People typically describe being in a hypnotic state as being deeply relaxed, physically and mentally calm, which allows them to focus intensely. It is a completely unique personal experience and is never the same for each person, nor is it the same each time you are hypnotised. It is certainly not what is portrayed during stage hypnosis designed for the entertainment of an audience.
Many people who come to work with me have plenty of myths surrounding hypnosis generally originating from the media. Most expect me to swing a pocket watch or pendant in front of them and expect to be clucking like a chicken or hopping like a rabbit! Putting the humour aside, hypnosis is a well-studied, documented, thoroughly researched and legitimate treatment for a wide range of conditions.
Hypnosis is simply a term used for a range of different “states”. Once in hypnosis you are highly focussed, completely relaxed, remain fully aware of everything around you and you stay in control. It’s similar to the “state” you are in just before sleep. There are no harmful effects and it delivers long-lasting and permanent benefits.
Hypnotherapy rewires your subconscious brain allowing you to focus on positive more helpful suggestions. The subconscious mind is the key to all your emotions and controls 90% of your behaviour. In most cases, your subconscious mind has learnt behavioural beliefs about yourself from your childhood or past. Sometimes our subconscious mind makes a mistake and creates a connection, thought or emotion between an event and/or behaviour that may have been appropriate then, but it’s less appropriate or helpful now.
So, the answer is, yes hypnosis or hypnotherapy does work.
During hypnosis you will experience the following:
Intense focus: a sense of deep relaxation or perhaps heaviness in parts of your body as you allow your body and mind to let go. This intense focus allows you to concentrate on the hypnotherapist’s suggestions and helps you guide yourself and your thoughts. These suggestions will be decided before your meeting as your session goals. Treatment will be planned around these objectives.
Open-mindedness: once in a hypnotic state people often become more open to considering possibilities than in the awake state. You are less likely to suggest why something would not work or doubt yourself. This open-mindedness can lead to a sense of personal power where you realise you are capable of much more than you think.
Sensory changes: the body starts to perceive experiences and life differently. It can be so profound, some people have undergone surgery without aesthetic. In a state of deep relaxation, many people have found anxiety, stress, trauma and pain disappear and are able to rejuvenate and heal quickly.
Detachment: some people feel a sense of detachment, feeling slightly removed from the experience, making it easier to look at and evaluate. At times, observing from an outside point of view and flipping back and forth between watching and being involved allows more objectivity without being constantly caught up in their emotions.
Watch my quick induction hypnotherapy session with Damon, an oil rigger from Newcastle. Damon was on anxiety medication and was in desperate need to detach and relax from his stressed and anxious world. Since our session Damon has had 5 other sessions and has come off his anxiety medication. Please note, hypnosis can be done in any environment and does not require a state of complete quiet.
Hypnosis allows you to see and deal with significant events and feelings, removes beliefs about yourself from the past and helps you to visualise a better future or way forward. Hypnosis can help you search for an answer or solve a problem you may have. It uses relaxation techniques followed by hypnotic suggestions to help you learn to control your thoughts and emotions.
Hypnosis can leave you feeling refreshed with a peaceful and clear mind which empowers you to feel better about yourself. It allows you to fix yourself as your body always knows what it inherently needs.
Hypnosis helps to:
Break bad habits by changing your thought process. It takes away the emotional connection you have created with the habit and makes it into a positive one. An example of this is smoking.
Find individual personal triggers. What was the trigger to an event in the past that affects the present? Everyone is different, everyone has their own vice, but once we discover the trigger, each session and suggestion will be targeted and planned. An example of this is being overweight.
Release fear from a negative experience or hearing about someone who has had a negative experience. Once the brain is programmed to believe this fear it runs in this mode. Hypnosis can help to rewire the brain using neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) which helps the brain “rewire” certain thought processes. An example of this could be going to the dentist, having to have an injection or the fear of flying.
Helps provide positive suggestions to help cope with symptoms such as headaches, upset stomach, nervousness, loss of motivation or emotions. An example of this can be dealing with grief or loss.
