Hypnotherapy

In virtually every culture worldwide hypnotherapy healing is one of the older known phenomena. It could also be legitimately described as the original psychological therapy and somewhat more contentiously, as the basic for many of the recent styles of psychological intervention. Although the trance state has been known for thousands of years, the term “hypnosis” (from the Greek word “hypnos” meaning “sleep” was only coined in 1842 by Dr James Braid and remains somewhat less than accurate description of the experience, as the hypnotic state is, in most respects, totally different to sleep !

What is Hypnosis ?
At our current level of knowledge, no one is entirely certain although a reasonable definition would that hypnosis is a state of mind enhances by mental and physical relaxation, in which our subconscious is able to communicate with out conscious mind. It may be better to define “hypnosis” by what is does rather than what is. The state of mind can either be brought about by one-self, (self-hypnosis), or by a person who a trained professional, who utilises the resultant state of mind to encourage beneficial change to occur, the process is referred to as “hypnotherapy”

People are sometimes concerned that they will lose control in hypnosis, but this is not the case. Regardless of how deeply people may go in hypnosis and however passive they may appear to be, they actually remain in full control of the situation. They are fully able to talk if they wish to being fully aware of what is going on around them. Neither can a hypnotised person be made to do anything against their usual ethical or moral judgement or religious belief. It is like that the notion of loss of control stems from most people’s misconception of stage hypnosis, wherein participants are apparently made to perform all manners of foolish acts. However, you should be aware that participation in a stage act is entirely voluntary (permission has to be given to the hypnotist) and that there can be no such volunteer who is unaware of exactly what they are letting themselves in for !

Benefits of Hypnosis
Virtually everyone can benefit from hypnosis. Given that hypnotherapy can be utilised to access a person’s inner potential and that probably no-one is performing to their actual potential, then this answer is literally true. However, it is not just potential which inner resources to effect beneficial change. In this regards, it is the innate healing capacity of our own body that may be stimulated by Hypnotherapy. Consequently, the list of problems which may be amenable to Hypnotherapy is far too long, and varied to list, but certainly includes: anxiety, lack of confidence and low self-esteem, panic, phobias, overeating, smoking, alcoholism, sleeping problems, fear of public speaking or exams, fear of flying, pain management, skin disorders, bowel disorders.

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