All About Hypnotherapy

The US Federal definition of hypnosis is summed up in the words

"Bypassing the critical factor of the mind and the establishment of collective thinking"

I use the diagram on the left to  explain hypnosis to  clients or when giving talks. Imagine there are two parts to your brain ( I believe there are hundreds of layers but for simplicity…), the conscious part and the subconscious. The conscious part of your brain is the analytical and logical factors, it is also where your willpower is housed (Willpower is a conscious decision, that is why it is so weak in some people).

Everything you see, hear or feel is analysed and turned into 'your' logic before being stored into your subconscious memory where it resides until recalled or needed. The problem with this is you apply your analysis of the information with what could be wrong or faulty logic and so the information received by the unconscious is corrupted by your preconceived fears, doubts and learned thinking.

This conscious part of the brain can be measured in brainwaves and they are Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta or Gamma. These ranges are detectable on electronic equipment and vary from energetic  and intense movement to almost nothing. It is shown that when we are alert or thinking about something the brainwaves are at the higher end while you frantically work out what you are sensing, hearing and seeing, with the logical and analytical parts of your brain.  A trained hypnotherapist uses a mixture of exercises to slow down this part of your brain so making you less analytical of what you are told and therefore you are far more likely to carry out the suggestions.

Once your state of consciousness has been altered, you become very relaxed and frequently reach the point where you can’t move, not because you cannot but because you just don’t want to. The same techniques are used in many different therapies in different ways but it all comes back to what we know about the brain, how it works and a form of hypnosis. When you have reached your most relaxed point and have the slowest brainwaves, the hypnotherapist can then talk directly to your subconscious where your new memory, emotion  and imagination can take hold and become a part of you.

Your brain is the single most powerful goal achieving agency known to man. Remember what the brain can perceive, the body can achieve.

All hypnosis is self-hypnosis