Responsibility first, hypnotherapy second

So you want to lose some weight? Perhaps you panic on aeroplanes? Or do you want to stop smoking – forever? Can hypnotherapy help you overcome your problem? The answer is yes. Provided that you are prepared to take responsibility for your problem behaviour and are committed to changing it.

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Hypnosis is a tool, potentially a very powerful one. A hypnotherapist can quieten the client's conscious mind and induce a trance state before introducing positive ideas to the receptive subconscious. In essence, these ideas might be, "You have no need to eat junk food", "You will find yourself relaxed in your jumbo jet seat at thirty-eight thousand feet" or, "You have stopped smoking for good. Congratulations!"

Crucial to success is the client's willingness to own their problem behaviour and own up to the emotions that surround it. Stress is not "making" you smoke, disappointment is not "making" you snack, flying is not "making" you panic. No hypnotherapist however skilled, can stop you from smoking, snacking or panicking. Only you can do this.

Just as smoking, overeating and panicking are bad habits, taking responsibility for yourself and your behaviour is a good one. The more responsibility you take, the more life challenges you will discover you can take on, successfully.

Being completely honest with yourself is an excellent exercise. If you smoke for example, you should look at the circumstances in which you smoke and the emotions surrounding your smoking. Keep a daily record of cigarettes consumed and feelings before and after smoking. Most importantly, ask yourself the question: “Do I really want to stop smoking - forever?”

If the answer is a resounding yes, then you are already well on the way to becoming a non-smoker. Now is the time to consider hypnotherapy as a tool to help you achieve your goal. Your honesty plus commitment, will give the hypnotherapist excellent material with which to work. He or she will be working with you, by the way, not for or on you.

In short, taking a look at yourself, your habits and accepting that you are responsible both for maintaining and for ending these habits will provide the backbone to any successful hypnotherapy work.

Because successful hypnotherapy is work. Want to lose weight, stop smoking or feel relaxed - not just for now or the next few weeks, but for good? A good hypnotherapist will work hard to help you achieve this, but he or she will expect you to work hard, too.

Try these words from Eleanor Roosevelt's uncle, Theodore, twenty-sixth President of the United States: "If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.”

Having accepted this harsh life lesson, congratulate yourself - you are already on the way to ending that bad habit - forever.