What is it?
Hypnotherapy is a form of treatment that help clients at a deeper level of awareness than we are accustomed to using in ordinary daily life. Lying somewhere between complete wakefulness and deep sleep is that state of consciousness which hypnotherapist’s use in order to improve either a person’s health or ability to function freely; it is known as the hypnotic state. This state is deliberately induced by therapists during a consultation but is otherwise similar to the one occurring quite naturally when daydreaming or when passing into or waking from sleep. It is a state we all recognise and are familiar with as part of the normal rhythm as it is a condition of altered consciousness and not unconsciousness.
How does it work?
The therapist uses the patient’s co-operation to bring about physical or mental changes when in the hypnotic state. These changes may include alleviating physical illness, reducing pain, promoting relaxation or gaining insight into present difficulties and those past events that may have some bearing upon them. In this way, mental and emotional blockages may be gently released and patients freed to move on, being more in control of their lives and able to take more appropriate and effective action. This process is started by the therapist using positive images and suggestions that are more readily accepted by someone in the hypnotic state. Once accepted by the sub-conscious mind, these suggestions are acted upon by the conscious mind, energised by the patient’s own desire for change.
