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In This Chapter

^ Defining past-life regression

^ Finding out how to get back to the past before you were born ^ Getting back to the present

J\ Nd now you seemingly enter the world of the mystical to find out how

To travel back in time to visit yourself before you were even born. We

Are, of course, talking about past-life regression (PLR), a therapy technique that many find baffling and many more find exceptionally fascinating. PLR is

An approach to helping you overcome your problem, based on the concept of

Reincarnation; A belief that your soul is reborn into different bodies and that

You have lived a life (or lives) before your current one.

For many in the Western world, the idea that we have lived other lives before

This one is frankly laughable. We have one life and once it’s over, that’s your lot.

End of story. But many millions of people throughout the world, both Western and Eastern, are just as convinced in their belief in the concept of having lived many lives in the past. And it is from this belief that the very powerful hypnotherapy technique of past-life regression has been developed.

Examining Past-Life Regression

Past-life regression (PLR) is one of the techniques that people often associate with hypnotherapy. PLR is a technique used in hypnotherapy that works with

A person’s belief in reincarnation. PLR takes you back in time, in your mind,

To visit a life, or lives, you lived before. PLR has wonderful esoteric connotations of the mystical hypnotist with staring eyes, lulling his subjects into a trance and then parting the curtains of the mists of time as they travel back to some major historical event. All very nice, and it looks wonderful in those

Low-budget movies; however the reality of PLR is actually quite mundane.

Hypnotherapists are not taught to tear apart the fabric of the space-time

Continuum – nor do they have the power! If you believe in reincarnation, then your hypnotherapist may consider using PLR.

Many people who believe in reincarnation think that traumatic or upsetting events that occurred in a life they lived before are the root cause of problems they’re experiencing in the life they’re leading now; especially if they feel that they didn’t have the opportunity to resolve those events before the end of that particular past life. PLR gives you the opportunity to resolve those events and by extension, resolve those issues in your current life that stem from them.

So, do you need to believe in reincarnation for PLR to be effective? The answer is no. To understand why this may be, have a look at the next section, ‘Beliefs

About PLR’.

In general, however, if you don’t believe in reincarnation, your therapist

Won’t touch PLR with a bargepole.

.jjfttNG/ Beware of a therapist who pushes her belief system onto you. It doesn’t

^y~ik\ Matter whether your therapist believes in past lives or not. Any therapist

(Wk ) worth her salt works with your belief systems, not hers. Your hypnotherapist

^P/ Should not try to influence you either way with regard to your beliefs in

Reincarnation – or hers.

Beliefs about PLR

Okay. So is PLR real? Who knows? As yet there is no absolute proof one way or

The other. Remember, we are dealing with belief systems here and that means,

If you truly believe you have lived before, then it is very real. . . for you!

Many people and therapists believe in the powerful therapeutic results of PLR, but don’t necessarily believe in reincarnation. So what do they believe

PLR is? Here are some of the most popular theories:

^ PLR accesses genetic memory. One school of thought believes that certain memories are encoded in our genetic make-up. In other words, somehow memories are stored in our genes. When you experience PLR, these

Memories are dragged up out of your DNA and once again experienced.

^ PLR accesses the collective unconscious. This idea comes from Jungian psychology. Carl Jung was around at the same time as Sigmund Freud. One of the many psychological theories he developed is that of the Collective unconscious. Jung believed that we all store in our unconscious

A whole host of memories that are shared by everyone, and which are passed down to us from our ancestors. PLR provides a means of accessing the collective unconscious and experiencing these memories.

^ PLR is a dissociative experience. This theory says that a person experiencing a PLR is creating a new existence in their mind from various pieces of their existing memory. Basically, you create a person and an existence through which you can ‘observe’ your problem, and its solution, in a metaphorical way – so that you’re split off, or dissociated, from

The problem. The distance provides a safe way to deal with the problem and the unconscious means to apply the solution.

^ PLR accesses memories from past lives. Okay, we’re back where we

Started. In this model, you believe that you’ve lived before and can access these past lives through hypnosis. As you access past lives, you can also influence them by helping your past self to resolve the unresolved issues that occurred in the life.

