"Most people are searching for happiness. They're looking for it. They're trying to find it in someone or something outside of themselves. That's a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something that you are, and it comes from the way you think."
~ Wayne Dyer
"Meditation is needed in developing mental qualities. The mind is definitely something that can be transformed, and meditation is a means to transform it." ~Dalai Lama
Wendee Neilson
Certified Life Coach
Master Hypnotist
146 Ways Hypnosis Might Help You...
- Self-Confidence
- Motivation
- Self-Image
- Stress
- Fears
- Study Habits
- Smoking Cessation
- Weight Loss
- Relaxation
- Procrastination
To view the full 146 ways hypnosis might help, please click this link.
What is Hypnosis?
How many of you have ever engaged in day dreaming? All of the sudden you wake up with the realization that you are actually sitting at your desk in the office, you've shifted your gaze from looking out the window, and now are back in the present moment of the task in front of you. That far off dream you were in touch with, perhaps on the sandy beach of Fuji, is no longer around you, but you felt as though you were there just a moment ago. Day dreaming is a similar experience to that of hypnosis. A person may go in and out of trance-like states several times a day, depending upon their suggestibility.
When hyonosis takes place, both the conscious and subconscious minds are present. It is not being asleep and neither is it being in a state of wakefulness. It is somewhere in between. It is a heightened state of awareness an altered state of consciousness. When in the state, a person may be aware of all other noises around them, and then on another level, feel so very far away from those sounds. It's as if there is absence of time. Actually, time distortion does take place in the hypnotic state. A client may feel as if they've only been in hypnosis five minutes, when it has been fifteen. And conversely, the experience may have felt like about twenty minutes, when in fact it was only ten.
Hypnosis is a concentrated focus of experience where imagining and visualizing take place. During the state of hypnosis, the subconscious mind is more open and receptive to recieve positive suggestions. When working with a Hypnotherapist, the actual journey taken in hypnosis is specifically designed, based on the needs and desires of the client. Whether a person goes into hypnosis with purposeful self-inducement or because they have allowed a professional Hypnotherapist to help facilitate the state, the subject must want the experience. Since the client must have a desire to be hypnotized, all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis. Why in the world would a person want to be hypnotized? Ultimately, being in the hypnotic state is very comfortable and relaxing. That's one reason. More specifically, however, being in the hypnotic state is the most conductive state to be in to receive new positive information for the purpose of creating desired positive change.
During hypnosis, the body and conscious mind are in a relaxed, natural state while the subconscious remains very alert and receptive to postive suggestions.
Hypnosis is a tool used to bypass the critical analysis of your mind so that these suggestions can be accepted and then incorporated into a new "automatic" behavior. While hypnosis can be used for personal benefit, it cannot cause you to do anything against your free will or ethics.
What is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy provides a powerful and effective means of creating "permanent" lifestyle changes. It is a holistic approach to the communication between the mind and body.
By combining hypnosis with specialized therapeutic techniques, a professionally training Hypnotherapist acts as a guide to assist you in releasing old, negative habits and fears that keep you from reaching your desired goals.
Hypnotherapy is for vocational and advocational self-improvement. It does not include major medical disorders or psychopathologies. In addition, under the auspices of medical doctors or other related licensed professionals, Hypnotherapy can be very beneficial with certain health care issues. Some health issues which can be addressed are listed under Medical Hypnosis.
When embarking on a course of Hypnotherapy, the client will have chosen a professional Hypnotherapist who will help them to achieve their goals. Whatever the goal, a Hypnotherapy session always involved a cognitive portion of time, where the client vents issues, worries, or concerns, and goals are discussed. The final segment of time is always devoted to hypnosis. During the first session, after hearing the presenting problem, the hypnotherapist will be intent upon determining the client's suggestibility. From that, a conversion to hypnosis will take place, with a progressive relaxation to follow. While the client is in the state of hypnosis, the Hypnotherapist will suggest positive information to begin laying the foundation for the achievement of the client's goals.
Through the course of working with any client, imagery, as well as other "tools" of the Hypnotherapist may be used with hypnosis. Hypnotherapy works as a motivating force for client self-improvement issues or as a partner to the medical community for use in an integrative therapeutic approach for clients.
Progessive Relaxation
This is what is called a "secondary induction" that is used to relax the body. It is best used after a conversion to hypnosis induction, whereby suggestibility has already been established. Receptivity to postive suggestions is greater because the body is deeply relaxed while in a still position.
What is a Hynotherapist?
