What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis has been described as an altered state of consciousness which you can naturally allow yourself to enter so that, for therapeutic purposes (hypnotherapy), beneficial suggestions may be given directly to your unconscious mind. The word trance is used to describe this altered state, and people often have a misunderstanding of trance in this context, imagining it as a powerless condition, like being under anaesthesia, or being asleep, when in fact, it is simply a state of very pleasant relaxation, of varying degrees.
It may surprise you to know that you are in a natural trance state at least twice a day, just as you are waking and just before you fall asleep. Most of us have experienced being deeply engrossed in a television programme or reading a book, and not noticing that we are being spoken to, even by someone in the same room - another example of a natural trance state. (Children are great at this!)
Hypnosis is one of the oldest methods of healing; the inaccurate myths surrounding it have now been replaced with scientific studies of its benefits, and the use of Clinical Hypnosis has been approved by the British Medical Association, and other such eminent bodies throughout the world. It is a safe and effective therapy, when practised by a properly trained and registered Clinical Hypnotherapist.
In hypnosis, your mind remains alert and you hear everything that is said to you; beneficial suggestions can be made by the therapist, which you choose to act upon or reject; nobody can hypnotise you against your will; nobody can make you say or do anything that you do not choose to do – you remain in control at all times.
In this way, hypnosis is an effective method of making contact with our inner (unconscious) self, which is both a reservoir of unrecognised potential and knowledge as well as being an inadvertent source of our problems. Hypnosis is now in frequent use in areas such as medicine, dentistry, business, education and training, professional sports, and utilised for many personal reasons by people from all walks of life.
What is Hypnotherapy?
“Hypnotherapy is using the state of hypnosis to treat a variety of medical and psychological problems. It is estimated that 85% of people will respond at some level to clinical hypnotherapy. It may even succeed where other more conventional methods of treatment have not produced the desired result. When carried out by a trained and qualified hypnotherapist the benefits can be long-lasting and often permanent. It is natural and safe, with no harmful side effects”. (British Society of Clinical Hypnosis www.BSCH.org.uk )
Through our life experience, the unconscious mind becomes a store-room for our conditioned experience, while the conscious mind deals with constant appraisal of situations and decision-making. In hypnotherapy these critical faculties are bypassed (through the hypnotic condition) and new ideas and 'suggestions' placed directly into the uncritical unconscious to effect beneficial changes in the future.
Where problems have arisen due to habitual conditioning, accumulated stress, or unresolved events in the past, hypnotherapy can be used to access and re-programme thoughts and behaviour patterns, which are being sustained at this unconscious level.
Hypnotherapy expedites the resolving of issues which may take much longer to resolve without the use of hypnosis. A well-trained hypnotherapist will be able to use various methods and therapeutic techniques, with and without the use of hypnosis.
The hypnotherapist does not wave a magic wand, or ‘make changes for you’; you will always be the deciding factor about changes to your own behaviour. Thus hypnotherapy is a state of purposeful co-operation between therapist and client.