“Most people walk through the world in a trance of disempowerment. Our work is to transform that into a trance of empowerment.”
~Milton Erickson
What is Hypnotherapy?
How Does Hypnotherapy Work?
Benefits of Hypnotherapy
History of Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy With TRW
WHAT IS HYPNOTHERAPY?
The word “hypnosis” comes from the Greek word “hypnos” which means sleep.
Hypnosis is a psychology based field of study that focuses on altered states of consciousness. Hypnotherapy is the process through which these altered states of consciousness can be used to influence positive changes in a person’s attitude, perception, and behavior. Hypnotherapy is the practice of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes.
The conscious mind, which is the rational and analytical mind, is suspended for a time, while the unconscious mind, which holds all our emotions, memories, and creativity, is more accessible to provide resources not usually available. Research indicates that suggestion therapy may encourage positive and healthy behaviors like self-motivation and self-confidence. Hypnotherapy may help clients uncover the psychological root of a problem or symptom. For instance, the root of one’s social anxiety, depression, and/or past trauma. It is important to understand that feelings or memories associated with trauma tend to “hide” in an unconscious memory so that the individual doesn’t remember (on a conscious level) the trauma he/she experienced.
Unlike dramatic portrayals of hypnosis in movies, books, or on stage, you will not be unconscious, asleep, or in any way out of control of yourself. You will hear the therapist’s suggestions, but it is up to you to choose whether or not to respond and act on them.
HOW DOES HYPNOTHERAPHY WORK?
A hypnotherapist uses communication skills and techniques to guide the client into a deep state of relaxation. Allowing for concentration and hyper-focus to achieve a heightened state of awareness, often referred to as a trance. Hypnotic trance is a normal state where humans naturally experience moving in and out of their daily life. If you’ve ever zoned out on your daily commute, fell into a reverie while listening to music, or found yourself immersed in the world of a book or movie, you’ve been in the trance state. It is a narrowing of attention so that distractions are shut out and a focused awareness is achieved. The trance state is similar to meditation where the innate powers of the human mind flow freely and enhance every area of life.
Hypnotherapy expert Diane Zimberoff, compares the subconscious mind to a computer’s file system: "Our subconscious is like our hard drive, where we store every experience, emotion, and thought we’ve had. In the relaxed, hyper-focused state of hypnosis — under the guidance of a hypnotherapist — we can run a Google search on our subconscious, pulling up the repressed memories and buried emotions at the root of our mental health challenges."
Zimberoff writes: "Each unhealthy current behavior, such as smoking, losing one’s temper, excessive alcohol consumption, or compulsive overeating has a chain of events that laid the foundation for all of our current unhealthy choices. Through the ‘memory chip’ that has been laid down in the subconscious mind, we can trace back the experiences and subconscious decisions we made as children that may be leading us to the behavior that is no longer healthy for us.”
Benefits of Hypnotherapy
The trance hypnotic state allows for a person to be open to suggestion and rewire the connections in their brain. This treatment may improve many conditions, including:
Phobias ● Fears ● Depression ● Anxiety ● Stress
Grief ● Migraines ● Chronic Pain ● Allergies
Cancer ● Childbirth ● Addiction ● Conflicts
Weight Management ● Cessation of Smoking
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Sleep Disorders ● Habit Control ● Dementia
Procrastination ● Emotional Issues
Confidence Learning Focus & Concentration
Performance Enhancement ● Test Taking
Finding Lost Objects ● Past Life Regression
Memory Retrieval
HYPNOTHERAPHY WITH TRW
Often attributed to Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Hypnotherapy is the space where the subconscious mind is flexible and can shift to allow your goals to become realized. Together, we can navigate your inner world, release outdated thoughts and conditioned beliefs to allow a flow with your infinite inner wisdom, creativity, potential, and more.
Many people don’t realize how deeply their current state is rooted in events of the past. As a Hypnotherapist, The Reiki Warrior is able to guide you through the process of accessing your subconscious mind to overcome challenges. In general, short-term hypnotherapy is best for singular struggles such as smoking cessation or simple habits, and usually takes one to five sessions. Ongoing integrative energy medicine combined with hypnotherapy is best suited for issues such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, trauma, eating disorders, drug and alcohol addictions, and challenges that involve more than one issue. For this work, the client and therapist develop an ongoing therapeutic relationship where weekly or biweekly appointments can be set up with any needed flexibility according to the client's schedule.
HISTORY OF HYPNOTHERAPY
Hypnosis is one of the world's oldest sciences. Ancient hieroglyphics show that the Egyptians were using hypnosis as early as 3000 B.C. There is evidence the Greeks and the Mayans understood it and used it as well. Like other sciences, hypnotism has had its experimenters, pioneers, lucky guessers, and experts. While hypnosis has had a place in society for thousands of years it also carved out a place as a legitimate modern medical practice where it is called hypnotherapy. The article below entitled "History of Hypnotherapy" by Gordon Young, dated June 22, 2018, from the Institute of Applied Psychology (IAP) website gives a well-rounded account of modern history:
Though practitioners haven’t always understood how it works, studies by respected and peer-reviewed publications such as the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Health Psychology show that hypnosis can measurably improve outcomes for many different types of therapies. While hypnotherapy and hypnosis are largely considered a more new-age treatment for a variety of medical and emotional conditions, the truth is that this practice has deep roots and has been around for thousands of years. In fact, there is evidence suggesting that hypnosis has existed since the beginning of recorded history through the practice wasn’t termed hypnotism until around 1841.
While hypnosis hasn’t always been understood in the same way that it is today, the practice is recognizable throughout history. Ancient Hindus, for example, would induce something they called temple sleep which was a type of self-induced hypnosis brought on by meditation to heal various ailments. The first known written indicator of the practice was in a 1027 publication called The Book of Healing. More religious practitioners in countries such as Austria and Ireland associated hypnosis with prayer, and it was a part of many spiritual ceremonies, leading to its supernatural mystique.
By the late 1700s, hypnotherapy had moved away from mysticism and into the scientific realm. The practice was closely associated with the study of magnetic forces for treating ailments and was, for a time, actually called animal magnetism. By the early 1800s, however, some scientific minds were starting to discern the fact that the process worked even without the use of magnets. In fact, a priest named Abbe Faria created quite a stir by publicly demonstrating his ability to alter someone’s state of mind with just technique and the cooperation of his subject.
Just a few years later, Faria’s discoveries allowed physicians to successfully use the principles of hypnotism as a viable form of anesthesia for major surgeries. Still, scientists were skeptical, and it was widely misunderstood how and why this worked. Also, a wide variety of critics were put off by the seeming lack of control that accompanied hypnosis, and by the Civil War period in the 1860s, there was greater access to more reliable anesthesia such as chloroform. At this point in history, the practice switched from a medical phenomenon to a principle of psychology, with hypnosis used more frequently to treat mental health conditions. By the late 1800s, The First International Congress for Experimental and Therapeutic Hypnotism was populated almost entirely by scientists who studied the human mind such as Sigmund Freud.
Today, hypnotherapy is used to treat a variety of disorders, including depression, anxiety, addictions, and PTSD. Unlike the past, hypnosis is understood and integrated into modern medical technology. In some ways, the practice has come full circle as it is now used to enhance anesthesia as well as directly treat both physical and mental conditions. Many countries regulate hypnotherapy in the same way that they do other types of medicine, and doctors will often recommend these types of ‘alternative’ treatments.
Most people associate hypnotherapy with stage tricks and dramatic shows, but it’s clear that there have always been serious applications for this little-understood science and that there is more evidence than ever that it is a safe and effective field of medical study.