Here are some answers to people’s common questions. If you have a question not answered here, please feel free to email Francis.
What is hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is used by a trained hypnotherapist to help you make positive changes in your life. Through hypnosis the practitioner bypasses the critical components of the conscious mind and speaks directly to the unconscious. Every behavior or habits, either good or bad, is alive and well in your unconscious mind. Using hypnotic guidance speeds up the process of positive change.
Negative associations and patterns of behavior from the past are removed and replaced with positive beneficial ones with ease.
What is the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy?
Hypnosis is a natural state of mind in which the unconscious becomes open and suggestible to new and positive ideas. Hypnotherapy is the process of using this state for beneficial health outcomes and desired life style change.
In what situations is hypnotherapy beneficial?
The therapeutic application of hypnosis can help you to make changes in practically any problematic area of your life. Bad habits or unwanted behaviors can easily be exchanged for more positive ones. Fears and phobias can be eliminated. You can easily stop smoking, lose unwanted weight and more importantly manage your new image. Changing your relationship to study helps you to become more successful.
It’s your choice what issue you want to work on.
Can I can be hypnotized?
Everybody can be hypnotized by utilising their natural tendency to access their inner states. How quickly this happens is dependant on your willingness, your ability to trust, your understanding that you are always in control, and you are able to focus your attention. In a very real sense it’s up to you.
How well does hypnotherapy work?
According to a survey done by American Health Magazine the following :
- Psychoanalysis: 38% recovery after 600 sessions
- Behavior Therapy: 72% recovery after 22 sessions
- Hypnotherapy: 93% recovery after 6 sessions
Does hypnotherapy work for everybody?
Often these are “how long is a piece of string” questions. As long as you are open to change and willing then hypnosis will address your presenting issue and improve your life. On the other hand if you want to keep the problem for some other gain and just are not being entirely honest with yourself, then hypnotherapy will still work but may take longer. Some people choose to try to prove they are untreatable and will walk away as soon as they feel any improvement.
How is hypnosis any better than my “will power”?
Ingrained habits and behaviours run on automatic triggers and “Will power” alone is unlikely in most cases to disconnect the behaviour from the trigger. Short term gains may happen but usually these are short lived. The destructive behaviours reside in learned patterns stored in the unconscious and are activated under specific conditions. Logical thinking and will power are left brain conscious mind attributes which might be less that 10% of your brain.
Whatever negative behaviour or bad habit you have has its origins in a deeper past so activating the conscious mind will not access the storage area located in the unconscious. “Will power” alone can never be strong enough eliminate these. Of course your conscious will and determination is necessary to best accomplish your outcome, remembering that the conscious mind also has the capacity to sabotage your desire.
It is wise to understand that habits and behaviours had a real purpose when you first began them. In the main they help us feel comfortable or they protect us. The truth is that they have simply become outdated and no longer relevant and that is why a change is required.Hypnosis is much like updating a computer programme.
Change can be scary proposition and this is why you might try, and usually succeed in sabotaging yourself and the therapist. Hypnosis is a very effective, quick, and easy path to success.
Isn’t traditional “talk therapy” just as effective?
The answer here is it depends…. first on the nature of the issue you are working on. Talking over a problem will never shift the uncosncious programmes that are running it. Every behaviour needs to have a consistant neural strategy for it to give predicatable results. Hypnosis (and some other modern techniques) alter the strategy giving a different outcome.
Does hypnotherapy replace seeing a doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist?
Not at all. It is beneficial for someone concerned with their health to consult a professional who specializes in the field. Many trained health professionals work or recommend hypnotherapy for additional support and helping with life style change and modification, like stopping nail biting or one’s fingernails, losing weight or stopping smoking.
It is used as an adjunct to traditional medical or psychological treatments, it is not a replacement.
I am taking medication, can I still use hypnotherapy?
Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are helpful for pain control, insomnia, weight management, stopping smoking, to name a few. It is especially useful in the newer field of psychoneuroimmunology which helps boost the bodies natural immune defense and increase T-cells and NK-cells which are the natural cancer protection.
Working in conjunction with your doctor you may be able to reduce the need for pharmaceutical intervvention.
Why don’t more people use hypnosis or get hypnotherapy sessions?
