I’m often faced with a new client who feels apprehensive about hypnosis. What will it feel like? Will they end up clucking like a chicken?
Fear of losing control
We’ve all seen or heard about the hypnotism shows where people are called up on stage and on the ‘Sleep’ command of the all-powerful stage hypnotist their heads drop and before they know it, they’re kissing the person next to them or swooping round the auditorium like Superman. Or old black and white films with an evil villain in a black tailcoat swinging a pocket watch…There’s no wonder some people are concerned!
Most clients are curious and open-minded, and a good hypnotherapist will always want to talk to a client prior to their first session, to answer any questions and make sure the client fully trusts them before any hypnosis is undertaken. However, some will be worried they will lose control or do something they wouldn’t normally do. Rest assured that this will NOT happen. At any time during the session, if you feel like opening your eyes and coming out of hypnosis, you will be able to. Having said which, most people prefer to stay in trance as it just feels so nice!
Everyday trance state
The fact is, we all go in and out of hypnosis many times every day. Some of us more than others (teenage sons, I’m looking at you!) Simply put, hypnosis is just another word for a trance state. In other words, when we daydream, and we are awake but not really focusing on what’s going on around us, we are effectively in hypnosis.
If you’ve ever set off driving somewhere and realised you’ve arrived without any recollection of the journey, that’s also a trance state. Your conscious mind did the driving, whilst your subconscious mind did some daydreaming (and if anything had happened which needed ALLL your thinking power, you’d have snapped out of it very quickly!) This is the state in which we do our best thinking, when our subconscious mind can come up with ideas and plans that we weren’t even aware we were considering. And of course, it’s a deeply relaxing and pleasant state to be in.
What happens during a hypnotherapy session?
Initially, the hypnotherapist will talk to you about the issue you’ve come to deal with, how it’s affecting you and the changes you’d like to make. Once they’ve gathered all the information, they will help you to settle comfortably and check with you that you are happy to go into hypnosis.
The hypnotherapist will have a variety of interesting methods to guide you into this trance state and help you to go deeper into hypnosis. Once you have deeply relaxed, they can start the work you’ve come here to do, by talking directly to your subconscious mind and helping the changes to take place . This may be through direct suggestions or could involve asking your subconscious to come up with its own solutions to problems. You might be accessing memories or events from the past or imagining reacting differently to certain things in the future. There might also be some useful techniques to use during your day-to-day life that the hypnotherapist may teach you in or out of hypnosis and ask you to practice between sessions.
Some people remember all or aspects of this part of the session, some won’t remember anything at all (although their subconscious will!) and many clients find that they experience things differently each time they have a session. The changes often take place immediately, and sometimes over the next few days, which is why many people find hypnotherapy to be a much faster therapy method than, for instance, traditional counselling, where it’s the conscious, thinking part of the brain that’s coming up with the answers.
That sounds like an easy way to make changes!
Whilst hypnotherapy is relatively quick and simple, it’s important to realise that hypnotherapy is not a ‘magic bullet’. There are cases where the changes happen in just one or two sessions , but some situations may take a few sessions to clear, and other things may come up in the process. Many hypnotherapists will teach their clients self-hypnosis, or give them recordings to listen to and other things to do in between sessions to help consolidate and practice what’s been done in the session, and the clients who ‘do their homework’ are the ones that feel the most benefit from the work.
I hope this has helped to answer some of your questions about hypnotherapy. If you’d like to find out more, feel free to contact me using the button below, for a free introductory chat, where I can answer any more queries and we can talk about how hypnotherapy can help you become the best ‘you’ you can be!
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