What is Hypnotherapy?

How it works...

Hypnosis is very similar to deep meditation. It is a heightened awareness. The key difference between meditation and hypnosis is having a therapist to guide you into that relaxation and to help to calm the mind, and then having trust in your therapist to navigate your subconscious mind to help the unconscious parts become conscious, enabling you to make the desired changes.

Your subconscious mind is always working in the background: it has stored all the information of everything you have ever experienced. The subconscious mind goes beyond learning new skills. It's involved in information processing and affects everything we think, say and do. It stores our beliefs and values, determines our memories and monitors the information all around us, deciding what to send to the conscious mind and what to store for later.

Hypnosis induces Alpha and Theta brain waves states, allowing for new suggestions and resolutions to take place, which go straight to the subconscious, which ultimately change your programming, behaviours, patterns and thoughts. The saying ‘give me the first 7 years of a child’s life and I’ll show you the person they will become’ is a saying because during those early years of life you are being programmed and everything goes straight to the subconscious mind. This is because children will spend most of their time in Alpha and Theta brainwave cycles, which is the same state that a person is in when they are in hypnosis or meditation.

What to expect?

You've probably seen stage hypnosis at some time? Well, hypnotherapy is not the same. If you are watching someone who has been hypnotized on stage, it may appear as though they don't know what's happening to them. With hypnotherapy, you are hyper aware, you are aware of everything the whole of the time - and that's exactly how it should be. You may, or may not, be able to remember everything afterwards - but at the time you will hear everything that is said.

Everyone has different experiences with hypnotherapy: some people go into a very deep trance and remember nothing at all afterwards, others remain in a light trance (which can work equally well as a deep one), but - more often than not - people drift into different levels of conscious awareness and remember parts of the experience. The process I use involve your active participation, so you will be able to communicate and relay to me any images, emotions, senses, words and information that the subconscious mind is bringing up into your conscious mind.

You can never be made to say or do anything you don't want to, and if I or anyone else were to give you suggestions that you didn't morally approve of, you would come out of hypnosis.

You will never give away any secrets or be made to act in any derogatory way.

You are in control but at the same time, you are also very deeply relaxed. Another way of describing this is mind awake body asleep. This allows access to the hidden and unconscious parts of us, bringing these supressed parts to the light of day is in itself immensely healing.

During this relaxed state your subconscious mind is open and receptive to the suggestions given to you - providing they are the suggestions that you consciously want to take effect.

Once in this relaxed state the therapy can begin. This is an interactive process, and you will be able to communicate exactly what the subconscious is showing you aloud to your therapist throughout. Then you will work together with the subconscious mind towards resolution.

You will be able to hear everything during the hypnosis session - you'll be aware of outside noises and movements - this is perfectly normal because you are in a heightened state of awareness in hypnosis. Personally, most of the time when I’m in trance I’m very alert. Other times I dip in and out of what feels like sleep but is in fact a deep trance. On occasion, there have been times I’ve been in trance and have not been consciously aware of what I have said, but this has been when I have been practicing Channelling.

During the induction process I will ask you to visualise certain things, and once in trance I will ask you what you are seeing, sensing or feeling, If you can't actually see them, please don't worry - we are all different. Some people can't visualise very well because their representational system is more auditory or kinaesthetically inclined - There is no right or wrong way when using your inner vision. You may be able to use all your senses to some degree, or dip between seeing, feeling, sensing, hearing, smelling or just knowing.

After the hypnosis session, the only differences you might be aware of, are that you may feel more relaxed than usual, you may have a sense of clarity and peace. Also a release of resistance in the body and you may feel differently about whatever it is we are working together on.

Together we will dig deep to uncover and create resolve to that which is the cause of the symptoms and conditions you are experiencing, by exploring the reasons behind them. This is because unless it’s been accepted, validated and resolved by bringing into conscious awareness, suggestions you wish to implement in your daily life, work less effectively; it’s like trying to put a plaster over something that needs air to heal. You must uncover the wound for it to heal. Therefore, hypnoanalysis to reveal root causes and undertake inner introspection is often necessary.

By getting to root of the problem, takes bravery. This journey can be an emotional process. This can often require numerous sessions and trust in your therapist. It is likely a host of contributing factors, and not one single event. Just have trust that your subconscious mind won’t give you anything you can’t handle, and the things that come up are the things you are ready to address and heal.

Some things like quitting smoking, or combatting fears and phobias are however often exceptions as the event is already remembered, e.g. you have a fear of dogs because one bit you. You do not have to relive the remembered traumatic event to change it.

Ultimately, the subconscious can work in your favour and can be programmed in such a positive way - if done so correctly it could even drive you to become a millionaire or successful sports player. The body and nervous system can’t tell the difference between something that is currently happening in reality or if you are imagining it; the body and emotions react the same. This works in our favour in hypnotherapy because the change we create using active imagination gets processed as something that is currently happening, so you can reprogram yourself for more positive results.

The key points to remember:

No one can be hypnotized against their will.

You are not out cold or asleep when hypnotized; you are merely in a dreamlike state, hyper focused, and hearing every word I say.

During hypnosis, or afterwards, you will not do or say anything you do not want to.

You will only accept and act on positive suggestions that are intended for your highest benefit.

During hypnosis you are more in control of your mind and body than any other time.

You can choose to come back to full consciousness at any time. You cannot become stuck in hypnosis - it is not possible.