HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnosis is a completely safe and natural process in which you can allow yourself to relax completely. It is a totally natural state of mind which utilizes naturally occurring states of altered awareness. We go in and out of these ‘altered states’ many times a day without necessarily being aware of having done so. We may have momentary distractions or ‘absences’ such as when we’re day-dreaming or we may enter a more enhanced state of relaxation which is similar to that just before we fall asleep. There are also very deep states of inward focus and awareness. All of these are relaxed states, similar to that used during hypnosis. ​A hypnotherapist is able to guide you into this relaxed hypnotic state or ‘trance’ in an almost unnoticeable way, using ‘hypnotherapy’, which then allows for effective communication with your unconscious (or subconscious) mind to take place. This communication, or hypnotherapy, is used to bring about the beneficial changes you would like to see in your life. During hypnosis, positive changes that might previously have seemed difficult or impossible now seem achievable as your unconscious mind becomes more receptive to new ideas and feelings. These changes in your thoughts, feelings or behaviour are retained once you come out of hypnosis and carry on with your day-to-day life. Trance is not essential for effective change; it simply speeds up the therapeutic process.​ Hypnotherapy originates in procedures and practices discovered around three hundred years ago and has gone through many changes over the years. Often people think of hypnosis as swinging watches, ‘You are getting sleeepy…’ phrases and direct commands such as ‘You will stop smoking’. Things have moved on! This approach may work for some people but some will offer resistance to it.​Nowadays there are numerous techniques used in this clinical field to treat such things as habits, phobias and much deeper-rooted emotional and psychological problems. Ericksonian hypnotherapy utilises indirect suggestions and metaphor, which tend to be accepted by the unconscious mind more readily. This form of therapy is used by many hypnotherapists these days and was pioneered by Milton Erickson, a psychiatrist who is often considered the ‘greatest therapist who ever lived’. He influenced and shaped the way many of us work today, adapting therapy to suit the client, using imagination and metaphor.