Whatever the truth of the matter about what PLR is, when it boils down to it

It’s Your Belief that is most important. So, if you truly believe that your problem stems from something that happened to you in a past life – and who’s to

Say you are wrong? – then discuss this with your therapist. If she judges that

It is right for you to explore this idea, then she will be happy to take you back into your past existence.

Reasons to revisit past lives

So, why do you want to go back and visit your past lives? Usually for one of

Two main reasons:

^ You’re simply curious and want to find out about who and what you

Were before you came into this life.

^ You believe that the problems you’re having stem from events that

Occurred in a life, or lives, you experienced prior to this one.

Many therapists happily help you explore your past lives for no other reason than you’re interested in who you were. But it is the second reason that

Explains PLR’s most common use in the therapy room.

As you go through life, you have many conflicts and experiences that you need to work through and resolve. However, there are also many that you

Don’t. Obvious so far, but this is where past-life theory kicks in. Past-life theory has it that some unresolved issues may well be so significant, that

When you pass into your next life they continue to affect you, creating some of the problems that you may now be experiencing.

That doesn’t mean to say that the unresolved issue you had in a past life will

Manifest itself in exactly the same way in your current life. Far from it, what

You’re likely to experience is something that is almost a metaphor for the

Past problem. For example:

^ Weight issues: It may be that you were starving in a past life, and your

Weight problem is an attempt to prevent that from occurring in this life.

^ Psychosomatic pain: It may be that you had a violent accident in a past

Life where a part of your body was seriously injured. In your current life you experience a pain for which there is no demonstrable cause, in a similar area of your body.

Psychosomatic pain Refers to pain that is purely in the mind. In other

Words, you are feeling pain somewhere in your body, but there is absolutely no physical cause for that pain.

^ Phobias: Maybe you were locked in a dark room, or cell, in a previous

Existence. That experience then filters through to your current life where you have an irrational fear of the dark.

^ Personality issues: Perhaps you were an oppressed peasant in a past

Life, always having to hold onto your emotions and feelings. In your current life you vent these feelings by being overly aggressive or emotional.

These are only a few examples of an almost endless list. In order to resolve these problems, you may need to go back to the life where they first occurred.

If you can resolve the issue in the past, the likelihood is that the problem in

The present fades away too. Of course, after your past-life issues are resolved, you may have work to do on your current life, helping you to adjust to the

Positive changes that PLR has brought about.

Often, your current problem is an accumulation of unresolved issues from a whole variety of past lives, each needing to be dealt with and resolved.

Journeying to Your Past Life

Okay, you and your therapist agree that it’s a good idea for you to go back and sort out those unresolved issues experienced by a past you.

The PLR session, or sessions, will be very similar in nature to any other hypnotherapy session, with just a few differences.

Revealing any past-life memories

Along with taking a normal case history, your therapist may also ask you about the following:

Your belief in reincarnation. Your therapist wants to know what your

Understanding of PLR and reincarnation is. After all, she’ll be working

With your beliefs. She also needs to know of any past experiences you

Had visiting former lives, either through a therapist or spontaneously.

(On rare occasions, some people spontaneously slip back into a past life when they are dozing, just about to fall asleep, or as a dream experience.)

^ Why you think that a past life experience may be responsible for your

Current symptom. What tells you that your solution lies in a past life? When you think about your symptom, what indicates that its cause lies way back, before you were born?

Just because you believe that your problem comes from a past life, that

Doesn’t mean that your hypnotherapist will automatically take you there. She will consider many factors before taking you down that route.

^ Whether you’re aware of the particular life responsible. Some people are very aware of the life responsible for their current problem long before they go for therapy. If you know, let your hypnotherapist know too.

Keep in mind that this may be only one of several lives contributing to

Your problem (then again, it may be the only one!). You may need to visit other lives before your problem is solved.

^ Any relevant dreams you’ve had. When you dream, you allow your

Unconscious to roam freely, and your unconscious may well access a past life. When you awaken, you may be aware that this particular dream holds something of significance.

^ Any spontaneous thoughts you have been having about past lives.

Is your unconscious trying to tell you something? Do you have spontaneous thoughts about events from a past that doesn’t seem to belong to you? Could this be your unconscious saying ‘Hey, this is where the seat

Of your problem lies!’?

Let your hypnotherapist know about any experiences on this list, because

Your awareness of your past lives may be pointing you in the right direction.

