Hypnotherapy explained in a nutshell

Hypnotherapy has been practiced for a long time and used for anything from eliminating bad habits to relieving stress, pain, fear and anxiety. Hypnotherapy can change our minds to accept new, healthier habits or preferred responses by placing positive suggestions deep into the subconscious parts of our brains. Once out of trance, the subconscious then sends these new preferred positive suggestions to the conscious part of your brain. It will have travelled the third of a second it takes to get from the subconscious part of the brain to full conscious awareness – by this time you will already be responding in a completely different way….and all without even having to consciously think about it, phew!

Here’s the nutshell part, this works because the subconscious part of the brain has no logic….really! Reasoning, comparison and logic are all the domain of the conscious part of our brain. The subconscious instead is a pattern matcher, a good example of this is your heartbeat, kidney function etc. you are not consciously controlling these organs but your subconscious is. In the same way, once it has recognised a pattern it will continually keep repeating this same response you had ‘one time’ until you do something to change it. It believes if you responded in that particular way once then it must be what you want, after all, it’s job is to protect you and keep you alive…..remember the bit about it not having logic!

One of the joys of a hypnotherapy session is the wonderful state of deep relaxation people enjoy, not only on their way into trance but also during and once fully back to full conscious awareness. Using deep breathing, focused awareness and visualisation, you are gently taken into deep levels of comfort, easily able to release tension and let go of anxieties whilst floating in a wonderful calm state of relaxed awareness. It is in this state that the magic happens and the subconscious part of the brain accepts the new, healthier suggestions.

There are also other powerful therapies available including BWRT® (BrainWorking Recursive Therapy). But if you’re looking for a gentle and relaxing way of making changes, then hypnotherapy is by far the most relaxing.