Hypnotherapy Today

2011-09-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

Hypnotherapy or creative visualization allows us to discover and to heal the part of us that is constantly affecting our thoughts, feelings, and experience:our subconscious mind. It is through the conscious meeting of unconscious thoughts, feelings, sensations, and the discovery and development of our own powerful inner resources that real change can happen.

By discovering and exploring what is usually less than conscious, we reduce the unconscious influence it has over us and bring it into alignment with our conscious goals.

Here are some of the issues for which hypnotherapy has been shown to be effective:

Stress reduction
Anxiety
Depression
All kinds of Addictions
Social anxiety
Enhancing personal performance
Sleep disorders
Weight management
Post Traumatic stress
Increasing self-confidence
Alleviating Pain
Anger issues
Phobias

What is Hypnosis?

It is a natural state of mind that we all experience daily in various ways, for example: just before we wake up in the morning and before we fall asleep at night, watching TV, reading, driving, day dreaming, meditating, sitting quietly in nature, or so engrossed in a project or activity that we lose all sense of time. The only difference between our natural daily trance states and trance induced in a hypnotherapy session is that it is created intentionally and deepened for therapeutic purposes.

All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The hypnotherapist is there to guide you, but cannot cause you to do anything or accept any suggestion without your consent and participation. Although the analytic conscious mind is dormant in this state, it is always functioning. The mind has its safeguards and will only reveal that which the client is willing see. It is really a myth that people are under the control of the hypnotist. Those that get up on stage in hypnosis demonstrations are carefully picked for their hypnotizability and their willingness to go along with the hypnotist's suggestions!

Therapeutic hypnosis is a natural state of deep relaxation, combined with heightened suggestibility and concentration. In the hands of a trained hypnotherapist it is a safe and powerful tool for therapeutic change.

How does Hypnosis work?

- 10% of our mind functions as our conscious mind, or the "thinking mind". This is where we access our temporary memory and our will power.

- 90% of our mind functions as our subconscious mind, or "feeling mind", which controls all our bodily processes, holds our unconscious and repressed memories, beliefs, and emotions. It is also the source of our imagination, creativity, and intuition. The language of the subconscious is feelings (its motivational power) and imagination (its method of communication and creativity).

- There is a barrier between the conscious and subconscious minds that is called the "critical factor" of mind. Its job is to filter out or block concepts and beliefs not in agreement with our past experience or conditioning.

In the hypnotic state of mind, this critical filter relaxes more easily, allowing suggestions into the subconscious (however, the client always has the conscious power to reject a suggestion!). The relaxation of the critical filter between the conscious and subconscious minds is what gives the hypnotic state its power to affect change. When we enter this state therapeutically, we have the opportunity to neutralize or replace old limiting fears and negative beliefs with empowering and positive ones. We can also identify and transform repressed material that limits us or is the cause of our unwanted symptoms or addictions.

(Unfortunately, the advertising agencies are well aware of these hyper-suggestible states and how to create them for us, especially on TV. They bombard our conscious mind with sensory stimuli, a very effective way of inducing a hypnotic state! The result is that our conscious mind is overloaded with too much to assimilate. When this occurs, the "critical factor" of mind automatically relaxes, and we shift into a light trance, while the advertizer's suggestions of "need, need, need"and "buy, buy, buy" slip right into our subconscious!)

Until we were 4 or 5 years old, all that we experienced went unimpeded into our subconscious mind. At that time, the critical filter of our conscious mind was just beginning to develop. In those 4 or 5 years, we had already learned and absorbed many concepts and beliefs about our world and ourselves that reflected the messages we received and the way we reacted to early experiences with our parents and environment. Unfortunately, many of those accepted beliefs and early learning experiences are problematic for us now, as adults.

Those of us who have had early learning experiences that were less than adequate or abusive caused us to adopt truly negative and harmful beliefs upon which to base our newly forming identity.

Hypnosis can help us to consciously access and transform problematic subconscious material. We, then, have the opportunity to follow our goals and become our healthy, balanced, powerful, and integrated self.

Click here to learn more about Hypnotherapy!