What is Hypnosis
Within science, there is no debate as to whether hypnosis exists or works. Science simply cannot agree on what it is and how it works, although as The British Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis states:
"In therapy, hypnosis usually involves the person
experiencing a sense of deep relaxation with
their attention narrowed down, and focused on appropriate suggestions made by
the therapist."
These suggestions help people make positive changes
within themselves. Long gone are the days when hypnosis was seen as
waving watches and controlling people's minds. In a hypnotherapy session you are always in
control and you are not made to do anything. It is generally accepted
that all hypnosis is ultimately self-hypnosis. A hypnotherapist merely helps to facilitate
your experience - hypnotherapy is not about being made to do things, in fact it
is the opposite, it is about empowerment. If someone tells you they can
hypnotise you to do something, ask them to hypnotise you to rob a bank, and
when they can't, ask them to stop making ridiculous claims.
The following four extracts from Dr Hilary Jones' book,
"Doctor, What's the Alternative?" provide an accurate and accessible
wonderful description of what hypnotherapy is, how it works and how
hypnotherapy can help you change and grow.
Defining Hypnotherapy:
Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not a state of
deep sleep. It does involve the induction of a trance-like condition, but
when in it, the patient is actually in an enhanced state of awareness, concentrating entirely on the
hypnotist's voice. In this state, the conscious mind is suppressed and
the subconscious mind is revealed.
The therapist is able to suggest ideas, concepts and
lifestyle adaptations to the patient, the seeds of which become firmly planted.
The practice of promoting healing or positive development
in any way is known as hypnotherapy. As such, hypnotherapy is a kind of
psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme patterns of behaviour
within the mind, enabling irrational fears, phobias, negative thoughts and
suppressed emotions to be overcome. As the body is released from conscious
control during the relaxed trance-like state of hypnosis, breathing becomes
slower and deeper, the pulse rate drops and the metabolic rate falls.
Similar changes along nervous pathways and hormonal channels enable the
sensation of pain to become less acute, and the awareness of unpleasant
symptoms, such as nausea or indigestion, to be alleviated.