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Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is NOT sleep
You will NOT lose your awareness
You will NOT be in someone else's power
You will NOT be out of control
You will NOT be in a trance
You CANNOT be made to do or say anything you don't want to
To hear Neil talking about hypnosis and hypnotherapy on
Glen Campbell's Sunday Breakfast Show on Real Radio click Here

What then IS hypnosis?

All hypnosis is self-hypnosis and no one can be hypnotised by another person. You allow yourself to be guided into your own hypnosis usually by the therapist gently talking you through a relaxation and you remain in control at all times. You always know what is happening and you are in full awareness at all times. You can stop the session at any time just by opening your eyes.

Everyone has experienced hypnosis many, many times. You go into light hypnosis on and off all the time - except you just wouldn't call it that:

Have you ever caught yourself day-dreaming and not been aware of things happening around you?
Have you ever been so absorbed in a book or watching a film or TV that you haven't realised an hour or two has gone by?
Drivers do it all the time - you leave home and drive to a familiar destination - what happened in between? Don't know, can't remember - and yet you were driving with absolute safety and would have responded to any emergency situation that arose.
Meditators are practising self-hypnosis.
Students are very good at it . . . . in lectures.
You are very good at it in staff or team meetings . . . . heard it all before, same people rabbiting on about the same old stuff - and you - drifting off in your mind somewhere else.

The day-dreamy state is so familiar that at the end of the first session it is common for people to disbelieve that they have been in hypnosis.

The main difference between these experiences and purposeful self-hypnosis under the guidance of a hypnotherapist is that the hypnotherapist is introducing specific motivations and suggestions towards the goal that you want to achieve. Hypnotherapy encourages the mind to achieve some desired result like pain or stress relief, positive self-image, freedom from a phobia, positive self-control (as in being a non-smoker) etc.

Any suggestion contrary to your inner convictions will either be ignored by you, or you will come out of the hypnotic state. The subconscious mind will only accept suggestions that you decide are beneficial to you and what you want. You will resist anything else.

Will I lose control without knowing it?
Hypnotherapists do not possess the power to control other people's minds. They guide you into deep relaxation and in this deep relaxation you are not held back by the inhibitions which normally prevent you from accessing your inner thoughts and feelings. If you don't want to reveal things that are private, you won't. The stage hypnotist has contributed to the image of hypnosis as being a 'trance', 'sleep-like' or 'out-of -this-world' zombie state. In fact the opposite is true: under hypnosis all your senses are heightened. You are totally in control of everything.

Can I be made to do some thing against my will?
What about those performers on TV and stage?
NO. Pub and Club shows where people run around like headless chickens or croon away thinking they are Elvis Presley create a misunderstanding of what is really happening. The guinea-pigs in those situations could actually choose not to behave like that but they just don't know it because of the myth and misunderstanding that these shows perpetuate.
This is fully explained in your session so that you have clear understanding of what is happening.

How is that Paul McKenna just snaps his fingers and his subject seems to fall straight into hypnosis?
This is also fully explained in your session so that you have clear understanding of what is happening.

How does hypnosis work?
Hypnosis creates a very focussed awareness and so all outside distractions are eliminated and your attention is focussed on the hypnotherapist's voice and what is being said. It is this profound concentration that permits suggestions to 'sink in' to your mind much more easily. The principal reason for its use is that under hypnosis you can become much more aware of the usually archaic origin of your present behaviour patterns and let them go as you are guided to replace them with new, desired and beneficial ones, e.g. "I was a smoker because . . . . and now I am a non-smoker."

Can I be stuck in a hypnotic state?
No, because you take yourself into self-hypnosis and just as you cannot be hypnotised against your own will, you can bring yourself out in a split second.

By the end of the session you will be pretty well grounded in what hypnosis is and what hypnotherapy is and how it all works.

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