Hypnotherapy and hypnosis are often misunderstood disciplines. Mythology and pop culture have misconstrued the true meaning of the practice, so if you’ve ever wondered what hypnotherapy is and how hypnotherapy works, this post is for you.
Hypnotherapy is the practice of using various induction techniques to guide a person into a relaxed and focused trance state accompanied by heightened awareness. In this state, the person is able to block out distractions while opening to self-discovery, clarity, memory, and problem resolution.
Hypnotherapy is often used to treat various fears, phobias, or anxiety disorders, but it is also wildly successful in helping people overcome addictions and aid in pain and weight management.
In the following post, you’ll learn:
- What hypnotherapy is
- What the difference between a hypnotist and a hypnotherapist is
- What hypnosis feels like
- The benefits of hypnotherapy
- Ways that you can work with me
What is hypnotherapy?
Client-centered hypnotherapy is based on the premise that, at some level, most people are fully capable of determining their needs and the solutions for satisfying them.
This knowledge and wisdom are often accessed in the subconscious mind.
Hypnotherapy can go directly to the subconscious to access and retrieve that treasure.
There are plenty of things we want to change in the world. The news is filled with the horrors of war, violence, crime, financial ruin, family disturbances, disease, and poverty. In our efforts to change all that, it is easy to overlook the most important thing we can do every minute of the day: change what is inside us.
Hypnotherapy offers a rapid and effective pathway to personal change and growth. Through trance states and specific protocols, anyone can quickly identify the roots of behaviors and feelings, receive messages from their subconscious mind, and learn to make new choices to achieve their true goals.
What is the difference between a hypnotist and a hypnotherapist?
The terms hypnotist and hypnotherapist are sometimes confused. Here is a breakdown to explain:
- A hypnotist is a practitioner who puts a person into a trance and either directs an entertaining stage production or recites a predetermined script for healing or change. In a session with a hypnotist, they will do most of the talking.
- A hypnotherapist is a practitioner who guides a client into heightened self-observation to facilitate personal and transpersonal awakening, healing, and growth. In a session with a hypnotherapist, the client will do most of the talking.
It’s important to note that a hypnotist may impose suggestions outside the subject’s will, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and the subject will likely not remember what happened during the session.
A client-centered hypnotherapist recognizes their role as a guide and understands that their client makes the choices, reaches their own conclusions, and will remember everything that occurred during the session.
The role of a hypnotherapist
The work of a hypnotherapist is to explore and discover the various issues relating to and perhaps contributing to the dysfunctional behavior that an individual originally came in to address. Each identified area of the person’s life may need to be addressed to fully achieve their goal of living a healthy lifestyle.
In a sense, we help our clients come out of their unconscious trance states, their everyday trance, and into alignment with reality in the present moment. While we do not diagnose, analyze, or prescribe unless we are licensed to do so, as hypnotherapists, we provide a platform for our clients to explore, discover, shift, and grow in healthier ways.
Individuals can do a lot of work on their own, but certain blind spots and blocks require the support of a well-trained practitioner.
Issues in a person’s life are like a bowl of spaghetti. Each issue is interconnected with others.
When a person attempts to resolve one issue, they either compensate for it or become distracted by related topics. It is the role of a hypnotherapist to guide clients in identifying issues, clarifying them, and facilitating resolution. Frequently, when the right issue is resolved correctly, the entire stack of issues collapses.
More likely, however, each issue will require some level of attention to achieve complete resolution. This will free the person to move forward in health and happiness.
An example of this would be if you know someone with an alcohol problem. Upon deeper investigation, it may be discovered they also suffered from an abusive family of origin, lack personal boundaries, have low self-esteem, are in a dead-end job, or have carried in residual habits or traumas from a previous lifetime. You can see that the situation may be more complex than it appears at first glance.
If you are interested in exploring hypnotherapy and using the trance state to your advantage, please schedule a complimentary call with me to discuss your current challenges and goals.
What does hypnosis feel like?
Throughout history, people have sought trance-like states to enhance spiritual connections and produce healing and change. This is the state enjoyed by shamans, seers, artists, and daydreamers.
As humans, we seek these altered, transpersonal states. Often, these states are accessed in potentially unhealthy ways, such as through drugs, alcohol, or other self-destructive methods. These pathways tend to focus more on masking issues than on shedding light on them. At its highest level, trance can support health, wellness, connection, alignment with reality, and the manifestation of goals.
