What is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is a form of therapy that uses hypnosis to support clients to access a different level of consciousness. Hypnosis induces a natural state of the mind. It's helpful to think of it like a bridge between our consciousness and our unconsciousness. We are actually in hypnotic states regularly - during that drowsy time when we first wake up, and as we are drifting off to sleep. It can also occur during our wakeful hours when we “zone-out”- perhaps we’re driving on a long stretch of highway, or gazing out the window. Contrary to the way the media portrays hypnosis, you remain in control the whole time and will not do or say anything that you don’t want to.

During hypnosis our brain waves slow down, from the Beta waves where we are fully conscious, down through Alpha, and into Theta and Deep Theta where a window to your subconscious opens. This is where the magic of hypnosis happens, allowing insight and transformation to occur.

What does hypnosis feel like?

In hypnosis you may experience:

Large muscle groups feeling relaxed and lacking in strength (sleep paralysis)
Speech becomes slow and quieter
Sense of timelessness
Noticing sounds, images, smells, tastes, and sensations as if they were real though they are just in our imagination
A sense of just knowing, or understanding something being conveyed to you intuitively

While these are the most common characteristics of hypnosis, each person’s experience is unique. It's helpful to let go of your expectations and just allow whatever happens to happen and notice what you notice without censoring or discounting anything as irrelevant. Your subconscious is a beautifully creative record keeper that often communicates through symbols. You subconscious has a multitude of ways to share important information with you.

You may read the characteristics of hypnosis above and recognize that the qualities of a hypnotic state are very similar to how it feels to sleep and dream, and you are correct! That is to say that it is a natural state and one that many of us have experienced on our own. Hypnosis as a therapeutic tool, utilizes this natural state to support you to create positive change and gain insight because it is guided and allows your conscious mind to take a back seat and observe and learn from what your subconscious is offering.

As with all effective therapy, a critical aspect of hypnotherapy’s success is someone’s willingness to collaborate and engage. Hypnotherapy isn’t something I do to you; I am merely a guide who will help you do the work that brings about your natural state of vitality and wellbeing. But don’t worry, “the work” of hypnotherapy isn’t actually like work at all. In fact, your “job” is to let go as much as possible; letting go of the trying, thinking, and problem-solving that we typically employ to resolve our distress.

Why work with the subconscious?

You’re likely familiar with your conscious mind. It thinks in words, images, and ideas. It considers, wonders, assesses, and makes choices. The conscious mind fills our awareness most of the time. However, how many of us have found ourselves pondering various thoughts while we simultaneously drive to work, make breakfast, or fold the laundry. So, what part of the mind gets us safely to work while we’re thinking about that meeting later today? That part of the mind is your subconscious. It does things like these simple rote tasks, AND it’s responsible for our automatic thoughts, emotions, physical reactions, and behaviors.

Your subconscious mind is the record-keeper, the architect, and in a lot of ways, it’s the builder of your life. It's been recording everything that you have experienced since the beginning of you – even before the conscious mind had words or the ability to describe what it was perceiving! The subconscious has taken all this information and created a blueprint of sorts.

The blueprint lays out your intricate understanding of things. Things like:

how the world works and how it responds to you,
how your body works, what it needs, and how it responds,
what to expect in relationships, and the behavior of others,
what is generally good and safe,
and what is generally bad or dangerous.

Essentially, your subconscious holds the blueprint for what you understand reality to be - what’s possible and what isn’t, as well as what is safe and what is not.

This is the beautiful gift of the subconscious mind, creating this blueprint and then unconsciously building our life according to that reality, so that meanwhile our conscious mind can continue to play with all the new information and experiences that we encounter. And in so many ways this dynamic between our conscious and subconscious mind works for us, helping us build healthy, successful, and fulfilling lives while we learn and grow along the way.

However, sometimes this blueprint gets drafted when our experiences of the world, other people, or our selves is wrought with significant physical, mental, or emotional distress. And our subconscious mind shapes our world view accordingly, developing unconscious behaviors, physical reactions, emotions, and beliefs that are an attempt to avoid further suffering.

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