and bali silver; Saraphinite, freshwater pearls, bali and sterling silver—this sounds so luxurious and wildly creative as a piece of art and jewelry. These vivid descriptions belong to the jewelry of artist/designer Nora Brown of Nora Catherine Jewelry. Nora’s jewelry is one-of-a-kind art that should be displayed in a gallery, not just around somebody’s neck. In fact, that’s how I saw one of these stunning necklaces for the first time, around Nora’s neck at L.A. Fashion Week. She was volunteering, and seated me before a show. I couldn’t help but admire the lavish piece of art adorning her neck, and asked her where she got it. “It’s mine. I designed it,” she said.

What is a talented jewelry designer/artist doing seating guests at a fashion show? As it turns out, several up-and-coming designers find their way volunteering at fashion events. They can take their pick from working the design suites, or seating guests at the runway shows. Their reasoning: volunteering gives them an opportunity to network and get a jump on the next season’s trends. In Nora’s case, she went to Los Angeles to get the experience at this level at Fashion Week. She actually had her jewelry in Portland Fashion Week, which is a much smaller event, and since Los Angeles is much bigger, making contacts and meeting people was imminent—a win-win situation.

I met so many people and just soaked it all in. I also gained the experience of working on an amazing fashion show. So I bought a ticket, hopped on a plane, came from Portland just to volunteer. The experience that I had at Fashion Week was nothing but good. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to work the shows, meeting people, just being around the clothing. Some of the pieces just put me in awe. Makes me want to work with some of these people some day. The whole experience was just amazing. I am so glad I came.

At a young age, Brown took clothing apart and figured out how to make patterns. She sewed a lot of her own clothes and wanted to put some beads on a collar.

I had an old vintage garment, took the beads off and re-sewed them on, and just got really fascinated with the beads themselves. I’m self-taught so I looked at books, and other pieces of jewelry . . . things like the magazines, and I kind of went from there. I did a lot of stitching, like bead embroidering.

Being self-taught, was that difficult for you to get the hang of it?

Being self-taught is actually the way I learn the best in my music, in my designing. I’m pretty much a self-taught person.

So you’re also a musician?

I’m kind of a musician. I play the piano. My mom’s a music teacher—it runs in my family, but it’s just for fun .

Tell me about your jewelry. You’re wearing one of your pieces?

Yes, I am wearing one of my own pieces. My jewelry comes from the beads themselves. My inspiration comes from the stones. I love working with natural crystals, mineral formations, [and] fossils. I have a stonecutter that I’ll give a raw piece of stone and I’ll have him cut it exactly the way I want it. So each piece is most of the time a one-of-a-kind work of art.

What are the stones that you use?

I work with quartz crystal, garnets, smoky quartz, some amber—a lot of semi-precious stones, whatever works really well with the pendants or the design. I don’t sketch anything in advance. It just kind of has to come to me. It’s kind of unplanned how they’re going to turn out.

What’s your formula for selling? How do people know about your jewelry?

I sell my jewelry through a few local boutiques in Portland, Oregon. I used to own my own boutique, [but now] I am focusing on getting my jewelry in boutiques and local department stores. I do have a website, but I am focusing more on other boutiques.

So you have your jewelry in boutiques now. Which ones?

Dragonlily in Portland; and after I update my portfolio, I will be meeting with Saks in Portland. They are very interested in my work.

As a self-starter jewelry designer, was it difficult to set up your own boutique, and to get your jewelry into the boutiques they are in now?

I think that it was mostly difficult to really know the direction that I wanted to go. I met with a couple of boutiques, and finding the right atmosphere was the biggest key for me.

What’s the process of actually putting together a piece of jewelry, like the one you’re wearing now?

I’d go into the rock shop, and find a raw piece of stone or a finished pendant or a bead that I really love. It has to catch my attention. And then I’ll take that particular component and match it up with other beads. Sometimes it will take months or even years. It will sit there until the right thing comes along. Once I find the right components, I’ll just start playing. If it doesn’t look right—because I don’t sketch it out in advance—it just has to feel right. So I’ll just play. I’ll usually start with a pendant and work my way out to the back and then finish it off. It’s really just the feel, my mood, and what I’m going through at the time.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I would love to hook up with clothing designers. I kind of got the fashion show bug in Portland. I’ve done a couple of fashion shows. I’d love to expand a little bit. Maybe go to L.A. and hook up with some great clothing designers, on top of doing the department stores.

Highest High

My highest high as a jewelry designer was when I walked into Saks Fifth Avenue, and they fell in love with the piece I was wearing and wanted me to come back and show my jewelry—that was totally unplanned. That was pretty big for me. So I am currently working on getting my portfolio re-shot. Most of my shots were done at Fashion Week, and they just don’t work well for a portfolio. That was a big one for me. And definitely coming to L.A. and experiencing this Fashion Week was really amazing, as well.

Lowest Low

Making the decision to close my boutique. It was a low, but it was also a high because it freed me up to just focus on being a designer. It was something I really enjoyed doing . . . and was something I really wanted to try, and it was a great experience. So I don’t really think of it as a total loss.

It probably helped you in the retail aspect of things.

It did. It put me right in there with the clients, and my possible clients. I learned who my clients are. Knowing your target market is a great thing to know. Just appreciating the boutique side of things, a lot of people coming in as a new designer don’t understand what it takes to run a boutique, so they can’t understand why a boutique needs to take certain percentage. But having worked both sides, I totally understand.

Nora Catherine Jewelry continues to expand with a variety of stones created with imagination and care. Brown’s select pieces are exquisite and will one day be valued at a much higher retail price. Currently, her pieces retail for as little as $50.00, and as much as $250.00. She says because she is new, she has to lower the benchmark to get her jewelry out there in the marketplace. But in the not too distant future, I believe that Nora Catherine Jewlery will be fetching couture prices.

To learn more about Nora Catherine Jewelry, visit Nora Brown’s website at www.noracatherine.com, or email her atnoracatherinejewelry@comcast.net.

Interview by Kaylene Peoples

Amanda Shi – Designing Outside the Box with Avita, the Eco-Friendly Clothing Line

Amanda Shi – Designing Outside the Box with Eco-Friendly Avita Line

Avita is not only breaking out of conventions, but is also showing the fashion world that there are an infinite variety of ways of wearing cashmere and bamboo.


