Hypnosis

Have you ever driven along deep in thought only to suddenly realise that you'd arrived at your destination? Have you ever been so engrossed in a film that you'd temporarily forgotten you were in a cinema, surrounded by strangers? Have you ever drifted off into a daydream?

That's what being hypnotized is like.

Hypnosis can be described as a deeply relaxing physical and emotional state coupled with an enhanced state of awareness.

In hypnosis the logical, rational conscious mind is suppressed and the unconscious mind is revealed. Since the unconscious mind is a deeper-seated, more instinctive force than the conscious mind, this is the part that has to change for behavioural and emotional changes to occur.

For example, someone who consciously wants to overcome their fear of spiders may try everything they consciously can to do it. Unfortunately they will continue to fail as long as their unconscious mind retains the terror and prevents them from succeeding. Progress can only be made by re-programming the unconscious mind, so that the unwanted deep-seated instincts and beliefs can be abolished or altered.

A very pleasant and enjoyable experience, hypnosis gives us the ability to safely and easily remove or replace those negative habits, unwanted emotions or out-dated beliefs and achieve those goals you desire.

Some common misconceptions:

Hypnosis is like sleep
It's not, even though it might look like it. During hypnosis you are totally relaxed, but fully aware and awake. There are a proportion of people, however, who enter a state of self-induced amnesia and don't remember the details of the session and therefore often assume they've fallen asleep.

I might give up my secrets
Clients don't say anything they don't want to say and don't do anything they don't want to do

I might do something immoral or illegal
Hypnosis cannot make you do anything you don't want to do, which means you'll fully adhere to your usual moral standards. You're in control.

I might get ‘stuck'
Sadly no, Buddhist monks have been trying to do that for years! Seriously though, since you are in control you can emerge from hypnosis at any time you want.

It's dangerous
It's generally no more distressing than daydreaming. There is an abundance of medical literature that states that ‘hypnosis is totally safe'.

Will it work for me?
Generally speaking every ‘normal' person is hypnotisable. That is, people with an IQ of at least 70 and no severe mental disorders. The other exceptions are people that don't want to be hypnotised - nobody can force you to be hypnotised, you are always in control.