HYPNOTHERAPY
HYPNOTHERAPY
Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is a type of psychotherapy that uses hypnosis to treat mental and physical health conditions.
It can also be used to help change habits. During a hypnotherapy session as a certified hypnotherapist I guide my clients into a trance-like state of deep relaxation and focus.
The client is then more open to suggestions to change their perceptions, emotions, thoughts, memories, sensations, or behaviors.
Hypnotherapy can help with a number of conditions including:
Stress and anxiety
Phobias
Behavior control issues
Insomnia
Gastrointestinal disorders
Pain control
While hypnosis has been practiced for thousands of years, it's not generally considered to be based on scientific evidence.
However, the scientific community now recognizes hypnosis as an effective healing too
The Hypnotic State
The brain has different levels of consciousness, or awareness, ranging from fully alert to drowsy to fully asleep, with variations in between. Hypnotic states occur naturally and spontaneously. Everyday examples include:
Daydreaming
Being absorbed in a pleasant task and losing track of time
Doing a mundane task (such as washing the dishes) while thinking about something else, to the degree that you can’t actually remember performing the task
Getting lulled into a dreamy state by boredom, for example, when listening to a dull speech.
Clinical hypnosis deliberately induces this kind of relaxed state of awareness. Once the mind is in a relaxed state, any therapeutic suggestions can have great effect on attitudes, perceptions and behaviors.
The way that this occurs isn’t fully understood. Some researchers believe that hypnosis promotes particular brain wave activity that allows the mind to take in and adopt new ideas, while others suggest that hypnosis accesses the ‘subconscious mind’, which is more open to new ideas than the rational ‘conscious mind’.