In an attempt to help the environment, Amanda Shi of the Avita line did something outside of the box. She came up with a way to recycle cashmere and bamboo and create trendy wearable designs. Her inspiration for such a venture came when she purchased eco-friendly clothes from Whole Foods. She thought it would be a nice thing to expand on that idea and make eco-friendly clothes hip and trendy. Shi’s initial marketing plan was designed for women from the ages of 25 – 40, but she soon realized that her designs reached far beyond that demographic. Teenagers and their grandmothers wear her clothes.

Having been featured in OCEAN, Justine, Item, Stylephile.com,Audrey, Apparel News, STAR Magazine; and worn by Andrea Bowen, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Teri Hatcher, just to name a few; Amanda Shi has created a brand that has been embraced by the media, celebrities, and consumers. The inspired, purpose-driven designs not only aid in protecting the environment, but help to create a fashion statement. And Avita has forged a trend that is rapidly gaining momentum.

With Avita, Amanda Shi has revolutionized fashion by providing cashmere and cashmere silk blends as everyday wear. She also introduced bamboo as a breathable, stylish fabric. Her current collection features an interesting pallet, which includes sand, topaz, mushroom, lavender, and black. And some of the most popular designs this season feature scooped backs, split open sleeves, Russian military buttons, and dresses with wraparound strips.

This is a knit line that we use natural yarns such as cashmere, recycled cashmere and bamboo. The reason we use that is they are very comfortable on the skin, and we keep them very stylish. The bamboo and the recycled cashmere are the environmentally friendly part of our line. The bamboo is crushed then sent to the factory that produces the yarn. The recycled cashmere is actually a little different concept that is using the old sweaters; because of the volume we do, we can’t really find the old sweaters to recycle them. And the spinning factory that makes the cashmere yarn, there is usually a by-product that comes with it. A lot of factories just dump that [by-product] into the environment. We re-filtered that part of the yarn—they’re not 100% cashmere, there’s a little wool. We recycle this material instead of throwing them into the environment. But they are as soft as wool and cashmere, of course. The price is one-third of boutique’s cashmere. It gives a really ragged look. We’re doing really well with it. Just for clarification, the bamboo is what we use in the summer under the Avita label.

Why did you decide to recycle? What was your motivation to do it this way as opposed to the more traditional way?

We live in an environment that we should start caring about, and I’m not even talking about global warming.

That was awfully forward thinking of you.   What is it about you that would make you go to these lengths to help save the environment?

Because this is my business and I love clothes. I actually have very sensitive skin too. I even used to go to Whole Foods to buy clothes because they are environmentally friendly. Most of our pieces feel like butter on the skin when you put [them] on. The cashmere and bamboo really breathe.

How did you decide to use bamboo?

It’s really very interesting. We were looking for organic cotton and we couldn’t findcotton that was thin enough to give us the style we always had. From our silk cashmere, we always used a fine gage, because it’s more chic for girls. We looked everywhere and tried different yarns. We even tried fabrics, which weren’t even a knit line anymore. It took us about 3 to 4 seasons to finally find this bamboo yarn. It occurred to me what if we could use the environmentally friendly material?

How long has the Avita line been around?

The Avita line has been around for 3 years. The bamboo line has been around for a year and a half. We were one of the first to start using bamboo.

Where can people find your clothes?

We have them at Fred Segal in Santa Monica, and we have a current store list across the country. You can find them on our website. If you type in the zip code, you will find the store closest to you.

Do you do all the designing yourself?

Yes, [but] we have a team of course, and I have a design assistant, and we work together on getting the marketing research done in getting the collection out every season.

Tell me about your background. How did you get involved in designing?

I was born into this business. My parents have been manufacturing cashmere for 20-something years. So I started sketching clothes. If I looked at 2 outfits in a magazine, I would always wonder which one I would actually choose. I did multimedia design for a studio—that’s why I moved to L.A. One day I decided to make a list of the things that I really enjoyed doing, and being my own boss was one of them. I decided that I wanted to have my own clothing line.

Did you go to school for it?

I studied fashion sketching, but I never went through a full program. I studied multimedia design, which is more focused on computer graphics, and motion graphics.

Do you use any of that in your marketing?

Yes, absolutely. Everything suddenly came into the picture. It’s very interesting, too, because I did business first and then I did multimedia design in school. I didn’t even know why I was doing it, and now I do. (Laughs.)

Somebody had a bigger plan for you. Where are your parents from?

We’re from Hong Kong, and the factory is in China. We moved the factory from Hong Kong to China in the early 90s because we wanted to expand the factory and spin our own yarn, but that was when I was in Canada.

What do you charge for your designs?

Our long sleeves range from $69-$89 wholesale, which is about $150-$200 retail.

That’s unheard of, because that’s part cashmere, right?

The fine gage silk and cashmere—we did it to give you a better figure, and we like to mix materials, something like a patch, to make it more funky or trendy.

Who are your buyers? What is your demographic?

Our marketing plan was for women between the ages of 25 – 40 in their career, because the idea was to have women wear it during the day and not have to change at night if they go out. At this point the demographic is pretty large: girls 15 and 16 years old, up to women in their 50s and 60s. It’s kind of ageless at this point.

What is the actual process of making a blouse like the one you’re wearing?

We send the sketches with the measurements. They spin the yarn with the correct colors that we pick. Once they have the yarn, this is the part that is different than a cut-and-sew t-shirt. They will make the sleeve, and then they will make the body part. In between, they actually have a linking machine that actually links each knit. We use a flat machine, which is operated by laborers instead of by computers, and it is very time-consuming.

There are a lot of things we do that cannot be done by computers. For example, some things are actually patched on. So it gives it a more contemporary look, instead of just knitted with a different color.

Highest High

(Laughs) When I see so many orders coming in, it’s proof of what we’ve done right. Even though it is a small business still, from the design, to the office, sales and distribution. Distribution is one of the biggest things. From sampling to production, everything has to be right to get that order shipped.

Lowest Low

There is a problem every day. It’s hard to keep the balance. Sometimes I get so frustrated. Because I am more of a creator, I am not completely on the logical side all the time. It’s really frustrating when something doesn’t work. I just keep telling myself if everyone could do this, then the Avita line would not be special. We really have solved a lot of problems since day one. It has been a great experience.

That’s because you’re doing something that is so different.

Yes, for example, the bamboo—a year and a half ago, it was so hard to sell. People liked to hear about it. The buyers thought it was interesting, but they kept on moving at the trade shows. It was really disappointing.

