Many people I come across still have misconceptions about Hypnotherapy and its practice. They hesitantly ask me “is it scary? Will I do things I can’t control? Will I be able to know what’s happening?” I know that these questions come from a lack of understanding of the modality and what we mean by it. Many people have made associations of hypnosis with what we see in the media where people lose self awareness and start acting like chickens or monkeys on command, and it feels like they’ve lost complete control.
This month I wanted to dispel this notion and clarify that this is NOT what we mean by hypnotherapy. The easiest way to understand what we do is to liken it to meditation. If you have ever done any form of meditation, that’s the hypnotic state we take our clients to. It’s a space where the brainwave changes to the theta state, however, your conscious mind is aware of everything that’s happening around you, it’s just taken a backseat to be more of an observer than the driver – just like in meditation! The difference between meditation and hypnotherapy is that one is self-induced and the other one is guided – both have their own places. I often say that meditation is like house-cleaning for the mind; it’s powerful and it is necessary to clean your house. However, house-cleaning is not enough when there is an infestation of insects – then you need pest-control, and this is what hypnotherapy does! We use this tool to address deep-seated issues and ‘infestations’ of the mind (such as panic attacks, phobia’s, anxiety) where simple house cleaning is not enough and it needs a deeper intervention.
The end game of hypnotherapy is to bring you back to peace and acceptance, which is what we are here to learn anyway! If you have a little bit of time, I invite you to attend our guided meditations this month and watch my latest Tedx talk where I explain the concept of acceptance further.