What is Hypnotherapy?

Have you ever wonder what hypnosis really is?

I could ask a 100 different person and would probably get 100 different answers.

I like seeing the look on people’s face when I tell them that I’m a certified Interactive Hypnotherapist.

For many people, hypnosis remains a mysterious word that is often linked with ‘mind control’, ‘unconsciousness’ and other mainstream misconceptions that often come from Hollywood movies and shows.

The reality is much simpler and has nothing of mysterious. Hypnosis, simply put, is a natural state of relaxation, often called a ‘trance state’. That’s it! But there is more to it.

If hypnosis is simply a state of relaxation, then where did all the misconception come from? What about stage hypnosis you may wonder.

Here is where the magic happens. Hypnosis allows us to access the power of our subconscious mind- where all our memories, beliefs, habits, emotions, self-image — are stored, and creates a bridge that allows us to communicate with it.

Let me add some meat to the bones to make it easier to understand.

In order to fully grasp what is hypnotherapy, there are a few key elements that must be explained.

1. Hypnosis helps you communicate with your subconscious mind.

The mind can be split in 2 parts:

The conscious mind:

It’s the logical, analytical, problem solving, critical thinking and willpower part of our mind It’s often referred as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ because of this limited function. The conscious mind is the ‘goal setter’, when we make choose what we want and set our mind to achieve or get something new, we are operating for the conscious mind.

Then we have our Subconscious mind. The hidden gigantic part of the iceberg. The 90%

The part of us that runs the body, keeps your breathing, take care of your digestion, heartbeat, blood pressure and everything else.

It is the database of our life. Everything from the moment you are born to now, has been recorded by your subconscious mind.

It controls your memories, emotions, habits, beliefs, everything that you have ever learned etc…

All the little things that you do on a daily basis that you are not even aware of- opening a door without thinking about how, how to drive your car, how to walk-
you are doing it subconsciously, by habit.

Even all the bad habits, repressed negative emotions, and ways of seeing/relating to yourself that are still impacting our life today.
The Subconscious mind is the “goal-getter”, because we operate mostly on auto pilot during the day, if our subconscious ‘direction’ is different than the one we hold in your conscious thoughts, it creates inner conflict, self-sabotage, stress etc…

examples: Consciously wanting to be confident, at easy in social places, able to talk, interact and even do public speaking freely without anxiety or shyness, but subconsciously holding on to a self-image and other patterns that says ‘I’m shy, I get nervous… I don’t like public speaking…”
Do you see the incongruency?

2. Hypnosis is an altered state of relaxation, often called trance.

The reason why hypnosis is so powerful as a modality to create rapid change in an individual is because it works directly with the subconscious mind.

And in order to do that we induce a state of ‘trance’ which is a deep relaxation where the person is semi-conscious and always in control.

There is nothing mysterious about the ‘trance’ state, in logical term is simply reducing the brain waves of our brain. ( see picture)

We spend most of our waking day in a Beta frequency, when we are focused, doing our work, thinking, planning etc..

As soon as we close our eyes for a few moments, our brain waves start to slow down and we end up in a more relax Alpha frequency. Whenever we daydream on the bus, or when we read and our mind drifts away, or watch tv at night, we are in that frequency. It is a light trance.

When you close your eyes at night before bed and feel very relaxed before falling asleep you are in a much more relaxed Theta frequency. You are still conscious, but your conscious mind is further away, like an observer. This is the ideal frequency for hypnotherapy.

Finally when you fall asleep your brainwaves are the slowest and you are in Delta frequency. Deeply sleeping.

This is what is meant by the ‘trance state’ created by hypnosis.

When we access the Alpha or Theta frequencies, we become more suggestible which allows us to bypass the critical faculties of our conscious mind.

3. What hypnotherapy is NOT

• Hypnosis is NOT Sleep or unconsciousness. We remain conscious at all time and will only accept the information that we agree with. A person can choose to get out of the trance state at any moment.
• Hypnosis is NOT mind control or loss of self-control. We have complete control over our mind. We go into a state of ‘trance’ with our own FREE WILL. We can choose to follow the suggestion or to refuse them and resist the process. All hypnosis really is self-hypnosis, the person allowing himself to go into a state of relaxation or not.

4. 4. How can hypnotherapy help you?

   There are a lot of benefits to using hypnotherapy as mentioned above.
   For examples, many people go to a hypnotherapist to stop smoking, improving self-image, confidence and self-esteem and removing emotional patterns...
   That being said, the main benefits of hypnosis is that it allows us to access our own inner subconscious resources in order to make rapid, long-lasting change in our lives.

   We all carry with us past conditioning, emotional baggage, bad habits, and are holding on to beliefs and stories that no longer serve us. We often try to change them by using our conscious WILL power, only to fall back into our old habits the very next day.

   That is because all change happens at the subconscious level.

   Until you change that old subconscious program that is still running, you will keep playing that program and get the same old results.

   There lies the power of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. To access the power of our subconscious mind and create fast, effective, instant change.

   We all have the ability to change our lives and let go of what is no longer needed or useful from our past.

   I hope that this article has helped you understand better what hypnosis is, and how it can help you.
   
   

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Email me at : [email protected]