Do you ever do any of the big shows, like the Fashion Weeks?

We did the Mercedes Benz Suite Shows, a runway show with Audrey Magazine this year, and we’re trying to do something once a year. We don’t do too much because we’re trying to focus on sales and we’re trying to get the editorials so we can get the brand out.

Because you’re doing something that is so different and you’re paving the way yourself, you have to be patient with yourself. It’s going to take longer than somebody doing something typical.

We believe that we’re doing something good to influence this industry.

Where do you see Avita line in 5 years?

We try to adopt a new material every year and we want the line to grow to a full complete line that will include organic t-shirts, jeans; and we also want to do spa wear. In 5 years we want to be distributing to all the boutiques.

Do you do all the season’s collections?

Yes. We are trying to stay in the eco-friendly fields. So it makes it harder, but more specific. But it’s easier to do research. We want to go global. We want to get into Europe and go back to Asia.

Currently everything is in the USA?

Yes, we want to do a strong foundation here and have a brand. Within 5 years we will be everywhere.

What advice would you give somebody in this industry who is trying to do something outside of the box?

Just go with your gut feelings and don’t believe everybody else’s opinions because people like to comment—good and bad. Take the good and leave the bad, because if you start questioning yourself, that’s what’s going to stop you. So never give up.

To learn more about Avita, visit the website at www.avitastyle.com.

Interview by Kaylene Peoples

Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Alexander Rivkin, M.D. – Expanding the Use of Botox®

Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Alexander Rivkin, M.D. – Expanding the Use of Botox ®

I always thought my first visit to a plastic surgeon would include leaflets of models whose noses I wanted, or pictures of celebrities with the perfect profile. After all, I do live in Los Angeles, aka tinsel town, aka Hollywood fabulous—the land where everybody is a size 2, has a perfect nose, full lips, no character lines, and a 6-pack.

I guess I could have scheduled a lipo-suction appointment, or a breast augmentation procedure, or maybe even a butt lift.  But instead I found myself visiting probably the only plastic surgeon on the west side with a moral conscience. I guess I am not being fair. Cosmetic surgery is a valid profession. It’s about as warm as a corporate takeover. But nonetheless, a very necessary evil at times. My head spins when I hear about associates getting monthly botox injections, ribs removed, skin bleached or lasered. And I look in the mirror only to realize that I could easily fall into the same trap. Because I was blessed with fairly good genes, I am spared the repeated trips to these “clinics.” But to hear these surgeons speak, everybody will reach the age when he/she will need a bit of poison injected in his/her face. And apparently, these future clients are getting younger every day.

Dr. Alexander Rivkin is a Yale-trained facial cosmetic surgeon. He pioneered a groundbreaking non-surgical nose job procedure, and co-developed the non-surgical chin implant and non-surgical eyelid lift procedures. He has recently expanded the use of Botox® to treat his patients who are suffering from TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder) and habitual teeth grinding.

The West Side Medical Spa is tucked away on Gayley Avenue near UCLA.   It is unassuming on the outside, but wow, does it ever pack a punch on the inside. Dr. Rivkin and his non-invasive surgical cosmetic procedures have opened the floodgates to those everywhere who are afraid of going under the knife.  And now, poor Jim with his terminally crooked nose can exercise his right to alter his looks (for the better) without a single incision.

How does a surgeon decide not to ever cut again?  This Yale-trained facial cosmetic surgeon and UCLA faculty member decided to focus his practice exclusively on providing his patients with the latest in non-invasive, non-ablative cosmetic treatments. He understands that no one wants to “go under the knife.” He has dedicated his career to developing alternatives by creating a solution for his patients to rid them of their fears associated with cosmetic surgery.

I wanted to concentrate on non-surgical cosmetic procedures.  I felt there was so much that was possible without doing surgery, and I could be creative in this field and “make up stuff.”  I really couldn’t be creative in a more traditional practice.  I have focused my efforts on new ways of accomplishing things that my patients want without having to put them through the ordeal of surgery.

I started out by using the things that were available.  It’s exciting now because there are new injectibles and new lasers that are coming out.  I believe that this is the future. So it’s very interesting to be on that wave and utilize these new things that are coming out.  The start of my whole thinking was with the nose.  I came up with a procedure that can straighten the nose without surgery.  Afterwards, I’ve been listening to my patients and trying to go with some of the problems they would ask me about.

At one point a patient walked in and she was tense.  She wore the tension around her jaw.  And I was looking at her and noticed her jaw was square.   I had read where these doctors in Asia had been injecting botox into the muscles of the jaws for girls who wanted to soften their jaw line cosmetically–just to look different.  So I asked her if she had had a square jaw for a while, and she said ever since she had been grinding her teeth, her jaw had become more muscular and square.  All night and during the day she would grind her teeth. Her dentist had given her devices to wear at night. But she would literally spit them out unconsciously in her sleep, or grind them up and spit out the pieces. This isn’t the first time I had heard of this. These people literally grind their teeth every night, working out these muscles, which eventually become huge and rock hard. So I thought to myself, “it’s only a muscle.”   So I started putting botox into it. There were a bunch of little ones.  She returned to me and reported that she stopped grinding.  She looked more calm and felt more calm.  “This is the best thing since sliced bread.”  So I wrote to the company, and I said, “I am sure that this is something that had been tried.”  And they confirmed it.  It had occurred to other people as well. But it made sense.

You start grinding and your muscles just get stronger and stronger with each grinding episode. After a certain point, there’s nothing you can do to stop it because your muscles get too strong, and you’re doing it completely unconsciously. The more you do it, your teeth get worn down, but then when you’re aware of it, it makes the grinder more tense that they cannot stop grinding their teeth. But once you put the botox in, the muscle has the strength to chew and function properly, but it doesn’t have the strength to grind. Then it just stops.

For a layperson like me, I don’t really know what botox is. I have seen commercials and I even know of people who get botox injections, but what is it exactly? And is it harmful?

