Benefits of Hypnotherapy

The Benefits of Hypnotherapy

What is it?

Hypnosis is a concept that helps you enter the subconscious.

The conscious mind is only about 10% of the mind. The unconscious mind is the part that runs our body. It is our habits, feelings, values, and a connection with our higher self. Hypnotherapy takes advantage of a natural, frequently occurring trance state we all experience called an Alpha Brainwave State. This state is common when you’re immersed in a movie, and you forget that you’re sitting in a chair at the theater. Or you drive home from work with so much on your mind that you don’t remember the driving part (were all those lights green?). Or it can feel like when you wake up first thing in the morning and haven’t quite processed everything around you yet. You can also experience an Alpha Brainwave State during a meditation.

The practitioner will talk to you and give you prompts to get you to relax. When you slow down your conscious mind, it will stop giving you all the excuses for why you “can’t do something.” When you are so relaxed, the practitioner can talk directly with the unconscious mind and give it instructions. When you work with a practitioner that understands this state, they can connect with your values and give you encouraging, appropriate, and motivating suggestions. These are usually suggestions that are in line with your goals and statements of what you want to be doing (not things that you don’t want to do. The unconscious has trouble processing negatives like the word “don’t”). In this brainwave state, your unconscious mind takes these suggestions literally, like instructions, and it will follow directions. Your practitioner will work with you, so you are resourced and anchored (you have a place to go, a feeling, or a person to call on if things get overwhelming). Your practitioner will help you dismantle any resistance that your active and conscious mind may be insistent on keeping.

Why Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy has been clinically proven and firmly associated with treating PTSD and trauma resolution. It has been proven to assist in or get rid of a smoking habit and help people lose weight and develop healthy eating habits. In my experience, Hypnotherapy gets rid of the very critical thoughts of our conscious brain that continue to interfere with our goals. When you temporarily turn them off, you can give your body and it’s resting state new instructions. These changes can help you achieve your goals by identifying obstacles, completing unfinished business, storing experiences and emotions, and providing clear instructions for the future. You can replace negative emotions associated with trauma with a corrective experience of positive thoughts, improving the body’s function, and resources to call on at any time.

It provides an extraordinarily safe, compassionate healing space to explore sensitive emotional experiences. It can effectively lead to lasting satisfaction and ease of suffering. Hypnotherapy works so well because you are fully conscious of the experience, and your mind won’t let you do anything that you don’t want to do. Everyone can be hypnotized if they want to be. 

What is it not?

Hypnotherapy will not make you cluck like a chicken or stare at a swinging clock. It is not sleep, and you will remember everything that happened and the thoughts you had. It also won’t make you completely re-live a trauma. Hypnotherapy is not intended to harm you, make fun of you, or make you resemble a puppet. Hypnotherapy is exclusively for you, and it can help you have a different reaction to a past experience. It can also allow you to program and embody new thoughts and feelings in the future. It can also help bring calm and relaxation to a very stressed and overworked mind. 

How do I do it?

When you experience Hypnotherapy, you will be seated or lying down. Your practitioner will go through an “induction” which will help you relax by listening to the sound of their voice and imagining. You will be in such a state of relaxation that you will be in an Alpha Brainwave State. This state will allow your conscious brain to relax, and you can experience the therapeutic suggestions the practitioner gives you. (Again, you won’t do anything your mind doesn’t want you to do). You will be incredibly relaxed and completely awake for the process; you will remember it. When you feel complete and the suggestions have set in appropriately, your practitioner will slowly bring you out of your relaxed state and back into the waking world. 

I’m nervous and/or skeptical.

I’m glad you mentioned that. Nerves are normal when you try something new – it’s your conscious brain and body resisting change and not wanting to leave the comfort and predictability of things you’re familiar with. If you’re skeptical, I challenge you to try something new – to learn and have an experience so you can tell everyone what your experience was like. Hypnotherapy is not done to you; it’s something you do for yourself. You won’t know what it is or if it works until you try it.