Hypnotherapy
In virtually every culture worldwide hypnotherapy healing is one
of the older known phenomena. It could also be legitimately described
as the original psychological therapy and somewhat more contentiously,
as the basic for many of the recent styles of psychological intervention.
Although the trance state has been known for thousands of years,
the term “hypnosis” (from the Greek word “hypnos”
meaning “sleep” was only coined in 1842 by Dr James
Braid and remains somewhat less than accurate description of the
experience, as the hypnotic state is, in most respects, totally
different to sleep !
What
is Hypnosis?
At our current level of knowledge, no one is entirely certain
although a reasonable definition would that hypnosis is a state
of mind enhances by mental and physical relaxation, in which our
subconscious is able to communicate with out conscious mind. It
may be better to define “hypnosis” by what is does
rather than what is. The state of mind can either be brought about
by one-self, (self-hypnosis), or by a person who a trained professional,
who utilises the resultant state of mind to encourage beneficial
change to occur, the process is referred to as “hypnotherapy”
People are sometimes
concerned that they will lose control in hypnosis, but this is
not the case. Regardless of how deeply people may go in hypnosis
and however passive they may appear to be, they actually remain
in full control of the situation. They are fully able to talk
if they wish to being fully aware of what is going on around them.
Neither can a hypnotised person be made to do anything against
their usual ethical or moral judgement or religious belief. It
is like that the notion of loss of control stems from most people’s
misconception of stage hypnosis, wherein participants are apparently
made to perform all manners of foolish acts. However, you should
be aware that participation in a stage act is entirely voluntary
(permission has to be given to the hypnotist) and that there can
be no such volunteer who is unaware of exactly what they are letting
themselves in for !
Benefits
of Hypnosis
Virtually everyone can benefit from hypnosis. Given that hypnotherapy
can be utilised to access a person’s inner potential and
that probably no-one is performing to their actual potential,
then this answer is literally true. However, it is not just potential
which inner resources to effect beneficial change. In this regards,
it is the innate healing capacity of our own body that may be
stimulated by Hypnotherapy. Consequently, the list of problems
which may be amenable to Hypnotherapy is far too long, and varied
to list, but certainly includes: anxiety, lack of confidence and
low self-esteem, panic, phobias, overeating, smoking, alcoholism,
sleeping problems, fear of public speaking or exams, fear of flying,
pain management, skin disorders, bowel disorders.
