Hypnotherapy & Coaching
What is Hypnotherapy?
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Emotional & Grief
- Weight Loss & Food Issues
- Quit Smoking or Vaping
- Fears & Phobias
Hypnotherapy for managing stress is something many people bring into their life. As stress is an intermittent problem with a clear trigger, hypnotherapy generally focuses on the trigger. However, most importantly, when you use hypnosis, you take your body out of the physical state of stress. As your brain waves drop down into the slower – closer to sleep – levels, your body moves into a calmer state.
Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and fear that may cause someone to sweat, feel tense, and experience a rapid heartbeat. Those with anxiety disorders have anxiety that does not go away. It interferes with daily life and leaves people feeling overwhelmed.
Hypnosis helps individuals with anxiety because it eases them into a relaxed and calm state.
Hypnotherapy for sleep, sometimes called sleep hypnosis, is a therapeutic approach using guided meditation and focused attention techniques to address sleep issues and improve sleep quality.
Emotional Release helps if you feel bad and don’t really know why you are feeling grumpy or out of sorts or why you are hurting yourself and other people. That sort of behavior happens when some event, or something somebody does to you, triggers old feelings of powerlessness, helplessness, injustice, or whatever, and that sets of cluster of familiar destructive behavior.
Grief therapy allows the bereaved to accept the death of someone close, and to go on with your life. Grieving is a natural process, and grieving is a healthy emotional response to the loss of someone you love. But sometimes it can go on for too long.
Hypnotherapy helps you to come to terms with their loss and see it as a normal part of life and get back to living your own life.
Hypnotherapy is excellent at helping with all manner of issues related to weight loss or food issues, such as overeating, bingeing, emotional eating, comfort eating or simply to improve habits around food.
Weight loss therapy needs to pay special attention to the environment in which you grew up, and what was happening in your life when the problem eating pattern started. Successful weight loss therapy usually succeeds when it removes or reframes the beliefs and attitudes arising from this time.
Remember, most weight issues are actually about self-esteem. The real problem is often a core belief that you are just not good enough. Any stress today reminds you of how they felt growing up. Eating allowed you to feel better for a while, and you are still trying to use that cure. Hypnotherapy helps fix how you feel deep inside, showing you that you can handle today’s stress by fixing the original source of stress, and you will sort out the eating habits by yourself.
Most smokers/vapers need convincing that they can stop, that there will be no cravings, that they can deal with stress without a cigarette or a vape. Hypnotherapy deals with all of those, and most other common issues.
Many people want to stop smoking but are convinced that they won’t be able to. In most cases it is this belief that stops people stopping. If they believe it, then they either won’t try, or they will abandon their attempts to give up at the first tiny setback. This will just confirm their belief and make it stronger.
Hypnotherapy aims at altering that belief. It does it by making the person aware of other strong beliefs that they have had, and how these were changed once they realized that the belief was not true. Hypnosis is an excellent way to get people to totally change their belief in their own ability to stop smoking.
Phobias are learned disorders. What has been learned can be unlearned. Treatments for phobias are usually successful immediately and permanently, although clearing a phobia completely may take several sessions.
Hypnotherapy for phobias may use the NLP techniques, or some form of graduated exposure therapy.
Graduated exposure for phobias is done by introducing the phobic person to what they fear, a little at a time, to get them used to it. This can be done easily by repeated visualizations while in hypnosis.
Flooding consists of surrounding the phobic person with what they fear all at once. For example a person with a fear of balloons would be taken into a room filled with multi-colored balloons, allow them to have all their reactions, and then they will gradually realise that they did not come to any harm from the balloons.
Counter conditioning is a treatment that teaches the phobic person how to relax in the phobia situation, so that they learn to control the panic they get from their phobia.
What is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic application of hypnosis. It is a powerful form of communication that uses psychological procedures to generate healing and change. The medical use of hypnosis began thousands of years ago, and the hypnotic trance has been used ever since in many different forms.
We all experience trance every day in various forms: if you have ever driven home and not remembered how you got there, or if you have been so absorbed in a book, movie or computer game that you lost track of time, you were in trance. Trance is natural and normal and everyone can do it.
