WHAT IS HYPNOTHERAPY?
Hypnosis is a powerful tool that helps an individual better understand their own behaviors, limiting beliefs & perception. Hypnotherapy works as a motivating force for client vocational/avocational self-improvement.
From movies, television and stage shows, people often get the idea that when in hypnosis, it’s being under someone else’s control, or that someone else has power over the individual under hypnosis. This is far from the truth! In hypnotherapy, the client has to want to be hypnotized and allows the state to take place.
Hypnosis takes place when both the conscious-mind and subconscious-mind come together. It’s not being asleep, nor is it being in a state of wakefulness. It’s that somewhere in-between twilight experience. A heightened state of awareness.
An altered plane of consciousness. When in state, an individual can open their eyes and stop the session, or leave the clinic at any time, should they choose to. However, that has never happened in my experience. The individual feels relaxed and aware of all thoughts/sounds around them, yet, remaining detached from those sounds & thoughts.
In an integrated therapeutic approach, hypnotherapy has proven to be very beneficial for a variety of health and psychological issues under the auspices of a medical doctor or other related licensed professional for health and psychological issues.
UNDERSTANDING THE MIND
The Conscious Mind
The conscious mind deals with everyday living. It holds all our reasoning, analytical thinking, decision making processes, logic and will power. It comes up with ideas and is excellent in making plans. When too much stress is present, the conscious mind can become overloaded.
While in the state of hypnosis, the conscious mind is calm and relaxed, however always present and aware.
The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind is the source of all known associations, all memory.
Without judgment, the subconscious literally accepts all our background messages; genetic, social, religious, life experiences, whether positive or negative. The subconscious works from expectation and imagination and it does not register the difference between fact and fantasy.
If the conscious mind does become overloaded, the more primitive area of the subconscious-mind becomes triggered for fight or flight. Today, fight/flight is experienced more in the form of anxiety or depression.