Most people have heard of hypnosis. Many associate hypnosis with participants on stage acting like chickens, or worse still strutting around like Mick Jagger. Some associate hypnosis with its therapeutic qualities, like for weight loss and smoking cessation. For many there is great mystery surrounding it.
Few people know this, but hypnosis, or rather hypnotherapy for its proper therapeutic title, can help you change almost anything. It goes far beyond the scope of just weight loss and smoking cessation. An experienced and creative hypnotherapist should be able to help you with a very wide variety of issues, not just your Jagger or Elvis routines. Once you know how hypnosis works, you should be able see why it can help so much.
To show you how hypnosis works, I need to say a few words about the conscious and the subconscious minds. Bear with me as this will definitely help facilitate your understanding of how hypnosis can help you in a therapeutic setting.
The conscious part of the mind is what most people associate with “thinking”. It is the more logical and analytical part of the mind, and the part that thinks in words.
The subconscious part of the mind is the more automatic and flowing part. It is the part that is responsible for more automatic functions, such as sweating and breathing, and your habits and urges. It is also responsible for your “gut feelings”, emotions, and visualisations.
The subconscious part of the mind is actually the most powerful part. When a sportsman is “in the zone” and playing very well, it is because he is successfully accessing that flowing automatic subconscious part of their mind. You usually perform badly when you are feeling “self conscious” and accessing the conscious part of your mind.
Now here is an example to show you why it is important to have an appreciation of the conscious and subconscious minds. If you are concerned about a friend that is smoking and needs to quit, what normally happens? Typically you will talk to them on a conscious level about how smoking is damaging their health, and how they should give up. You may try to gently broach the subject and hope they won’t get offended, and gently explain that you are only saying these things because you care about them as a friend. One of two things usually happens. Either they will go into defensive mode, get angry, and tell you to mind your own business, or they will agree with you genuinely and wholeheartedly. Either way the result is rarely that they actually quit. They may say they will, but rarely will it happen, even if they really want it to. Why is this?
It is because you were talking to them on a conscious level. They may have understood and accepted what you said on this conscious level. They probably wholeheartedly agreed with you on a conscious level, but still they do not change their behaviour. This is because it is not the conscious mind that is responsible for those automatic urges. Your friends may consciously want to quit smoking, but their subconscious mind still has those strong urges, and is probably unaware of its negative influence. They are literally caught in two minds. Their conscious mind may agree to quit, but their subconscious mind does not. Even if they manage to quit for a day or two, it is usually just a small matter of time before they are smoking again. The powerful subconscious mind usually wins the battle in the end. Their conscious mind may hate it, but they continue to smoke anyway.
In order for permanent change, they must also subconsciously want to quit smoking. A good hypnotherapist will usually ask why they started smoking in the first place. Common answers are to be part of the crowd, to look ‘cool’ etc. The problem is that the smoker’s mind was subconsciously programmed with these supposed benefits many years ago, which is why they started smoking in the first place. Although they no longer consciously think that smoking is cool, or care that they are part of the ‘in crowd’, their subconscious mind doesn’t yet know this, simply because it hasn’t been told.
A hypnotherapist will guide a subject into trance, which allows them to better talk to the subconscious mind, and convince it that smoking is no longer a positive thing. Once suitably convinced, the subject will no longer be caught ‘in two minds’. They now know on a conscious and subconscious level the negative effects of smoking, and have discounted the supposed positives.
Once it has been convinced, the subconscious urges to smoke significantly reduce, making it far easier to quit smoking permanently. That is why hypnotherapy can help someone stop smoking in just a single one hour session, even if they have battled to quit for many years.
It is not just quitting smoking where this principal works either. A person who has a phobia of, say birds, can also benefit from this principal. Consciously they know that a bird is harmless, however subconsciously they do not. Something may have happened to them in the past where they learnt to subconsciously associate a bird with danger. Perhaps a bird flew near their face as a child, causing them to become upset.
The subconscious mind then triggers an automatic fear response whenever the person sees a bird. This can cause the person to panic, and can further strengthen this fear over time. Each time they panic and run away, they increasingly programme their subconscious mind to fear these harmless creatures more and more. That is how people can be terrifyingly afraid of the most innocuous of things, even if consciously they know they should not be.
A hypnotherapist will simply talk to the subconscious mind and tell it that birds are nothing to be feared. They may use simple language, visualisations, and metaphors in order to convey this message. Once the subconscious mind is convinced, the automatic fear response will no longer be triggered by birds.
This is basically how hypnotherapy works. It is just a way of talking to the subconscious mind and convincing it to change. A hypnotherapist may convince the subconscious mind that exercise is a good thing, helping the subject become fitter and lose weight. A hypnotherapist may convince it that there is nothing to fear from public speaking. There are a whole load of things that you can talk to the subconscious about. In fact it is almost endless. This is why hypnotherapy is such a good therapeutic tool, as it can quickly help with a whole host of issues with minimal fuss.
So remember that hypnosis is not just about dodgy poultry impressions or even more dodgy dancing routines. It can quickly and efficiently help with permanent change simply by communicating to the subconscious part of the mind. It can help people improve their lives quickly and efficiently by delving deep into the mind and convincing it to change.
Jon Rhodes is an experienced and popular hypnotherapist from Lancashire UK. As well as a thriving practice, he also treats people all over the world with his unique hypnosis audio sessions. A former professional musician, Jon has combined his two talents of music and hypnotherapy to great effect. Please click here for details of his instantly downloadable hypnosis mp3 audio sessions.
