What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a state of profound physical and mental relaxation. Hypnosis is a state of relaxation, concentration and heightened awareness. Another example of hypnosis can be when we are watching TV, or absorbed reading a book.
In hypnotherapy you are guided into hypnosis for therapeutic purposes. You may then experience mental, physical and emotional relaxation: a wonderfully enlightening feeling of peace and tranquillity, just like relaxing on a beautiful beach.
When we relax, our mind can function much more efficiently and effectively. The relaxed state of hypnosis is used to help and assist the mind's natural resources for resolving conflicts.
Combining this state of relaxation (hypnosis) with therapy enhances the responsiveness of the creative (subconscious) mind in which you can access resources to facilitate positive change in your life. Hypnosis speeds up the progress of psychotherapeutic therapies and can be combined with other modalities of therapy.
How and why hypnosis works
Our minds work on two levels, the conscious (logical) and the subconscious part of the mind. We make decisions, think and act with our conscious mind and there are no emotional problems at the conscious level.
Sometimes, there is conflict between the two parts of the mind. You may (logically) want to be a certain way, yet find yourself doing the opposite automatically and without thinking. For example: you know it makes sense to stop overeating, or stop smoking, yet you keep doing it, even though you don't want to. You may want to feel relaxed, yet you can’t help feeling anxious. Hypnosis is a safe natural state of focused awareness, which allows access to the subconscious, which stores habits and self image, and where they can be changed.
Hypnotherapy is the applied, therapeutic use of hypnosis to help people change for the better. It has long been recognised that hypnosis can be successfully combined with other approaches or techniques in psychotherapy or counselling.
There are TWO different treatments using hypnosis therapeutically:
Suggestion therapy and analytical hypnotherapy.