Many people will claim that they have never
been hypnotized, but they do admit to having drifted off while
thinking about a loved one, or forgetting large portions of a long
car journey, or 'going somewhere else' while reading a book? These
are all examples of natural mental states that occur for all of
us. One of the wonderful things about hypnosis is that in the
hands of a reputable practitioner it is harmless and produces no
damaging side effects, while providing rapid and substantial
positive therapeutic benefits.
Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not
a state of deep sleep. It does involve the induction of a
trance-like condition, this is true. The common misconception is
that while in this trance-like condition the person is oblivious
to everything around them and is under the "control" of the
therapist. This perception is quite the opposite of what
truly happens. Under hypnosis the client is actually in an
enhanced state of awareness, fully alert and aware and with total
concentration and focus on the hypnotist’s voice. In this state,
the conscious mind is suppressed and the subconscious mind is
directly accessed.
Hypnotherapy is a two-way process between
the therapist and the client, a professional partnership. A person
cannot be hypnotized unless he or she agrees and fully cooperates.
Also, while in a hypnotic trance state, nobody can make you do
anything which you do not want to do. Even those people
you've seen in stage hypnosis performances who are eating raw
onions or clucking like a chicken, they are only doing those
things because they want to, and they have been cleverly convinced
by the hypnotist that it is okay. They have chosen to participate
of their own will, they have not been controlled.
Consider the process of memory for a second.
When we are exposed to a new novel piece of information, our
analytical mind kicks in and evaluates this information. Our
thinking mind determines the importance and relevance of this
information, determines if it requires immediate action, and if it
will require long-term or short-term storage, compares it to past
experience. Imagine you look up the phone number for an
office you need to call, it's only seven digits, you repeat it
over in your mind several times. Before you get to make the
call, there is a knock on the door. You go see who's there,
then you return to the phone. Chances are, in that small
amount of time you forgot the number and need to look it up again.
Now imagine this; you are walking alone in your house and you hear
a noise behind you. You turn around and there is a sudden
flash of light right in front of you. Then suddenly the
image of a face appears, out of nowhere just hovering for an
instant right before your eyes, as real as can be, and then slowly
fades away. Now, this entire experience only lasted for a
few seconds, but the odds are that you will remember it clearly
down to every last small detail, probably for the rest of your
life.
Those two examples above illustrate two very
different modes of operation for our memory. In the second
case, the surprise and shock of the event caused a momentary
suspension of our normal analytical conscious processing. As
a result, the sensations we perceived bypassed the normal
analytical processes and were directly and immediately impressed
into long-term memory. The process of hypnosis works
in much the same way. The creation of a trance-like state
alters our state of consciousness in such a way that the
analytical left-hand side of the brain is turned off, while the
non-analytical right-hand side is made more alert and receptive.
The conscious processes of the mind are inhibited, and the
subconscious mind is more directly accessible. The therapist
is then able to suggest ideas, concepts and lifestyle adaptations
to the client, the seeds of which become firmly planted in
long-term memory.
Hypnotherapy is a powerful procedure which
can be used by itself in a wide range treatment goals. For
example, the treatment of phobias or eliminating the fear of
public speaking. It is also a valuable adjunct in behavior
change programs such as weight loss or stop smoking programs.
Traditional therapy procedures spend numerous sessions
investigating root causes, attached emotional content, and
secondary gains. Traditional therapy procedures slowly and
arduously work through insights and emotions with analysis and
desensitization in a process that is slow and ineffective because
it is attempting to work directly with the conscious analytical
mind. Hypnotherapy produces results that are often immediate
and dramatic by bypassing the conscious mind and directly
implanting the desired goal concepts within the long-term memory
of the sub-conscious mind.
When the goals of the client involve more
complex life-changing outcomes, then hypnotherapy is used as an
adjunct to NLP and Time Dimension therapy in a proprietary program
offered by NSI called NHT Therapy. In NHT Therapy, hypnosis
is used as a tool to facilitate the rapid and effective adoption
by the client of the new strategies and patterns of behavior
uncovered through NLP and Time Dimension techniques. The
result is a modern state-of-the-science system that allows our
clients to establish a clear vision of their goals, and to then
effectively and efficiently implement life-changing ideas and
behaviors to achieve success.
Contact NSI today for more
information