W CHEty. When many people think of reincarnation they often make the erroneous " assumption that they were someone famous in a past life. In actual fact, it is

Extremely rare to come across well-known characters from history. On the contrary, by far the most common manifestation of a past life is that of a very ordinary person. Is it likely that you were Henry VIII? No! A cook in the court of Henry VIII? Yes!

Choosing a route

There are many approaches to taking you back to a past life, none of which require magic or any special powers, so let’s leave that idea to the fantasists!

What route will you travel on through the centuries? Well, the path you take depends on the creativity of both you and your hypnotherapist. Your hypnotherapist may ask you to imagine one of several scenarios:

^ You’re walking down a long and comfortable corridor. On either side of

You are doors, with each one leading to a specific past life. Your therapist may invite you to find a door that is particularly attractive to you, for whatever reason, and to imagine walking through that door into the relevant past life.

^ You’re walking up a safe and well-lit tunnel. When you reach the end, you

Step out into your past life.

^ You’re climbing a gentle hill and when you reach its summit, you step

Out into another past life.

Or maybe you step into a time machine, or through the pages of a book, or through a mirror, or. . . the possibilities are endless.

Jjjt*M»E* Even though you think you know which life you need to visit at a conscious

Yf~M\ Level, your hypnotherapist may want to be unspecific when she takes you back.

Mi ) She may use a phrase along the lines of ‘And you can step through that door

Mjjjj/ Into the life that is most relevant to the reason you are with me today’. She isn’t

Ignoring you, she just knows that your unconscious mind will recognise the

Most important life you need to visit. Consciously you may think you know, but

Your unconscious often knows best in these cases. Let it be your guide!

Reaching a dead end

You step through the door with excited anticipation of entering into and

Exploring that past life and. . . nothing! Zilch! Not a sausage! Nothing except a

Big sense of disappointment.

So what’s going on? Why aren’t you getting anywhere on this journey? Well,

There can be several reasons, the main ones being:

^ You’re not ready to go back. Perhaps it was too early to try a PLR.

Maybe you need to do some more work in the present before you attempt to go back into the past. Yes, you believe in past lives, but

Maybe you have fears about going there. Perhaps you don’t fully trust your therapist yet, as that all-important rapport (see Chapter 13) hasn’t

Been sufficiently built up yet.

You can address whatever issues are putting up the roadblock with your

Hypnotherapist, and try PLR once they are resolved. ^ The route back was not right for you. If you don’t like the method of

Transportation (maybe the enclosed space of the tunnel makes you nervous, or the height of the hill seems too steep), the likelihood of reaching

Your past life destination is minimised. Why? Because if you feel a little uptight and tense, your unconscious mind protects you from taking a path that is not right for you.

To resolve this, discuss your feelings with your hypnotherapist and agree on a route that is more acceptable to you.

W Something in your current life needs to be resolved before you can

Go back. Maybe an issue in your current life is demanding attention.

Sometimes these issues can be very selfish and won’t let you go back

Despite your strong desire.

Your therapist can use techniques such as dissociation, or a regression, to the event in this life (Chapter 2 talks about these techniques), to help

Clear the current life roadblock (which, by the very fact it’s demanding attention like this, needs to be addressed), and therefore re-opening up your path into time.

W The problem doesn’t stem from a past life. If the genesis of your problem is not in a past life, you can’t go back to resolve it.

Of course, after you resolve your current life problem, your therapist

Can take you back through the portals of time just simply to have the

Experience, if you wish.

Whatever the reasons for not getting back to a past life, they can be cleared

Up. With a little perseverance from both you and your hypnotherapist, your

Past lives will open up like the pages of a wonderful history book.

What to Expect during Your PLR Session

Ready to go back in time, but are a little unsure as to what to expect? Well, read on, because these sections cover what you may find happening during your PLR session.

But wait! Before you go back to a past life, we need to point out one thing. One of the experiences that often take people unawares during a PLR session

Is that when they get back to their past life they may well find that they are

The opposite sex. That means a man may well have been a woman in a past life and vice versa. Let us just point out here and now that this is not a reflection of your sexual orientation, nor does it mean that you have a deep-seated desire for a sex change! It just means that the quirks of time travel do not recognise the gender boundary, and it is entirely possible that you were a member of the opposite sex in many of your past lives.

