WHAT HYPNOTHERAPY CAN DO
HYPNOTHERAPY TREATS ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS, AND A FEW ARE LISTED BELOW| Lose weight permanently | Give up smoking for ever |
| Reduce high stress levels | Stop panic attacks and anxiety |
| Deal with depression | Alleviate lifestyle stress |
| Build greater confidence | Handle relationship problems |
| Cope with work difficulties | Nerves before exams, tests |
| Overcome difficulties generally | Treat physical stress-linked symptoms |
| Agoraphobia | Insomnia |
| Depression | Burnout |
You can lose weight and then keep it off. You can give up smoking for ever. You can reduce high stress levels, stop panic attacks and anxiety.If you are taking an exam, a driving test, competing in a sporting event, anything in fact, where nerves could impede your performance, hypnotherapy will strengthen and reaffirm your established ability to such an extent that you will be able to deliver your best. This is not an extravagant claim. Hypnotherapy is simple, yet remarkably effective.
Hypnotherapy is an incredibly effective therapy which enables you to help yourself. Used in the right context, it’s capacity for healing is substantial and it can provide answers to an enormous variety of problems.
The process of hypnosis induces a trance state which permits access to the unconscious mind in which thoughts, ideas and impulses are normally stored, often concealed. People largely function in the conscious world mostly unaware of the impact their unconscious mind has on their day to day life.
Hypnosis enables people to discover what is sometimes hidden: recognise a problem that may have grown out of proportion in their unconscious mind so that it can be identified and dealt with in the present. When insights are revealed, greater understanding and realisation comes about, enabling a person to comprehend how they are, where they are and why they behave as they do.
back to top
calm and relaxation
You don't need to have problems to have hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is so relaxing that for people who find it difficult to wind down after an active day, one session can unclutter confused thoughts, and provide a blissful sense of peace and serenity.
In fact, 30 minutes worth can relax you to such an extent that some describe the feeling as refreshing as having eight hours' sleep. It can also encourage a positive attitude and boost self-esteem and because it allows you to relax completely, when the session is over, any problems you may have been thinking about will now be seen in a calmer frame of mind and in their correct perspective. Such an approach can make them much easier to sort out.
back to top
the unconscious mind
A typical example of how the conscious and unconscious mind function and co-operate would be when someone is driving their car and talking to a passenger at the same time. Their knowledge of driving is so entrenched that it is relegated to the unconscious mind – in other words, they don’t even have to think about it.However, they are thinking about the conversation they are having with their passenger which is taking place in the present, so they are aware, using their conscious mind.
back to top
two-layers of thinking
Sometimes the unconscious mind holds on to thoughts and behaviour patterns that belong way back in our past, but has the power to impact on what we do today.Using hypnotherapy, these patterns can be identified. Once this happens, a strategy is developed to deal with them. One of the reasons they have survived is that every time they are repeated, they are reinforced. They then grow stronger as a result of this constant reinforcement.
back to top
unwanted thoughts and behaviours
There are several ways to deal with unwanted thought and behaviour patterns. One of the most successful ways to dispel them is by replacing them with new thoughts and new behaviours - new ways of thinking and acting. The more they are replaced, the more they are diluted and eventually cease to be effective. Those confusing thoughts and impulses, which had nothing to do with the world you live in today, will no longer interfere.What is extraordinary is that often the thoughts stem from an incident in the past which is so small and insignificant that it cannot be remembered clearly. Hard though it is to believe, sometimes these insignificant-seeming thought patterns and behaviours have the power to overwhelm your conscious thoughts and behaviours.
They don't always have to be traumatic, emotionally charged memories. The tiny, long-forgotten ones can be insidious, often dismissed as unimportant, but still wield a lot of power.
It is important to note that no one can ever persuade a person undergoing hypnosis to do or say anything that is totally contrary to their nature everything that occurs within a therapy session is absolutely confidential.
back to top
phobias
Phobias are unrealistic, illogical fears. If someone held a gun to your head, you would be fearful. That is natural and logical. A phobia means you are very frightened of something that you know perfectly well cannot harm you. When confronted with the object of their phobia, sufferers experience a level of very real terror that is out of all proportion to the actual danger.Common phobias include a fear of closed spaces, open spaces, such as walking down a street, a fear of birds, insects, spiders or snakes, needle-fear such as a syringe for an injection or blood test, flying in an aeroplane, using an elevator, visiting the dentist or doctor. Less obvious phobias also exist: fear of buttons, of feathers, of blushing, fainting, choking or vomiting in public, fear of germs or contamination.
These fears spring from many different sources. When someone is worried about their life they might project this worry on to an external object or situation without being fully aware that their mind has taken this self-protective measure. It also offers a temporary respite, allowing them to side step having to face up to their problem. A phobia can come from a childhood experience or be a reaction to a recent event. The origin is less important than the fact of its existence and the phobic's reluctance to acknowledge it.
treatment matters
If the phobia is not treated, the sufferer avoids the object or situation that causes them so much fear and their phobia becomes an established fact of their life, setting up a vicious cycle. Fear of contact evokes intense anxiety and perpetuates even greater avoidance, eventually taking over their lives. Often other phobias develop and this spiral of anxiety and avoidance creates a situation in which the phobic eventually develops a fear of fear itself.Most of the time, we completely forget the existence of our unconscious mind which is rather like a vast computer database. Everything we think or do, since the time we are born right up to the present day, is logged. The unconscious mind is just as much a part of a person’s psychological make-up as their conscious mind so we have personal reasons for accessing some thoughts and attempting to repress others. Repression is an unconscious act based on a conscious knowledge that certain thoughts are intolerable. Searching for reasons that have led to a phobia means exploring the thoughts and actions that we have tried to avoid so the unravelling process can be uncomfortable.
hypnotherapy for phobias
Hypnosis can tackle phobias because it can unlock those inaccessible feelings. Under normal circumstances, we all need a certain amount of anxiety because it acts as our alarm system. But when anxiety is so bad that it disrupts a person's life, then it becomes their prison. Hypnosis, by its very nature, 'softens' what could be a traumatic experience because it provides a relaxed and safe environment for a phobic to examine their internal feelings and try to identify and deal with the real cause of their fear.Behavioural Techniques. Systematic desensitisation is exactly that: a process in which as the sufferer is gradually brought closer and closer to the object of their fear. As their anxiety mounts they are encouraged to use various relaxation techniques designed to help them cope with their anxiety through each stage.
Aversion Therapy. This requires slowly and gradually confronting the object of a phobia.
Flooding. More extreme as a phobic is exposed to the object of their fear and experiences their fear. The therapist remains with them until the intense anxiety finally subsides. As anxiety peaks after a few minutes, while it may feel a lot longer, it is actually a short, sharp shock. This can produce very instant and therefore, dramatic results but can be difficult to endure.
back to top
regression therapy
Another approach is through regression therapy in which the phobic is taken back through their life under hypnosis until they discover an event, or reason, for the anxiety. This can produce extraordinary results.The unconscious mind has the capacity to retain the memory of an emotion which means that even when regressing back into infancy, well before the person could actually speak, let alone describe a situation, previously unidentified fears can be unleashed. Unrecognised and unchallenged, that small but significant emotion will have had a corrosive effect. With regression, what had become bewildering can effectively be recognised in its true perspective and become harmless.
To an adult phobic, revealing the origin of their fear in early childhood also shows them that they will never again be that vulnerable. Encouraging them to look at that fear in the present day in their conscious mind is to disempower it and stop it from ever being so destructive again. For someone who has suffered without knowing why, it is rather like opening a window and allowing cool, fresh air to blow away ancient dusty cobwebs.
back to top