Hypnosis

Think of those times when your conscious mind has momentarily switched off. Like when you got so absorbed in a TV show that you were unaware of your surroundings. Or when you get engrossed in a movie at the cinema and you had no concept of the passing of time – a two hour movie felt like 10 minutes. If you drive, have you ever arrived at your destination and realised you’ve got no idea how you got there? You were driving on auto pilot and giving no conscious thought to the process of driving or the route you took.

Have you ever been talking to someone and noticed that they had “switched off” – they weren’t tuned into what you were saying, and you could tell they had gone somewhere else in their mind? They were in a mini hypnotic trance.

When I experienced hypnosis for the first time it was in my hypnosis training course. We had to practice techniques by trying them out on our fellow students. So we got to be the client as well as the hypnotherapist.

At the end of the session I felt refreshed, lighter and more positive. It was a very pleasant experience that I was happy to repeat.
I discovered that when you are hypnotised your brain doesn’t go offline entirely. You don’t go to sleep. It isn’t some sort of mind control trick. You are awake and aware, and can hear everything that is being said. You still have control over the situation. You can decide to go along with the suggestions, or not.

At first my rational mind was questioning What is happening? Am I really hypnotised? Is this working?
If you relax and just go along with it, you will find that it does work.

You may hear a suggestion and think “I don’t want to do that”, and the truth is, you don’t have to. If you follow the instructions it is because you want to. You choose to do so. On the other hand, you are free to choose not to.

People try hypnosis because there is something they can’t seem to address or deal with, and they hope to positively influence the situation via hypnosis. So the outcome is something they want. In those cases they will decide to go along with it so they get the benefit from the session.

Because some people have preconceived ideas about hypnosis and there is some resistance to it, I will sometimes just suggest a guided relaxation. You get the client to relax, go to a peaceful place, then you tell a story or use a metaphor or make some positive suggestions about the problem. It generally has the same effect. There is nothing magical about hypnosis.

What to expect:

If you book a hypnotherapy session, I never go into it cold. I usually get clients to answer a stack of questions beforehand. A good hypnotherapist will take time to understand your situation, provide you with a good explanation of what hypnosis is all about and answer any questions you may have. The session will be especially designed for you. No two people are the same, so different approaches are better for some people or some types of problems.

I hope you have found this helpful. If hypnosis is something you think would be helpful, book a session with me.