A couple hundred years ago, a German guy figured out why people were dying from bad sausages. It was a [bacterium] that they eventually named botulism, which means sausage person in German. As time went on, they figured out that it was poison that came out of the bacteria that is very powerful and its main effect was to paralyze muscles. People died from bad sausages because the poison paralyzed their breathing muscles and they couldn’t breathe. In about the 1970s, this one ophthalmologist thought about all the diseases where one muscle is too active, would spasm, or is too strong, and realized there was nothing to make the muscle weak, except for botulism, which he took and made safe for injection. They were tiny quantities that will stay in the muscle it’s injected in. It worked. So it should also work for cosmetic purposes. That is how botox came to be. The origin is this poison, but it’s gone through all these layers of change that it becomes a harmless protein that is injected. And through the injection, it doesn’t go through the rest of the body, nor does it have the side effects. Botox makes muscles weak. And the more you inject, the weaker that muscle gets. It’s completely dose dependent. There are no side effects. It’s not bad for you.   It doesn’t go into your system. It’s perfect.

When people get botox, their face is paralyzed as a result of the practitioner administering the botox. They are probably injecting too much. But you can be creative with botox. You can put a little bit in for a small effect, or you can put in a lot for a bigger effect. You can really be very precise in terms of creating the kind of effect you want. It’s a very nice drug in that way.

So there are no long-term ill effects?

There are kids that have torticollis (when one side of the neck is active and they’re always bent over). We put botox in their neck and it straightens them up immediately. It’s amazing. We use about 10 times more botox for that than we would use cosmetically. They used that for years.  Once you inject it, the muscle sucks it up immediately. It doesn’t go outside of it. But as you use it, you can forget to make certain expressions. So you have to retrain your body so that when you’re angry or concerned, you no longer make that expression. That habit of gesturing your face is gone.

For the TMJ, how many people are actually doing this procedure now, or are you the main one?

I am the main one.  When I talk to dentists about it, they’ve never heard of it. It’s very new.

I was looking on your website and I noticed that you also offer nose jobs, chin implants, microdermabrasion, etc. I think it’s great because it is non-invasive. There’s no chance of infection. I also read that sometimes in surgery the implants shift. You’re saying that with the botox procedure it doesn’t shift?   Can you explain to me how, for instance, a chin implant would be done?   What is a standard thing you would do?

Surgically, to extend your chin, you have to get an operation. There is an incision underneath. You open up the skin, you slide in the implant, you close up the skin. You’re limited in terms of what the implant looks like.   Surgically, there’s a limitation in terms of what the shape of the chin is going to look like. You’re limited by the implant that you have, and you’re also limited when you do it, because you can’t adjust on the fly. You have to surmise, “O. K., we will use implant #2.”  Once it’s open, you can’t see aesthetically what it’s going to look like. You just have to hope for the best.   I do injections. I take a filler substance called Radiesse(TM). It lasts for about a year and a half. I put it in the deeper layers of the skin—that’s where it belongs.  When you put it in, you can mold it like clay. The substance is calcium based.  It’s kind of like a lattice, or a scaffolding, where the body’s cells grow into it and it becomes like the skin.  It’s soft, and you can’t tell the difference.  When it first goes in, you can move it around, mold it.  I look at the person in the chair and I can tell which direction I want to go—square it off, make it delicate, pointy, out, down, etc.  You can make it be more appropriate to the individual who’s in front of you.  Therefore, you can make it more precise, and fine tune it.

It lasts for a year and a half, meaning they have to come back for a repeat procedure?

In about six months, there are going to be fillers that last for about ten years. I am limited until that happens.

Why did you decide to go non-invasive?

The freedom to be creative is really important to me.  You can’t do that in surgery.   You have to do the procedure the way it is.  You can’t make things up.  A lot of people are getting needless surgery.  I am the kind of surgeon that would counsel people away from surgery, and into non-invasive techniques.  But I knew that being a part-time surgeon is no good.  You have to stay on top of your game and do it all the time.  I decided to go with what my heart was really into, which is this kind of stuff.  I felt like this is where the future of Aesthetics is going to be.

Have you ever had a situation where someone came in to see you and it was just hopeless?

Oh yeah, and in those cases I just refer them to my colleagues.  But most of the time, there is something that can be done.

It seems like the botox revolution is almost overkill.  They make fun of it on TV shows like “Will and Grace,” and for someone who isn’t really into the red carpet, or that type of lifestyle, most people, unless they’re constantly being photographed, or are in the media, usually don’t go for botox, do they? Or am I wrong?

You’re wrong.  A woman who’s over 30 in Los Angeles, chances are she has had botox in her face—across the board.  No matter what she does, regardless of her social or economic standing, it’s very prevalent because it’s such an easy thing to undergo, and the results are fairly dramatic.

Do you think that it has spilled outside of the West and East Coasts?

Middle America and East Coast not as much, but it’s rampant in LA.  The nice thing about it is you can’t tell.  A successful procedure is where you can get done what you want where there is no huge bruising or side effects, and nobody can tell.  You can’t tell when somebody’s had botox.

You can use botox to prevent wrinkles from happening. Some women in their 20s come in because they see their mom, and they know that they are going to develop wrinkles in the same spot, and they know that the more they move a certain way, the more it’s going to get etched in. So you put botox in there, you don’t move as much, and you don’t make the wrinkle.

Where do you see your practice in five years?

I ‘d like to create an institute.  I am in the process of trying to do so now, and start training people. This is what people want, and should get.  It’s simple, precise and powerful. It really takes some aesthetic awareness to do. You can have a technically good surgeon with no aesthetic understanding.   You wind up having people walking around Rodeo Drive looking pretty weird—hollow-eyed women, surgery gone wrong. It happens all the time. Bad nose jobs, etc. Sometimes I get women who want big lips. I tell them it’s not appropriate. So many women over 40 with their entire upper lip looking like a duck. I’m not going to participate in that. I try to talk to them and offer other suggestions that might be more effective.

Those people that get the cosmetic improvements like nose jobs and chin implants, are they O. K. with coming back?  How do you know when it’s time to redo?

Botox can last three months or six months. It depends on genetics, etc. A lot of physicians make a three-month appointment no matter what. I believe in happy patients. This is the future. My ambition is to change the way people think about plastic surgery. I want those people who want aesthetic changes to be better informed and awake, not looking for the extreme makeover, and understanding that there is a way to get what they want without going under the knife.

