So What Is Hypnosis Anyway?
"Hypnosis is not mind control. It's a naturally occurring state of concentration; It's actually a means of enhancing your control over both your mind and your body."
-Dr. David Spiegel, Assoc. Chair of Psychiatry
Stanford University School of Medicine
A Quick Overview On Hypnosis
Hypnosis is the work done between the client and the hypnotist. The client is guided to a deeply relaxed state of mind. This state of mind allows access to the subconscious levels of the mind, where an individual's integrity and identity are maintained through beliefs. A hypnotist is an expert in communicating with all levels of the client's mind. A typical session involves guiding the client to discover their own powerful resources that can be applied to any areas in a client's life in order to feel better, and thus perform better.
Hypnosis can also be used to take advantage of the mind-body connection and there was a study, published in the Harvard Gazette, about how hypnosis significantly increased the healing and recovery times for surgical patients. Click here for the story.
For more detailed information on hypnosis, beliefs and the subconscious mind, please read below.
Hypnosis can also be used to take advantage of the mind-body connection and there was a study, published in the Harvard Gazette, about how hypnosis significantly increased the healing and recovery times for surgical patients. Click here for the story.
For more detailed information on hypnosis, beliefs and the subconscious mind, please read below.
Hypnosis Begins With RelaxationHypnosis is a process where a hypnotist guides the client to create a deep state of relaxation.
Deep relaxation frees the client to step around their normal mental blocks so that they can make changes to feel better about the area they are working on. This also allows the hypnotist to work directly with the subconscious. This is why hypnosis is so effective, it can cut through any confusion you might hold about yourself so that you can return to clarity. |
The Subconscious Mind?The subconscious area of the mind is present in every individual on the planet. It communicates through emotion and holds the foundation of your identity intact.
It does this through your beliefs, definitions, relationships, morals and ethics in addition to your entire life's memories. It truly knows you better than you know yourself. Your subconcious is above all your most loyal servant and is responsible for your intuition and your ability to learn. |
Changing Beliefs Through HypnosisWhen you are fully conscious and engaged with the waking world, you have very little access to your subconscious. This is actually a safety mechanism because your subconscious would be constantly changing, absorbing new beliefs from your busy mind and the outside world. This would affect your sense of identity directly.
But when you are deeply relaxed, your busy mind subsides and you focus inwardly, which causes the subconscious and your conscious mind to communicate more directly. I work at both levels, communicating with you and your subconscious in a way that allows you to evaluate my suggestions and techniques, and then your subconscious takes your cue (you are still the boss, after all) and engages with me to dissolve old beliefs and create more productive ones. |
New Beliefs = A New YouBeliefs are the source of your integrity, that is to say, acting with integrity is when you act with pure conviction that what you are doing is possible and correct for you. This is your point of power because your thoughts, emotions and actions are all in complete alignment.
I can work with you at your conscious and subconscious levels to help you feel like you can accomplish anything, and also I can guide you to change beliefs that are holding you back or are no longer useful. All change we do is something you have to want at a conscious level. Without conscious permission, the subconscious simply will not change. This is the essence of why hypnosis is safe. |
What is a Belief?Beliefs are thoughts you have been repeating about something for a long time. The subconscious picks up on this and essentially 'takes over' that job so that it becomes automatic. This can be of benefit or detriment to the individual in question. The subconscious never judges, it just assumes that since you wanted to think that thought over and over, this is something that is useful.
Most of your core beliefs are picked up before the age of 7. This is the biological gate that locks most of your neural development, and essentially is the foundation for your personality and how you relate to the world. It's no surprise that people tend to be similar to their parents and cultural locale. People are constantly exchanging beliefs and values, so any youngster absorbs these like a sponge. What makes beliefs so powerful is that the subconscious, being aware of everything you are doing or thinking, will fire emotional/feeling signals to you when you are engaged in anything related to your beliefs. So if you have a strong belief that running out into traffic before looking both ways is dangerous, then you would have a really hard time trying to run out onto the street because you would be flooded with emotions of fear and anxiety which is your subconscious telling you 'HEY THIS ISN'T REALLY WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE!' |
Beliefs in PracticeLet's say for instance there were two individuals about to speak in front of a large audience.
Individual A has always thought of themselves as a strong and entertaining public speaker. Individual B had an embarassing accident at a young age during a school poetry recital and has since thought of themselves as a terrible public speaker. Obviously, A will have an easy time delivering their speech to the audience and will feel great doing it. Whereas B will be sweating profusely, possibly stuttering and generally feel like he/she would rather die than speak in public. Both of these individuals practiced thoughts about how they relate to public speaking, one obviously more positive than the other. Their respective subconscious minds' took over this thinking and they would now require an awful lot of work to change their beliefs' momentum. |