Questions?

Hypnotherapy is the process of using hypnosis to interact with the subconscious mind in an open-reflective process to create positive change in your life. There are many techniques and many styles and many applications of hypnotherapy. They all have several things in common: (1) a strong desire to change, (2) a state of deeply relaxed focus, and (3) language and visualisation in relationship to emotions.

Or in other words:

Hypnotherapy is the practice of psychotherapy with a client who is in a hypnotic altered state of consciousness. Hypnotherapy is a powerful way to access the source of distress, like depression and anxiety, and for people to reconnect with

dissociated emotions and disowned parts of themselves. Hypnotherapy helps therapists and the client get closer to the source of a client’s issues by opening the doorway to their subconscious mind.

Hypnosis is simply a state of relaxed focus. It is a natural state. In fact, each of us enters such a state – sometimes called a trance state – at least twice a day: once when we are falling asleep, and once when we are waking up. That kind of fuzzy, timeless state between dreaming and awake is a trance state. When a nine-minute snooze button seems to give you enough time to have an hour-long dream, that’s a trance state.

There are many other times that people enter a natural state of trance. Driving, watching TV, listening to music, working on a favorite hobby or activity in the “flow” state. These are all “altered states of consciousness,” and all are various levels of trance. Trance is normal, natural, and common.

Some people leave their first hypnotherapy session saying, “I wasn’t hypnotized – I knew what was going on the whole time!” Well of course you did! Hypnosis is not a state of amnesia or of no awareness. Just the opposite is true, in fact: hypnosis is a state of very heightened awareness and focus.

Hollywood has perpetrated many myths about hypnosis, and not remembering anything from the hypnosis session is one of those myths. Only under special circumstances would a person forget everything from a session.

Much more can be accomplished when the person undergoing hypnosis remembers everything.

More simply put:

Hypnosis is a treatment intervention that involves inducing the client into a relaxed, suggestible state and then offering post-hypnotic suggestions for the relief of symptoms. It uses the hypnotic trance—the simple shifting back and forth between the conscious and subconscious mind, a natural process that occurs every day—in order to create this relaxed, suggestible state.

While hypnosis and hypnotherapy are in the same “family,” they are very different from each other. The core difference is that hypnotherapy is an internationally-recognized therapy technique for treating mental and psychosomatic issues. It uses hypnosis to break through to the subconscious to better understand the foundation of the issues a client is facing.

Many people think of hypnosis as inducing sleep. That’s actually not the case. Hypnosis (and hypnotherapy) induce the “trance state.” It is actually a natural state of mind that many of us encounter in everyday life on a regular basis. If you’ve ever been engrossed in a book, movie, or performance, then you have likely experienced the trance state.

The only thing that distinguishes a naturally occurring trance state from the hypnotic trance state is that hypnotherapists induce the latter and are able to control the trance state to create understanding and healing.

Therapists use different types of hypnotic induction to get people into a trance state.

The most well-known and effective techniques to induce trance state is voice induction, eye fixation, asking clients to stare at a spot on the ceiling or an object, or their thumb as it moves slowly backward and forward.

The hypnotic trance state creates a deep sense of relaxation and allows the client to let go. During this process, the hypnotherapist is able to uncover subconscious motivations, access repressed memories, perform regression therapy, and/or use the power of suggestion to “re-map” the mind’s responses to stimuli.

Hypnosis is one of the world’s oldest sciences. Amazingly, ancient hieroglyphics show that the Egyptians were using hypnosis as early as 3,000 B.C. There is evidence the Greeks and the Mayans understood it and used it as well. Like other sciences, hypnotism has had its experimenters, its pioneers, its lucky guessers, and its experts.

While hypnosis has had a place in society for thousands of years, it has also carved out a place as a legitimate modern medical practice, where it is called hypnotherapy.

Yes, hypnotherapy works. Professional organizations have consistently reported on the value of hypnotherapy. The British Medical Association has been formally studying and verifying it since 1892.

In the 1950s, both the British Medical Association and the American Medical

Association confirmed the efficacy of hypnotherapy as official policy. They claimed: “For the past hundred years there has been an abundance of evidence that psychological and physiological changes could be produced by hypnotism which was worth a study on their own account, and also that such changes might be of great service in the treatment of patients.”

In 2001, the British Psychological Society reported that: “Enough studies have now accumulated to suggest that the inclusion of hypnotic procedures may be beneficial in the management and treatment of a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy.