For more information, visit Dr. Rivkin’s website atwww.westsidemedicalspa.com

Interview by Kaylene Peoples

Divas for a Cure – Bikers Promoting Breast Cancer Awareness and Raising Funds for Breast Cancer Research

Divas for a Cure – Bikers Promoting Breast Cancer Awareness and Raising Funds for Breast Cancer Research 

Ladies on motorcycles fighting breast cancer.  What a wonderful idea!  But is “ladies” too soft of a word?  Though these women are true ladies, they represent a demographic that may have been overlooked in the fight against breast cancer.  Divas for a Cureconsists of a core group of women who ride motorcycles.  Jan Emanuel, the founder, is a breast cancer survivor, who has taken her bike along with a host of other divas to help spread the word about breast cancer awareness to the biker community.  Last July I had the privilege of interviewing Jan during her 23-day ride across the country.  Lucky for me, she was riding along with two other divas through Los Angeles.

Jan Emanuel is the founder and president of Divas for a Cure.  She joined me with Divas treasurer AJ Jemison and Divas rider Kim Terrell. Divas for a Cure was founded by Jan Emanuel, based on her own bout with breast cancer. Not only did she survive three bouts of cancer, but she also suffered from a stroke and cardiac arrest.  She has proven that if you put your mind to it, you can do so much more than you ever imagined.  Most people who have experienced such debilitating illnesses are just grateful to be alive, much less riding their Harley for 23 days straight—and August 14, 2006, Divas for a Curecompleted their mission and arrived safely in Jan’s hometown of Oakland, California.

At 22 I was diagnosed with cancer and I had two different bouts—a tumor in my head, one in my chest.  At 28 I had a cardiac arrest and a stroke, so I decided that there would have to be some changes in my life and I wanted to encourage other women to stay healthy and stay positive, and to do something that would bring attention to women’s health issues, and I think Divas for a Cure is birth of that.  And it’s divas, meaning plural.

About a year and a half ago, Jan had to go back to the doctor, and the fear of knowing there might be a reoccurrence caused her to make a change in her life.  She decided to get other women involved.  Figuring that other women were going through the same experiences as she was, she decided to go online.

Real Divas Ride is an online motorcycle forum.  I wanted Real Divas Ride to have a purpose in helping so we launched Divas for a Cure.  We needed it to be a non-profit so we could get other people to join in the effort.  And in that effort I decided to bring some other people on board. In the beginning I did an outline for Divas for a Cure.  Initially, I expected to make a cross-country journey and deliver literature to the different dealerships.  It came to me that the dealerships could participate in the event by calling some of their clients and constituents to get involved so we could reach an even larger audience.

Divas for a Cure left from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Albuquerque to Houston, then finally, to The National Bikers’ Roundup.

The roundup actually brings in 10,000 to 40,000 bikers annually, with at least 10,000 daily, and that is a large audience. Biking used to be predominantly men, but it has changed. Now women are riding bikes. And that is an audience that doesn’t often get the medical information that is needed. So we want to create awareness and reach that target audience. We also have a core group of people that support each other in various events so we clearly would be able to bring those two together to reach the biker community—to reach that audience that may not get their health care needs met, and to also raise money.

Kim Terrell, a biker who works for IAC, formerly known as Ask Jeeves and now Ask.com, was excited to share with Jan that for each $50 contribution each employee from her company donates, IAC will match it.

Divas for a Cure provided a rider’s pledge on the website Divasforacure.org, where visitors could make contributions online, and each contribution would be matched by corporate sponsors, one of which is Harley Davidson, who asked some of their independent dealerships to allow Divas for a Cure to use their parking lots during the ride for approximately two to three hours at each dealership, where the riders met and greeted other bikers in the area.   From that point, those bikers would be able to ride with Divas for a Cure to their next destination.   This allowed them to get that much needed information out.

We encourage everyone to ride, whether it’s a Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, and especially a Harley. Ninety cents of every dollar goes to cancer research. We’re also launching a wig program for women going through chemotherapy. We believe the look helps to improve the health.

On the 23-day ride, there were seven women and one male rider, including chase vehicle riders. On the route there are pickup riders who ride to a destination and ride for as far as they can go. The next group met up with the Divas in the next city and took them into the next dealership.

AJ Jemison shed some light on just how phenomenal this ride really is.

Pledges go to Firstgiving.com and divasforacure.org, which will link you to the pledge site linking you to the appropriate places to help support the cause. We mentioned this is a run, and a typical run lasts four to five hours on a given day. This is 23 days around the United States, and totally out of the norm. But what we take cross-country is truly information—accurate information.  A lot of these women may not ever learn about the risks of   breast cancer without this information, and it’s important to know that these riders are all volunteers from different walks of life and careers.

On the website, there are links to breast cancer information, video and early detection literature as well as the latest breast cancer findings.  Divasforacure.org identifies hospitals and organizations that have research facilities, as well as those that specifically target breast cancer.

Jan Emanuel –

If you call, you get a real person on the phone. Feel free to send comments.   Riders have a pledge, and we’re competing with each other to raise the most money. You can provide services too. There are companies that can donate a service to help create awareness. We welcome your participation. I work in property management, so just having the time off to make this trek is something that my company is giving me, and they are making a donation.

AJ Jemison –

The women who are riding it are doing it voluntarily, and taking off work.   I am doing my vacation to do this from here to Florida. We are that committed for all the right reasons. Jan had breast cancer and my mother is a survivor of eight years. We all have our own reasons for doing the ride, but we do it because we care even about those strangers who we never met. When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was there literally twelve hours later and stayed with her throughout the entire surgery. When you know what that feels like, and you can share that experience with someone, it really adds something: “Someone else knows what I am going through.”  When you lose your hair, and in my mother’s case, like getting it shaved off before you see the clumps in your comb after your cancer treatments, these are simple things, but the emotions that come with them are so incredible. [I think about the hair stylist and the barber that shaved my mom’s head], women need to know that they are beautiful from the spiritual perspective. But when you look at the outside, you can still look good because that’s what a diva is all about—looking good no matter what.   If you got that beauty on the inside, it can’t help but show on the outside.

When Jan Emanuel was originally diagnosed twenty-two years ago, doctors wanted to do immediate radical surgery.  I was a little bit vain about it.   I elected the lumpectomy, and as a result every year there is a greater chance for reoccurrence because they leave the breast tissue there and take only the affected tissue out.

Doctors are adamant that you do monthly self-breast exams, and do annual mammograms. For Jan it came sooner than later. She had been getting mammograms long before she turned 40.

It’s always a fear that the next lump may be a malignant lump.   But I have friends around me that say you beat it once and you’ll beat it again.  I am adamant about making sure that I check myself regularly. It was frightening knowing that it could kill me. 22 I was a little immature and only cared about saving the breast. But now that I am older, I realize, wow, I could have died. Now I am in the past 40-category. When I find a lump, I go in immediately to see my doctor because finding the lump is the first call of action. Getting the doctors to examine it with a biopsy, x-ray, or ultra sound is even more crucial. It is also very important that you regularly monitor your health with diet and exercise—those things are key.

