About Hypnosis

The most frequently asked question is “Will I act like a chicken?”  Most of us have seen stage hypnosis, or know someone who took part in a stage show.  These experiences are far removed from clinical hypnosis which is a well recognised and serious therapy that can help resolve many difficulties, issues and addictions. 

Clients who visit a hypnotherapist spend most of their session sitting or reclining comfortably, feeling extremely relaxed, listening to the Hypnotherapist giving suggestions, and perhaps using metaphors which help them achieve the therapeutic results they've agreed upon together.  

Clinical hypnosis is a gentle experience.  Your body becomes very relaxed, yet your mind remains very focused.  Usually you will hear everything that is said, but often as though you were at a distance, observing.

When you experience hypnotherapy you are not under the "control" of the therapist and  if you wanted to, you could get up and leave at any time.  However, you would probably be so comfortable and relaxed that this would be the last thing on your mind.

Did you know that...

...your brain is more active when you are asleep than when you are watching television?

Hypnosis is a process of communication...

Hypnosis is an education-communication process that allows a person’s conscious and subconscious minds to believe in the same positive message. During hypnosis the body and conscious mind are in a relaxed state while the subconscious mind remains alert and receptive to suggestion. In this state the person suspends critical judgment and exercises selective thinking.

Hypnosis is a way of accessing the subconscious mind. The root cause of most physical and emotional problems is in the subconscious mind, created by decisions and beliefs formed because of a past experience that is often outside conscious memory or awareness. Hypnosis is a way of accessing and releasing that information and the accompanying emotional distress.

Because hypnosis accesses the subconscious mind, it can also be used to improve performance. People have successfully increased sales, improved their sports performance, improved memory, improved health habits, and mastered stress and anxiety through the using hypnosis.

Clinical hypnosis is widely used to assist in pain control and to change unwanted habits.  Hypnosis is also used for motivation, enhancing memory and to achieve many other therapeutic gains.  

Using hypnosis, the changes you want can come about easily and effectively.  Many clients have tried to change life patterns for a long time, and know that will power alone isn't working for them.  This is because most of our behavioural patterns are created subconsciously.  When a person experiences trance or hypnosis, they don't have to consciously think about their problem, or about what the therapist is saying because the therapist is talking to the subconscious part of the client's mind. 

This is the part of the mind that is dominant during a trance experience, it is the part of the mind that automatically does what you need to do while you consciously tend to activity at a more aware level.   Driving a car is an example of the "automatic" action. You can drive safely while thinking about something else entirely because you subconscious mind knows how to drive and "takes over" that behaviour when you need it to.  During hypnosis, if the therapist operates skillfully, the client, who has all the resources to make effective change, will subconsciously sort things out and make those changes for him or her self.  When this is achieved, the changes created are therapeutic and long lasting. 

Hypnosis has a long and effective history of bringing change to people's lives and we know of no client who has experienced trance and not had a positive and beneficial change. 

Trance or hypnosis is a natural state, one you are very familiar with although you may not call it by that name.   

As you have just read, most of us have driven from one destination to another only to arrive with no memory of parts of the  journey.  Your subconscious mind was ensuring your safety, performing a learned behaviour  (driving), while your conscious mind was engrossed in other things.  During the journey, your brain waves had slowed to the Alpha level of 8 - 12 Hz a second. You were “there, but not there”. 

Hypnosis is very similar to this state.  Another common example is daydreaming.  Perhaps in a meeting, in a lecture or at work you have found yourself daydreaming and not really noticing what was going on around you, effectively you had dropped into a comfortable trance state.  

Children and hypnosis...

Children are particularly skilled at this. A child can become so engrossed in drawing, playing, or watching TV that it is as if he doesn’t hear when spoken to. The child is not being deliberately rude, he has simply accessed a very focused state and become less aware of what is going on around him.  This is known as natural trance.  It happens to all of us, not just to children. 

Modern research shows that the analytical part of our brain, the rational, logical side, operates at its optimum in 90-120 minute blocks.  After this length of time we find ourselves daydreaming a little, or lacking concentration.  Effectively, this daydreaming is simply our brain taking a short break, refreshing itself.  When this happens, the creative but less analytical part of the brain becomes dominant.  Hypnosis mirrors this, and when the creative part of the brain is influential, we can make lasting change.