The core difference between hypnotherapy and other methods is depth and speed. Using hypnotherapy techniques like relaxation, guided imagery, and the trance state, therapists are able to access the subconscious more quickly than traditional methods. Traditional methods may take weeks, months, or years to uncover the subconscious reasons behind issues that are manifesting in clients. With hypnotherapy, these reasons can be found in as little as one session.

The subconscious mind is where we store everything that has ever happened in our lives. Therefore, it is much more efficient to do therapy while in the subconscious state, using hypnotherapy to access these moments in our lives that have impacted us. This results in greater awareness of one’s issues. With this awareness comes the ability to recognize the cause of behaviors that one desires to change.

The exciting thing about hypnotherapy is that it has and can be used to treat a wide variety of human illnesses, diseases, addictions, diagnoses, and complaints. We can think of more than 50 issues off the top of our heads, ranging from depression and PTSD to migraines and smoking.

Hypnotherapy has repeatedly and consistently helped patients with anxiety, depression, PTSD, obesity, addictions, or countless other issues heal faster. When combined with methods such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), valuable healing work can begin as quickly as one or two sessions.

Hypnotherapy has the advantage of being able to communicate with the subconscious in a two-way fashion. Affirmations don’t facilitate direct responses from the subconscious; they only seek to speak to the subconscious. A post-hypnotic suggestion is also different from an affirmation: effects tend to be more direct, more specific, and more immediate when using post-hypnotic suggestions.

Other than that, the language of hypnosis and of affirmations is similar. Both are always expressed in the present tense, and always in the positive. If you ever meet a hypnotherapist that uses the words, “don’t smoke” as a direct suggestion, choose a different hypnotherapist!

Serious psychiatric or mental health problems are referred to a qualified psychotherapist or psychiatrist. Medical problems with the physical body must always be treated by a physician, who can, at his or her discretion, prescribe hypnotherapy for pain control, hypoaesthesia, or relaxation. Drug addiction, family dynamics disorders, clinical depression, and other such problems need to be treated by doctors and psychiatrists, who can, at their discretion, prescribe hypnotherapy as a supplementary treatment.

There is more to changing a serious habit like smoking than just a few hypnotic suggestions, I’m afraid. In the simplest terms, the person must want the change, and they must have a replacement for smoking. Hypnosis can be used to find a healthy, effective replacement, and then it can be used to help flip the subconscious over to the new, healthy habits.

While sitting in a room with 50 other people in a seminar, or listening to a stop-smoking CD can work, it is usually much more effective to have a personalized session with a hypnotherapist, who can customize the approach, language, and replacement suggestions to match your lifestyle and circumstances.

Let me guess: you’ve seen a stage show where a hypnotist made people do all these crazy things. Or, perhaps you have ideas from Hollywood movies and TV. The stage hypnotist carefully selects his subjects (watch how many volunteers he has to sit down), and he chooses people he knows WILL bark like a dog. They will because somewhere inside them is a part that loves to entertain. And they will do it because, deep down inside, they don’t believe there is anything wrong with barking like a dog.

Hypnosis can not make you do something that is against your morals or ethics. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, in truth, and no hypnotist can make you do something that you really don’t want to do. That’s why some people can be hypnotized to stop smoking and yet they still smoke. You have to want the change, agree with the change, and then hypnosis is an instrument for helping make that change better, faster, and permanent.

This is another myth. You always have control, and you can always hear what’s going on. Hypnosis is nothing but a state of relaxed deep focus. It is a natural state that you enter at least twice a day (while waking up and while falling asleep!), and probably much more often than that. If at any time you are in trance and you wish to be fully awake, you can just count to yourself “1 – 2- 3” and open your eyes.

Myths about hypnosis, perpetuated by movies, urban legends, and fiction books lead people to think all kinds of things about hypnosis, including that it is somehow dangerous. Some people have heard that you can go into trance and not wake up. Or that the hypnotist can make you do things you don’t want to do. These things are untrue. You are always in control, always able to “come back” to a full waking state at any time if you wanted or needed to. The number one job of the subconscious mind is to protect you, and it is always on the job.

Of course, you will want to choose a hypnotherapist that has been well trained and is trustworthy. Select one that gives you confidence. Hypnosis is a safe and beneficial procedure when facilitated by an ethical and trained professional.

Do always keep in mind that hypnosis is not a treatment or cure for mental illness, and people suffering from psychosis, suicidal depression, or that are on medications for psychological stability should only be hypnotized by their doctors or psychiatrists or by an experienced hypnotherapist with the client’s doctor or psychiatrist present.