There have been many misconceptions about hypnosis mainly regarding being “under the control” of somebody else.The truth is that all hypnosis is, in some way, self-hypnosis. In a hypnotherapy session you are using a trained person help you access deeper areas in your own unconscious mind and retrain your behaviours.
In more modern times, hypnosis has become interesting with many people seeing it as a “party trick” or ways to control or “have their way” with another person. This puts honest hypnosis in a bad light. Most hypnotherapist are above reproach and are trustworthy.You should check with others orr use a well known clinic if at all doubtful.
The majority of people who understand the benefits of hypnotherapy are eager to try it for themselves. Why would anybody continue to suffer?
I practice meditation and do yoga. Is this the same thing?
Yoga and meditation are both generic forms of hypnosis because you are using your mind to centre and bring calm and peace. The result is often a state of relaxation which is always the product of hypnosis. The difference is that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are outcome directed, they are relaxed focus with a purpose. The hypnotic state is induced by the practitioner to help you resolve a specific issue in your life. You are guided into the hypnotic state, and change is made and you are reoriented back into the present as the ‘new’ you.
Is there a difference between self-hypnosis, “guided imagery,” and “creative visualization”?
Again there is no real answer, although there are structural differences. Some people are more comfortable (and safe) calling it “guided imagery” or “creative visualization.” Guided imagery and creative visualization both utilize imagery or visualizations in the person’s mind while they are in an altered state.
The only real difference is a linguistic one because trained hypnosis uses a particular form of indirect suggestion and generalisation to induce the effect, while “guided imagery” and “creative visualization” is a one thing fits all method.
Self-hypnosis is the process by which a person takes themselves into the hypnotic state because they have internalized the process for doing so. Hypnosis by a practitioner is one way of developing the ability to self-induce the relaxed state.
At the end of the day the state of suggestion achieved is basically the same.
Can’t I do this myself? Why do I need to see a hypnotherapist or have sessions?
Some people like to think they can ‘fix’ their own problems. If this were the case you would have already done so. You would know why you created the situation in the first place and have started to disassemble to complex interactions that surround it.
You would consider taking apart a sophisticated apparatus such as your car or television unless you were trained to do so. You would take it to the mechanic or TV repair shop.
If you don’t have a working knowledge don’t tinker! I have treated people who have tinkered with their own strategies and upset their whole equilibrium. Most people are aware of the things that aren’t working optimally but don’t have the mental tools to fix them. This is why hypnosis is a specialist training.
How many sessions will it take and how much will it cost?
This question is often the biggest concern for a lot of people. To say “it depends” doesn’t really help. I like to say that planning on four sessions will put you in the optimum position and you will have gained enough experience to determine your own treatment. The actual number of sessions it takes to overcome a long-term problem, especially ones with physical body components cannot be determined until after an initial consultation and you experience hypnosis.
Treatment can vary from one session to as many as ten sessions to change particularly resistant issues. Usually, this means developing deeper levels of trust and comfort with the therapist rather tthan the actual treatment.
Sometimes results can be almost instantaneous and the person is so happy that they continue with hypnotherapy and work on other things.
Fees are $120 per session lasting up to 1½ hours.
How soon will I see the results?
Depending on the measure for your result you will see immediate results. The first session will find your more relaxed and confident about turning up for sessions and your willingness to engage in the hypnotic process.
It may take several sessions before you to start to experience the lasting results you want.
What if I’m too busy or can’t take time off work to come in for sessions? What if I live too far away to be able to come in for sessions?
Many people with problems have them because they are too busy or aren’t important enough to have sessions to make the changes. There are people who live in other places or parts of the world without available help. There are also those people who are no comfortable in turning up at a busy practice.
It is possible to do sessions via the internet on the Skype or Google hangout platforms. Email me for more details.
Friends and co-workers have said that hypnotherapy is bad or even evil, a waste of time and money, or it “doesn’t work.” Is this true?
A lot of people are frightened of the unknown or what they don’t understand and they project their thinking onto others. There are the skeptics too who think they are the experts. In the main skeptics don’t try things they are dismissive of. There are many people who don’t want your success because they know they need to change themselves. They want keep you stuck where you are. If you are successful it upsets the present structure so they do everything in their power to sabotage your efforts.
Hypnotherapy works! It doesn’t matter who doesn’t believe it. The evidence is there in more and more research literature. Its not important what others think, its your life.
Email: Francis Evans – Hypnotherapist