Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is a very pleasant and relaxing experience similar to
a guided meditation or daydream. It is total concentration of
the mind on a single idea to the exclusion of everything else.
Please forget any images of hypnosis you have from TV or stage. These are unethical, using hypnosis to make fun of people. They are also dramatised for performance purposes. Hypnotherapy is completely different. It is ethical and respectful and is a process used to bring about lasting positive change in peoples lives.
In Hypnosis you are always in control. The therapist merely guides and assists you to experience this deeply relaxed and pleasant state, with the purpose of experiencing change and transformation. You can resist if you want but that would be pointless.
A trance is a natural state that we go into and out of all the time. If we know what we are doing and we don't need to concentrate very hard, we can slip into a trance. It's a bit like doing something on automatic pilot. When we drive a car and know where we are going, we can be in a trance. We drive the car unconsciously and think about something else. When we arrive at our destination and are asked which route we used, we often cannot remember because we did it unconsciously. However, if there was danger and a child ran out in front of us, our conscious mind would bring us out of that relaxed state and into a more alert, focused one. So, if you are in trance and there is some danger, your conscious mind would bring you back out of trance.
When you watch TV or read a book and are absorbed in them you are in trance. When you are listening to a boring talk you often find yourself daydreaming and cannot remember much of the talk, it is because you were in trance. In hypnosis we artificially bring about this natural state, because it is a very powerful state where the unconscious mind is very open to suggestion, and transformation can take place. It is expensive to advertise on TV during the breaks in an important football match because many people watching are in a semi-hypnotic state and therefore they are very receptive to the advertisements.
Hypnotherapy is confidential. It is respectful, non-judgemental and relaxing. It is all about space for you to work out your goals, to get to know yourself better and find out what makes you happy, allowing you to let go of anything that is getting in the way of you achieving happiness. It is about you learning to feel better about yourself and feeling more positive about life. It is about helping you to feel calm and balanced. Finally it is about giving you the tools (teaching you techniques) to be strong in who you are, and to always hold on to calm and positive feelings.
How Does Hypnotherapy Work?
We have a conscious mind that is both logical and rational. We also have a deeper sub-conscious mind that ultimately controls much of our behaviour, habits and feelings. This is the part of our mind that we are not aware of. Through hypnosis we can easily access the sub-conscious mind and habits of a lifetime can be changed.
While you become absorbed in a natural state of relaxation and go into a beautiful state of trance, I will help you to let go negative beliefs, thoughts and feelings that are holding you back in your life. I will then help you to visualise your goal achieved, exactly as you would like to have it, and then powerfully create it.
The harder we try to do something the more the opposite happens. This is because we are working from our conscious mind. When the conscious and unconscious minds are in conflict the unconscious mind always wins. In other words imagination is more powerful than will.
For example, we think on a conscious level we should lose weight. However, at an unconscious level we are fantasising about chocolate and imagining the taste and the feelings of pleasure we will have when we eat it. You can imagine which of these levels we will respond to.
"What you resist persists" - Carl Jung
Perhaps you have a fear of flying. You tell yourself logically all the reasons not to be afraid and yet you still have that sick anxious feeling about flying and maybe imagine all sorts of things going wrong. Again, the feeling, the imagination, the unconscious is more powerful and the fear persists, no matter how hard we try. The reason is that we are not logically driven, we are emotionally driven. We try to resolve our problems using willpower and logic and have no success.
Hypnosis is successful, because it works on a different level, the unconscious level, the level of the emotions and imagination. We don't focus on the problem and create more of it, we focus on the solution. We visualise in detail what life will be like for you when you achieve your goal and what all the wonderful benefits will be. Then we get you to visualise that in trance, vividly, so vividly, that it becomes real and you feel all the emotion associated with success. This emotion is a powerful motivator. Also clearly imagining your goal is important so your unconscious knows exactly where to bring you to achieve it. You visualise yourself successfully achieving your goal many times in trance and, using powerful hypnotic suggestions, we can make changes at a deep level in your unconscious mind that will allow you to easily, effortlessly and successfully achieve your goal. Whatever you imagine and expect to happen, you create.
Our problems come from our unconscious mind, not our conscious mind. So, using logic and willpower does not work. With hypnosis we access the unconscious mind and make changes at that level. Our habits are controlled by our unconscious mind. So if we want to change habits like smoking, over-eating or eating the wrong types of foods, nail biting, etc., hypnosis can help us to break the habit easily. With hypnosis we change the pictures in the mind to positive ones that motivate us. We also change the thoughts to positive life affirming ones.
Hypnotherapy is brief solution-focused therapy. It can be anywhere from one to ten sessions, depending on the problem. But it is rarely more than that.
- One type of therapy involves suggestion and visualisation. When you visualise your goal achieved in hypnosis, your unconscious mind starts to create it. And the powerful, hypnotic suggestions penetrate deep into the unconscious and make changes at that level. This is a very powerful therapy to achieve goals, change negative thoughts and feelings, and helps empower you to do whatever you want.
- A second type of therapy is analysis under hypnosis. This involves going back to the past to find the root cause of the symptom and resolve the trauma involved.
Many times suggestion therapy is enough. However at other times analysis is required to fully resolve the problem.
Hypnosis is a quick, effective way to bring about change, resolve personal issues and achieve goals. I have been using hypnosis successfully for many years and find it effective and quick in resolving problems. I have had and continue to have, huge success with using it to resolve fears, phobias, stress, panic attacks, depression, weight loss, stop smoking, etc.
Generally on your first visit, you will receive a hypnotic CD. This will either be directly related to your symptom, or will be a relaxation CD. And you will be asked to listen to this each day. It will involve 10-15 minutes of relaxation in a place where you will not be disturbed. The CD can reinforce the work we did in the session, either focusing on your goal or on deep relaxation. As you learn to relax deeply it becomes easier to focus on and achieve your goal. Listening to your CD is like having a mini-session of hypnosis each day.