Working as a clinical hypnotherapist for a living I hear so many interesting and awesome misconceptions people have about hypnosis (and believe me they’re not so different to the ones I held before I experienced and learnt what hypnosis actually was!). In today’s post I am going to quickly dispel 3 of the most common hypnosis myths I hear when new clients entre my office.
Myth 1: Hypnosis Is Mind Control
Truth: Entering hypnosis is a personal choice and you cannot be made to do anything under hypnosis you don’t want to do.
Hypnosis is a joint effort between the hypnotherapist and you and not something the hypnotherapist does to you or on you.
Some hypnotherapists go so far as to say there is only self-hypnosis and I can see why this would be one way of looking at hypnosis because all the suggestions a hypnotherapist gives you during a session can only be useful if you pass them onto yourself. That is if you let them in and if you follow them and under hypnosis you always have a choice to disregard any suggestion given to you. For example, if a suggestion was given which went against your values or morals or was in any way harmful to yourself or others you will reject it and either come out of trance or remain in trance and simply not act upon it.
During a hypnosis session I direct my client’s experience, but this can only ever be to the degree that my client permits it. A hypnotherapist cannot make you relax, a hypnotherapist cannot make you pay attention (nor can anyone else for that matter) but they can give you the instructions for how you can bring this about for yourself and all you have to do is follow along and if you follow along there is no way you cannot go into trance (and still that is not done to you because you did the work, you made the commitment and you followed the instructions).
The notion that hypnosis is mind control is one of my most fun myths to dispel because believe me there’s no change I want for you. Honestly, I’m routing for the change you want because you want the change. Your change is going to change your life, not mine.
Your change is for you and done by you. I have the tools and guidance to connect you to your “how to” but it is you who ultimately must do the work.
Think about it this way if I were to offer you $1000 right now and say you can take it if you want it then I am giving this gift of money to you but it is still up to you and your choice to take it and receive it or not. I can offer the $1000 and I can offer a means to change your life in just a second, but you won’t get the change just like you won’t get the $1000 if you’re not open to receiving it. Clearly if you were to seek the help of a clinical hypnotherapist to overcome a problem or gain a new skill and then be resistive to hypnosis it would be counterproductive to achieving the very change you were seeking help for…
As a clinical hypnotherapist I have no hidden agenda. It’s no secret I’m in it for your health, happiness and fulfillment. Therefore, what would be the point of mind control? To get you to do something you want to do? If you want to look at my facilitating you to connect more fully and completely to your inner power to take charge of your mind in ways which will increase your confidence, motivation, health and focus while lessening your stress as mind control you can at least recognise that it’s some pretty overt and useful mind control can’t you?…
Myth 2: Hypnosis Is Just Relaxation
Truth: The true benefits of hypnosis are in its ability to allow for you to create a meaningful and lasting change in your everyday life AFTER hypnotherapy.
There are definite health benefits associated with relaxation however these benefits require regular relaxation “top ups” in order for us to continue to experience those benefits. On the other hand, clinical hypnosis is undertaken with a specific outcome (or therapeutic intention) in mind and when this is reached there is no need for ongoing “top ups” to maintain that outcome.
To give you a common example of what I mean here when I work with clients to facilitate them to give up unwanted or unhealthful habits such as smoking it is not the relaxation during the hypnosis session which is valuable it is the fact that generally after 1-4 sessions of hypnosis they no longer feel the need to smoke. This is maintained spontaneously without further hypnosis and without the need for them to exert conscious willpower or effort to do so almost as if it has always been this way. That is being a non-smoker becomes their new “normal”.
As another example I work with a lot of people to help them overcome anxiety including generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety, OCD, phobias and trauma and the value of hypnosis is certainly not in their relaxation or comfort in my office for an hour and a half it is in the fact that after a few sessions they no longer feel the compulsion to do the response they didn’t before have any control over.
Relaxation and reassurance may help create comfort in the moment, but comfort is not a cure. Do you want to be comforted every time you are anxious and have to willpower yourself out of anxiety with the help of others (which never helps that much anyway because you end up just feeling guilty and ashamed which keeps you even more stuck) or do you want to just not get into the anxiety in the first place? This is the distinction between hypnosis and traditional forms of “therapy” in that hypnosis is unapologetically outcome oriented and the real value of hypnosis (and any change work) is when things out here in your everyday life transform.
As a side note on the relaxation thing the brain waves most associated with wakeful relaxation are alpha and interestingly the brain waves characteristic of hypnosis or trance are theta. So, there’s different stuff going on with the brain when you’re relaxed to when you’re in hypnosis. Theta brainwaves are brainwaves associated with enhanced concentration, learning and importantly in the context of creating change creativity because you cannot solve a problem without generating new ideas. Or as Albert Einstein (who by the way practised hypnosis) famously said “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking which created them”.
In a nutshell hypnosis allows you to pay focused attention to one thing at almost the exclusion of all else and if you cannot appreciate just how impactful that would be to solving any problem you’re having and indeed life changing I don’t know how else to get you excited about hypnosis! Imagine how quickly, effortlessly and easily you could achieve a goal if you had the ability to clearly focus your entire brains resources on exploring and addressing just that one thing for even a moment without the myriad distractions of life flooding in!? (If you want more information on what happens in your brain during hypnosis have a scan of my earlier blog post “Clinical Hypnotherapy: Beyond The Chicken”)
Myth 3: Only Some People Can Be Hypnotised
Truth: Hypnosis is a normal and natural state of consciousness you go into and out of each and every day of your life. We all do and will continue to do so until the day we die. Therefore, we can all be hypnotised.
