How Does Hypnotherapy Work?
Hypnosis is a state of inner absorption and focused attention. It is like daydreaming or feeling “in the zone.” You are usually aware of what is happening around you, but your attention is focused on a single object or train of thought. The hypnotist usually induces this state using verbal repetition and mental images.
When you are in hypnosis, you are more open to suggestions. The hypnotherapist can suggest new ideas or perspectives you might not have considered before. These suggestions can help you change your behavior or perception of a situation.
For example, if you are trying to quit smoking, a hypnotherapist may suggest that cigarettes are no longer appealing or that smoking is no longer enjoyable. These suggestions can help change your behavior by making resisting the urge to smoke easier.
In hypnosis, I use several hypnosis techniques, like regression and analytical hypnotherapy, to dismantle negative limiting beliefs. Then I use suggestion therapy to replace those limiting ideas with positive, empowering ideas.
Several techniques can improve the outcome of hypnotherapy.
In my practice, I also use the following tool to enhance the effectiveness of hypnosis:
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Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) – a state-of-the-art communication and behavioral change technology
I am certified as a clinical hypnotherapist. Clinical hypnotherapy uses advanced hypnosis and other techniques to treat various medical and psychological issues. It is an established complementary therapy with an excellent track record. Many medical college clinics now offer an overview of clinical hypnotherapy as an optional module.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind can be considered a storage place of memories that include everything that ever happened to you. It remembers every experience, every word you have ever spoken or heard, and every emotion you have ever had, and it has thousands of times more storage capacity than any computer.
It prioritizes storage relative to the emotional intensity of an event. Memories of fear and pain are a high priority. Love and joy are lower priorities. It is a survival mind.
It is also responsible for controlling the health and function of every organ and cell in your body. The subconscious mind controls all habits and automatic thought patterns.
About 90 percent of our brain functions occur in the subconscious mind. The other 10 percent occurs in our conscious mind.
Throughout your life, your subconscious mind stores different beliefs that you accept about yourself and the world. Some are positive empowering beliefs, and others are negative limiting beliefs.
The conscious mind draws on the information in the subconscious mind to make decisions and exercise free will. When you consciously decide to change, you use your conscious mind.
The fact that the conscious mind is only about 10 percent of your entire mind explains why it is so hard sometimes to follow through with a decision to change. However, since hypnotherapy works directly on the subconscious level of your mind (the other 90 percent), it makes change much easier and faster.
Hypnosis is one of the oldest and most natural modes of healing
It is considered a very effective and safe procedure in psychotherapy. In 1892, British research showed that hypnosis effectively relieves pain and reduces psychosomatic complaints and anxiety disorders. Throughout the years these findings have been confirmed by many other surveys and experiments.
Some of the issues hypnotherapy can help with are:
Many people choose to take medications to treat anxiety and depression. Others don’t want to become addicted to these notoriously addictive drugs. Hypnotherapy is a drug-free, effective way to calm anxiety and treat symptoms of depression. Hypnosis techniques are used to neutralize triggers that cause anxiety. When practicing hypnosis, you learn how to calm your mind and emotions. In addition, hypnosis can promote deep relaxation – if you’ve ever tried meditation, you already know the tremendous impact relaxation can have on your body and mind.
Different people have different addictions. Whether it’s an addiction to alcohol, drugs, food, smoking, or gambling, hypnosis can help you break these habits. Hypnotherapy has been proven to help break addiction once and for all, preventing short-term relapses.
Hypnotherapy helps lose and maintain weight. If emotional eating is an issue, there are processes and techniques to resolve underlying emotional problems. Suggestions therapy is also used to modify behavior and change habits.
Humans are not designed to deal with constant ongoing conditions of stress. It can lead to severe illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and sleep problems. If you are constantly on high alert, you can benefit from hypnotherapy. You can learn relaxation, hypnosis, and meditation techniques to change your life. If you feel you are not managing your stress levels, try hypnosis. It allows your body to recover, repair, and heal by experiencing the relaxation it needs.
If you suffer from a disease or condition that causes you frequent pain, such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, or migraines, and your pain pills do not help, or you don’t want to take them, you can try hypnosis. Very often, pain can be controlled effectively through self-hypnosis. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are effective pain treatment techniques in many different scientific studies. Some techniques can give you a tremendous head start by helping you quickly control and manage your pain when you feel an impending attack. Hypnosis can also significantly reduce the duration of an episode. It can also extend the interval between attacks so that you can stay comfortable and pain-free for as long as possible.
Millions of people have insomnia, night terrors, waking sleep, and sleepwalking, and cannot fall into the REM sleep that their body and mind need. Sleep disorders can lead to other problems, such as obesity and dependence on sleeping pills, caffeine, and other stimulants to keep you moving despite fatigue. In addition, sleep disorders can be challenging to treat. Hypnosis can help treat psychological problems that cause sleep disturbances. At the same time, it puts the body into a state of deep relaxation, helping to rejuvenate the body and mind.
