Chances are you have heard of hypnotherapy, but do you know truly what it is, and how it might actually help you? When you think of hypnotherapy, aka hypnosis, do you think of a magician on stage making someone act like a chicken, perhaps you have childhood (I'm giving away my age) memories of the giant snake in The Jungle Book with swirly eyes?
Well, the truth is, they are forms of hypnosis - but they are more 'ticks' than 'therapy' and here at Wellbeing Practice, we like to focus on the therapy part of it, to help our clients overcome problems or difficulties in their lives.
Hypnotherapy is a very useful and powerful tool we have in our mental wellbeing toolkit, and that's because it deals with the deeper subconscious mind, which is where the majority of our beliefs, behaviours and thoughts stem from, even if we don't know it!
The 'Google description' of hypnosis, or hypnotherapy is: ''Hypnosis is a changed state of awareness and increased relaxation that allows for improved focus and concentration. It also is called hypnotherapy. Hypnosis usually is done with the guidance of a health care provider using verbal repetition and mental images. During hypnosis, most people feel calm and relaxed. Hypnosis typically makes people more open to suggestions about behavior changes.
Hypnosis can help you gain control over behaviors you'd like to change. It may help you cope better with anxiety or pain. Although you're more open to suggestion during hypnosis, you don't lose control over your behavior during a hypnosis session.''
A trained professional will know how to illicit a relaxed state in your session, which can make accessing your subconscious mind more readily available. In this relaxed state, we can investigate and begin to understand why you might experience some of the thoughts and behaviours that are causing issues in your conscious day-to-day life. It's also the state in which we can start to gentle re-programme them. That's why it is often used to change behaviours and addictions such as smoking or nerves.
Here are three common ways in which hypnotherapy can help YOU
1. It can give you a deeper understanding. Much like the processing of journalling for some, it is often when we access a calm and flowing state of tapping into the sub-conscious mind that we can illicit answers that our conscious mind simply doesn't know. A trained professional will know the best ways to gently prompt the right questions about 'why do you stress eat, what's really worrying you, why are you scared of dogs, where does your self worth belief stem from?'
2 You can change your negative habit. Want to tackle your stress eating, smoking, insomnia or phobia? Then hypnotherapy might be the answer
3 Want to find a way to lower stress or anxiety? Perhaps there is no obvious behaviour or trauma that you're offering from, but most of us are caught in a chronic state of stress and overwhelm. Accessing a deep relaxed state can be hugely beneficial for lowering cortisol, encouraging wellbeing and mindfulness.
If you're interested in knowing more about hypnotherapy and would like to know more about the process then drop us an email on hello@wellbeingpractice.co.uk and we can talk about how to incorporate it into your wellbeing programme.
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