Hypnotherapy faq's - Hypnotherapy Marlpit Hill - Westerham - Sevenoaks

Therapy is not about providing a cure. Therapy is about us building rapport, challenging your beliefs and helping you to find your true self once more.

2. Can anybody be hypnotised?

Basically yes, with the exclusion of the very young or those suffering from senility. Of-course, it helps if you are co-operative, relaxed and feel positive about this form of therapy.

3. How do you hypnotise somebody?

Usually through a voice induction. This is normally a very relaxing experience for the client as I use a soothing and calm tone of voice that is sometimes used with the accompaniment of tranquil music. Usually the induction involves a relaxing visualisation of some kind. The type of visualisation used will depend on the personality type of the individual. A deepener can then be used, which intensifies the relaxing hypnotic state.

4. Is there anyone who should not be hypnotised?

It depends on the sort of therapy being used. Care needs to be exercised with pregnant women and people suffering from epileptic fits and asthma. Regression/analytical therapy should be avoided with these conditions. People suffering from psychosis should also not be taken into hypnosis. I also will not use regression or analysis with heart attack/stroke victims.

5. What does it feel like to be hypnotised?

There is actually no such thing as a 'hypnotised feeling'. Some people would insist afterwards that they had not 'gone under', expecting a loss of conscious awareness in some way. After a few sessions, however, most people start to become aware of how the state feels to them. It may be that they feel excessively heavy or light or even numb. They can sometimes feel other strange phenomena, including sensations of floating or spinning are not unusual, as is feeling that some parts of their body are distorted in some way. Eyes may start to flicker and sometimes cheeks can become flushed. Sometimes people feel quite emotional when they enter hypnosis and most people also suffer some form of time distortion.

6. Can hypnosis control you? Can you get 'stuck' in hypnosis?

As hypnosis is a truly natural and safe state of body and mind we enter when we feel relaxed, there is no form of unconsciousness and nobody can be made to do anything they do not want to do. People in hypnosis are totally aware of themselves and their surroundings at all times and are able to leave the hypnotic state whenever they want to.

7. How does it differ from stage hypnosis?

The stage hypnotist seeks to entertain whilst the clinical hypnotherapist seeks to help people and alleviate symptoms and problems. The stage hypnotist uses showmanship and has a razzmatazz attitude. The clinical hypnotherapist uses knowledge of the human psyche and has a caring and compassionate attitude. There are common misconceptions fuelled by stage hypnotherapy, as though it is some sort of voodoo magic, which increases people's wariness about ever going to see a professional hypnotherapist about a genuine problem. These are two separate fields, both with completely different aims.

8. How long will each session last?

This depends on the type of therapy offered. For the milder problems, suggestion therapy is employed and this takes between 1-5 sessions. The more deep-rooted problems require analytical therapy, which takes between 6-12 sessions. Smoking cessation only necessitates a one two-hour session.

9. How does hypnosis differ from sleep?

Hypnosis is in no way a form of sleep, even though it can give the appearance of being so from the outside. You are neither asleep nor semi conscious but fully aware of everything that is going on around you. When you are in a hypnotized state, the brain waves will often change from the Beta state of normal wakefulness to the Alpha state of deep relaxation, which represent non-arousal. When we are asleep however, our brainwave state is in Delta. Here, the brainwaves are of the greatest amplitude and slowest frequency. During sleep, respiration gets slower and slower, blood pressure, reflex and heart action also slow down. In hypnosis, there may be the mildest of slow downs but for the majority of time, none at all. In sleep, the mental processes slow down considerably and in deep sleep, there is an apparent loss of consciousness. This does not occur in hypnosis. You are fully aware of everything that is going on around you.

10. How long has hypnosis been around for?

As hypnosis is a natural state of body and mind, it has of course been around for as long as humans have, helping us to learn, concentrate and give birth for example. However, it was Franz Anton Mesmer, who was the first person to use the phenomena of hypnosis extensively (during the 1780's), using what he called 'animal magnetism' to create a state of hypnosis. He believed that our bodies were like magnets with poles at both ends and that bringing a magnet close to the body would help balance and harmonize this magnetic fluid around us. It was, however, James Braid (1795-1860) who actually first coined the term 'hypnosis' from 'hypnos', the Greek God of sleep after seeing a presentation of Mesmerism, who forced a pin beneath the finger-nail of a young girl without her feeling any discomfort. He was also the first to discover 'waking hypnosis.' The state of hypnosis can produce such extreme relaxation that there is no sensation of pain. It was James Esdaile, who developed this idea of clinical anesthesia during the 1800's, where he performed hundreds of painless operations in Calcutta, cutting the mortality rate down from 50% to 8%. Hypnosis became even more popular throughout the late nineteenth century thanks to two medical professionals, Bernheim and Liebault who developed the theory of suggestion therapy and promoted the idea that all hypnosis is really only guided self hypnosis.