Why should I consider hypnosis?
Hypnosis can be utilized to help break bad habits, such as smoking, or to achieve positive change. Hypnosis can also help people cope with negative emotional states like stress and anxiety, as well as pain, insomnia, mood disorders, letting go of negative beliefs or unhelpful thinking patterns, as well as building confidence and self-esteem. Hypnosis aims to help people connect to and build their own internal strengths and resources to enable positive change.
Incorporating hypnosis into psychotherapy can be very beneficial for many reasons. The therapist still utilizes standard therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and incorporates hypnosis to consolidate and enhance the learnings and changes.
The goal of clinical hypnosis
Hypnosis can sound like a scary thing to many people, that you ‘go under’ or someone controls you. However, we naturally go into trance like states each day when we are absorbed in an activity or concentrating. People are awake during hypnosis just very relaxed and in a state of heightened concentration and focus. When a person is under hypnosis, their mind and body is put into a heightened state of learning which makes then more open to suggestions for self-improvement or behavioural changes. The goal of hypnotherapy is to harmonize the subconscious and conscious minds to give the person greater control over their emotions and behaviours.
What happens during a hypnotic state?
During a hypnotic state, the person becomes deeply relaxed. The conscious mind becomes quieted which allows the unconscious mind to focus deeply on the issue at hand and to accept and assimilate ideas and suggestions that are more beneficial and resistance to change is decreased.