Setting the scene

During your PLR session, you are not necessarily going to step out of your current life and straight into a full, technicolor awareness of your past life. Your mind may need a little help orientating to this new experience and your therapist helps you get settled in through a process of questioning. She wants to find out from you:

W Who you are. No, she won’t just ask ‘Who are you?’ Your therapist needs to help you build up your awareness and may ask you:

• What you’re wearing

• How old you are

• Your name

W Where you are. Your therapist may ask you to tell her:

• What you see around you

• The name of the place you’re in

• The date

• The time of day

W What you’re doing. Your therapist may ask you to:

• Describe what you are doing (obviously)

• Explain why you’re doing it

• Share how you feel about doing it

W If anyone is with you. Your therapist may ask you:

• If anyone is with you (er, again, obviously!)

• If so, who that person (or persons) is and why they’re with you

• How you feel about having that person (or people) with you

This may seem to be quite an interrogation, but it is very important in helping you really get into the character and experience of your past life. Once

You are fully there, you can get on with exploring all that it contains. Who

Knows, you could be an ancient Greek standing on a cliff top, or a Victorian

Gardener going about his business, or even a proud Mayan mother tending to her children.

If you step into your past life and see nothing or hear nothing, bear in mind that you may be blind or deaf in that life, or perhaps you are in a dark or very quiet room! I (Peter) once carried out a PLR with a patient who reported that

They could neither hear nor see anything when we were trying to set the

Scene. In a moment of inspiration I asked that they reach out and tell me if

They could feel anything. A moment later they reported that they could feel a wall. It turned out that in the life they were visiting they were both deaf and

Blind.

In most cases, you experience the past life as if you are there, so don’t be surprised if your voice changes a bit and you feel the emotions you felt back then.

Visiting those important times

You’re in a past life, so now what? Is this the part of the life you need to visit? Not necessarily. This may only be your entry point to that life; a quite mundane period that allows you to adjust gently. On the other hand, you may step out into the thick of things; right into the heart of the matter, at the point in that life where the problems you’re experiencing in this one began.

Wherever you start off, your therapist will ask you to visit the important times in that life relevant to your problem. Keep in mind that there may be more than one event in more than one life. This is an insight gaining exercise, helping both you and your therapist understand how your problem got started. As you visit these times, your therapist may ask you what’s happening, how you’re feeling, and what you feel you need to do in this situation.

You may find that all your hypnotherapist does is ask you to experience these times. At times, you may feel the need to let out some emotion. If you do, go ahead and let it out. It may be that this pent up emotion has been festering away inside you in your current life, contributing to your problem.

By the way, if the thought of crying or laughing, or even shouting in front of

Your hypnotherapist is embarrassing, let us reassure you. Your therapist is very used to seeing displays of strong emotion and welcomes them as a

Healthy release for you. If you don’t feel any of these emotions, don’t worry -

There may be none for you to feel at this time.

Being present at your death

Right, put on your black armband and bring in the doom and gloom brigade,

Because this is where it gets a little morbid – but for a very good reason. How

You meet your end in the life you are visiting, may have a very strong relevance as to why you are experiencing your problem. For example:

W Was your death violent? If it was, it could very well be a contributing

Factor to your problem. The way in which you shuffled off this mortal coil may be representative of the reason you’re seeing your therapist.

Maybe you drowned and now have a phobia of water. Maybe you

Starved to death and now have a weight problem. Maybe you were poisoned and you now have irritable bowel syndrome.

If your death was peaceful, it may not be a contributing factor to your

Problem. However, what happened to your body after your death may

Be, so read on.

W What happened to your body after your death? In many cases, this can

Influence a current life problem. Maybe your body wasn’t discovered

And you have an unexplained sense of being lost in your current life. Or perhaps your body was unceremoniously cremated and you now have a phobia of fire. It could be that your body was misidentified and you were buried under the wrong name, and you now lack a sense of who you are.

W Was anything left unfinished at your death? Were there things you

Needed to do, but couldn’t as your life was cut short? Were there people you needed to say something to, but didn’t get the opportunity to do so?

Any unfinished business can follow through and cause havoc in your current life. Maybe you had unpaid debts in your past life and are too

Frivolous with your money in this one. If you didn’t show enough affection to a loved one you may find that you are now too emotional in relationships. It is possible that you were harsh with someone without

Getting the chance to apologise and now find that you carry a sense of

Guilt with you wherever you go.

