Hypnosis and hypnotherapy: what are they?

What is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis for therapeutic purposes. It involves a partnership between therapist and client to achieve the changes you want. We work together to relax your mind, so you can understand how your thoughts and feelings determine the way you experience your life.

And when you are relaxed in this way, it's easy to make the connection between your experience and your thoughts and feelings, and accept suggestions about other ways you can feel and think to achieve the results you want.

You are always in control of the session, and can snap out of the trance at any time, if you need to. You cannot be made to say, do or reveal anything against your will. You allow yourself to go into the trance, to the level you are comfortable with. You are normally aware of everything that is said and done in the session, and recall as much as you would from an ordinary conversation.

What is hypnosis?

The US Federal definition of hypnosis is "...bypassing the critical factor of the mind, and the establishment of acceptable, selected thinking." In other words, the hypnotic trance relaxes the boundary between the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind (critical factor), allowing suggestions that challenge and revise outdated beliefs to be made and accepted by the subconscious. For more detail about how the conscious and subconscious minds work, and how this makes hypnosis and hypnotherapy possible, see this link.

Everyone can go into hypnosis, though each person's experience of the details of the trance will be specific to them. Only extreme fear, lack of knowledge or (rarely) an inability to concentrate sufficiently, result in someone not being able to go into the trance.

In general, people experience hypnosis as relaxed, focussed awareness and absorption. It is similar to states you go in and out of through out the day, like daydreaming, listening to music, reading a book or watching TV, and the time just before waking up and going to sleep. It is also like the times when you can't remember the journey when you arrive at your destination, or the feeling that time has somehow disappeared when you've been concentrating hard.

How will I know I've been hypnotised?

For more detailed information on how tell if you're in hypnosis and hypnotherapy, see the FAQs.

For more information about hypnosis and hypnotherapy, or to book an appointment, contact Sian on 07725 732810 or email.

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...I have to say that my recent therapy achieved far more than my expectations. After only three sessions, I have managed to put some very negative past experiences behind me, and I can already see huge positive changes in my outlook and ability to cope with anxiety and stressful situations...
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