In reality, we are all in a trance most of our lives. From a particular perspective, hypnosis allows us to step out of the trance of the everyday world, align more closely with reality, or at least gain a broader perspective on ourselves and the world around us.
When we do things out of habit or because they are traditional or cultural, we are in a trance. When we respond, even subconsciously, to the urging of an advertisement, we are in a trance. Our self-assessment, or self-esteem, is a set of trance states that collectively reflect our self-worth and shape our personality.
At the other end of the spectrum, shamans throughout history and in many indigenous cultures have used trance to deepen spiritual connections and effect healing changes. Properly trained hypnotherapists can achieve similar results.
The trance state is typically an enjoyable experience. During a typical session, the body enters deep relaxation, blood pressure lowers, stress fades, and the mind is focused and alert.
What are the benefits of hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is one of the most effective and practical techniques for accessing the subconscious mind and facilitating significant, sustainable change in individuals.
A wide range of issues can be addressed, including weight loss, smoking, health issues, relationship and self-esteem issues, and blocks to progress. Yet these are all symptoms of a deeper underlying issue.
Issues are like weeds. You can mow them down, but if the roots remain, they will just spring up again over time. The answer is to pull out the roots.
While many healing and wellness methods address symptoms, hypnotherapy enables individuals to explore underlying causes and make rapid, lasting changes.
Once this is accomplished, the sessions can turn to creating a positive and desirable future. With blocks removed, the focus can remain on creativity, aligning with the individual’s highest values and aspirations, building confidence, enhancing creative problem-solving, clarifying purpose and path, increasing intuition, and strengthening spiritual connections.
Hypnotherapy can help with an array of challenges, such as:
- Boosting creativity
- Establishing effective weight loss
- Ending addictions
- Curing or easing physical ailments or illnesses
- Managing phobias or fears
My unique approach to healing
Aligning my practice with my soulful passions and decades of study, I focus on personal growth and spiritual development.
While my clients may come to me with presenting issues of pain, addiction, or relationship dysfunction, they are drawn to me because my sight, intuition, and skill sets allow me to work at a deep level and with the subtle bodies to reveal the causation and affect lasting change.
If this resonates with you, feel free to book a complimentary Discovery Call so we can discuss working together.
Using past life regression in a hypnotherapy session
Hypnosis and unlocking hidden memories seem like a perfect pairing, so it is natural that hypnosis could be a powerful tool in revealing past life memories as well. Trance states of any kind support self-awareness goals; for example, hypnosis, meditation, and shamanic work all involve accessing trance states to connect with the unconscious mind.
There are actually many ways to recall your experiences during other lifetimes. An evolved human would naturally have all that information readily available in their conscious mind. However, it is common for us to block those memories.
Why? Because there are experiences that we would rather forget—just like you may have memories in this lifetime, you lock away or simply forget. Also, over the millennia, belief in multiple lifetimes has often been frowned upon by culture or religion, with consequences ranging from shaming to execution.
If we are not readily accessing our character, purpose, relationships, and talents, we need to find other ways. This is part of the quest and the urgency we feel in wanting to find our purpose, find our way in life, and become more authentic.
These past life memories hold the key to that personal treasury! We can access them through dreams and meditation, or while visiting sites, viewing art, or listening to music. However, the most expedient way is to use hypnotherapy techniques. By focusing the mind and relaxing the barrier between the conscious and subconscious minds, hypnotherapy “primes the pump” for easy access to otherwise hidden memories, wisdom, and perspectives.
The typical method of using hypnotherapy to connect to past life memories involves putting a person into a trance state and guiding them to recall the memories. It is a sightseeing tour of long-ago times.
Over the years, combining my further education with my own experiences and studies, I developed more effective methods and approaches for this journey. Now, it is possible for the client to experience deep healing that can reduce the effects of trauma, align them with their purpose, break through unwanted patterns that have plagued them for centuries or longer, and even change the course of their aspect field (a greater part of their soul).
What are your goals for your life?
What would you like to accomplish? How would you like to make a difference in the world? What needs to change in your life for you to live a purpose-filled and meaningful life?
Now that you understand how hypnosis works and how it can work for you, you only have to decide to move forward and be your awesome best!
