Hypnosis is a natural state that we all experience on a daily basis. It is that sense of being on autopilot, while travelling to work, while watching a good film or reading a book. When your focus is completely taken with the task in hand, to the exclusion of everything else. Everything still functions normally, you still stop at red lights and remember the route, but it is temporarily out of your immediate awareness. The subconscious mind has taken over, and that is what happens in hypnosis. The subconscious mind is much more receptive to new ideas and far less critical than the conscious mind. It will happily do as it is told (within reason) and be open to change.
When holding mistaken beliefs and negative past experiences, thoughts or emotions, this can create for some people further negative thinking, over thinking, over rationalising and rumination. This can be all-consuming and can affect our emotions and subsequently develop a pattern of unwanted behaviours and situations in a person’s life.
The unconscious mind (also known as subconscious) holds everything that is not conscious in the present moment and has the incredible ability of holding resources that can help; we just need to access these within the unconscious mind. Fortunately, as our brains are adaptable, we can make neurons change to the patterns and behaviours that we have become used to and which keeps us stuck in negative or unhelpful situations. So when you are stuck in a negative mindset and need to change the story or narrative such as feeling not good enough or thinking you are not lovable, this is where the experience of hypnosis therapy helps.
The most important understanding of hypnotherapy for the client is that you are always in control during the process of hypnosis. Depending on the reason or issue that you are seeking help with, this determines the level of trance induced, whether it is in a light or in a deeper level. In simplest terms a light trance is a light relaxation which calms the mind and body down which helps to slow down the conscious mind. A technique that primarily induces relaxation of the body and mind to aid relaxing the critical mind. This, then helps us access the subconscious mind reflecting our emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs and patterns, so we can enable the subconscious mind to become more open to change and positive affirmations and goals.
Hypnosis also provides the necessary means of relaxation that is so beneficial in Anxiety related conditions. Relaxation and anxiety cannot co-exist.
Hypnosis is a state of mind that we all naturally fall into from time to time. Think about those moments when you’re staring into space, or your mind wanders or you are fully focused on something. This is a hypnotic state. According to brain scans, people undergoing hypnosis show a shift in brainwave activity from a ‘Beta state’ to an ‘Alpha state’. This is similar to the way the brain behaves during meditation or deep relaxation. When our minds are in this state, our subconscious (also known as the unconscious) is more open to suggestion. Our subconscious is the part of the mind that we are not aware of but influences our thoughts and behaviours. Therefore, when suggestions are offered by your therapist during this hypnotic state is to help change thought patterns.
This technique is ideal for changing habits, overcoming anxiety and reducing stress.
Cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) combines cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with hypnosis; designed to help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.
By integrating techniques from CBT and combining it with hypnosis, CBH can provide you with the tools to deal with your problems in a positive way to help you to manage and overcome daily stress and feelings of anxiety, as well as managing physical ailments.
CBT is a talking therapy, which looks at current problems, rather than past traumas. It focuses on our ability to change, by altering how we think, feel and behave in certain situations. When you add hypnosis into the mix, we are able to access the ‘daydream state’ in which we are more able to accept positive direction and suggestion, while our conscious thoughts are suspended. Conventionally used to help manage depression and anxiety disorders, cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy can also assist in overcoming unwanted habits, such as smoking or teeth grinding, and dealing with emotional issues, such as low self-esteem.
Ericksonian hypnotherapy uses indirect suggestion, metaphor and storytelling to alter behaviour, rather than the techniques used in traditional hypnotherapy of direct suggestions.
The Ericksonian approach provides an alternative style of hypnotherapy for clients who have tried and do not favour the traditional techniques of hypnotherapy and would like to experience a different style that may suit them better.
Solution-focused hypnotherapy does not focus on what has happened in your past, instead looks at your present situation and your future. Hypnosis is a great tool to help shift thinking to be more positive and this combined with the solution-focused work can really help you to replace negative, anxious thoughts with more positive and proactive thoughts.
A core belief of solution-focused hypnotherapy is that you the client, have the strength and resources to solve your own problems supported with the therapy techniques to prompt and guide you. Setting goals for the future is a key component in this form of therapy where the client can set specific, concrete and realistic goals. Once you have done this, the process involving questioning techniques to guide will help solutions become more obvious, giving you actionable steps to take to reach your goal.
Adding hypnosis to this technique is what separates solution-focused hypnotherapy from traditional solution-focused brief therapy. Hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation where the subconscious becomes more open to positive suggestion. Incorporating relaxation and guided visualisation can help to enhance the solution work being carried out. Like most hypnotherapy approaches, solution-focused hypnotherapy is very helpful for those with anxiety or conditions that are made worse by anxiety; such as panic disorder and stress. Those who struggle with low self-confidence and negative thinking may also benefit from this approach.
Psycho imaginative therapy is a supportive approach that can be used in children’s therapy and adult relationship issues.
The concept of psycho imagery is to use imagery and hypnosis to help clients resolve a situation or conflict they struggle with. The client’s internalised feelings of the conflict or situation can be changed as the client interacts through a process that involves imagery, dialogue and hypnosis.
This therapy uses a varying of techniques and tasks which can benefit clients wishing to resolve conflict with their relationships or inner conflict within themselves. The concepts considered are clients’ relationship with their feelings, self image and self worth as well as self concepts that have related to past and early peer relationships.
