What is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy, or therapy utilizing hypnosis, is often used as part of a treatment plan in therapy (for example anxiety or depression). It is also used throughout the medical field for pain management, weight loss, and a variety of other applications.

**Hypnotherapy is not stage hypnosis.** Stage hypnosis is for entertainment purposes only. Hypnotherapy utilizes the heightened awareness of the hypnotic state to help you explore your issue more deeply. Hypnosis accesses the subconscious, the place where you hold your habits and reasons for doing things, reasons that you may not be aware of consciously. A hypnotherapist will guide you into a state of focused relaxation, this can be done in a lot of different ways. Like most therapies, hypnotherapy is developed around how the client learns and the clients’ interests. This makes each hypnotherapy session very personal to each client. For example, a hypnotherapist can treat two clients for depression but the hypnotic portion of the sessions will be very different depending on the client.

**During hypnotherapy, you remain in control.** It is not possible for someone to do anything against their will, even under hypnosis, it is not mind control.

You may be very focused on the work at hand, and so you may not pay attention to your surroundings, but you will always be in charge of your own actions, behaviour, and statements.

**Hypnosis is not the same as being asleep.** You will remember the things that occur during your hypnotic state, you will not be unconscious, and you will be able to break the hypnotic trance at any time.

How does hypnotherapy help?

In a hypnotic state, you are deeply relaxed. Your conscious mind gets to take a much-needed break, allowing your unconscious mind to deeply focus on your issue. You are also calmer, and therefore more receptive to facing your issue. There is a vast amount of therapeutic techniques that can be used once a client is in a hypnotic state. Visualizations, confronting fears, cognitive relearning, meeting an ‘inner advisor’, even understanding when and why a problem began can be discovered in a hypnotic state

Is hypnotherapy magic?

**No, hypnotherapy is not magic!** The hypnotic state is created by the client and the client alone. The hypnotherapist gives instructions, if the client follows those instructions, they will lead themselves into some sort of hypnotic trance. A hypnotherapist cannot 'hypnotize' the anxiety or depressive moods away, rather, they guide you to look a little deeper within yourself to find the solution you need. Hypnosis is completely safe, if anything, at the end of a session you will feel very relaxed.