In trance, you are able to communicate with your inner mind directly. That is how the changes get made. A good hypnotist will take you into trance gently and imperceptibly, and in the same way that you can’t tell exactly when you cross over into sleep at night, the crossover into trance is subtle and goes unnoticed. Once in trance the therapist will begin to get you to work with your inner mind.
Hypnotherapy is nothing like stage hypnosis. Part of your mind remains alert and you are in charge the whole time. You will not be asked to do anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable with.
Will I lose control?
Movies and promoters of stage hypnotists have built up a myth about mind control. The opposite is actually true: you need to be in control in order to let go. You can choose to accept the suggestions, but you can also choose not to. Should you feel uncomfortable with the process, you can stop it at any time.
Will I say things I will regret?
You won’t be giving away any secrets. You are in control of what you say at all times. And you won’t be doing anything you don’t remember. Trance is a special state so remembering the things that were talked about in trance is sometimes difficult once you are outside trance. However, if you think it might be an issue for you then ask for special suggestions to be given to remember everything that went on in the session.
Will I fall asleep?
Hypnosis is not sleep. Natural sleep is measurably different from hypnotic trance. However, trance usually involves deep relaxation, so people don’t move much. Hypnotised people might look as they are asleep, but they only deeply relaxed.
What if I can’t be hypnotised?
Everyone can be hypnotised. In fact the more intelligent the person is, the easier it is to hypnotise them. Modern induction methods are fast and reliable – no swinging watches, no staring eyes, just a gentle voice guiding you into a relaxing trance.
What if I don’t do it right?
The therapist will be monitoring you all time and constantly changing the words to fit your particular needs. All you have to do is to enjoy the experience of trance. You will find your mind drifting away as if in a dream. Nothing else is required from you. You don’t have to think, you don’t have to do anything except enjoy it.
What happens in a Hypnotherapy session?
You will be able to ask any questions you might have about hypnosis before it starts. A typical session will involve sitting relaxed in a comfortable chair, while the therapist talks to you. You might only listen, but most sessions you will be actively engaging in some visual imagery exercises. You will be able to move and talk, but you will still be in a profound trance. You are always an active participant in the session, and not just lying there while things happen to you. The average session time is about an hour. The number of sessions depends on the nature of the problem and the individual person. However, hypnotherapy is goal-oriented, and is a quick and elegant therapy, so it is normal to need only one or two sessions. You should notice a definite change immediately after the first session.
Hypnotherapy Techniques
Hypnotherapists use a mixture of techniques to suit the individual. The therapist will not usually offer any sort of diagnosis. Hypnotherapists act on the principle that your problems arise because for various reasons unique to you, you have acquired a poorly fitting model of the world, and hold self limiting beliefs about your own skills and abilities. Hypnotherapy clears those self-limiting beliefs so that you can get on with your life the way that you were supposed to. Everyone already has everything they need to get on with their life, they just need a bit of help in finding those resources.
These are some of the therapeutic approaches used in hypnotherapy:
- Active imagery and Guided visualisation: The language of unconscious processes differs from conscious, logical thought. Activating the sensual communication channels via imagery and visualisation helps to encourage unconscious processes, to occupy the conscious while change-work is done, and to intensify the trance experience.
- Metaphor therapy: Metaphor therapy is one of the most influential and effective approaches in hypnotherapy. It is a subtle conversation with your unconscious mind, when what appears to be a nice story becomes the theme in the change-work. The use of the client’s resources such as creativity, life experiences and imagination is the core of Metaphor therapy.
- Goal-oriented meditation: For those experienced with meditation, Hypnotherapy will seem familiar. The therapist can work together with the client from within a meditative state, incorporating deeper healing processes.
- Mental Rehearsing: When we use our imagination, we activate the same pathways in the brain that we use when the real activity is being done. Mental rehearsing is effective in dealing with things like performance anxiety and confidence issues. Mental rehearsing is especially useful artistic people. It is also a good way to get past ‘mental blocks’.
- Visualisation: Our unconscious mind is not logically organised and you can hold conflicting ideas at the same time, but in different parts of the brain. Visualisation therapy can change how you feel about things that happened in the past. You can’t change the past, but you can change how you let it affect you today.
- Self-hypnosis : Learning self-hypnosis is a valuable skill. It allows you to practice relaxation outside the therapy room, to reduce stress (and blood pressure) and to stop things building up to where they become a problem. Self-hypnosis will last long after the therapy session is over.
