What is hypnosis and how does it help?

 

Hypnosis is a very relaxed yet focused state that is also referred to as the meditative or trance state. It is used to then allow for access to the deeper part of the mind, known as the sub-conscious, in order to assist in creating change through healing however, the difference between the effectiveness of a hypnotist and their training is starkly different to the training and effectiveness of hypnotherapy. As much as they are commonly thought of as the same, they are not at all.

 

Helping addictions with hypnosis

 

A professional therapist can easily learn to put someone into hypnosis, but then the question becomes, “what now?” Let’s take treating addictions. Most addiction treatment facilities have a very low success rate simply because they are treating a very complex issue with a band-aid approach. They are treating addictions by only reaching the conscious mind, which comprises 10% of the individual’s total being. When we put someone into “a state of hypnosis” we now have the potential of going into the other 90% of the mind, the subconscious, to discover and treat the underlying addictive pattern. Just putting the person in the state of hypnosis and giving suggestions, however, does not resolve the deeper issues. Advanced hypnotherapists recognise that more often than not, for effective and lasting results, a blending of hypnosis and hypnotherapy is best for help with complex issues such as addictions, anxiety, stress, low confidence and depression.

 

How hypnotherapy helps addiction

 

This is where hypnotherapy can help treat addictions in such a way that effective change can be created with permanent results. A fully qualified hypnotherapist is able to safely guide a person through their sub-conscious allowing for them to get to the root cause of the addiction so that fundamental change can be undertaken. An effective hypnotherapist would normally have a background also in psychotherapy and counselling which allows them to help the individual to work through the underlying issue safely and effectively.

 

How a hypnotist works

 

A hypnotist  will mainly use relaxation and hypnotic suggestions to address a behavior that is causing conflict in a person's life. A common example which unfortunately is still practiced by many traditonal hypnotists today, would be the hypnotist asking the person to associate a nasty, disgusting substance with the food or drug they are addicted to. This approach is not only unnecessarily negatively geared towards the individuals future experience, it may appear to "work" for only a few days or weeks before failing and returning the individual immediately back to consuming their addictive substance of choice. The pattern itself of using substances (food, drugs, etc.) to medicate has not been changed or healed as the understanding of the reasons behind it's existence have not been uncovered. This is why an understanding of the underlying issue is necessary to create positive and empowering change that will last, which is why hypnotherapy is able to gain better results on a whole when compared to hypnosis.

 

How Holistic Hypnotherapy helps

 

A holistic hypnotherapist has the ability to utilise real and effective change through exploring and understanding the entire issue an individual is facing along with all of it's surrounding factors. This allows them to help someone with addiction, low confidence, anxiety, depression to name just a few examples, in a way that finds the root cause so that it can be addressed and worked through in conjunction with any appropriate counselling or psychotherapy conducted whilst under hypnosis.