What Is Hypnotherapy?

Introduction

This essay will give a definition of hypnosis, and will describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis. It will then proceed to discuss the role relaxation within hypno-sis. It will also outline the benefits of relaxation offering sound reasoning for the role of relax-ation within hypnosis.

What is Hypnotherapy?

In therapy hypnosis usually involves the client experiencing a feeling of relaxation with their attention focusing on the hypnotist's voice and appropriate suggestions and appellations created by the hypnotist tailored to meet the client's specifications. These suggestions can help the client make positive changes within themselves (Hadley J & Staudacher C 1996). In a hypnosis session the client is always in control and the client is never made to do anything to hurt or humiliate the client. It is widely acknowledged that all hypnosis is ultimately self-hypnosis and a hypnotist primarily aids your experience and guides you to relaxation. Hypnosis is considered to work by altering the level/state of consciousness of the client through switching the left hand side of the brain off, while the right hand side of the brain is turned on. The conscious control of the mind is inhibited and the subconscious mind is woken. Leaving the mind more accepting to suggestions and appellations (Hadley J & Staudacher C 1996).. The subconscious mind is more deeply rooted and is a more instinctive force than the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is the part of the mind that needs to re learn behaviour and or change to have a positive impact on the client's behaviour and physical state to alter and adapt to change through suggestions (www.articleonlinedirectory.com). For example a client who actively and consciously wants to overcome a fear may try anything possible they can do, but will fail to overcome their fears if the subconscious mind retains the information associated to the fear. Progression towards overcoming the fear will only be obtained by reprogramming the subcon-scious mind so the deep rooted instinctive beliefs are altered for a positive outcome eventually allowing and helping the client to overcome the initial fear (www.articleonlinedirectory.com).

Hypnosis essentially harnesses the subconscious mind that resides within all of us. Memories, habits, thoughts and even our beliefs are all accumulated deep inside our sub-conscious minds. This would then go without saying that if we were able to retrieve these thoughts and memories, we would be able to alter them, particularly our habits. Hypnosis en-compasses assisting the client into an altered state of consciousness where the client will be more open to suggestion. It is particularly effective at adapting and dealing with issues such as addictions, anxiety and insomnia, but it is certainly not restricted to the aforementioned. Be-havioral reformations, such as stopping smoking, alcoholism and even anorexia nervosa have also proved to be relatively successful. There are three main aspects to hypnosis: absorption, dissociation, and suggestibility these will determine the efficacy of hypnotism on a client.

A massive advantage of hypnosis is that it is non-invasive and conflicting with general con-sensus about hypnosis it's perfectly safe. You will not be influenced by any power of sugges-tion if it goes against your morals, values or even beliefs. Hypnotherapy sessions can be tailor-made to suit the client's requirements and needs. It deals with the deep-rooted problems and issues which then allows for lasting growth and potentially a cure in behavioral modification such as stopping smoking and weight loss. Hypnosis stimulates the client to have an enriched perspective about their own health through trying to changing negative thoughts into positive thoughts and real life manifestations. There are no documented negative side effects.

As a holistic alternative treatment, there are very few disadvantages to hypnotism, if any ( www.allpsych.com). However, it should be noted that not everyone is a possible candidate for hypnotherapy (Hadley J & Staudacher C 1996). Numerous people are simply not willing enough to expose their minds to the possibility of being hypnotized. These would usually be individuals who are not open minded and maybe more skeptical or are by their very nature's pessimistic and unwilling to change their thought patterns or habits. Even the best hypnother-apist in the world will not manage to get through to them (www.allpsych.com). The effectiveness of hypnotherapy will differ from client to client, depending on their personal requirements and their susceptibility towards hypnotherapy and willingness to work with the hypnotherapist. Hypnosis is a long-term, slow process which can take some time (www.allpsych.com). Results may not be seen for quite some time and the final results are entirely up to you (Hadley J & Staudacher C 1996). Hypnosis cannot cure terminal illnesses like HIV or Cancer, but it can assist in managing the pain and improving the quality of life for the client. (www.articleonlinedirectory.com)

Psychological and Physical aspects of Hypnosis

The experience of hypnosis can vary radically from one client to another.

Some hypnotized clients may feel a sense of detachment or extreme

relaxation during the hypnotic state, while others may feel that their actions

seem to occur outside of their conscious will. Other clients may remain

fully aware and able to carry out conversations while under hypnosis.

Experiments by researcher Ernest Hilgard demonstrated how hypnosis can be

used to radically change perceptions. After instructing a hypnotized individual

to not feel pain in his or her arm, the participant's arm was then placed in ice

water. While non-hypnotized individuals had to remove their arm from the water

after a few seconds due to the pain, the hypnotized individuals were able to

leave their arms in the ice water for several minutes without experiencing pain.

Hypnosis is a useful tool for pain management and can effectively lessen cravings and addictive patterns; it is an easy process to use on a client. Hypnotherapy is encouraged in the treatment of many physical and psychological problems. There are no deep or long lasting negative side effects. Hypnotherapy promotes deep relaxation. Understanding that there are barriers to the effectiveness