Identify the root cause of stress or anxiety, whether it be situational, physical, or based on an issue from the past. The subconscious mind is what makes you feel anxious and drives bad habits. Often the problem isn’t what it seems. An example of this could be nail biting. Nail-biting isn’t usually the problem, it’s the anxiety which is in the mind. Finding the trigger in the mind usually resolves the problem quickly.
Improving work related, personal or athletic performance. Eliminating negative thoughts, de-stressing and relaxing the mind and body, helps with focus and concentration which increases your ability to be in the performance zone. Mental training increases confidence, consistency, and ability. An example of this could be working on a new project, stepping up into a new leadership role or aiming for the next level in your sport.
Developed by Karl Smith from the UK Hypnosis Academy, Kinetic Shift is a new ground breaking, dynamic treatment that uses feelings and emotions to bring around change. It is a 7 stage process that supports an individual’s belief system that change is happening. Most people cannot express how they feel about an upsetting or traumatic event verbally, therefore during Kinetic Shift you don’t have to tell me what it is you need to “get rid of or change”. Our brain’s have changed since the traditional techniques of Sigmund Freud were developed. Therefore, we need different, diverse and dynamic treatments.
Kinetic Shift treatment works directly with the Amygdala. It uses eye movement techniques to help you better process memories including the left and right side of the brain. It allows you to store your memories in the right location in your brain. It confuses the logical mind and inputs metaphors in its place to get rid of the unhelpful memories or beliefs. This process allows the brain to successfully deal with feelings and emotions allowing you to move on with your life.
What is it?
The Rewind technique confuses the brains sequencing of specific events/trauma/situations and breaks the “links” it’s created between the event and the trauma and the stimulus or memories that sets it off. Eg: smells, tastes or locations. Like Kinetic Shift, you do not have to disclose to me the what it is that’s happened.
It’s simple, confusing but hugely effective, leaving you unable to find the memory again. Our brains think in a forward motion and pattern. The Rewind technique “scrambles” the minds link it’s made regarding the specific event/trauma/situation and leaves it unable to find it again, bring on major relief quickly and effectively.
The benefits of non-disclosure include:
It relieves the psychological, emotional and behavioural suffering caused by manmade and natural traumatic events.
Minimizes the risk of you being re-traumatized or reliving the experience.
There is no fear of disclosing sensitive information e.g. In the case of servicemen, for example, about deployment.
Survivors of rape and sexual abuse do not have to disclose details of the event to me.
The Rewind Techniques offers a way of permanently stopping the involuntary recall of the event/situation/trauma by filing the traumatic event, so you can control the feelings or memories. This stops PTSD, anxiety and stress from building and becoming worse.
EMDR is effective because recalling distressing events is often less emotionally upsetting when your attention is diverted or focussed on something else. This allows you to be exposed to the memories or thoughts without having a strong psychological response to whatever it was that caused your upset.
The more the technique is done, while targeting specific memories one at a time, EMDR starts to lessen the impact that the memories or thoughts have on you emotionally. It’s particularly effective for those who struggle to talk about their past experiences or trauma.
You will be asked to focus on a negative thought, memory, or image you remember. You will simultaneously have to do specific eye movement patterns and exercises. The bilateral stimulation may also include taps or other movements mixed in, depending on how you respond.
After the bilateral stimulation, I will ask you to let your mind go blank and notice the thoughts and feelings you’re having spontaneously. After you identify these thoughts, I may have you refocus on that traumatic memory, or move you on to another.
If you become distressed, I will help bring you back to the present before moving on to another traumatic memory. Over time, the distress over thoughts, images, or memories start to fade away, reprogramming the brain and creating new neural pathways and habits. The traumatic memory or event will fade away in time.
Our memories, negative or positive, are stored in our hippocampus, a small part of the brain at the back of our head. The hippocampus is responsible for storing our long and short term memory but sometime negative memories become ‘stuck’ and the correct ‘home’ for each memory isn’t found. Our brain is similar to a computer database. It has files and folders for memories to be stored in. When we have a traumatic memory, feeling, emotion or event happen to us, the brain at times cannot find the correct ‘home’ for them and it becomes a ‘stuck’ memory.
