Hypnotherapy - the last resort?

People often try everything else before they turn to a hypnotherapist.

Why is that the case when hypnotherapy can be so effective and pleasant?

• Unfortunately people associate clinical hypnotherapy with stage hypnosis. A stage hypnotist wants to select audience members who will go along with the show, don’t mind performing for an audience and will enjoy being centre stage in a comedic show

• Often people at a stage hypnosis show will have been drinking and, because alcohol lowers inhibitions, they can play along with the act even if they are not fully hypnotised

• But when they do silly things, the people watching believe that it’s due to the power of hypnosis.

This means that people associate hypnosis with being controlled by a hypnotist and that idea can be scary. People want to feel in control of their own lives and not controlled by someone else.

So people will often see their doctor, request medication or try other techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy or counselling to address their issue. Or sometimes they think that they just need to put up with something, like anxiety, panic or a phobia, and that there’s nothing they can do about it.

Even if other techniques are more or less helpful, sometimes people just don’t fully make the changes they want, whether it’s stopping smoking, dealing with anxiety and panic, fears and phobias, or the impact of long-term stress.

Finally, when all else fails people may stumble across hypnotherapy, from googling their issue, from a conversation with friends or family, from something they see on tv etc.

Hypnotherapy, especially as it’s practised today, is a safe and effective approach to deal with many issues.

Hypnosis has a long history, it’s been used for hundreds or thousands of years, often providing relief from pain.

Two centuries ago, hypnosis was used in medical settings much more than it is now. James Braid, a Scottish surgeon who lived from 1795 - 1860 used hypnosis as an anaesthetic in hundreds of operations when there weren’t really any other effective options. When ether began to be used as an anaesthetic in the 1840s, hypnosis fell out of fashion.

Hypnosis was used again in the early 20th century with Freud’s psychoanalytical approaches. He used the state of hypnosis as a way of exploring the unconscious mind. But (some say because he wasn’t a particularly effective hypnotist) Freud preferred 'free association', in which patients were encouraged to speak freely and unprompted in order to uncover what he said were repressed thoughts, feelings and memories.

In the 1950s an American psychiatrist and psychologist Milton Erickson developed his own approach to hypnosis, using informal conversation with certain language patterns to direct his patients’ awareness and achieve changes in their thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Neuro-linguistic therapy (NLP), developed in the 1980s, uses Ericksonian techniques as part of its approach.

Modern hypnotherapy training draws from those who have practised hypnosis in the past and teaches how to safely apply different techniques in various situations.

The reality of clinical hypnotherapy as practised by Sara makes people feel more in control.

Here are some reasons why hypnotherapy in the 21st century isn’t scary:

• With clinical hypnotherapy, you are completely in control. No-one can use a trance state to make you do anything you don’t want to. In recent times we now are understanding more about coercive control, but that has nothing to do with the state of hypnosis.

• In the hypnosis part of a session, you are reclining, can relax fully, there’s no need for the therapist to touch the client (of course that is impossible in a video call!), your breathing is calm so you will feel safe and comfortable.

• When you are physically relaxed your mind can more easily imagine and visualise creative solutions and positive outcomes and gain insights into your issues and take new, more helpful, perspectives.

• Most people want to focus on the present and immediate future - they want to feel differently or do different things now. They don’t want to delve into the past and don’t want deep analytical therapy lasting months or years. Hypnotherapy with Sara will focus on what you want to achieve. Sara respects your agenda rather than trying to impose a set idea or solution.

• Where a client does want to deal with something from the past, any uncomfortable feelings or memories are easier to work through when the body is relaxed in hypnosis. There are hypno-analytical techniques that are effective if someone does want to explore the continued effect of past events or beliefs. Again, Sara will discuss these with her clients so that the approach taken is discussed and agreed in advance.

• Hypnotherapy can feel like the most relaxed way to make big and important changes.

• People are often surprised how the hypnotherapy can have such a powerful effect within a few sessions, but feel so relaxing and comfortable. Sara offers a one session stop smoking approach (with a free backup and on-going support if needed), works with most other clients for between 4 and 8 sessions and can provide one-off additional sessions as and when needed. The client decides the timing of their sessions and the number of weeks between each session. You really are in control of the process.

So there are reasons why people can come to hypnotherapy when all else fails, but they are often pleased and surprised at how well it works. Then they tell their friends and family and hopefully others are able to come to hypnotherapy before their issues cause years or decades of distress and frustration and they can live their life in the way they want and feel good about that.