An example that may help you understand the everyday experience of hypnosis is driving. Have you ever driven somewhere only to arrive without remembering the process of how you got there? That’s hypnosis.
Driving has become such an ingrained habitual pattern that your brain no longer has to spend much conscious effort on doing it which means it’s free to go off into trance thinking about whatever you’re thinking about until you either arrive at your destination or something unexpected brings your attention back to the present moment along the way. All we do in clinical hypnotherapy is tap into the amazing powers your brain already possesses by purposefully initiating and utilising this state of enhanced learning and creativity in order to bring about a desired change or outcome in a way that couldn’t otherwise be achieved through conscious effort alone.
If hypnosis is a natural and useful state of consciousness the notion that being “hypnotisable” or “susceptible to hypnosis” is a sign of a weak mind or someone who is highly suggestible or easily influenced and controlled is silly. I think those myths go back to the misconception that hypnosis requires the hypnotist to be in control of the subject (which I hope you understand by now is not what is happening).
In fact, those who are more intelligent are more likely to experience deeper levels of hypnosis. To me this makes sense because it’s not about being “hypnotisable” as so much as it is about your ability to learn a new skill as intentional hypnosis can simply be viewed as a skill because to move something from an unconscious process into a conscious process for an outcome requires effort and practice. I can assure you it’s an effort worth investing in because when you learn how to do this deliberately with the facilitation of a skilled hypnotherapist it opens doors and possibilities where there were no doors or possibilities before!
Summary
Do you ever wish you were taught how to use your brain better? Do you ever feel your emotions and therefore your behaviours are out of your control? Do you ever think, feel or do things you don’t want to be thinking, feeling or doing? Do you have a bad habit you want to stop but just can’t seem to get free?
Most of us feel one of the above to varying degrees and I want you to know there are ways to learn how to use your brain better than you’ve likely ever been taught before. When you take charge of your brain or rather get it fully and completely on your team life is so much less stressful and incomparably more easy and enjoyable.
Clinical hypnosis is one of the best tools I’ve ever experienced for learning how to gain control of your own mind to shape your life. The thing I have to stress here is that the key word is “experience” because you can read about hypnosis all day and all night long for the next 1, 5 or 20 years of your life but until you experience it the understanding and insight is only ever going to remain theoretical and the significance and magic are not in the theory they are in the experience because your life is in the experience.
So, would you be curious to experience hypnosis if it wasn’t mind control? Would you be curious to experience hypnosis if it was so much more than relaxation? Would you be curious to experience hypnosis if it wasn’t only reserved for a special few who were “suggestible”? Would you be curious to experience hypnosis if it was actually a means of connecting you more fully to your inner power to create health and happiness as your natural and default state? Because when you leave all that stuff up to your capable unconscious it leaves you free to be fully engaged in all the things you enjoy with all the people you love.
Ps. A Personal Note On Hypnosis
As I sit here now with the sunshine flooding in my little window warming one of the last few days of winter typing on my computer some words to share with you in an attempt to help you understand hypnosis and just how useful it is my thoughts have been continuously returning to the beautiful weekend I’ve just been a part. This weekend I saw an incredible friend say “I do” to the man she loves, I talked all things brain health with a group of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists at a training event, had a sleepover with a couple of friends I adore as well as spent some time with a man I am super fond of. It’s almost easy to forget that not so long ago none of this would have been possible for me.
I know very well that the most likely scenario for my life in this moment had I not had a desperate attempt at this thing I didn’t believe in called clinical hypnotherapy is that I would still be living with anorexia nervosa today (or equally likely dead).
Why do I attribute my recovery to clinical hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming (NLP)? Because I didn’t recover because there was anything special about me.
I didn’t recover because I was ready to recover, I didn’t recover because I had all the best support or the perfect environment in the world in which to recover. I recovered because of clinical hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). I recovered because I was given the chance to learn how to use my brain and because I took it.
My only regret is that it took so long for me to get the help I needed because those years are years I will never get back and they were knowing what I know now frustratingly unnecessary. I don’t want this for you.
Whether you have an eating disorder or something else you want to break free from or achieve and you just can’t seem to no matter how much knowledge or how much willpower or determination you throw at it it’s not your fault. Truly it’s not because there is another part of you which you must connect with and engage in order to bring about the change you want and that is your subconscious (unconscious or automatic mind) and the quickest, least painful and most BS free way I have experienced to do this is through hypnosis and NLP. Why are they so effective? Because hypnosis and NLP are not concerned with the way things “should” be but with the way things are and they are not concerned with the theory of what “should” work but with what works in real life because how you change your life is through changing your life. No amount of wanting to change your life, no amount of planning to change your life will actually change your life.
Please don’t spend the rest of your life at war with yourself or thinking it’s a matter of gaining more motivation or information because I’m willing to bet you’re motivated, I’m willing to bet you have the information or enough information and reasons to stop doing what you’re doing and start doing what you want to be doing.
When would you accept the offer for $1000? When will you accept the offer for transformation?… I can never make a guarantee for what will work for you but I can offer the chance to change your life and if nothing else you will never regret learning how to use your brain because that thing is with you for the rest of your life and more than anything else you are your brain and you are your thoughts why not take an opportunity to get them on your team? (If you’re interested to learn more or want to find out if hypnosis may be able to help you reach your goals have a read of my earlier blog “What Can Hypnosis Do For Me?” or email me any questions you have because while I am not the worlds fastest replier I will!)
With my whole heart I trust you found this information useful and inspiring.
Become Great. Live Great.
Bonnie.
