There was a time when people only thought of hypnosis being used in stage shows – getting a group of people together to do silly things for the amusement of those in the audience, but nowadays the use of hypnotherapy is much more main-stream with people using it to help them get over a fear of flying, give up smoking and even have a virtual gastric band operation to lose weight…
But for the uninitiated what is hypnosis and what actually happens when you are hypnotised?
Well, the process starts with a hypnotic induction – getting the client into a relaxed hypnotic state. Often this will involve the client relaxing, breathing deeply, closing their eyes and focusing on an image or perhaps a story that the hypnotist tells.
The purpose of this process is to get the person into a situation where the hypnotist can access their unconscious mind. Whilst in this condition the hypnotist will make positive suggestions for changes in behaviour for whatever problem the client is trying to overcome. Some clients may find it easier than others to achieve a hypnotic state and as a result may be more suggestible than others. But research demonstrates that most people benefit in some way by having hypnotherapy and often people find themselves more able to relax and to relax quicker the more they get to know their practionier.
Hypnotherapy was actually around as early as 1843 called neuro-hypnotism (sleep of the nervous system) by Scottish neuroscientist James Braid. His work influenced a French doctor – Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault who later established The Nancy School of Psychotherapy and was widely credited with being the founder of hypnotherapy. Famous visitors to the school included Sigmund Freud who introduced a self-help improvement therapy called optimistic autosuggestion.
Perhaps the most notable and influential hypnotherapist was Milton Erickson an American psychiatrist. He had real belief in the power of the unconscious mind and felt that on a regular basis all of us move in and out of trance like / hypnotic states (think of day-dreaming whilst gazing out of a window, or your mind drifting while waiting for a bus). His approach was to use an indirect hypnosis with clients being able to choose to enter a trance-like state and he also used purposefully vague suggestions so that clients could build their own frame work to meet their individual needs.
The latest research suggests that a hypnotic state has two standpoints – on the one hand a client is calm, relaxed and free from distractions and yet on the other hand they are in a state of focused attention. This concept seems to be backed up by research by The Imperial College of London, where clients MRI scans demonstrate significant brain activity – with cognitive processing, at the same time as being in a hypnotic state.
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