Most people have heard of hypnosis. Many associate hypnosis with participants on stage acting like chickens, or worse still strutting around like Mick Jagger. Some associate hypnosis with its therapeutic qualities, like for weight loss and smoking cessation. For many there is great mystery surrounding it.
Few people know this, but hypnosis, or rather hypnotherapy for its proper therapeutic title, can help you change almost anything. It goes far beyond the scope of just weight loss and smoking cessation. An experienced and creative hypnotherapist should be able to help you with a very wide variety of issues, not just your Jagger or Elvis routines. Once you know how hypnosis works, you should be able see why it can help so much.
To show you how hypnosis works, I need to say a few words about the conscious and the subconscious minds. Bear with me as this will definitely help facilitate your understanding of how hypnosis can help you in a therapeutic setting.
The conscious part of the mind is what most people associate with “thinking”. It is the more logical and analytical part of the mind, and the part that thinks in words.
The subconscious part of the mind is the more automatic and flowing part. It is the part that is responsible for more automatic functions, such as sweating and breathing, and your habits and urges. It is also responsible for your “gut feelings”, emotions, and visualisations.
The subconscious part of the mind is actually the most powerful part. When a sportsman is “in the zone” and playing very well, it is because he is successfully accessing that flowing automatic subconscious part of their mind. You usually perform badly when you are feeling “self conscious” and accessing the conscious part of your mind.
Now here is an example to show you why it is important to have an appreciation of the conscious and subconscious minds. If you are concerned about a friend that is smoking and needs to quit, what normally happens? Typically you will talk to them on a conscious level about how smoking is damaging their health, and how they should give up. You may try to gently broach the subject and hope they won’t get offended, and gently explain that you are only saying these things because you care about them as a friend. One of two things usually happens. Either they will go into defensive mode, get angry, and tell you to mind your own business, or they will agree with you genuinely and wholeheartedly. Either way the result is rarely that they actually quit. They may say they will, but rarely will it happen, even if they really want it to. Why is this?
It is because you were talking to them on a conscious level. They may have understood and accepted what you said on this conscious level. They probably wholeheartedly agreed with you on a conscious level, but still they do not change their behaviour. This is because it is not the conscious mind that is responsible for those automatic urges. Your friends may consciously want to quit smoking, but their subconscious mind still has those strong urges, and is probably unaware of its negative influence. They are literally caught in two minds. Their conscious mind may agree to quit, but their subconscious mind does not. Even if they manage to quit for a day or two, it is usually just a small matter of time before they are smoking again. The powerful subconscious mind usually wins the battle in the end. Their conscious mind may hate it, but they continue to smoke anyway.
In order for permanent change, they must also subconsciously want to quit smoking. A good hypnotherapist will usually ask why they started smoking in the first place. Common answers are to be part of the crowd, to look ‘cool’ etc. The problem is that the smoker’s mind was subconsciously programmed with these supposed benefits many years ago, which is why they started smoking in the first place. Although they no longer consciously think that smoking is cool, or care that they are part of the ‘in crowd’, their subconscious mind doesn’t yet know this, simply because it hasn’t been told.
A hypnotherapist will guide a subject into trance, which allows them to better talk to the subconscious mind, and convince it that smoking is no longer a positive thing. Once suitably convinced, the subject will no longer be caught ‘in two minds’. They now know on a conscious and subconscious level the negative effects of smoking, and have discounted the supposed positives.
Once it has been convinced, the subconscious urges to smoke significantly reduce, making it far easier to quit smoking permanently. That is why hypnotherapy can help someone stop smoking in just a single one hour session, even if they have battled to quit for many years.
It is not just quitting smoking where this principal works either. A person who has a phobia of, say birds, can also benefit from this principal. Consciously they know that a bird is harmless, however subconsciously they do not. Something may have happened to them in the past where they learnt to subconsciously associate a bird with danger. Perhaps a bird flew near their face as a child, causing them to become upset.
The subconscious mind then triggers an automatic fear response whenever the person sees a bird. This can cause the person to panic, and can further strengthen this fear over time. Each time they panic and run away, they increasingly programme their subconscious mind to fear these harmless creatures more and more. That is how people can be terrifyingly afraid of the most innocuous of things, even if consciously they know they should not be.
A hypnotherapist will simply talk to the subconscious mind and tell it that birds are nothing to be feared. They may use simple language, visualisations, and metaphors in order to convey this message. Once the subconscious mind is convinced, the automatic fear response will no longer be triggered by birds.
This is basically how hypnotherapy works. It is just a way of talking to the subconscious mind and convincing it to change. A hypnotherapist may convince the subconscious mind that exercise is a good thing, helping the subject become fitter and lose weight. A hypnotherapist may convince it that there is nothing to fear from public speaking. There are a whole load of things that you can talk to the subconscious about. In fact it is almost endless. This is why hypnotherapy is such a good therapeutic tool, as it can quickly help with a whole host of issues with minimal fuss.
So remember that hypnosis is not just about dodgy poultry impressions or even more dodgy dancing routines. It can quickly and efficiently help with permanent change simply by communicating to the subconscious part of the mind. It can help people improve their lives quickly and efficiently by delving deep into the mind and convincing it to change.
Jon Rhodes is an experienced and popular hypnotherapist from Lancashire UK. As well as a thriving practice, he also treats people all over the world with his unique hypnosis audio sessions. A former professional musician, Jon has combined his two talents of music and hypnotherapy to great effect. Please click here for details of his instantly downloadable hypnosis mp3 audio sessions.