Heating past hurts

You’ve been through it all; lived and died, and now have an understanding of

Why your problem started. Is that it? Is your problem resolved? Maybe. For some, the very act of gaining understanding is enough to kick a problem out

Of their lives forever. However, that isn’t true for every person or every problem. Not to worry. There is another step to take in your PLR session to help ensure that your problem is truly dead and buried.

To round off your session, your hypnotherapist gives you the opportunity

To ‘heal’ that past life. In other words, to go through it and make amends, to

Change what needs to be changed, to say what needs to be said and so on.

How can she help you do this? A very popular way is to visit the point of death (here we go with the morbidity again!), and as your spirit leaves your

Body, allow it to go through the life and to heal whatever it is that needs to be healed.

Resolving past-life problems

The problems of past lives manifest in many ways. Often, just going back and seeing the cause becomes the cure. Check out these examples:

W A patient came for therapy with a severe

Pain in her right shoulder. The medical

Community could not find anything wrong

With her, nor could they provide her with

Any lasting relief from the pain. Eventually, a friend of hers suggested that the pain may be present as a result of something that happened to her in a past life. Desperate to get the pain sorted out, she came for PLR hypnotherapy.

She entered into a life in which she was a Native American. Her village was attacked by a rival tribe, and during the onslaught,

She was shot in her right shoulder by an

Arrow. She didn’t die from the arrow but

From an infection that set in afterwards.

She carried the pain of the wound and the infection into her current life.

During a PLR session, she floated out of her

Body and laid her spirit hands over the

Wound in her shoulder. When she removed them, the wound had healed. When she came out of trance she reported that the

Pain she had been experiencing in her

Shoulder had finally gone.

W A man came to see us because he didn’t

Feel ‘grounded’ (his words) in his life. He

Had a strong belief in reincarnation and sensed that his feelings came from an

Event in a past life.

When he visited the relevant life in Tibet, he found that he had met a violent end and that his body had been left unburied. He immediately made the connection between his not feeling ‘grounded’, and the fact that his

Body had not been put into the ‘ground’

After his death.

In his spirit form, this unburied Tibetan found his sister from that life, and guided her to his body. She picked it up (she was very strong!) and carried it up a mountain and buried it beneath a tree near their village.

Several days after this session he called to say that he felt so much better, more grounded and able to concentrate on the

Important things in his life. W A patient came for therapy who had very

Strong feelings of frustration that she

Couldn’t pin to anything specific. She visited a past life where she was a wealthy landowner in Edwardian England (and very surprised to find that she was male). She’d

Had a good life and had died very peacefully, but unexpectedly, in her sleep. Unfortunately, prior to her death, she had a very

Nasty and prolonged argument with her

Best friend that resulted in their not talking

To each other anymore. She recognised

That she was to blame for the argument and

Decided to make amends and apologise.

Unfortunately, she came to this decision on the night the Grim Reaper came a-calling

And she never got the opportunity. She

Expressed an incredible sense of frustration over the fact that she had died with all that bad feeling between them.

In her spirit form, she was able to visit her

Friend as he dreamt and, after several

Lengthy dream conversations, was able to give her apology and have it accepted. She then left that life with a sense of freedom and lightness. She subsequently went on to

Leave her boyfriend and her job, go on the

Holiday of a lifetime, and returned to enter a career she had always wanted to be in, but

Had been afraid to try. Who says hypnotherapy doesn’t change your life for the better?

Completing the journey and

Returning to the present

So that’s it, the life is healed and there is nothing left to do. Just wake me up and I’ll be on my way then. Wrong! There is plenty more to do. After all, you don’t mend the hole in a tyre, but not put it back on the bike. You need to put

Your past life back where it belongs, and then make sure that nothing else needs fixing:

W Sever the tie to the past life. After you heal a past life, many therapists

Suggest that you sever the tie you have to that life, so that you can be sure that it will no longer influence you or encourage your problem to return. How they do this depends on the therapist. Some have you imagine cutting a silver thread that attaches you to the life. Some have you imagine that that you are permanently shutting and locking the door to that life. Others may be less specific and have you cut the connection in whatever way you feel is right for you.