Highest High

Launching the Website and the immediate letter we received from the IRS with our 501C3 status, because that meant that we could start eagerly promoting breast cancer awareness and raising the funds. And people would be more apt to help. When you establish a 501C3, it’s important that you honor your commitment and that those dollars reach those people for whom they were intended.

Lowest Low

Not getting the immediate corporate support we thought we would get.   It takes a combined effort from resources.   But having friends and family support made that low not a blow.

Divas for a Cure has raised more than $35,000.00 with no marketing and advertisement. Their hope is to get the media behind them in hopes that it will make an impact publicly through press releases, radio, and their Public Service Announcements. In the near future, they are hoping to reach six figures.

To learn more about Divas for a Cure, visit their website atwww.Divasforacure.org .

Interview by Kaylene Peoples

Bowling for Boobies: How This Annual Event Has Helped Fight Against Breast Cancer

Bowling for Boobies:   How This Annual Event Has Helped Fight Against Breast Cancer 

One might chuckle when presented with the title Bowling for Boobies. I did. But once I learned what this funny little title stood for, my laughter turned into real compassion. Edith Speed and her caring friends founded the annual charity event to aid women while they are dealing with this potentially deadly illness. Bowling for Boobies helps women endure while undergoing the trials and tribulations of breast cancer. Years ago, the very statement, “You have breast cancer,” was cause for panic—cancer meant you were going to die.   But today with early detection, the survival rate is 95 percent. Thanks to those who have given their time and support, women have a real fighting chance. What I find most interesting is that those zealous advocators for the disease are its survivors.

So here is where our story begins. Edith Speed saw her aunt and the younger of her two sisters die from breast cancer. It was obvious to her that she was next.  Edith was vigilant about getting her annual mammograms. She gave herself breast exams well before the recommended age of 40. But one day three years ago, her X-ray came back abnormal, and her roller coaster ride began.  Because Edith was no stranger to breast cancer, she had an inkling of what was ahead. She did her research, and once she received her diagnosis, she set out to change her luck. After firing her initial oncologist, she met with a number of doctors before deciding on her team.

I found the head of the breast center at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.   She sat with me as long as I needed, and she answered every question I had.   She talked to me like a woman, and was very understanding about the things I was feeling. She was straight up with me about my choices, which included a lumpectomy, radiation, chemo, radical mastectomy, etc., and what each option offered regarding chances of recurrence and side effects.

What came next was debilitating. Edith’s battle turned into a war with the mounting expenses that just were not covered by her insurance company.   She witnessed her doctors’ struggle to get the insurance companies to approve procedures in a timely manner, not to mention her own struggles of just getting them to pay for things she thought they were supposed to cover. But with the decision to have radical mastectomies and massive reconstructive surgeries, how could she cover all the costs?

I wanted to choose the best doctors that I could possibly get for myself, and get the best treatment, but that involved going out of my participating provider network for my insurance, and the costs were mounting really quickly. So my friends got together and staged the first Bowling for Boobies, and we raised $1,500.00 that went entirely to my medical bills. I just decided after all of my surgeries were finished and I was cancer-free, that I would keep this going.  I wanted to keep giving back to my community. I want to raise money for other women who are in the same position I was in—not necessarily destitute women, but women like me who are self-sufficient and pay for their own insurance—but there are things that aren’t going to be covered by the insurance company.

Edith is now the event chairperson for Bowling for Boobies, and the event is sponsored by the Soroptimist International Verdugos. Surprisingly, Edith’s biggest champion was her best friend Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Gos, and now Bowling for Boobies and Jane go hand in hand. Jane Wiedlin’s celebrity status has helped to bring awareness and additional funding to the charity.

I got involved because one of my best friends, Edith, had breast cancer a few years ago. And her friends put together Bowling for Boobies to help pay for her medical costs that weren’t going to be covered by insurance. Ever since then, Edith has carried on with the event every year. And I have been helping every year to bring more awareness to get more money. It’s a fun night for a really important cause. The other entity involved is the Soroptimist group, which is a club for businesswomen who raise money for various worthy causes. It’s a non-profit group, so they can bring in the money and give all of it to a recipient. Every year they donate the money to a local woman who is battling breast cancer. Hardly ever will your insurance cover all of your costs when you’re battling cancer.

Bowling for Boobies will be auctioning off some amazing gifts to help raise funds for this year’s recipient. Here are some of the things that will be auctioned that night: a pink bowling ball and pin autographed by Jane herself; Felina Lingerie will create a bustier that Jane will wear first in the Bowling for Boobies’ colors, pink and black. Coveted spots on Jane’s bowling team have even been auctioned on e-bay, fetching $1100.00 from one excited fan, Rusty Perez.

There was a lot of competition to get on Jane’s team—a lot of aggressive bidders! But I’ve been a huge fan of Jane’s for 25 years, and I like Boobies.   It was a good benefit, so I had to be on the team.

Some of the things that Bowling for Boobies has paid for are cosmetic reconstructive expenses, maids to help out breast cancer patients, taxi rides to and from treatment, adjunctive therapies for cancer such as acupuncture and herbalists—basically anything that your insurance company doesn’t cover, related to breast cancer, and/or aiding in the recovery process.

We want to give support for anything that can ease your struggle with breast cancer, make your life easier and maybe less stressful.

I am a person who takes a lot of pride in taking care of myself and being self-sufficient. On one hand it was really difficult to reach out and ask other people for help, but it was also extremely gratifying when I did.  Because if you just reach out a little bit, the amount of love and outpouring and help that people do give you back is just astounding. And I still get kind of choked up about it when I think about how many people really step forward to help.   I like the idea of Bowling for Boobies because it’s really fun, and you can be raising money and helping somebody at the same time. We give money to a local woman, or hopefully this year, two local women.

As a woman who has been through such a traumatic and life-threatening experience, what does Edith Speed say about her experience?

