Hypnotherapy

 

WHAT IS HYPNOTHERAPY?

The human mind is divided into the conscious and subconscious. 10–20% of your mind is conscious; this is what you use when you are awake and alert. You use it to reason and make decisions. So that leaves 80–90% of your mind as subconscious; that is where you store your memories, dreams, emotions, and thoughts that you don't even know exist!

Between these two parts of your mind is a “brain barrier”, preventing the conscious mind from accessing information stored in the subconscious mind. This prevents you from seeing or understanding the information in the subconscious that causes the problem or symptom. This means you cannot change these wrong perceptions formed in the subconscious. The subconscious just accepts information, without thinking, reasoning or understanding it, and then responds to it. The subconscious mind does not have the ability “to erase thought”, and that’s why we have problems.

Hypnotherapy can be applied to many psychological and emotional disorders.  

HOW DOES HYPNOTHERAPY (MEDICAL HYPNOANALYSIS) WORK?

Our perception of the world around us differs from one person to another based on our experiences. These perceptions are stored in our subconscious mind as facts. You are the sum total of your past. Your past experiences will mould your goals and expectations and you make your life based on them – whether good or bad. The subconscious mind is the most powerful goal-achieving agency. What you Think, you Become!

Hypnotherapy/ medical hypnoanalysis helps you to understand how your past experiences have moulded your perceptions. It allows you to view these perceptions differently so you can move forward to a better and richer life. You need to understand how an Initial Sensitising Event can become a fact in your subconscious mind. Thereafter other traumatic incidents, called Symptom-Producing Events (for example near-drowning, car accident, divorce, etc.) can happen, followed by the Symptom-Intensifying Event (this is where the symptom appears).

The conscious mind takes its orders from the subconscious. It monitors all incoming suggestions and compares them to the perception you have on that subject in your subconscious. If the new suggestion does not agree with the existing perception, the conscious mind will reject it. If the new suggestion does agree, it will allow it through – thereby compounding the original perception and giving it power. The first negative perception stored in your subconscious is usually accompanied by great trauma – it is called the Initial Event. 

The only way to change your perceptions is to understand what is stored in the subconscious. Hypnosis induces a trance-like state, where you are actually in a heightened state of awareness, concentrating entirely on the hypnotherapist’s voice.

Hypnosis is a totally natural state of mind and not what you may have seen on stage shows. There are many levels of hypnosis:

  • Waking hypnosis – daydreaming, watching a movie, yawning when someone else yawns.
  • Light trance – when mind and body are totally relaxed.
  • Medium trance – where you are open to suggestions and can easily recall past experiences.
  • Deep trance – this is a level just above sleep.

A light to medium trance is best for therapy.

 

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU IN HYPNOTHERAPY?

Hypnotherapy is used to change behaviour that is blocking your ability to live life to the fullest or to overcome specific problems. If you have trouble with unhealthy habits or behaviours, or if you want to cure any fears/phobias you have, or if you just want to feel more relaxed and confident, hypnotherapy can help you achieve your goals.

In your initial sessions, I will help you analyse your life story to identify clues to what initial event actually caused the problem you are struggling to overcome. I will use hypnosis techniques to take you through the stages of increased relaxation until you are in a deeply relaxed, trance-like state.

In this state, the body has different psychological changes. For example your breathing becomes slower, your eyelids move more slowly, your skin feels colder, and you might have a sensation that you are no longer part of your body.

In this state the conscious mind is suppressed and the subconscious mind is revealed. I will use regression techniques to take you back to that moment in time when you first felt or experienced the problematic emotion. You will be able to share emotions and memories. You will also be able to recall memories from childhood as if they happened yesterday. You may uncover a childhood trauma, or experience phobias, emotional upsets, behaviour problems, addictions or relationship problems, etc. Perhaps you have recently had a sudden change in your life.

Through hypnotherapy, your subconscious mind becomes open to new suggestions. This means you can change the old, bad suggestions. Often what you need is an understanding of the trauma you experienced in order to start on the road to healing. You will go on a journey to achieve relief from your symptoms:

  • You may express previously suppressed emotions like your anger or pain in order to release your emotions;
  • You may look at the event from a different perspective in order to understand how the trauma happened;
  • You will then forgive either yourself or the perpetrator in order to release the trauma you experienced.