What can hypnotherapy do for me?
How does hypnosis work?
Hypnosis is the altered state of relaxation and heightened awareness, induced by suggestion. The surprising thing is that we go in and out of the hypnotic state many times each day. Many problems are maintained because we hypnotise ourselves with incorrect beliefs.
We have three different components running our lives:
- Our conscious mind – works within our awareness. We have control, we know what is happening and make decisions of our own choice.
- Our subconscious mind – consists of all our experiences and memories. We do not have conscious control of thoughts or behaviour arising from this part
- Our feelings and emotions – represented in different parts of our body and these too are beyond our control. They respond to thoughts from the conscious and subconscious parts and may or may not help us.
States of consciousness
Hypnosis is a natural phenomenon that occurs throughout the day. It is a completely different state from sleep and has quite different actions on the mind and body. It makes use of the natural phenomenon of changing from conscious to subconscious states that is constantly happening during the day.
There are four states of consciousness which are associated with different brain wave patterns:
Awake (beta waves)
This is usually associated with the normal waking state of consciousness where you are going about your daily business. You are experiencing your world through your senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. This is the conscious level of mental and emotional processing. You are operating from a heightened level of alertness, logic and critical reasoning. You are making decisions and communicating with the external world around you. If you operate for a period of time at an elevated level this can translate into stress, anxiety and restlessness.
Daydream (alpha waves)
When you say you are “absent-minded”, you mean that your conscious mind (beta) is absent which implies our subconscious mind is present. Your subconscious mind is responsible for your survival, and regulates your breathing, hunger, tiredness and other life-critical functions. If you daydream, you “go off somewhere” and are “brought back” to conscious awareness by something external – a sound or comment. This daydream or meditative state is the one we use during most hypnosis as this is optimal for programming your mind in the direction you choose. The alpha brainwave frequency heightens your imagination, learning, concentration, visualisation, and memory. It is the “voice of your intuition”.
Deep subconscious state (theta waves)
This is the state you are in just before you go to sleep and just as you wake up in the morning. Some people call this the somnambulistic state, or “deep trance” or the “twilight state”. It is similar to the feeling when you are in deep meditation or light sleep, including the REM dream state. In this state you have a sense of deep spiritual connection and oneness with the universe. Your consciousness is turned toward your inner world. It is often characterised by vivid visualisations, profound creativity, great inspiration and exceptional insight. It is thought this is the level of super-consciousness where your mind’s deepest level of programs operates.
Sleep (delta waves)
In this state you are in a deep, dreamless sleep or in a very deep transcendental meditative state where your awareness is completely detached. Sleep and this state of delta brainwaves are associated with healing and regeneration. It is the gateway to the collective consciousness. The deep impressions of the mind are stored here. When certain conditions are met, they can play out in dreams or grow into actions in the waking state.
So what does this mean in our daily life?
When you are awake, you fluctuate between the alpha and beta states of consciousness and are influenced by both. For example, you might remember watching a TV program and realising you haven’t got a clue who a character is, or where the story has gone, because you “drifted off”.
Often the subconscious mind is helpful. For example, when we were learning to drive, our conscious mind had to use all its focus to remember to check the mirrors, change the gears and look out for hazards. When we mastered the skills to become an experienced driver, we transferred the responsibility for the mechanics of driving to our subconscious. This is illustrated well when we arrive at our destination completely unaware of the journey. Our subconscious mind has responded to hazards like red lights, roundabouts and other drivers and safely got us home.
At other times, our subconscious mind is not so helpful. For example, some of the skills or habits we formed when we were younger no longer serve a positive purpose for us, but our subconscious mind does not realise that and continues to use them. Smoking is an example of this.
How can hypnotherapy benefit me?
Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to help people change habits, overcome fears or phobias, or help with some conditions and disorders. When administered by a professionally trained and skilled therapist the benefits can be long lasting and often permanent.
The phenomenon of hypnosis involves hyper-awareness which leads to an alteration of a person’s state of consciousness. During hypnosis, a person will often appear as if they are asleep, although in reality they are actually processing their thoughts through a deep, focused awareness.
Our past experiences have created many beliefs that we continue to hold to be true, but which are unhelpful for us, and are, in fact, impacting on our lives in a way that is holding us back from happiness. Hypnosis can be especially useful in analysing these beliefs and assessing whether we wish to continue with them for the rest of our lives.
My framework for using Hypnotherapy
I am interested in helping people who want to resolve an issue in their life which is impacting on their daily functioning or happiness. Hypnotherapy can assist in many of these cases. Most of the issues I am happy to address are about concerns that other services have already investigated and they have no further services to offer – what can be called “sub-clinical”. This means they don’t relate to a “disease” which requires medical intervention. My work addresses issues such as habits, phobias, anxiety, fears and minor pain management.
My framework draws on a variety of approaches, including:
Please click on the links to explore the theories and approaches in more detail.
A few of my services...
So, how can you get started?
Please contact me to arrange a mutually convenient time for a free half hour consultation session where we can talk about your concern and see if I can help you.
In this session, we will spend time understanding what your concern is and taking a brief social history. Sessions are all individually tailored to you and your model of the world. We will work together to decide what therapeutic approaches would best suit your needs and agree on a plan. This will include how many sessions you may need.
If you decide to go ahead, we will then arrange a time, date and location for our first session. This may be face to face in Sheffield or via zoom anywhere in the world. I will direct you back to the website where payment is easily made via PayPal or card via Stripe prior to the session.
If you wish, any of the sessions can be recorded. Zoom sessions may be recorded as a video; face to face sessions can be recorded as an audio file. All past life regression sessions will be recorded as an audit file. All recordings will be sent to you electronically after the session.
If your concern is medical related I may need to know your GP’s details to ensure this therapy is not interfering with any other interventions.
Feel free to get in touch with me directly using the form below and I will be happy to discuss your specific needs and how hypnotherapy could help you.