What is Hypnotherapy?
When hypnosis is used on its own, it does nothing more than provide temporary stress relief. It is the actual 'therapy' that is carried out whilst the client is in the hypnotised state - known as 'Hypnotherapy', that is the important part.
The sort of problems it can help with...
Whilst Hypnotherapy is not a panacea for all ills, it can be an effective method for a great many problems where psychological factors are involved. The following are just some of the things it can help with:
- Personal Matters
- Emotional Difficulties
- Psychological Problems
- Performance Enhancement
- Sporting Improvement
- Habit Control
- Weight Control
- Sleeping Difficulties
- Relationship Problems
The two main types of therapy...
Hypnotherapy takes two entirely different forms, and your Hypnotherapist will decide the most appropriate method for you and your particular problem. They are:
Suggestion Therapy
This form of therapy involves the delivery of positive suggestions to the client's subconscious mind, in order to bring about the desired change. It is an ideal treatment for helping clients to cope with such things as examination fears, driving test nerves, smoking, nail-biting and other unwanted habits, some weight control problems, stress and much, much more... Usually between two and four sessions are needed, depending on the nature of the problem.
Analytical Therapy
This form of therapy is used for the more deep-rooted problems, and is the real crème de la crème of therapies. The technique aims to find and remove the underlying original cause of such things as irrational fears and phobias, stress, anxiety and panic attacks, emotional problems, relationship difficulties, psychosexual problems, lack of self-confidence, moodiness, sleeping difficulties, stuttering and stammering, inferiority complex, unhappiness etc. It can generally help most problems where there is a psychological factor at work. As a rough guide, the treatment period will normally be between six and twelve weekly sessions, and will usually provide a complete and lasting release from the symptom(s).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all Hypnotherapists are trained and qualified to carry out
'Analytical Therapy' which is a highly skilful technique. You should always check the
Hypnotherapist's credentials first, before embarking on any type of therapy with him/her,
to ensure that both options are available to you. Carrying out 'Suggestion Therapy' on a
problem that really needs 'Analytical Therapy' is a bit like weeding the garden. If you
only pull out the top of the weed, it will soon grow back. You need to pull out the root
to get rid of it permanently.
I offer both styles of therapy, so you can rest assured that you will always receive the
most appropriate method for you, and will not be prone to a substitute symptom. (That
is, the possibility of switching from say, 'Agoraphobia' to it's opposite, 'Claustrophobia').
Please visit the webpage 'How can it help you?' for
further information or
contact me directly for a
confidential chat.
Who can benefit?
Hypnotherapy can help both children and adults, although the type of therapy used will
vary for each group, and each individual.
The only exceptions are: people who are educationally sub-normal or suffering from
senility, very young children (under 7 years old), hard drug-addicts, and anybody under
the influence of large amounts of alcohol.
Hypnotherapy and Modern Medicine...
Hypnotherapy is recognised by many branches of orthodox medicine as an extremely
valuable alternative to drugs. It can be used to accelerate healing, and help combat
pain. Hypnosis can also produce chemical anaesthesia, so that a person can have dental
work carried out without the normal injections e.g. a filling or tooth extraction.
It can even be used to replace general anaesthetic to carry out more serious operations.
In fact, at the beginning of 2006, a programme called 'Hypnosurgery Live' was produced
(shown on Sky Satellite TV Channel 'More4'), and a man underwent a Hernia Operation on
live television. It was truly amazing to watch! He was in no pain whatsoever,
and was up and walking around immediately after the operation. As a result, he avoided
all the possible risks and negative side effects of having a general anaesthetic which was
his main reason for turning to Hypnotherapy as an alternative. Furthermore, he needed
less time off work to recuperate from the operation. These examples alone demonstrate
just how powerful Hypnotherapy actually is.
Why try Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is totally different from any other therapy because it works directly with
the subconscious mind. This is the part of the mind that thinks, feels and does things
automatically without us even having to think about them e.g. breathing and swallowing.
From a very young age, we start to form our individual personalities, and ways of being,
however many factors influence this, namely, people in our lives; parents, teachers,
friends etc, and more importantly, all of these experiences form our belief and expectation
system.
Everything new that we learn automatically goes into this belief system regardless of whether
or not it is right or wrong, and every time we encounter a new experience, this is
automatically checked for in our belief system. If there is nothing there to compare it
to, then it is accepted but if there is something there already then even if this is
incorrect, the subconscious mind rejects the new idea/concept. This is often why
things that we want to do, that will help us to make positive change, are impossible
because the
belief and expectation system has learnt different in the past, and therefore won't
accept the change even if it would be beneficial. By using hypnosis, the Therapist
is able to access the client's subconscious mind, thus avoiding any conscious resistance.
It is also then much easier to find out why a client thinks, reacts and behaves a certain
way, as identifying the cause means that it is easier for the client to accept the change
at a subconscious level - a bit like reprogramming a computer. The major benefit is
that very little willpower is required, if any.
Other therapies can take a lot longer to work because the Therapists are working with
the conscious mind, not the sub-conscious mind, which is what they actually need to access
in order to get real results. It can often take them many months, even years till progress
is made, which is why Hypnotherapy is so much quicker and often more successful.
Good examples of just how powerful the subconscious mind is...
Fear of Dogs
My client, 'Mr X', was scared by a dog when he was
little and this fear of dogs stayed with
him all his life. He did not consciously remember the event that triggered this fear
(as the subconscious sought to hide the evidence, believing that it was protecting him from
similar situations re-occurring) but when he realised now (from an adult perspective) that it
was only because he was so small that the dog seemed so big and scary, he realised he didn't
need to be frightened anymore. His subconscious mind was reprogrammed, and he no longer
had a problem being around dogs.
Losing Weight
If you decide that you want to lose weight, and you decide that today you are going to eat really healthily, no crisps, chocolate etc but by midday you are already finding yourself eating exactly the things that you have decided not to, this is your subconscious mind over-riding your conscious mind. It may not be good for you to eat these things, and you may not want to, as you are consciously trying to use willpower to eat healthily and lose weight, however your subconscious mind thinks differently. It is therefore far easier for the client to implement the desired change by working with a Hypnotherapist to get to the root of the problem (by accessing his belief and expectation system directly in hypnosis), so that he can understand why he is driven to eat unhealthily, and reprogramme his mind accordingly.
Modern day attitudes towards Hypnotherapy...
Today people do seem to be more and more open to the idea of using Hypnotherapy to overcome their emotional and psychological problems, in order to make positive changes in their lives. This would appear to reflect the average person's attitude of being more open to complementary medicines and alternative therapies in general, preferring not to rely solely on medical intervention and drugs. Hopefully, if this interest continues... then it won't be too long before Hypnotherapy is widely accepted as the safe and amazing therapy that it truly is - and will go on to help millions more people improve their lives and overcome emotional illnesses.
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