Known as the “Mad Russian” of Brookline, Yefim Shubentsov helped  thousands of people throughout Metrowest Boston including Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Needham, Natick, Wayland, and Sudbury.

Yefim Shubentsov’s was born in the Soviet Union and In 1979, immigrated to Brookline, just west of Boston. Without any traditional marketing or advertising, he became famous for using ‘bioenergy’ to help people quit smoking.  He claimed no special training, just a natural gift of healing.

From descriptions of his sessions, it seems pretty clear he was using many of the traditional tools of modern hypnotherapy including visualization, bilateral stimulation, anchoring, and language programming.  It is unclear if Shubentsov actually KNEW why his techniques worked, or if he chose not to use the common parlance for personal reasons.

In the early 1980’s, Mr. Shubentsov’s method was observed by two psychotherapists from Harvard University Health Services, Dr. Douglas Powell and Dr. Henry Babcock. ”He did some pretty good work, it was pretty impressive,” said Dr. Powell, director of research and behavioral science at Harvard University Health Services. ”These were pretty difficult patients, and he had about 50 percent success.”

He compared Mr. Shubentsov’s technique to quigong, an ancient form of Chinese medicine that combines movement, meditation and visualization to enhance the mind-body connection and assist healing. ”Some people are born to be healers, and he may have that in him,” Dr. Powell said.