Hypnotherapy is a form of psychotherapy used to manage and treat everything from chronic pain, to pain during childbirth, phobias to habits, depression and anxiety to obsessions and addictions. In truth, it's difficult to think of an issue that hypnotherapy couldn't help with.
Hypnotherapy has gained some popularity in the media recently, with Anna Richardson becoming it's latest famous fan - even training as a hypnotherapist herself - but it's far from a modern fad. Hypnosis has been around for centuries, and though we're not entirely sure where or when it began to be used, it has been documented across ancient Greece, India and Egypt. In the 1700s Franz Anton Mesmer developed a therapy using touch and eye contact to heal various ills. The medical community of the day concluded that Mesmer's patients were healed by the power of their imagination. In other words, they were "mesmerised".
Although Mesmer coined a term which is still used widely, though usually perhaps unwittingly, it was James Braid, a Scottish surgeon, who in 1842 named the practice hypnotism, from the Greek hypnos -"sleep". Braid believed the hypnotic trance to be induced by fixation on a moving object, which invokes images of the pocket watch swinging slowly back and forth. Hypnosis was used in the American Civil War, in the absence of pain relief and anaesthesia, and again in World Wars 1 and 2, being especially successful in treating "shell shock"; and Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis based on his study of the practice.Hypnosis has continued to be used, both by stage hypnotists, and for therapy purposes, and thanks to celebrity hypnotists such as Derren Brown and Paul McKenna, seems to be more well known and sought after than ever before,
That's a (very) brief history, but it doesn't explain what hypnosis is actually like. I've never yet been tempted to channel Braid and swing a watch before a client's eyes, and while I will vary my approach depending on the individual client and the issue being addressed, I tend to favour sitting us both in comfy chairs, listening to some calming music, and beginning with guided relaxation. Being in a hypnotic trance is something that you probably experience daily, though you may call it "daydreaming". That strange state of mind where you appear to be awake, maybe even engaged in a repetitive task (washing dishes is my favourite daydreamy chore), and yet not really "with it", perhaps imagining your next holiday, or what you'd do if you won the lottery, or any number of scenarios more interesting than your current surroundings. And then your child calls out, or your colleague nudges you to alert you of the boss' arrival, and you jump and blink and come back to the present. You might have been vaguely aware of people around you talking but you weren't really taking it in.
Everyone experiences hypnosis differently, some people feel as though they've been deeply asleep, others remember every word I say, and still others fall somewhere in between. Just about everybody feels relaxed and refreshed afterwards, as though they've had a wonderful massage, or a revitalising afternoon nap. When you're in hypnosis your concious mind is distracted, leaving your subconcious in a highly receptive and suggestible state, which allows it to take on new ideas, and change old, unhelpful thought processes.
Because hypnotherapy works on a deeper level than other talking therapies which engage only the concious mind, it tends to be much faster. The average length of time I spend working with a client is around 4 - 6 sessions. Imagine, that's less than two months to change behaviour that may have lasted a lifetime! Happily, this means hypnotherapy can work out much cheaper than some other therapies, some of which may require commitment of a year or more.
If you feel like experiencing some of this lovely relaxation, if you're about ready to tackle those areas of your life you're not completely comfortable with, or if you're just still not entirely sure what I'm talking about, why not try hypnotherapy out for yourself?
I'd love to hear from you, if you've got any comments or questions you can post them below or message me privately on lily@lilycameronhypnotherapy.com
No comments:
Post a Comment