What is Hypnotherapy?

Watching a movie has all the hallmarks of a hypnotic trance:

• you are fully conscious and could choose to respond to some external stimulation if you wanted to
• time seems to travel at a different speed
• you are aware of what is going on around you (e.g. people coughing, opening packets of sweets, etc.) but you are concentrating on something else

You will have experienced "willing suspension of disbelief" in a number of circumstances:

• As a child in the playground playing "Let's pretend"
• If you have ever acted in a play
• Reading a good book
• Listening to an accomplished talker

In the state of "willing suspension of disbelief", the part of the brain that filters messages going into the unconscious, the "critical faculty", is by-passed.

In the same way that when you are watching a movie you are relaxed and comfortable, you will feel very relaxed and comfortable in a hypnotic trance. Just as you could decide to get up and walk out of the cinema in the middle of a film, you could decide to come out of a hypnotic trance whenever you chose to. You are completely in control.

Typically, the hypnotherapist thinks of the mind as having two parts: the conscious and the unconscious. If the conscious mind can be likened to the captain of a ship, the unconscious would be the crew. The captain says, "Full speed ahead", and the guys down in the engine room actually set the speed of the engine.

In a hypnotic trance, the conscious part of the mind is less active and the critical faculty is by-passed. Once in this state, suggestions and metaphors are transmitted directly to the unconscious in order to make rapid, permanent, and positive changes.

Hypnotherapy is a powerful technique for change.

Again, you are in control; it is up to you whether you accept the hypnotherapist's interventions.

Prior to being hypnotised, you will have a consultation in which the hypnotherapist will discuss the goal you want to achieve in detail. The more the hypnotherapist knows about you, the more individual the therapy can be and therefore the greater its impact. The hypnotherapist will explain just what hypnosis is, how it works and what you will experience beforehand.

After your consultation, your hypnotherapist will induce a hypnotic state using the best methods and techniques to suit you.

To summarise, despite rumours to the contrary, no-one can force you into a hypnotic trance; you have to want it to happen. You are conscious at all times and completely in control.