How Hypnotherapy Works
How hypnotherapy works. Our perception of the world around us differs from one person to another based on our experiences. These perceptions are stored in our subconscious mind as fact.
You are the sum total of your past. Your past experiences will mould your goals and expectations and you will manifest in your life whatever these goals and expectations are – whether good or bad. The subconscious mind is the most powerful goal-achieving agency.
What you Think, You Become
Hypnosis works by helping you understand how your past experiences have moulded your perceptions. Hypnosis allows you to view these perceptions differently so you can move forward to a better and richer life.
To understand Hypnosis, you need to understand a little more about your critical faculty and how an initial sensitising event can become fact in your subconscious mind.
What is the Critical Faculty?
The Critical Faculty is that part of the conscious mind that takes its orders from the subconscious. It monitors all incoming suggestions and compares it to the perception you have on that subject. If the new suggestion does not agree with the existing perception it will reject it. If the new suggestion does agree, it will allow it through thereby compounding the original perception and giving it power.
You will think your next thought, act your next action, feel your next feeling based on everything that’s happened to you in your past.
Initial Sensitising Event
The first negative perception stored in your subconscious is usually accompanied by great trauma – we call this the Initial Sensitizing Event (ISE).
An Example
A child is told that he is stupid by his teacher and is humiliated in front of his classmates. Any subsequent sensitising events (SSEs) in harmony with the initial event will compound and strengthen the original perception.
Maybe the child does badly in a spelling test and is again humiliated by the teacher. When he takes the test home, his father punishes him for doing so badly. All of these events strengthen the perception in his subconscious that he is stupid.
There may be many sensitising events which do not produce negative symptoms, but then one event will cause an eruption. This boy could grow up to be very successful, but deep down in his subconscious he will always believe he is stupid. This feeling could manifest itself in many ways – relationship problems, addiction issues, anxiety or stress.
How does Hypnotherapy Help?
One of the best ways to change your perceptions is to bypass the critical faculty. Without this, your conscious mind often continues to reject any suggestion which does not agree with the existing perception.
Hypnosis induces a trance-like state, where you are actually in a heightened state of awareness concentrating on the mainly on the hypnotist’s voice. In this state, the conscious mind is relaxed and the subconscious mind is accessed. In this state many people are able to share emotions and memories and are also able to recall memories from childhood as if they happened yesterday. Very importantly, your subconscious mind becomes open to new suggestions.
What is Hypnosis
Many people are fearful of hypnosis largely because of what is portrayed at stage shows; They believe that they will be out of control, asleep and perhaps even open themselves up to negative energies. The intent of stage hypnosis is entertainment; Linda’s intent is to help you to reach your goals. Hypnosis is actually a perfectly natural state that you access several times a day. It is an inward focus of attention which is similar to praying, day-dreaming, watching or playing sport and being engrossed in a book or movie. When we are engaged in these activities we can ask ourselves “was I out of control? Asleep?” The answer of course is no; When in hypnosis the mind and body are totally relaxed and the subconscious mind is open to suggestions. Linda has many clients who are concerned that their mind is “strong” and they may not be hypnotizable; As discussed above, this inward focus is something we do naturally every day of our lives. Some people can relax easily and others need to practice this inward focus and this is where the benefit of Linda’s free cds become useful; The client can practice relaxation and an inward focus of attention between sessions.
There are many levels of Hypnosis:
- Waking hypnosis – day dreaming, watching a movie, yawning when someone else yawns;
- Light trance – when mind and body are totally relaxed;
- Medium trance or somnambulism – where you are open to suggestions and can easily recall past experiences;
- Deep trance or Esdaille state – this is a level just above sleep.A light to medium trance is best for the hypnosis sessions. In trance Linda can communicate with you and get feedback from you.
In your initial sessions, Linda will help you to relate your life story and perhaps identify what possibly has caused you to feel and behave the way you do.
The inward focused attention of hypnosis facilities access to the “feeling” mind (as opposed to the “thinking, logical mind” and in many cases the actual cause of the problem is revealed.
The state of hypnosis gives us access to our internal world where we are more aware of feelings; Linda will help you re-look at what you experienced and start the healing process.
- You may express previously suppressed emotions (the cathartic effect); or
- You may look at the event differently and forgive either yourself or the perpetrator; or
- You can then begin to visualize yourself behaving or feeling in a new way; How you would want to feel and behave. We call this future pacing, or mental rehearsal; As you do this you are creating new neural pathways.
- Additionally new positive suggestions give power to the image rehearsal.
Linda will provide a self hypnosis CD to continue reinforcing these positive suggestions.
Hypnosis is an approach that unlike many others does not address the symptom, but rather uncovers the cause. By addressing the cause many people achieve lasting healing. Look at these Case Studies on hypnotherapy to see how effective hypnosis is in the hands of a skilled practitioner.
Contact a professional like Linda Clarke to really find out how hypnosis can help you.