In this section…
The combination of Hypnosis and therapy
What is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a relaxed state of mind that feels rather like day-dreaming, or the feeling just before falling asleep. There is no loss of control and you cannot be made to do anything that you don’t want to do (please see Myths and Misunderstandings for further information).
During hypnosis, some people feel heavy or sleepy, and some feel light and floaty. Some have tingling sensations, some see colours (a bit like looking into a lava lamp). For these people hypnosis may be a powerful, fantastic, moving, exciting or other-worldly experience.
However, some people feel as if they have just had their eyes closed, and that nothing much has happened. They may be completely aware of their surroundings (eg. you may hear traffic outside the room), and can think their own thoughts during a session (eg. “what am I going to have for tea tonight”).
How you feel has absolutely no bearing on the results. What is important is that the client relaxes to the level where they feel comfortable. Then they will be able to be open enough in order for changes take place. If they are pushed to a place where they are fearful they will be out of control it will not be therapeutic – positive changes will not take place.
Depth of trance is not important for the therapy to be effective. However, many people can ‘learn’ to relax more deeply into hypnosis by practicing, so the process becomes more enjoyable. However, hypnotherapy is just as effective if you think your own thoughts when using a CD of your hypnotherapy session!
Therapy
The hypnosis part of Hypnotherapy simply opens up the subconscious mind to make it more receptive. The subconscious is a part of the mind which is a bit like an intelligent 4 year old. It has no capacity to be logical, and processes information at a ‘feeling’ level. It’s purpose is to help and support you. Problems occur when the subconscious is acting on ‘old’ information, and is getting in the way of the client moving forward in life. The therapy part of Hypnotherapy helps the subconscious mind to ‘update’ the old information.
For example, it could be that someone who is excellent at their job is asked knowledgeable on the subject, they are terrified of public speaking. Their subconscious mind (feeling) knows that they just can’t do it.
It is possible that this client was humiliated at school when asked to speak in front of the class, and in order to protect him or herself from further humiliation, decided that keeping back and staying quiet in front of the class was the safest thing to do. By accessing the subconscious mind, we can inform the intelligent 4 year old that we are no longer dealing with an unhelpful teacher or a hostile class, and remind it of successes, achievements, transferable skills, and a general change in circumstances!
The tools of Hypnotherapy are NLP, (Neuro Linguistic Programming See What is NLP) Eriksonian Hypnotherapy (the use of metaphor), E.M.D.R. (Eye Movement De-sensitization Reprocessing) and direct suggestion. Amanda is trained and experienced in the use of all these tools, and will use the ones she feels will be most useful for you. Repetition is also important, and in order for you to get the most out of each session, she puts the hypnosis part of each session on CD for you to practice at home. (If you have a voice recording MP3 player, Amanda is happy to put the session on that for you.) The more the client practices, the fewer sessions they will need.