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was in that place where I didn’t know what was going to happen next.  I was in uncharted territory. You have to go forward and you have to do something, even though it’s terrifying.   You want to just put your head under the covers and hope when you wake up, everything’s O. K., but of course that doesn’t happen. With my experience with my family members, they died from it.  I thought it was my turn and I was going to die, too.  I’ve been extremely healthy all my life. I had never been in the hospital, never broken any bones, never even had my tonsils removed.  So when I had that first lumpectomy surgery, I was lying in the hospital bed, it was freezing cold in the room, and none of my family could be with me.  I had IVs going into my arm.  I found myself thinking about my aunt who died from breast cancer who was a very devout Catholic, and then I found myself praying the Catholic prayers that I thought I had forgotten a long time ago because I don’t practice anymore.  It’s really hard to describe that feeling—you’re in a place completely unfamiliar to you and you feel like you’re really alone. I felt like I was facing death, and I came through it.

I had the strength to choose a great medical team.  But I had the foresight and determination to assemble the best team and figure out a way to assume the responsibility to pay for it, even if it meant I had to swallow my pride and ask for help.

Pride doesn’t have much place in my life after this ordeal.  I don’t feel like I am so much about my ego or my body.  These things I associate with pride. It was touching the people who came forward to help me.  I have a new perspective on my life now, and every day is a gift.  I no longer put important things off because if I don’t do it now, it’s not guaranteed later.  I want to take the time and appreciate the great things I have in my life.  I certainly appreciate the gift that life is. I do find myself taking more time to tell the people in my life that I care about them.  I show them that I love them.  I definitely want to reach out and help others, and now there is a special place in my heart for women dealing with breast cancer.

Edith has been cancer-free for two years, and she still fears that it could come back, because oftentimes, cancer does.

Highest High

I feel a sense of victory, happiness, and elation that I have a great support network. I have a great husband. The high point was getting married because it was right after our engagement that I was diagnosed. I was terrified that I was going to be a chemotherapy, bald bride. And I didn’t want to go through that. I got to have the wedding I wanted and two years later got to go on the honeymoon after I was healed and feeling good.

Lowest Low

My lowest point was before the first surgery where I felt really alone. But going into my second surgery, the bilateral mastectomies, and because I had already been there before with the lumpectomies, I knew what to expect. I knew my doctor, and I knew I would wake up and be O.K..

What advice would you give women going through this?

Have a support system, like a friend or family member, and arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can get—we do have access to it.

Bowling for Boobies 2006 will be October 9, 2006, Monday night at Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood. It’s a fun event. In addition to the prizes previously mentioned, there will be t-shirts and raffles. Visit www.bowlingforboobies.com, and you can donate money through paypal, or you can send money.  Bowling for Boobies has two affiliate programs, too. “Feel Your Boobies” fashion line encourages young women to do their breast exams.  Www.BowlingShirt.com donates proceeds from the purchase of their custom bowling shirts.  There are a lot of ways to contribute all year, not just October.

Interview by Kaylene Peoples

Brian Dean – Dispelling the Myths and Misconceptions of Hypnosis

Brian Dean:   Dispelling the Myth, Mystery, and Misconception of Hypnosis

Brian Dean is a certified hypnotherapist, who for twenty years was a voice-over actor.   He did numerous television commercials, broadcast commercials, movie trailers, and industrial training films.   Thirteen years ago while in Seattle working in a recording studio, Brian was approached by a hypnotist in the booth next to his and who had just happened to hear his voice.   He commented that Brian would make a terrific hypnotist.

I looked at him like he was crazy.   I had never given that a thought in my life.

About a year and a half later, Brian enrolled in a hypnotherapy-training institute here in Los Angeles, one of the best in the world.   He received his first level of certification and later his bachelor’s in clinical hypnotherapy.

Brian insists that there is nothing about the voice or its tonality that makes a good hypnotist.   It’s just an extra bonus since hypnosis is so clearly based in communication.   Coming from a voice-over background is his explanation as to why people enjoy his voice so much.   Even now, people recognize his voice from his years as a voice-over actor.   Brian jokes and says his mother always said he had a good face for radio.

When you start telling your friends and your family that you’re going to be a hypnotherapist, they can’t grasp what that means.   And the first thing that people think of is you mean the guy that makes people cluck like a chicken and bark like a dog?   This is a myth that was created back in the 20s. And as it relates to hypnotherapy, nothing could be further from the truth, or represent the industry worse than that kind of comment.

Most people’s introduction to hypnosis is usually in an entertainment setting—not a clinical setting.   When Brian is doing hypnosis for entertainment, he’s not working on a positive behavioral change. He’s just doing a demonstration of how the subconscious mind can interpret a particular suggestion and act it out in that person’s reality.   However, in a clinical setting, Brian is actually there to do work—invoke a positive behavioral change of some sort, whether to stop smoking, lose weight, or manage stress.

Understanding hypnotherapy and how it works is just a very involved process. The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is real or vividly imagined.   If your subconscious mind accepts a particular suggestion, it has no choice but to act it out as your reality.

Daydreaming, reading a book, and watching a movie are all forms of intense focused concentration, creating images and pictures within your mind.   So a hypnotic state is around us all the time, and is very natural.   However, is everyone willing to allow a practitioner to guide him/her into a hypnotic state? One of the myths and misconceptions about hypnosis is that there is some sort of control that the hypnotist has over the subject’s mind.   But, everything that occurs within hypnosis is within full control of the subject.   So there is no mind control.

I can give you a suggestion to turn left, and you can say, “Yes, I’ll turn left.”   But then I say let’s turn right, and you say, “No, I don’t want to turn right.   I’m going to stay in park.”   This small analogy demonstrates that in hypnosis you are in full control.   You’re in more control in a state of hypnosis than you are in an alert, awake state because your attention is at an increased and focused level.

So, can anybody be hypnotized?

Yes, we all hypnotize ourselves.   Will all people allow a practitioner to guide them into a hypnotic state?   No.   You have to be completely willing.   It’s your decision, and you have to be in control of what happens.

There are different types of inductions, which are merely different processes of guiding somebody into a state of hypnosis—an altered state of consciousness in which the subject is never unconscious at any time—even though to the person watching, it may appear that the subject is unconscious.   The eyes are certainly closed, but the subject can hear what the practitioner is saying at all times.

How do you hypnotize someone?

I use a progressive guided relaxation induction, which is wonderful for the physical benefits because it allows people to guide their body into a very relaxed state; and once the body is relaxed, the mind follows, making the mind very subjective to the powerful suggestions that I would offer. They would either choose to accept or reject them.   However, there are other people that do require different inductions because their mind processes information differently.

