Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is simply a state of mental focus, which some people call ‘trance’. We all experience this state of focus many times each day. Some common examples are when we are totally absorbed in something, maybe watching a television programme, reading a book or paper, or working on our favourite hobby. Sometimes our mind is so focused on what we are doing that we don’t notice someone calling our name (until they start to shout or sound concerned). The only difference between these situations and hypnosis is that in hypnosis you deliberately choose to enter (or allow yourself to be guided into) a trance.

Everyone experiences hypnosis in their own unique way. As your therapist I will use my voice to lead you into trance at your own pace, by encouraging you to relax your body whilst at the same time focusing your mind. No one can be hypnotised against their will. You remain in control and aware throughout the whole session, and will be able to leave hypnosis just as soon as you feel you want or need to (though it is such an enjoyable experience most people choose to remain in hypnosis as long as they can).

What is hypnotherapy?
You are probably familiar with the idea that we have conscious and subconscious parts to our minds. Our conscious mind is the part that we are aware of. We use it to think, to reason and to make deliberate decisions, but it can only deal with seven or so different things at once. Our subconscious mind takes care of the things that need to go on in the background to keep us alive, like breathing and making our heart beat. It also monitors all the information picked up by our senses every second. Things that it recognises as safe or unimportant are ‘ignored’, we don’t notice them. But anything that it recognises as important or dangerous is immediately passed through to our conscious awareness.

Most of the time our conscious and subconscious minds work in harmony, however, we can sometimes literally ‘be in two minds’ about something. Our subconscious can believe one thing, whilst our conscious mind knows the opposite. This will often be experienced as a phobic response, where someone is overwhelmingly frightened by something that their logical mind tells them is no real threat. Similarly, if our subconscious mistakenly believes that we cannot do something, however simple, we are unlikely to be able to do it, no matter how hard we try. Hypnotherapy can be used to correct these mistakes and change these beliefs, so that you are no longer frightened of things that you know are safe, and you no longer unknowingly hold yourself back.

During hypnosis our subconscious mind is able to consider and evaluate new ideas and alternatives to the beliefs it currently holds. If the new ideas are found to be helpful they can be accepted and become the basis for change and personal growth. If they are found to be unhelpful in any way they will simply be ignored. Hypnotherapy makes use of this natural capacity of our minds. After guiding you into hypnosis, the therapist will use techniques such as visualisation, the use of metaphors (stories) and the use of straightforward suggestion to show your subconscious new ways of interpreting your world.

Hypnotherapy can bring about lasting changes gradually or very quickly. Change will happen at the rate that is right and comfortable for you. This makes it difficult to predict exactly how many sessions will be needed, but rest assured that the therapy is tailored to your needs, and will be completed as efficiently as possible.
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