According to Michael Yapko, in his excellent book “Trancework”, Hypnosis by itself cures nothing. It’s what happens during the hypnosis that has the potential to be helpful to people.
Hypnosis itself a deeply relaxing state, and therefore can enable a person to manage stress better. But a person’s problems won’t vanish just because they have been hypnotised. Similarly, you cannot guide a person into a trance and say “Stop over eating” or “Feel better about yourself now!” and hope for much success! (Having said that, there are hypnotherapists out there who will, through relaxation, guide a person into a state of relaxed focus, read some suggestions from a script found in a book (or off the Internet!) and hope for the best).
That is not the way to use hypnosis, and it is not the way I do things.
Hypnosis can be used for several things:
1- To suggest symptom relief. For example a friend of mine, whilst recovering from major surgery, found it a relief when, using hypnosis, I helped her experience a complete relief from pain. I then “anchored” that feeling of relief so whenever she presses together her finger and thumb that relief flooded back and the pain just vanished! Much better than codine…
2- To teach somebody a specific skill or understanding (cognitive, behavioural) that will help a person better cope with whatever ongoing issues they face. So a person who lacks self-esteem because of a difficult childhood can learn how to look at themselves in a much more positive way, allowing for better feelings, thoughts and behaviours.
3- To reveal forgotten or unconscious thoughts, memories, beliefs or values that are distorting a person’s being. So, for example, I helped a client recover an old memory of watching somebody fall down a flight of stairs (this happened when they were little). That memory had triggered a fear of heights. (Then, using hypnosis and NLP, the memory was changed so it no longer contained fear – and the phobia vanished).
There are many, many applications of hypnosis. So, to re-iterate: hypnosis that simply involves relaxing a person into a hypnotic state whilst reading to them some stock hypnotic suggestions is a blunt use of a precise and powerful tool. (However, this approach will still help a lot of people!)
I do use hypnotic suggestion, but in conjunction with an approach aimed at investigating the deeper conflicts behind problem behaviours; e.g. self-sabotage leading to procrastination; a need for comfort leading to binge eating; an unresolved guilt leading to blushing… The list is as infinite as human experience itself.
Your Unconscious Self
It is estimated that up to 80% of the things we do are done without conscious thought or control. When a person is in a state of hypnosis, greater access is granted to these unconscious thought processes of yours. What this means is, the lessons you learn when in hypnosis are learnt deeply, powerfully, profoundly.
This is important because a therapy like counselling or CBT can take many, many sessions for the lesson to sink in. Using hypnosis, a person’s understanding can be accelerated greatly, because when a person is in a state of hypnosis, naturally that person is more receptive to any lessons learnt at that time.
(Receptive, by the way, doesn’t mean gullible – if I were to tell a person in a state of hypnosis “And now you’ll get up and jump out of the window” OF COURSE that person would actually get up and give me a piece of their mind for giving them such a ridiculous suggestion!)
So when trying to understand how hypnosis helps, realise that it’s the therapy delivered in hypnosis that helps, hypnosis is just the vehicle by which it is delivered. The benefit of using hypnosis is that therapeutic lessons are learned more quickly, more deeply, because you’re listening with a deeper part of you, a part of you which may control up to 80% of your behaviour.
To understand more about what hypnosis is, click here.
To read about some common misconceptions of hypnosis (e.g. that it’s dangerous, or that it can make you reveal all of your secrets, etc) read my posts ‘Common misconceptions in hypnosis’ Part 1 and Part 2.
For a brief overview of ‘trance’, and how it plays a part in the difficult behaviours that can limit us, try this series of posts: What is trance, Unhelpful trances (Part 1), Unhelpful trances (Part 2).
For a brief overview of how our past experiences affect our present being consider these posts on memory and significant emotional events.