- Stress-management techniques: Many clients unknowingly suffer from high levels of stress that are causing other complaints. Stress is a major component in almost every modern illness. Stress management techniques can remove many symptoms.
- Inner-journey / dream-work: Healing oriented hypnotherapy can be a journey of self-exploration and self-healing. When appropriate, deep processes of inner-journeys or dream-work can be taken. Therapeutic processes of that type are of great advantage to spiritual and creative clients.
What can Hypnotherapy help?
Hypnotherapy can assist with any issue that involves the mind. Since even pain is perceived selectively through the mind, almost everybody can benefit from trance-work to some extent.
The following examples are common applications of hypnotherapy:
- Stopping Smoking: end smoking with no cravings or weight gain.
- Weight Loss: Hypnosis is very effective at stopping bad eating habits.
- Anxiety and phobias: Using various methods, hypnotherapy is now recognised as an efficient treatment to phobias and other anxiety disorders, which limit the life of the sufferer. So why go on suffering?
- Habit control – Hypnotherapy can help control all forms of bad habits such as nail-biting, hair pulling, teeth grinding.
- Enhancing self-esteem, self-confidence: Extremely important in many cases of relationship problems, lack of assertiveness and lack of confidence, as well as in many anxiety disorders.
- Eating Disorders: Most problems with eating (bingeing, bulimia, anorexia, yo-yo dieting) are actually due to emotional problems in which the person thinks that love equals food. Hypnotherapy can fix these beliefs and allow the person to have a normal relationship with food.
- Guided visualisation and spiritual journeys: You don’t have to be ill in order to benefit from hypnotherapy. Improvement in many realms can be achieved with hypnotherapy, as well as self-exploration and other elevating experiences.
- Emotional Growth: You can achieve deep levels of self-knowledge and acceptance, to communicate better with your unconscious and utilise it for growth and healing: hypnotherapy only strengthen these natural tendencies.
- Public Speaking: Hypnotherapy is very effective for dealing with the dread of speaking in public.
- Personal Exploration – Hypnosis is often used to assist people who want to explore alternative consciousness or to get in touch with their own spirituality. It is also useful in helping people to access past life experiences.
Why choose Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy can assist with any issue that involves psychological states. However, no matter how much you believe in the mind-body nexus or that the mind controls how the body works or that everything is influenced by a universal consciousness, hypnotherapy will not cure everything. Nobody ever got taller by wishing for it or got rid of baldness by affirmations. Hypnosis in not magic, it is about applying proven scientific procedures that change the basic structures of the mind.
The mind does affect the body: the way you behave can affect the way you think, the way you think can affect the way you feel., the way you feel can affect your physical health. Many things afflict humanity, and there are several complementary routes to good health. There are medical solutions, behavioural solutions and psychological solutions.
Your first stop should always be to consult your normal medical professional. The vast majority of doctors are skilled and experienced in their work. Standard medical procedures and interventions are the best way of treating physical conditions. There is no doubt that modern pharmaceuticals do work. I am a hypnotist but when I have a headache, I take an aspirin. If I had a broken leg, I might try to distance myself from the pain with self-hypnosis , but my next stop would be the emergency room of a good hospital.
Behavioural processes also work. These can control unruly children, get rid of bad habits and encourage you into better modes of thinking. Just changing your behaviour can direct influence your health. Walk to work, eat only at mealtimes and so on, simple behaviours like that can have dramatic effects.
But for some people their behaviour is the problem, and they just cannot seem to control it. That is where hypnotherapy can help. Hypnotherapy deals with the psychology of behaviour. Before there is a behaviour there must be a thought. Control the thoughts and you can control the behaviour. That is the aim of hypnotherapy. It gives you a better way of reacting to the world around you, giving you more choices so that you can behave differently in problem situations.
Working with your health professional.
Before undertaking a course of therapy in any treatment style it is a good idea to clear it with your doctor first. Most doctors are supportive of hypnotherapy and understand its uses.
Hypnotherapy can be a valuable part of a balanced health program. If you think you might have some issue that needs to be addressed, give me a call. I look forward to meeting you.
