What is Hypnotherapy

We believe that there are two levels of your mind; subconscious and conscious. The subconscious mind is there for protection and to enable the learning of repetitive tasks so that we can use our conscious awareness to make our day to day decisions in life.

For example, the sub-conscious mind will learn a pattern of behaviour such as balancing or walking, once your sub-conscious mind has learnt (by repetition) how to enable you to balance or walk there is no need for any conscious intervention. Your conscious mind decides the direction in which we walk and where we go, sometimes the sub-conscious mind can be confused, for example; walking up an out of order escalator- the subconscious mind can be confused as it is expecting the escalator to move thus making false conclusions.

Many people don’t actually distinguish between their feelings and their thoughts, using clinical hypnotherapy, we are able to distinguish between our feelings and our thoughts, you can learn to tune into your feelings and associate your thoughts with your feelings, and then learn to be more discerning in your conscious waking state when a certain feeling or thought arises. In this manner, merely by recognising the connection of the thought and emotion, you are adjusting your subconscious mind to react in a different way, stopping the automatic, or trigger reaction. This is essential when dealing with behavioural changes.

So what is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy utilises the trance-like mental state that is hypnosis. The hypnotherapist will elicit this state in the client so that they can induce increased attention, concentration, and suggestibility. When people ask “what is hypnotherapy?” it is often described as a sleep-like state, this is not really very accurate. a better description might be that it is a state of focused attention, heightened suggestibility, and vivid fantasies where suggestions are used to create change in feelings and beliefs.

Should you be afraid of hypnosis?

Some people are wary of hypnotherapy and have misconceptions about the process of hypnosis in general. Largely owing to misleading hypnosis performed on stage and television. The hypnotic state is a very natural state of physical relaxation and heightened mental awareness. We slide in and out of different states of consciousness all day long, and we often enter a hypnotic trance state while wide awake.

One example of this kind of trance state is road hypnosis. When you are driving, you often slip into a trance state because of the constant movement of the car and the road going by. Sometimes you may not remember while driving the most recent mile or so.

Another common trance state is when you are very absorbed in watching a film or reading a book, you may even not hear someone in the same room talking to you. You are in a waking trance state when these situations occur.

There are many myths surrounding hypnosis, which are usually from books, television and films.

Below are some truths :-

• You cannot be made to do anything against your basic belief system while in trance.
• You may end a trance at any time by opening your eyes.
• You cannot get stuck in trance.
• You may fall asleep while in trance, but when you awaken, you will be out of trance.
• Everyone who wants to be hypnotised can be hypnotised, although the depth of trance will vary with each person.