TimeLine Therapy helps to deal with anger, sadness, hurt, regret, fear and guilt often causing depression, anxiety and stress.
We all have a Timeline – events that have happened in our past and will happen in our future. If we use our imagination and float above our own timeline it may feel like your timeline runs in a vertical line behind, you which represents your past and a vertical line ahead of you which represents your future. It may be a horizontal line which runs to the left or right of you. This does make a difference. The way you visualise your timeline reflects how you store your memories or past experiences, and those memories may be affecting the way approach your present-day situations or your internal thinking.
TimeLine therapy (TLT) is based on the principles of neuro-linguistic programming, the interpersonal communication module and approach to psychotherapy initially created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in 1970. TLT works with your unconscious mind at an unconscious level and helps release the effects of past negative experiences stored in your memory. This in turn, helps change the belief and behaviour system you have created after the negative experiences. Your timeline represents how you unconsciously store your memories or know the difference between a memory from the past and a projection on the future. How responsive you are to change will determine how quickly the matter can be resolved for you. If you are ready to make change happen and let go of these past emotions, the end result will be quicker.
During TimeLine therapy sessions, the client will go back to the first ‘event’ and recall the emotions associated with it. You do not ‘connect’ or ‘relive’ the memory or event as it’s viewed in a different perspective, allowing the mind to look at it from a different point of view, almost at a disassociated level. If you cannot remember the first event happening, hypnosis could be used to allow the unconscious mind to release the memories or blockage.
Aspects of TLT is used in the ‘Integrated Therapy System’ used to speed up the recovery, remove blockages and release memories.
IEMT is a change work tool and model that allows a client to disassociate from disturbing memories, to update identity and to reduce negative emotions. It works on memory and addresses the question “how did a person learn how to feel a certain way?” IEMT works on the memory imprints that are causing emotion.
IEMT is a content free way of working. This is a NOT a talking therapy model or transactional analysis. The role of the therapist is to help facilitate change within the client quickly. It often works on issues that clients have had for years and where other therapy and treatments have failed.
The model of IEMT is based on 5 patterns of chronicity of why someone gets stuck with intrusive thoughts, feelings and emotions.
It is based on eye movement techniques and protocol which allows the client themselves to accurately measure and assess the changes that are taking place in real time and is outcome free.
Why it works: IEMT works especially well on anxiety related issues and those surrounding long term complaints such as depression and low self-esteem. The IEMT model addresses both emotional imprints and identity work.
Trained by world renowned Dr Phillip Manfield, PH.D.
FLASH EMDR is a derivative of EMDR and used at the beginning or the end of intense and deeply transformational trauma recovery therapy. The technique allows a person to tolerate deeply upsetting and disturbing images, events, thoughts, feelings and emotions without becoming overwhelmed, disassociated or shutting down during or after therapy.
It is a refreshing experience and increases dopamine levels in the body and brain. It helps to ‘calm’ the amygdala (the brains stress centre), reconsolidates and modifies memories and helps the brain move to an ‘observer’ view rather than reexperience the trauma.
This technique helps the brain accelerate the processing of traumatic memories and substantially reduces the disturbance level allowing transformation and processing to take place.
Clients who experience FLASH EMDR often describe the technique as life changing and go onto use the technique by themself.
Brainspotting psychotherapy uses a person’s eye position to access where you hold unprocessed trauma in the brain. Where we look affects how we feel, so we use this to target the exact eye spot where the most negative emotion is held.
Once we have this spot the brain can then go on to find what it needs to find, and process it, until it is healed. Brainspotting deals with unprocessed events that become stuck in our nervous system. They need to be ‘unstuck’, moved and filed away by the hippocampus (the brains long and short term memory storing unit) for us to feel like we have moved on from the event, problem or thought.
As we know, trauma can impact on the body so Brainspotting is not only effective for emotional issues, but it is also very effective with physical issues too.
Anger
Anxiety
Chronic Fatigue
Chronic Pain
Depression
PTSD
Sports Performance
Trauma