Your therapist should suggest that before you sever any tie, you bring

With you all the positive learning that the life gave you into your current existence.

W Come out of the past life. It is important that you are formally brought out of the past life. If you simply emerge from it, you may be somewhat disorientated. Don’t worry; the disorientation will pass in time. But to avoid this, the general rule of thumb is that you’re brought out of a past life the same way you were taken into it. If you stepped through a door,

You step back through a door. If you walked down a tunnel, you walk back up a tunnel, and so on.

W Check that there are no other lives you need to visit. Before you are fully

Re-oriented back into your current life, your therapist should help you to check that there are no other lives that need to be visited. After all, more

Than one life may be contributing to your problem, and you want to clear the lot out in order to really ensure that it has been dealt with.

You may find that you can do this in one session, or it may need to be done over several sessions, depending on how much needs to be worked through in each life.

Whether you are doing it for fun, or using it to solve a problem, you will find

That every hypnotherapist will have their own particular approach to carrying out PLR. Whatever your reason is, you will find that a visit to your past

Selves can be a very interesting, rewarding, and ultimately problem releasing

Experience for you.

Past lives are not the only ones you can visit. Some therapists will work

With you to find out what happens during your inter-life experience. In other words, exploring what happens between each of your lives. Yet other therapists will have you experience future lives – those that you have yet to live

After you kick the bucket in this one.

In this part…

Ou find some helpful background information in this part to help you to understand how hypnotherapy works. This part also looks at the terms used in hypnotherapy, the basics of how it works, and what hypnotherapy is used for. You even find a very brief history of hypnosis and hypnotherapy included in this part.

If you want to know exactly what a hypnotherapist does, we describe the techniques and procedures used in a typical hypnotherapy session. In other words, this part is a great place to start if you’re new to hypnotherapy.

Y

In This Chapter

^ Debunking the magical, mystical illusions ^ Realising that hypnosis is safe and easy ^ Understanding that you’re in control

Ur experience as hypnotherapists and trainers tells us that people often have similar types of misconceptions about hypnosis. Some may sense that their beliefs about hypnosis are inaccurate, but a small part of them still believes in the misconceptions. Typically, we hear something like, ‘I know it sounds ridiculous but. . . (fill in your misconception here)’.

These inaccurate beliefs may prevent people who could actually benefit from

Hypnotherapy from seeking help. Perhaps some of these misunderstandings

Play a part in holding you back from seeking hypnotherapy.

Understanding misconceptions about hypnosis can alleviate your fears about being hypnotised, so in this chapter we list the misconceptions that we have come across most frequently, in no particular order.

Hypnosis Is Magical and Mystical

Throughout history, hypnosis has often been connected with the occult. The concept of hypnosis having an occult connection has often been the image

Perpetuated by some of the earliest known practitioners, the Egyptian priesthood, who entranced religious followers.

Magic and hypnotism were often linked by people who wanted to invoke a fearful sense of power and control over others. Hollywood movies and lowbrow fiction also contributed to the idea of the hypnotic bogeyman. Often the underlying implication is that the public should be afraid – be very afraid – of anyone who wielded the evil ‘hypnotic eye’.

Consequently, even today people erroneously believe that hypnotherapists

Have a power that allows them to manipulate others, but this is simply not

True!

The reality is that trance is a natural state of mind. Hypnosis is any technique

That brings about trance. In actual practice, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis – you can’t be hypnotised unless you are willing. Hypnotherapy is simply a way

Of using trance to help with problems. Nothing mystical involved at all.

Of course, the results of good clinical hypnotherapy may Seem Like magic

Once you are rapidly relieved of your problem, or achieve your goal with ease!

You’re Under the Power of the Hypnotherapist

This misconception is related to the one that says hypnosis is magical and

Mystical. The idea is probably influenced by stage hypnotists who Appear To have power over those they hypnotise. Just keep in mind that people in stage hypnosis acts are willing participants. Hypnosis is really just self-hypnosis and the participants in a stage hypnosis show choose to join in – even if they

Appear not to.

It is simply not true that a hypnotist has any control over you. No hypnotherapist can make you do anything that you don’t want to do, or anything that is

Not in character.

Hypnosis Is Dangerous

Hypnosis in itself is not dangerous. You are particularly safe when working with qualified hypnotherapists. You are always in control and can come out of trance whenever you want.