From the movies and television shows, people often get the idea that when a person is in hynosis, they are under someone's "control," or someone has "power" over them. In fact, by the person's desire to be hypnotized, they are allowing the state to take place, and are in total control of their own mind and body. In a clinical setting, a Hypnotherapist helps facilitate the hypnotic state, and provides a safe, controlled, and confidential environment. A professionaly trained Hypnotherapist is someone who helps you on a journey to accomplish your goals using hypnosis. (It's a good idea to check out the professional training of the Hypnotherapist you go to. Most educational programs do included a "Certification." Yet, as you can imagine, there is a vast differenence from a weekend training program to one that is an intensive year long program.) By applying hypnosis to modify human behavior and perception, the Hypnotherapist helps people achieve things like stress relief, stop smoking, lose weight, enhanced sports performance, motivation, and with a doctors referral certain other health issues. There are many applications of hypnosis, some Hypnotherapist prefer to specialize in certain areas, while others provide a general practice.
Sometimes, a Hypnotherapist may be involved with helping a person with a medical or psychological problem, but only under the written referral of the appropriate licensed professional. Here, the Hypnotherapist's work is an adjunct to the treatment of the individual. As mainstream health care turns more to an integrated therapeutic approach, Hypnotherapy, can be a helpful partner to the medical community.
What is Suggestibility?
According to Dr. John Kappas, world-wide authority in the field of hypnosis, suggestibility is the essence in which we receive information. It is formed in childhood and then locked in during adolescence. Determining suggestibility is a must for successfully hypnotizing the subject. Dr. Kappas' Theory of Suggestibility has been revolutionary to the field of hypnosis because it states that everyone, who is of sound mind and body, can be hypnotized. Prior to his theory, it was thought that about 60% of the population could not be hypnotized to the depth necessary to achieve results. The Kappas theory states that some people predominately take in information in a very literal and direct way, while others predominately take in information inferentially, or look for the meaning behind the words. Through his work, Kappas found that words have different meanings to different people. Since hypnosis is created by words, understanding how the words will be received by the client is an important and necessary step. Both for creating the state of hypnosis and having suggestions take effect for the client, understanding suggestibility is paramount for the Hypnotherapist. As a major contributor to the field, Kappas definitely takes on an important role in the history of hypnosis.
How is Suggestibility Determined?
This is a key factor in successfully hypnotizing the client. Also, for true effectiveness in helping to achieve the client's goals, knowing and understanding their suggestibility is a must. For the client, it is important, as well, to understand about their own suggestibility so that they can more easily work with themselves using various tools for success. Usually, to determine the suggestibility of the client, the Hypnotherapist will give various "tests" to the client. These "tests" have no right or wrong anwers and usually consist of certain movements performed by the client or anwering a series of "yes" or "no" questions.
What is the Conscious Mind?
The conscious mind deals with everyday living. It holds all our reasoning, decision making prcesses, logic, and will power. When too much stress is present, the conscious mind can become overloaded. When the state of hypnosis, a person's conscious mind is still present and alert.
What is the Subconscious Mind?
The subsonscious mind is the source of all known associations - all memory. Without judgement, the subconscious literally accepts all our background messages, genetic, social, religious or messages based on experience, whether postive or negative. The subconscious works from expectation and imagination and it does not register the difference between bact or fantasy. If the conscious mind does become overloaded, the more primitive area of the subconscious mind becomes triggered for fight or flight. Today, in modern society, fight/flight is experiened more in the form of anxiety or depression. When a lot of anxiety or stress is being felt by an individual, due to events of the day, without some relief, a hypersuggestible state may occur.
What is the Fight/Flight Mechanism?
This is a primitive trigger mechanism of the midn that alerts the body to an involutary response. Whenever danger or threat of danger (anxiety) is present, the heart begins to beat more rapidly, the breathing begins to change, the adrenalin pumps, and the human reaction is to move into a protective mode of fending off the threat or escaping it. When we slam the breaks on in our car because the car is front of us has stopped suddenly, our level of anxiety is determined by how close the call is that we experienced. An episode like that, once over and all is safe, may create a need to pull off the side of the road and take a break. This flooding of information to the mind, creating an anxiety state, may send a person into a trance, so that the anxiety will not be experienced. If the car hit tht car in front of it, a kind of suspended animation could occur for that person experiencing the accident. It might feel as though time stopped or everything was happening in slow motion. The escape from the anxiety is taking place by going into a trance state. This escaping process is a throwback to some primitive area of mind. Doctors, nurses, and ER professionals who have knowledge of hypnotic suggestion can make a big positive difference to an individual who is in trauma due to an emergency. It's interesting to note, then, that hypnosis and anxiety spring from the same roots - the flooding of information to the mind. Under the professional care of a Hypnotherapist, in a safe confidential environment, the escape process of going into hypnosis is controlled by the client's desire to be there. In the first session, with the state of hypnosis being fully explained to them, myths and misconceptions being debunked, and ultimately, a very comfortable state of relaxation experienced, the Hypnotherapist helps guide the client through a positive process that brings them to clarity of mind.
What is Hypersuggestibility?
