HYPNOTHERAPY
How does it feel?
More about what it is
How is it done?
Who can have hypnosis?
What is it useful for?
Suggestion therapy
Hypnoanalysis
The Past has Power
Appointments and fees
Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is a very useful tool to help the mind deal with many problems.
It has been used as a treatment for millennia. The Ancient Greeks chanted rhythmically around an injured person, who would relax deeply as result – allowing painful wounds to be dealt with without discomfort.
Hypnosis is simply a state of ‘focussed concentration’ and is comfortable and pleasant. The client remains aware at all times, and is fully in control. No hypnotherapist can make anyone do anything against their will, nor would they ever wish to do so!
How does it feel?
Everyone has already experienced being in a state of hypnosis, even though they were not aware of it at the time:
If you have been at a film, or play, when you forgot about your surroundings to the extent that you were speaking (silently) to the actors – ‘don’t go in there!’ ‘oh, please hurry’, or were crying as though the sad or happy event was happening to you, then you were hypnotised- ie, concentrating so hard on what you were seeing that you let your own reality slip aside.
Or, if you travel the same route regularly, you may have had the experience of suddenly realising that you have passed a particular place without noticing it. When you were going through that place, you were in a state of hypnosis, concentrating on something else such that you were not consciously aware of your surroundings. Of course, if a crisis had arisen, you would have reacted appropriately, you were not in any sort of coma!
It is the same with hypnosis for therapy purposes. It can feel so normal that clients often tell me after the session that they were not really hypnotised –‘I could have stood up at any moment’. This is true, they could, but because they actually were hypnotised, they did not choose to stand up, because they were enjoying the deep relaxation that is part of the experience of hypnosis.
More about what it is
Our minds have two parts, the conscious mind, which deals with all the day to day stuff, and the subconscious mind which is in the background holding most of our beliefs, attitudes and fears.
For example, a person will use their conscious mind to plan a trip and book their flight. Then the subconscious (or unconscious) mind may kick in, saying “I’m scared to fly, I don’t want to go.” It is very hard to convince your subconscious mind to change its opinion, and although that person may talk themselves onto their flight, using their conscious and logical mind, the subconscious may go on complaining all the way there, making for a very unpleasant trip!
With hypnosis, we can talk directly to the subconscious mind, and convince it that it does not mind flying. This is done by bringing about a state of very deep relaxation. In this state the conscious mind ‘slips to one side’, a bit like an iceberg turning in the water, so that the small bit that used to be visible is now hidden. The subconscious mind comes to the surface, and can be talked to and encouraged. It will usually agree to change its opinion to the one the therapist suggests, in this case, that flying is no trouble at all.
How is it done?
There are many ways of inducing a deep relaxation.
The client will be invited to lie back in a comfortable chair, and concentrate on either my voice, or sometimes to look intently at something.
I will choose a method most suited to the individual
Usually I just talk, and as one of my tutors described it, 'bore the client into relaxation'!
Dramatic methods, such as staring at the cliché swinging watch, are rarely used.
The client is the person actually in control, and it is up to her to 'agree to go along' with what is suggested, just as a child will go along with another child’s suggestion that they play house, or cops and robbers: 'You be the robber' - 'Okay'!
Who can have hypnosis?
Anybody over 7 years old.
95% of people can allow themselves go into a deep state of relaxation that is sufficient for therapeutic work to be carried out.
People with learning difficulties may not be able to concentrate adequately.
What is it useful for?
Hypnosis can be helpful in any situation which has a psychological component. Commonly treated issues are:
- Fears and phobias
- Anxiety states and panic
- Undesirable habits: smoking, bed-wetting, nail-biting
- Lack of confidence
- Problems losing weight
- Long term pain
- Stage fright
- Morning sickness
- Shyness, social phobia, blushing
- Grief
- Children’s problems: shyness, clumsiness, lack of confidence, bullying
These will generally be treated with what is called 'suggestion therapy' (see below)
Other problems may originate from events in the past - see 'Transpersonal Regression Therapy'. These can include fears, sexual problems, confidence problems, obesity of more than 3 stone overweight, or any problem that does not respond adequately to suggestion therapy.
General dissatisfaction with life, uncertainty about a path to take, unresolved grief, can be helped by 'regression therapies'.
Suggestion therapy
This is the commonest form of hypnotherapy, and will clear many problems. It involves giving 'suggestions' to the subconscious mind, for example that it will not be afraid of flying, that it will perform well in a given situation, that it will not feel bullied by a particular person. There are many ways of dressing up these suggestions so that they become acceptable to the subconscious, which then agrees to change. Often I will teach the client how to hypnotise herself at home, so that these suggestions may be repeated, thus strengthening their effect.
Hypnoanalysis
This is a powerful therapeutic tool with which the subconscious can be helped to explore the reasons behind a condition.
Nowadays I am using a more dynamic therapy called ‘Transpersonal Regression Therapy’, otherwise known as ‘Past Reality Integration’. Please see TRT section.
“The Past has Power” : a poem. (why regression therapy can help!)
The past has power
He is a slumbering demon
Who pulls our strings from a distance
And makes us dance to an old forgotten tune.
He cannot be tamed by neglect.
You can throw sand in his eyes
From the new dance floor’s rhythm,
But he will rise up again and shape the future
By controlling the present.
To tame him he must be revisited
And studied, and acknowledged.
Only by close attention will we see
The way he is formed, and how our future is made
By the habits he created.
And we must be aware of how he did it then
-If not, his paws will reach out to our present
And push the pieces into old shapes
And our future will be like our past.
To start afresh today
We must know our past
And make the newly forming parts of him
Be the future we desire.
Appointments and Fees
Hypnosis appointments are available on Thursday and Friday mornings or afternoons. I do not do late appointments, as hypnosis is not a relaxation session, but can have an element of ‘work’ for the client, who may be too tired, and simply fall asleep! Then I have to wake her up and start over.
I allow 90 minutes for the appointment, but you will usually be hypnotised for about 45 minutes.
The fee is €100
I accept cash or cheque, and can give receipts