Hypnoanalysis (analytical hypnotherapy) is a form of hypnotherapy that aims to discover and resolve the root cause of concern. It draws on concepts from analytical psychotherapy and uses these with hypnotherapy techniques. The hope is that hypnoanalysis can resolve problems rather than manage symptoms and therefore address long-standing issues. The theory behind hypnoanalysis is that for some issues or concerns, there is a cause. The aim of the therapy is to uncover this cause and therefore resolve it.
This process is often longer than suggestion hypnotherapy and can take a number of sessions. This allows you and your therapist to work together in a safe and confidential environment, as over time, building rapport and trust is key to having a trusting relationship, as the client should naturally find themselves opening up and discussing things that may have been ‘bottled up’ from the past. These past events can often be the cause of a present-day problem. The same theory is used by psychoanalytic therapists.
Technique used: Direct Regression is a powerful tool used by hypnotherapists to access someone’s past through hypnosis. In hypnoanalysis, you may be asked to think about a recent event when you felt the symptoms of your problem (for example if you have a fear of lifts, it may be the last time you were in a lift). You will then be asked to really relive the experience and ‘amplify’ the feelings as much as you are able to. Various techniques are then used to take your memories back to discover the original ‘event’ when you first felt like this. The height of your emotion should diminish as you get closer to the initial ‘event’.
Hypnotherapy is often used on its own, as a simple relaxation therapy, or it may be integrated with other forms of psychological treatment. This integrative approach is known as hypno-psychotherapy and can include many therapeutic applications such as NLP. The combined techniques of using hypnotherapy and psychotherapy are used to help individuals address deeper problems that hypnotherapy alone may not be able to fully address.
Hypno-psychotherapy can be used to help you change your behaviour, attitudes, and emotions. It can be used to help manage pain, anxiety and stress related health concerns as well as helping overcome unwanted habits and improving confidence.
Time Line Therapy™ (TLT) extensively uses some NLP techniques such as reframing, to help challenge existing perceptions. (TLT) provides powerful processes and techniques for personal change and growth by helping the client remove any of the painful emotions attached to a particular memory or event. TLT is an invaluable technique in helping people resolve negative emotional issues from the past and let go of limiting beliefs and decisions that may prevent positive progression. Examples of limiting beliefs include, “I do not deserve it”, “I can not do it” and “I am not good enough”.
Past life regression is a therapeutic technique for accessing and re-experiencing a person’s past lives or incarnations. Based on the theory that your reactions and the way you respond to problems are based in the past, past life regression is a holistic therapy that works with a person as a whole – not only the body and mind, but your emotions and spirit too. Using hypnosis to recover memories of the past that can help to explain who you are and past life issues that are affecting you.
While conventional psychotherapy or ‘talk therapies’ can be very helpful for some people, they typically focus on the present life. But in some cases, particularly if you are dealing with an issue that seems not to have a direct cause, you may be unable to uncover the ‘source’ of the problem. In contrast, regression hypnotherapy allows the client to unlock emotions and experiences stored deep within their memory.
Past life regression, as well as other types of hypnotherapy, is an active therapy, whereby the client fully participates in the process. It is often claimed to be a full sensory experience. You will not only visualise situations, but you may be able to hear sounds as if you were in the room, as well as recalling specific smells.
Regression therapy uses hypnosis to help their clients relax and encourage them to open their minds. Other techniques such as suggestion help to promote recall, and specific questions are designed to elicit statements and memories of the client’s past lives, it is a path to personal growth and healing. To enable you to get the most out of your session, it is important to have a specific ‘intention’. While you might wish to remain open to whatever you may experience in your past life regression session, it is generally thought that having an intention offers a better context to understand and process the experience.
By examining the experiences that are thought to have first signalled the problem, this can help connect your current issues to a past life. It is hoped that by undergoing regression hypnotherapy, you will be able to make connections that you were unable to before – perhaps finally providing you with some explanation, or a sense of internal peace.
It would be understandable to expect that past life regression might focus on negative events and emotions, in order to explore the root cause of a problem. However, this is not necessarily the case. This therapy will try to focus on the positive aspects of regression – rather than solely focusing on traumatic memories. In this way, it is possible for regression hypnotherapy to help you on a journey of personal growth.
Rapid Transformational Therapy® (RTT) combines principles of hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and neuroscience. The combination of these approaches allows this therapy to provide quicker results.
How we navigate the world with our conscious mind is something that we develop early on. As we get older, willpower alone can often struggle to change bad habits, learned behaviours or things we have become conditioned to fear. This is why we may make the same resolutions year after year, set ourselves the same goals and no matter how good our intentions may be, we still struggle to achieve the changes we want to (no matter how good we know they may be for us).
By connecting with your subconscious mind in hypnosis (using deep relaxation techniques) can help you to become ‘unstuck’ which can give you a heightened state of focus and control. In turn, this allows your subconscious to be addressed directly, helping you to change and challenge perceptions and thoughts on a deeper level. This allows new positive suggestions to be made, helping you to replace negative thoughts and behaviours with more sustainable healthier ways of coping and reacting.
Using elements of hypnosis, including trance (a state of deep relaxation and suggestion), regression (a tool used in hypnotherapy to deal with repressed memories or trauma), and hypnotic conditioning (changing thought processes or behaviours). The Therapy aims to teach you how to communicate with your subconscious mind, helping you to access and address any issues that may be causing unwanted behaviour, reactions or could be holding you back. Also, it can help boost confidence and assist with performance in sports, performing arts and within careers, as well as achieving an overall improved sense of well-being.