What to expect in the first session
A session usually takes about an hour. The session starts with you describing in detail what it is you want to change. I will clarify some points and make sure I understand what I need to do. Then I’ll explain hypnosis, what it can and can’t do, and after discussing various approaches, we’ll agree on how to proceed.
Normally I will then begin the induction and guide you to into a gentle hypnotic trance. Everyone can go into trance. You don’t have to know anything, you can’t do anything wrong, it doesn’t depend on any special skill you have to have. All you have to do is relax and focus on your breathing. I do everything else.
What is hypnosis like?
Many people don’t know what to expect the first time they go into trance.
Remember:
Hypnosis is safe and enjoyable.
You will be aware of what is going on at all times
You cannot be persuaded to do anything against your own values
You will be able to come out of hypnosis any time you want to
You are always in control of what you say and do.
You will not experience mental fireworks or get touched by some cosmic energy. What you will feel is amazingly relaxed, you will feel totally detached, that nothing really matters right now, that you could do anything you wanted but you can’t be bothered, that you just want to go on lying there and enjoying this amazing feeling. At the end of the session you will feel deeply relaxed and refreshed.
What happens in a hypnotherapy session?
You will be asked to sit in a comfortable chair and after checking that you are ready I will then begin an induction. The induction is a form of words designed to lead you into a relaxing and comfortable trance. If you are nervous, then I will demonstrate your hypnotic abilities by taking you briefly into trance and out again so that you experience it firsthand. That way you get to understand the amazing power of hypnosis.
Although you are deeply relaxed you are actively involved in the process at every stage. In hypnotherapy you are not a passive observer, you are always aware of what is going on and following what I am saying, and actively working with me.
I might ask you at various points to open your eyes, to move a hand or to speak to me. These tasks are all designed to let me know how you are progressing, and to let you know that things are going smoothly. You will not go to sleep. I will make sure that you do not get so relaxed that you go to sleep – I need you to be able to communicate with me all the time.
Once you have reached the level of trance that’s right for you, I will begin the process of helping you to make the changes you want. I will usually start by gently taking you to a place where you can feel safe, warm and content. From there I will possibly take you on a guided journey where you overcome obstacles, meet wise leaders, or interact with people you used to know. The exact content depends on what you are wanting to achieve. I will also usually mix in a lot of suggestions about your own capabilities, assumptions, perceptions and behaviour. I will also usually invite you to some future situation where you will act with complete confidence with your new found abilities.
At the end of the session I will guide you out of trance again. You will come out of trance feeling refreshed and alert. Most people feel as if they have just wakened from a long nap, and feel really relaxed. Most people find the whole experience very enjoyable.
Sometimes you will have to return for another session if what you want changed cannot all be done in one day but you can expect to get a major change after the first session.
Will I remember everything?
Usually you will remember everything that was said to you and how you felt about it. Very occasionally a client will get so relaxed that they will have no recollection at all of what went on. This shows that they went into a really deep trance, and is a good thing. They actually do remember it, but not consciously. If I say “Do you recall me talking about a rose?” they will say “Oh, yes, actually I do, now you mention it”. What very often happens is the client says afterwards “Look I’m sorry. I must have fallen asleep during the trance, there are parts I just don’t remember”. This is an indication the client was going up and down in trance and remembers the parts where they were lightly hypnotised, but when I touched on things of real importance they went deeper into trance and cannot recall those parts consciously, because they were not processing them with their conscious mind. If I put them into trance again they can give complete details but cannot recall a thing when awake. This is known as State Dependent Memory and is quite harmless.
What if I get it wrong?
Everyone can be hypnotised. Hypnosis is a natural ability we all have. Going into trance is something you already know how to do. All is I do is guide you in, like the air traffic controller guiding a plane down on to the right runway. It is always you flying the plane, not me, all I do is to give you some suggestions about when you might want to turn left or right.
Types of Therapy
I mainly work with hypnosis but I also use other techniques. Sometimes I do not use hypnosis at all, depending on the problem. Some people feel more comfortable with one approach rather than another, and some problems are easier to solve using one particular therapy style, so I use the style best suited to each client. Each session is carefully designed to match your individual needs and the most effective approach may combine one or more therapies. The main thing is to find the right way to get the result you want.
If you have any worries at all, just drop me a message via the Contact page.
Send Me a Message
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