Every moment of every day, we receive message units of information from the body, the envionment, the conscious and subconscious minds. When something unusual happens that heightens those units of information to double and triple proportions, then the conscious mind is receiving more than it can handle. High anxiety may occur. This begins to lead to a "spaced out" experience for the individual because the mind is overwhelmed with information. A kind of conscious trance-like state may take place. The individual is hypersuggestible at this point and the subconscious mind takes over and works from all its known information. It is also more open and without proper guidance, now receiving all kinds of new information, including negatives. Being hypersuggestible is not a great state in which to be. If a client would arrive at the Hypnotherapist's office in a hypersuggestible state, the Hypnotherapist would take them deeper into hypnosis, suggest good, positive information, and bring them back out with full clarity, focus, and able to more easily deal logically with their conscious mind.
What are Suggestions?
Suggestions are designed specifcally by the Hypnotherapist when working with the client. These are statements of the postive nature that help the client meet their specific goals. The specific suggestions the client received are based on the client's desires, wants, and needs. Suggestions are always framed positively because negatively phrased suggestions have not been found effective in eliminating destructive habits, changing behaviors, or whatever the case may be. Suggestions may be phrased either literally and directly or inferentially, based on the client's type of suggestibility. For example, a direct suggestion for fear of public speaking might be, "When you stand up and speak in front of others, you'll find the fear will diminish." A more inferential suggestion might be, "You'll calmly express your knowledge, feeling very comfortable, the harder you try to bring up the fear of public speaking, the more it will diminish."
A suggestion can be accepted immediately by the subconscious mind and be there for life. More often, the Hypnotherapist needs to work with the Law of Repetition to insure that the suggestion has been accepted. This is especially true when dealing with a long term held belief or habit.
A post-hypnotic suggestion is simply a suggestion that is given in hypnosis that can affect the behavior of the client at some future point in the client's waking state. In the clinical setting, this is particularly used to help create new behavior when the desired intent is to discard an old, destructive habit, such as smoking.
Suggestions are not always readily accepted by the subconscious mind. Even when the Hypnotherapist has determined suggestibility, an abreaction can occur. This abreaction can present itself as a movement of some kind in the hand or foot, a scratch, a frown, a yawn. Repeating of the suggestion or an eventual rewording of the suggestion at a later session may be necessary before the subconscious will accept it.
Sometimes, the Law of Delayed Action may occur with certain types of suggestibility. This law is in effect when suggestions do not take place until days, weeks, even months later. Or, the suggestions may not actually occur until the exact situation presents itself. For example, the client may not feel calm when they think about taking the test, but the moment that they are there, picking up their writing utensil to write the answers, the calm about taking the test is present.
The Law of Repetition
This law is used frequently in hypnosis. You get better at going into self-hypnosis, the more frequently you practice it. By repeating a suggestion over and over, a new conditioned response can be achieved.
The Law of Association
This law, in conjunction with Law of Repetition, is what helps make self-hypnosis effective. In the repetition of chosen key words that help describe the state, those words become associated with the state of hypnosis. Also, the act of taking three deep breaths to begin the process of relaxing the body begins to be part of the formula, and of the association to the state of hypnosis, as well.
What is Self-Hypnosis?
While there are many books available on self-hypnosis, it is best learned and practiced under the guidance of someone who is a qualified professional, like a Hypnotherapist. Once guided through the process, it becomes easier to understand accessing the state. Chooosing key words that help describe the state are an integral part of designing the self-hypnosis experience. Together, the Law of Repetition and the Law of Association create the platform for self-hypnosis. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis because the subject must desire to have the experience. With this technique, the subject is both the 'facilitator' and 'receiver' of the suggestion. After practicing frequently, simply by allowing the eyes to close while taking three big deep breaths, begins to create the necessary comfort state. Relaxing the body is another element of this process that allows the conscious mind to rest while the subconscious mind becomes more open and receptive to positive ideas. Along with positive information (suggestions) for the subconscious, the final element necessary for using self-hypnosis as a tool for success is visualization and /or imagery. The subconscious mind works on expectation and imagination. Creating visuals or images that promote a concept of the desired goal or very specific pictures of the desired goal are a part of any hypnotherapy work. The Law of Repetion: This law is used frequently in hypnosis. You get better at going into self-hypnosis, the more frequently you practice it. By repeating a suggestion over and over, a new conditioned response can be achieved. It has been said that 21 times creates a habit!
Difference Between Hypnosis and Meditation
Medical Emergency and Hypnosis
Stages of Hypnosis
What Does Hypnosis Feel Like?
The Mind-Body Connection
The Applications of Hyonosis
General Self-Improvement and Motivation
Memory Improvement
Performance or Test Anxiety
Addictions
Fear of Success
Fear of Flying
Insomnia
Stress Relief
Stop Smoking
Children's Bed Wettubg (enuresis)
Lose Weight
