Born and raised in Berea, OH, Traci was the only child of George and Carol Kanaan, who owned and operated Copy Center West. Traci began playing (pounding) the piano at the age of 2. Her parents traded printing for some piano lessons, and Traci found herself studying at The Cleveland Institute of Music at the age of 5. Traci’s piano teachers didn’t appreciate “her bursts of creativity.” They constantly pointed out her “inability to follow directions” and “reluctance to play the music the way it was written,” and Traci was eventually “dismissed” after burning through 8 teachers in 8 years. With the help of an understanding adjunct piano professor at Baldwin-Wallace College who encouraged creativity and independent thinking, she graduated from Berea High in 1987 with a scholarship in music. She attended Otterbein University in Westerville, OH and graduated in 1991 with a B.A. in Music and Business and minors in piano performance, electronic music, and music composition. In order to graduate with her degree in Music, Traci needed to complete a senior recital. She didn’t have the best memory or technical skills to perform, so she composed all of the music for her senior recital, including developing notation systems for children’s toys, pioneering a synthesis of reel to reel and electronic music compositions, and instructing the musicians how to act out comedic moments in her pieces. The recital was held Oct 31st at 11pm, and was sold out. Little did her parents know she would eventually use these composition skills and her $60,000 degree in music to sing funny songs…around the world!
Upon graduation, Traci worked at Suburban Clock and Repair and North Coast Imports, as a sales person, bookkeeper and sales
manager for the imports and wholesale division. She tripled their sales in the 3 years she worked there, and learned a lot about owning and running a small business. In 1994, she left to begin taking over the family business, Copy Center West. It lasted 10 months. While at a service club conference, Traci met the man who would become her husband, and left Ohio in 1995 and headed down to Palmetto, FL. They married in 1997. Still wanting to own a small business, Traci opened up Traci Keychain Advertising Specialties with $200 and began selling promotional products and corporate gifts to local businesses. Her company was nominated for Manatee Small Business of the Year in 1999, 2000, & 2001. During this time she was very active in the community as a business leader and volunteer. She was an active member of The Manatee Chamber of Commerce and The Palmetto Rotary for nearly 20 years, serving as President of The Palmetto Rotary Club in 2004-2005 and again in 2014-2015. In 2014, she ended up selling her promotional products accounts so she could pursue comedy full-time.
Let’s back track a little, to 2002. Traci realized she missed her music and wanted to try stand up comedy. She loved it! She began hitting open mics everywhere she could, and worked her way up to headlining smaller clubs in 2007 by developing the comedy persona known as The Princess of Parodies. In 2009, she released her comedy CD “Tinkle Tinkle Little Star.” Also in 2009, she was hired to perform at a clothing optional resort. With the recession in 2008, comedy clubs were closing and she had nowhere to perform as a new headliner. She saw an opportunity to expand her comedy following with nudist resorts, and created another musical comedy persona specifically for swingers, nudists and BDSMers…The Dominatrix of Ditties. Through The Dominatrix of Ditties, she’s been able to entertain swinger cruises, hotel takeover parties, clothing optional resorts and other events for sexually adventurous adults on an international level. The Dominatrix of Ditties was voted
Top Female Lifestyle Entertainer by the Annual Lifestyle Awards in 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018. In her travels as a comedian, Traci tried hypnosis for fun and got hooked.
She began researching everything she could on it. She got hooked, and started hypnotizing friends for fun. In January of 2015, Traci’s life changed forever when she and her husband of 17+ years separated. A few weeks later, Traci was about to go on a 6 week comedy tour. She went to say goodbye to her mother (who was then living in Florida), and found her unconscious. Traci was virtually “homeless” and now the primary caregiver of her mother, who had full blown dementia and rampant diabetes.
Her life shattered, Traci spent the next 2.5 years embroiled in divorce, battling attorneys while caring for her mother, who was extremely defiant and prone to depression and horrendous bursts of anger. With her promotional products business sold and now unable to go on long trips for comedy due to taking care of her mother, Traci drove for Uber and sold Pure Romance while planning her next move; enroll in Hypnotherapy school and eventually open a dedicated Hypnosis center. Traci only knew she wanted to help others, and had no idea when she enrolled just how much Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy was going to help her get through her divorce and with taking care of her mother.
Traci found 85% of her grief with the divorce and her sadness with her mother’s death gone in 2 sessions. She is the woman she is today because of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, and she’s on a mission to help others reconcile their pasts so they can enjoy an amazing future.
Traci integrates her training as a Certified Hypnotist and Hypnotherapist with 22 years as a business owner/entrepreneur, 17 years as a stand up comedian, and 50+ years creative problem solving. She freely incorporates any number of 50+ hypnosis and healing modalities in sessions, easily adapting on the fly to her client’s needs every moment, and personalizing their sessions to their interests. What sets her apart from her competitors, is that while trained in traditional Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, her connections performing with sexually adventurous adults has led her to becoming the leader in the field of Erotic Hypnotherapy for Sexually Adventurous Adults. She is one of the few Certified Sexual Freedom Hypnosis Practitioners in the U.S., as well as a BDSM, Kink & Fetish Friendly Hypnosis Professional. She receives referrals from other hypnotists because while these kinds of clients are out of their comfort level, these clients are just another day at the office for her!
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