For a lot of people the word hypnosis will conjure up an image of a stage hypnotist instructing members of their audience to flap around like chickens, for the 'entertainment' of others.

 

Hypnosis is actually a natural state of mind that we can find ourselves in on a daily basis....think of the last time you arrived at your regular destination whilst driving, only to discover that you were so lost in thought that you didn't actually remember driving the route. This is because once you have learnt to drive and become familiar with it, you can trust that activity to your sub-conscious mind, whilst your conscious mind focuses on other more interesting thoughts. If, however, something pulled out in front of you, your attention would be focused straight back to that situation and your conscious, logical mind.

 

This is also true of many other things that you do regularly, like walking for instance. Imagine what life would be like if you had to consciously think about putting one foot in front of the other!

 

Hypnosis in therapy is a very relaxed state of mind, which can be very therapeutic in itself, and unlike stage hypnosis would have us believe, the client in hypnosis is always in control and perfectly safe. There is no mind control involved and the client is in no danger of 'not waking up'.

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Hypnotherapy then, is just therapy using hypnosis to help to re-programme the sub-conscious mind, allowing someone to be more receptive to changing unwanted thoughts or behaviours. This is because it gets to the root cause and doesn't just treat the symptoms, so may be very effective in helping with, amongst other things, anxiety, weight loss, habits such as smoking, and fears and phobias.

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