Clinical Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a naturally occurring state of altered consciousness, it is a highly relaxed state of mind, where critical reasoning and the conscious mind are no longer on the front burner, leaving room for the subconscious mind to step up to the plate.

Unfortunately, many people are under the false impression that hypnotherapy has to do with the kind of hypnosis that used to be observed in movies depicting individuals deprived of their will power and being psychologically coerced to do embarrassing or silly things.

Hypnotherapy as it is commonly used in clinical or therapeutic settings today has very little to do with those vaudeville scenes of old-fashioned cinema reels.

Above all, it should be stated, that an individual undergoing hypnotherapy does not lose awareness of his or her surroundings. While there is a lessened awareness, there is nevertheless, a cognizance of background noises and other occurrences, and a total freedom and energy to react to said situations. Should a fire alarm bell peal, for instance, or should the therapist behave in an inappropriate fashion, the individual is able to come totally awake immediately and act - or react - in accordance.

During an induced hypnosis, or session of hypnotherapy, the memory is less repressed and compartmentalized; the mind is more open to suggestion, and therefore therapeutic work can take place. This may occur - among others - via the revisiting of painful moments in the past that the client remembers, the regression to moments in the past that the client has repressed, and the regression to moments in a past life or past lives.

Sometimes exactly what will happen during the session is not predictable, since it is the client's subconscious that in great part determines this. In other words, the intention may be to revisit something the client remembers, but would like to attenuate, because the feelings associated with the memory are painful. That moment in the client's past may indeed be re-lived during the session, but other memories - associated to the painful one, and that are helpful to its resolution, but that the client did not consciously remember - may also surface. And occasionally memories of other lifetimes will surface, also as helpful adjuncts to the solution of the presenting problem.

Does the manner in which these differing possibilities manifest themselves depend on the individual's personal beliefs? Not always. Does it matter with regard to the solution of the problem? Generally not. Why? Because the mind, and our emotions - as neuroscientists on the cutting-edge of current research will attest - is still - even now in the 21st Century, a mysterious thing.