Myth-busting Clinical Hypnotherapy for Smoking/Weight Loss: What You Need to Know

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic application of hypnosis, a powerful form of communication that uses psychological procedures to generate healing and change. The medical use of hypnosis began thousands of years ago, and the hypnotic trance has been used ever since in many different forms.

We all experience trance every day in various forms: if you have ever driven home and not remembered how you got there, or if you have been so absorbed in a book, movie or computer game that you lost track of time, you were in trance. Trance is natural and normal, and everyone can do it.

In trance, you can communicate with your inner mind directly. That is how the changes get made. A good hypnotist will take you into trance gently and imperceptibly, and in the same way that you can’t tell exactly when you cross over into sleep at night, the crossover into trance is subtle and goes unnoticed. Once in trance, the therapist will begin to get you to work with your inner mind.

Hypnotherapy is nothing like stage hypnosis. Part of your mind remains alert, and you are in charge the whole time. You will not be asked to do anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable with.

Addressing the most common fears and concerns with Hypnotherapy

Will I Lose Control?

Movies and promoters of stage hypnotists have built up a myth about mind control. The opposite is true: you need to be in control to let go. You can choose to accept the suggestions, but you can also choose not to. Should you feel uncomfortable with the process, you can stop it at any time.

Will I Say Things I Will Regret?

You won’t be giving away any secrets. You are in control of what you say at all times. And you won’t be doing anything you don’t remember. Trance is a special state, so remembering the things that were talked about in trance is sometimes difficult once you are outside trance. However, if you think it might be an issue for you, then ask for special suggestions to be given to remember everything that went on in the session.

Will I Fall Asleep?

Hypnosis is not sleep. Natural sleep is measurably different from hypnotic trance. However, trance usually involves deep relaxation, so people don’t move much. Hypnotised people might look as though they are asleep, but they are only deeply relaxed.

What if I Can’t Be Hypnotised?

Everyone can be hypnotised. In fact, the more intelligent the person is, the easier it is to hypnotise them. Modern induction methods are fast and reliable – no swinging watches, no staring eyes, just a gentle voice guiding you into a relaxing trance.

What if I Don’t Do It Right?

The therapist will be monitoring you all the time and constantly changing the words to fit your needs. All you must do is to enjoy the experience of trance. You will find your mind drifting away as if in a dream. Nothing else is required from you. You don’t have to think; you don’t have to do anything except enjoy it.

What Happens in a Hypnotherapy Session?

You will be able to ask any questions you might have about hypnosis before it starts. A typical session will involve sitting relaxed in a comfortable chair, while the therapist talks to you. You might only listen, but in most sessions, you will be actively engaging in some visual imagery exercises. You will be able to move and talk, but you will still be in a profound trance. You are always an active participant in the session, not just lying there while things happen to you. The average session time is about an hour. The number of sessions depends on the nature of the problem and the individual person. However, hypnotherapy is goal-oriented and is a quick and elegant therapy, so it is normal to need only one or two sessions. You should notice a definite change immediately after the first session.

Hypnotherapy Techniques

Hypnotherapists use a mixture of techniques to suit the individual. The therapist will not usually offer any sort of diagnosis. Hypnotherapists act on the principle that your problems arise because, for various reasons unique to you, you have acquired a poorly fitting model of the world and hold self-limiting beliefs about your own skills and abilities. Hypnotherapy clears those self-limiting beliefs so that you can get on with your life the way that you were supposed to. Everyone already has everything they need to get on with their life; they just need a bit of help in finding those resources.

These are some of the therapeutic approaches used in hypnotherapy:

• Active Imagery and Guided Visualisation: The language of unconscious processes differs from conscious, logical thought. Activating the sensual communication channels via imagery and visualisation helps to encourage unconscious processes, to occupy the conscious while change-work is done, and to intensify the trance experience.
• Metaphor Therapy: Metaphor therapy is one of the most influential and effective approaches in hypnotherapy. It is a subtle conversation with your unconscious mind, when what appears to be a nice story becomes the theme in the change-work. The use of the client’s resources such as creativity, life experiences, and imagination is the core of Metaphor therapy.
• Goal-Oriented Meditation: For those experienced with meditation, hypnotherapy will seem familiar. The therapist can work together with the client from within a meditative state, incorporating deeper healing processes.
• Mental Rehearsing: When we use our imagination, we activate the same pathways in the brain that we use when the real activity is being done. Mental rehearsing is effective in dealing with things like performance anxiety and confidence issues. It is especially useful for artistic people and a good way to get past ‘mental blocks.
• Visualisation: Our unconscious mind is not logically organised, and you can hold conflicting ideas at the same time but in different parts of the brain. Visualisation therapy can change how you feel about things that happened in the past. You can’t change the past, but you can change how you let it affect you today.
• Self-Hypnosis: Learning self-hypnosis is a valuable skill. It allows you to practice relaxation outside the therapy room, to reduce stress (and blood pressure) and to stop things building up to where they become a problem. Self-hypnosis will last long after the therapy session is over.
• Stress-Management Techniques: Many clients unknowingly suffer from high levels of stress that are causing other complaints. Stress is a major component in almost every modern illness. Stress management techniques can remove many symptoms.
• Inner-Journey/Dream-Work: Healing-oriented hypnotherapy can be a journey of self-exploration and self-healing. When appropriate, deep processes of inner-journeys or dream-work can be taken. Therapeutic processes of that type are of great advantage to spiritual and creative clients.

