"Unveiling the Power of Hypnotherapy: Understanding the Process and its Remarkable Benefits"

When we are born we have so much potential. But then we are influenced by the people around us, by our environment and by situations we find ourselves in, in both positive and negative ways. This external influence can cause us to pick up negative beliefs about ourselves which can limit us and hold us back from reaching our full potential. Hypnotherapy can help us tap into our powerful inner mind and help us to break down those limiting beliefs so we can once again access our full potential and live the life we want to.

Hypnotherapy can help to achieve anything from a simple confidence boost for a job interview, to quitting unwanted habits like smoking or nail biting to even more miraculous things like helping someone travel around the world who has been stuck indoors for years with agoraphobia. It can also increase motivation and concentration, reduce stress and anxiety, help with confidence for public speaking, exams, work promotions and in social situations, help improve relationships, sports performance, memory and creativity. It can be used to improve so many areas of human activity the list is almost endless.

Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis which is a deeply relaxed state of consciousness where brainwaves enter into the alpha state. This is not the same as sleep, during the hypnotic state we are fully aware with a heightened awareness and in control at all times. During this state, the barrier between the conscious and subconscious parts of the brain disappears allowing access to our powerful inner mind. This is when we become more receptive to suggestions and more focused on our inner experiences which is where real beneficial change can happen.

During a hypnotherapy session, the hypnotherapist will first have a conversation with you to discuss your goals and what you hope to achieve through hypnotherapy. The hypnotherapist will then guide you into a wonderful relaxed state of hypnosis. An induction will be delivered first which will include some guided visualisation to help you settle into a calm and relaxed place in your mind and to gently guide you into hypnosis and then a deepener will often be used to deepen the hypnotic state. Once your brain waves are in the alpha state and your conscious mind is quiet and relaxed, the hypnotherapist will help you work towards your desired outcomes and help you to make the beneficial changes you want. This might be done by eliminating old unwanted beliefs and ideas about yourself and creating new more beneficial ones. You may be taught coping strategies to help you when confronted with fears or anxieties. You may also explore past experiences that may be responsible for your current problem, with the intention of resolving any past conflict in order to eliminate the current issue so you can move forward.

After achieving the desired outcomes, the hypnotherapist will gently guide you out of the hypnotic state. Most people feel relaxed and refreshed afterwards with a positive and uplifted attitude. You will always remain in control during the sessions and you will only accept suggestions from the therapist that you are happy with. Ultimately the power to change lies with you. So if you really want to, you can let hypnosis change your life for the better.

The idea that hypnosis can be used for healing purposes dates back over 4000 years with the Ancient Egyptians, who used ‘sleep temples’ to heal people from physical and mental illness. In 1837, John Elliotson discovered that when in a deep hypnotic state, a person’s pain signals could be turned off. At a time before anaesthetic was invented hypnosis was used to help patients with pain relief during medical procedures. James Esdaile in the late 1800’s carried out thousands of painless operations, three hundred of which involved major surgery including 19 amputations by using hypnosis alone. This reduced the mortality rate at that time from 50% to less than 8%.

Today hypnotherapy is used by people from all over the world for many different issues including; stress and anxiety, low confidence and low self-esteem, sports and exam performance, eliminating unwanted habits, fears and phobias, motivation and focus. Many famous people have benefited from hypnotherapy including Winston Churchill who used hypnotherapy to keep his high levels of stress under control during the second world war and to help him remain focused at all times. David Beckham used hypnotherapy to help him successfully manage negative thoughts after retiring from football. Orlando Bloom used it for weight loss. Mel B from the Spice girls used it to help her overcome performance anxiety, and Tiger Woods to improve his sporting performance, becoming one of the greatest sportsman of all time.

Hypnotherapy has gained a lot of popularity in recent years as a viable therapeutic technique, largely due to the heightened awareness of mental health and its significance. Its effectiveness at helping with so many issues, such as anxiety and stress management, weight management, quitting smoking and freedom from other unwanted habits, fears and phobias, low confidence and low self-esteem, motivation, and much more, makes it a very important and attractive therapeutic tool.