One of the things that I do with people initially, working one on one, is called an intake.   I address what positive outcome they’d like to have.   Then, I do a trance assessment on them, guiding them into a state of hypnosis by immersing them or bringing them up at the end and being able to talk about the level of trance I was able to observe.   Hopefully, that type of induction will work for them; if not, we’ll have to try another type of induction.

Brian specializes in helping people to stop smoking, to reduce stress, and to manage weight.   Stress reduction cuts across every demographic in every life situation.   All three of these areas are very popular.

I saw Brian on a cruise ship last March, and even though I had seen hypnotists in an entertainment setting as far back as high school, I was impressed at how the volunteers actually believed they were the outrageous personalities Brian had assigned to them.   One man was turned into an uptight no-nonsense cop who was supposed to monitor all laughter.   He became irate whenever the audience laughed.   He threatened to arrest us all if we didn’t stop laughing.   A young woman morphed so deeply into her new personality she mooned the audience.   A grown man reverted to a child who got a boo boo on his finger and could have won an Oscar for his convincing portrayal as a 5-year-old.   When they came out of their trance, they immediately reverted to their original personalities, each ignorant of their recent actions.

Once they accept that suggestion into their subconscious mind and they do believe it, their physical being has to act it out as if it is true because it can’t tell the difference.

Those of you who know me might find it hard to believe that I have a fear of public speaking.   But to overcome my fear, I get my subconscious mind to accept and believe that I do not. Thus, I act out of my physical being as if I do not have that fear.   That’s how I overcome my own phobias.

How do you tap into your subconscious mind?

Hypnosis allows us to bypass what’s called the critical factor of our conscious mind.   We’re all working in our critical factor now–we’re analyzing, judging, sorting details and information.   Our critical factor also sorts through and usually discards positive suggestions of change.   Here’s the interesting thing about our mind.   The negative suggestions have an open and free pathway right into our subconscious mind.   Anything we hear that’s negative we immediately accept as true.   However, the positive aspects of our lives we tend to question.   So hypnosis allows us to bypass that critical factor, allowing an open and free pathway into the subconscious mind.   Your mind then adopts four attitudes about any suggestion that I would give a client:

•  I’m uncomfortable with that suggestion.

•  I’m neutral.

•  I like that suggestion; I’ll give it a try, and I hope it works.

•  I like that suggestion; I know it will work.

Number 4 is the only attitude where power of suggestion of change will actually stay in your subconscious mind. Why our subconscious mind?    Because that’s where all of our behavior is located.

If I tell somebody he/she is the world’s greatest piano player, and that person is playing incredibly—like he/she has been playing for 50 years—it’s because that suggestion has gone to that person’s subconscious mind. The person adopted the attitude “I like that suggestion; I know it will work.”   The person has to act out in the physical being that it’s real.   He/she cannot tell the difference. The same can be applied to smoking, overeating, and stress.

What advice do you give people who want to see a hypnotist, and more specifically, to lose weight?

One of the problems we’re faced with as Americans is that we’re always barraged with advertisements of magic little pills that will melt the pounds away while you sleep.   This is just a con on the consumer.   And we all want immediate results for taking no other change.   We want to be able to pay $40, $50 for a bottle of magic pills where the weight will just fall off instantly. That’s not going to happen.   Before you can actually lose weight or manage your weight, you need to understand the reason you’re overweight in the first place. Hypnosis is not appropriate in weight management for people whose weight issues are because of physiology, or changes in their metabolic rate.   But if you’re simply an overweight overeater, and you know what puts weight on you, then you are a candidate.   We can address that behavior to be able to change that.

My biggest clientele are people that have had gastric bypass surgery.   Their physical but not their mental being has changed.   Their behavior didn’t change prior to the surgery.   I am working with those people to be able to change their outlook on how they view food.   Typically, in 30-50 weeks, clients will be able to see some really long-term change.   This is not a quick fix.   People tend to see me last, because they have tried and failed at everything else.   So when they come into my office, they say, “I sure hope this works.   I’ll give it a try.”   Their subconscious mind is interpreting it as failure.

The first thing Brian has to do is re-frame their thinking and belief system to invoke a behavioral change which will be something they will be able to carry with them throughout their life.   It will not allow them to lose 20 pounds by the end of the month.   There is no simple way out–this applies to smoking and stress management, too. Hypnosis is the tool that reinforces that change.

What are some of the taboos about hypnotists?

I think it goes back to people misunderstanding.   I am thrilled to be answering this because I travel all over the world lecturing.   And the first and foremost thing that I am out there to do is to get rid of myth, mystery, and misconception.   The biggest misconception that people have about hypnosis is that I have a mysterious power and I am controlling people’s minds.   Not true.   When people fully understand that hypnosis is a natural state that we all go into naturally every single day of our lives, and as a practitioner, all I am doing with your willingness is allowing you to guide you into something that you do naturally.   But most people go back to what television and the movies have portrayed hypnotists to be—that it is evil mind control.   That’s the biggest stereotype that I have to overcome.   All this does is breed fear and discredits our profession.   Things that we don’t understand, we dismiss as fakery or evil—and it’s neither. My goal is to educate people and dispel that myth, mystery, and misconception.

How did you become so successful?

Belief.   I live in a world of infinite possibilities.   I have a belief system that is not boxed in.   And the difference between people that fail, struggle, and completely give up, is completely based in their belief system. I’m very fortunate. I was raised from a child where my parents said I could do anything in the world I wanted to do.   I took that as a belief when I was a little kid.   The problem with most people is they either have such limiting beliefs or no beliefs in themselves at all.   So until you have a strong empowering belief, you can’t ever accomplish goals.

Brian wants to get people that are 19-21 years old, that are coming into the world with very limiting belief systems, and be able to change that, reframe the way they’re thinking, and the way they view the world and themselves.    He wants to show them that everything is a possibility.

Every major successful entrepreneur became that because they saw themselves as that before it even happened.   One of my favorite stories was when Walt Disney wrote Open in Orlando, back in 1971—Walt died in 1965.   His brother Roy was on hand to do the grand opening.   A reporter said to Roy that it was too bad that Walt wasn’t there to see this.   And Roy turned to him and said, “He did see this—that’s why it’s here.”   That’s just a great example of being able to have a belief system that allows you to see something, and then make it a reality.   I love that story!

To learn more about Brian Dean, visit www.doctortrance.com

Interview by Kaylene Peoples