What Can Hypnotherapy Help?

Hypnotherapy can assist with any issue that involves the mind. Since even pain is perceived selectively through the mind, almost everybody can benefit from trance-work to some extent. The following examples are common applications of hypnotherapy:

• Stopping Smoking: End smoking with no cravings or weight gain. You may download one of our key guides in the page.
• Weight Loss: Hypnosis is very effective at stopping bad eating habits.
• Anxiety and Phobias: Using various methods, hypnotherapy is now recognised as an efficient treatment for phobias and other anxiety disorders, which limit the life of the sufferer. So why go on suffering?
• Habit Control: Hypnotherapy can help control all forms of bad habits such as nail-biting, hair pulling, and teeth grinding.
• Enhancing Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence: Extremely important in many cases of relationship problems, lack of assertiveness and lack of confidence, as well as in many anxiety disorders.
• Eating Disorders: Most problems with eating (bingeing, bulimia, anorexia, yo-yo dieting) are due to emotional problems in which the person thinks that love equals food. Hypnotherapy can fix these beliefs and allow the person to have a normal relationship with food.
• Guided Visualisation and Spiritual Journeys: You don’t have to be ill to benefit from hypnotherapy. Improvement in many realms can be achieved with hypnotherapy, as well as self-exploration and other elevating experiences.
• Sexual and Physical Abuse: Assisting with self-acceptance, assertiveness, and confidence; building confidence and supplying support and compassion, to enable you to continue with your life in the way you want to.
• Emotional Growth: You can achieve deep levels of self-knowledge and acceptance, to communicate better with your unconscious and utilise it for growth and healing: hypnotherapy only strengthens these natural tendencies.
• Public Speaking: Hypnotherapy is very effective for dealing with the dread of speaking in public.
• Sexual Disorders: Most sexual dysfunction is at least partly in the mind, and for these people, hypnotherapy can remove the source of the problem, reducing stress and anxiety, and ending their fear of failing.
• Personal Exploration: Hypnosis is often used to assist people who want to explore alternative consciousness or to get in touch with their own spirituality. It is also useful in helping people to access past life experiences.

Why Choose Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy can assist with any issue that involves psychological states. However, no matter how much you believe in the mind-body nexus or that the mind controls how the body works or that everything is influenced by a universal consciousness, hypnotherapy will not cure everything. Nobody ever got taller by wishing for it or got rid of baldness by affirmations. Hypnosis is not magic; it is about applying proven scientific procedures that change the basic structures of the mind.

The mind does affect the body: the way you behave can affect the way you think, the way you think can affect the way you feel, and the way you feel can affect your physical health. Many things afflict humanity, and there are several complementary routes to good health. There are medical solutions, behavioural solutions, and psychological solutions.

Your first stop should always be to consult your normal medical professional. Most doctors are skilled and experienced in their work. Standard medical procedures and interventions are the best way of treating physical conditions. There is no doubt that modern pharmaceuticals do work. I am a hypnotist, but when I have a headache, I take an aspirin. If I had a broken leg, I might try to distance myself from the pain with self-hypnosis, but my next stop would be the emergency room of a good hospital.

Behavioural processes also work. These can control unruly children, get rid of bad habits and encourage you into better modes of thinking. Just changing your behaviour can directly influence your health. Walk to work, eat only at mealtimes and so on; simple behaviours like that can have dramatic effects.

But for some people, their behaviour is the problem, and they just cannot seem to control it. That is where hypnotherapy can help. Hypnotherapy deals with the psychology of behaviour. Before there is a behaviour, there must be a thought. Control the thoughts, and you can control the behaviour. That is the aim of hypnotherapy. It gives you a better way of reacting to the world around you, giving you more choices so that you can behave differently in problem situations.

Working with Your Health Professional

Before undertaking a course of therapy in any treatment style, you may want to clear it with your doctor first. Most doctors are supportive of hypnotherapy and understand its uses. You can show this document to your doctor if you want to raise the matter of alternative support services. If you want to, you can ask your doctor to call me to discuss what you want to work on.

My name is Ilona Nichterlein, and my number is +61 422020738. More information is available from Hypnotherapy Canberra online.

Hypnotherapy can be a valuable part of a balanced health program. If you think you might have some issue that needs to be addressed, give me a call. I look forward to meeting you.