By Jayne Jones - Counsellor and Hypnotherapist
What is hypnotherapy?
Hypnosis therapy – it’s that simple!
Hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation that supports the mind to accept positive suggestions that helps a client to make beneficial changes to their life.
Therapy is talking therapy and counselling.
So why use hypnosis and counselling together?
Where hypnosis on its own is an excellent therapy for people who want to rid themselves of unwanted behaviour or bad habits such as eating less or stopping smoking, hypnotherapy seeks to find the cause of the troubling behaviour in order to secure a more permanent resolution. Using counselling supports the client-therapist relationship which is paramount to any therapy being successful.
Why find the cause of unwanted behaviour?
Finding the cause of the behaviour that a person wants to change is important to prevent them from creating new unwanted behaviours that simply replace the old ones. For example, chewing pen lids could be replaced by biting fingernails.
To find the cause of an issue the hypnotherapist can undertake a 'diagnostic' trance with the client to get their brain to show them how and why a specific behaviour started. This is a much quicker way of locating the issue without the need for months of talking therapy.
Once the cause of the issue is identified a course of action can be planned. This could be hypnosis or counselling and really depends on how the client wants to address their issue.
What if a client doesn't want to find the cause?
If a client does not want to investigate the cause of their unwanted behaviour and just wants to stop a habit, hypnosis without therapy is possible however, there is a risk that the habit will return or be replaced by another unwanted habit or behaviour.
So why use hypnotherapy?
The mind is incredibly complex with different levels of consciousness and it does all it can to survive without issue. However, sometimes the mind buries past trauma so deeply that the body fights against it. That fight results in bad habits, unwanted behaviour or even ill health, especially when the event that iss stored away was a long time ago.
Hypnotherapy can locate that trauma and help deal with it so the body no longer fights to keep it stored in the depths of the mind.
When freed from past trauma, the mind can do what should, and keep the body healthy, stress free and happy.
What can hypnotherapy treat?
Any unwanted behaviour, habit, trauma, emotional dis-ease, habit, tic, thought pattern or function that your body performs that you want to change can be treated with hypnosis or hypnotherapy. These include:
Worry, stress, anxiety, depression, addictions, compulsive disorders, weight management, eating disorders, food cravings, phobias and fears, self-confidence, negative thoughts, nightmares, health disorders, pain management.
Physical pain that has not responded to other treatments and has no diagnosed cause can only be treated once thoroughly investigated by a GP, and whose approval has been given for hypnotherapy.
What do you need to do?
Your job, as a client, is to trust the process, work with your therapist and actively want to change. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy will only work if you are committed to making the changes – otherwise they will not secure in your mind. You have to be dedicated to the resolution and to your recovery.
The phrase ‘mind over matter’ is massively relevant in this therapy.
How many treatments will I need?
You will need at least 2 sessions for any change to be triggered in your mind. The first session will be focussed on the problem and will mainly be counselling, possibly with a relaxation hypnosis so the client can experience what hypnosis feels like. At least one more session will deal with the issue and clients can record the hypnosis if they choose.
Hypnotherapy is a deeply relaxing and resolving therapy that can teach you how to relax and deal with issues that arise in your future, so why not give it a try!?
Written by Jayne Jones
BSc(Hons) Psych (Open), Cert.Couns.Studies, S.N.H.S H.I.Dip. (Naturopathy)
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