- Many people ask…
What is Hypnosis?
I usually reply by saying that it is a very caring way of helping people, this is why I as a therapist use it as part if therapy. Hypnosis has been around for a many hundred years at times it has been know under many different names, Mesmerism, Magic, and Witchcraft. Some of these names have not exactly helped to have hypnosis recognized as a tool of therapy . However it is only now that people and some in the medical profession are recognizing some of its values. Many of these are actually training in hypnotherapy themselves to help their patients or service users.
What is Trance? There are many different ideas about hypnosis.
Is it something mysterious?
Trance is an altered state of consciousness, where you go from external ways of thinking to using your inner senses.
It can be explained as a little bit like a day dream. Many of us as youngsters especially at school would be told off by a teacher or a parent for gazing out of the windows, you knew you were in a classroom but your mind had wandered off somewhere probably better than a lesson. You may have been wondering what you were going to do after school or remembering a holiday that you have had. This is a form of trance, it is an everyday trance, we all go out of trance though the day but we do it that often we don’t recognize it. When your learning to drive a car for the first time and you sit in the drivers seat and don’t know which hand is going where, you’re not sure what pedal to press or what gear to go into. However isn’t it amazing that once you have learned ,where the pedals are and what gears to go into you begin to coordinate with your mind and body and then seem to be able to drive easily as your unconscious mind takes over, you manage to drive to the shops and your hands and feet co-ordinate all by themselves? These are a few examples of everyday trance.
Is Trance like being asleep?
No you are still aware of what is happening around you and are in control. Trance is a different experience for each individual. Some people say that they feel very relaxed, others say they feel heavy. In all trance experience can be a very relaxing way of helping your mind and body restore and let go of tensions, anxieties with the help of a Therapist. Trance can sometimes be recognized a little by the analogy of going to bed at night and you are lay thinking, the next moment you are getting up in the morning, trance can sometimes feel like the moment before going to sleep and being awake.
How does a therapist help?
A therapist offers help and support relating to your problem in a relaxed and caring way, offering therapeutic suggestions to your unconscious mind. And as an Ericksonian therapist using metaphor, analogies and techniques that have been developed over the years. Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy has come a long way since the “Look into my eyes approach, in an authoritarian way. I feel that by combining Ericksonian Hypnosis, Psychotherapy, NLP.EFT and counselling it is possibly a quicker and effective way of helping individuals to meet their needs and be enabled to move on.