One caveat we offer is to avoid personal involvement with unqualified hypnotherapists and stage hypnotists. Unscrupulous people, who have had only minimal instruction in trance induction, often set themselves up as hypnotists without understanding the complexities of psychological problems. This is not the type of practitioner you want to seek help from. (See Chapter 12 for tips on choosing a qualified hypnotherapist.) A qualified hypnotherapist will

Ensure that you are taken care of emotionally and will treat you with care, dignity, and respect.

Hypnosis Makes You Cluck like a Chicken and Lose Control

Now is the time to draw distinctions between stage hypnosis and clinical hypnotherapy. Stage hypnosis is about entertainment and laughs. Clinical hypnotherapy is about helping you with problems, or achieving goals. A

Stage hypnotist simply uses hypnosis for a laugh. A clinical hypnotherapist is serious about working with Your Stated goals.

Keep in mind that the stage hypnotist carefully selects who comes up on stage. Usually compliant extrovert types are ideal for a stage hypnotist. The people chosen are willing to do any silly things suggested to them.

Stage hypnotists may vary in their qualifications and hypnosis experience.

Some may even be qualified hypnotherapists, but a stage hypnotist will never treat you with the individual respect and attention you get within the context of one-on-one clinical hypnotherapy.

You Have to Keep Your Eyes Closed and Stay Completely Still

Anyone can move while in a hypnotised state. You may need to scratch an itch, and that’s perfectly all right. It doesn’t break the trance state.

Although a lot of trance induction involves closing your eyes and being in a relaxed state, this is not always the case.

Athletes are often in trance while competing in sports. An athlete seeking hypnotherapy in order to enhance her sporting performance, will not be asked to close her eyes or to relax. A hypnotist works with such an athlete

By bringing about an Alert trance. This type of trance is more about recalling

Past peak performances while the eyes are open and movement is occurring. Relaxation and improved sporting performance are not compatible! Can you imagine running a race or playing any competitive sport in a super-relaxed

State? You need the ‘edge’ to perform well.

Similarly, children who come for hypnosis can go into trance even when their

Eyes are wide open and they’re moving around. (Chapter 9 is devoted to children and hypnotherapy).

Also, clients for whom eye closure or relaxation is a threatening occurrence, such as those who suffer panic attacks or have issues of severe trauma, may

Not be given suggestions to relax or close their eyes because this may invoke

The very state of fear that they are seeking treatment for.

Hypnosis Is Therapy

Hypnosis is not therapy, it is a therapeutic technique. Hypnosis can be used

As a tool, or a complement, to various types of therapy and counselling.

Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic aspect of hypnosis. Hypnotherapy can be

Combined to work very powerfully with a range of counselling approaches -

Even forms that are contradictory in their approach such as behavioural therapies, which don’t recognise the concept of the unconscious, and psychodynamic approaches, which do.

May Not Wake Up from Trance

What wakes you up in the morning? If you said ‘My alarm clock’, you’re missing the point. You always wake up from each night’s sleep – even when

Your alarm clock doesn’t ring. Similarly, you always awaken from trance. Remember, trance is not like being in a coma and is not sleep. Trance is a

Natural state that you enter several times a day while you daydream, exercise, or focus intently on a problem at work. You return to a ‘normal’ state

Of non-trance after each trance state. So, if you think about it, you have a

Daily practice of awakening from trance states – several times a day!

We admit that it’s a bit of a contradiction to use the word Awaken For a state that is not sleep. However, this is common terminology that hypnotherapists also use, even though all are aware that hypnosis isn’t the same state as sleep.

It’s just one of the widespread paradoxes that has become commonplace!

Likewise, you can come out of a hypnotic trance state at anytime that you wish. A qualified hypnotherapist will look after you and carefully bring you

Out of trance.

Don’t worry, your hypnotherapist won’t let you fall asleep. You remain quite aware of your surroundings, even in trance, and may even hear sounds both inside and outside the room you’re in – a fact that can help you feel safe and

Allow yourself to enter trance.

You may be surprised that you clearly recall what was said to you during the

Session.

Some People Can’t Be Hypnotised – Even if They Want to Be

Most people can be hypnotised – except those who really don’t want to be.

Sometimes fear and misconceptions about hypnosis can create an unconscious resistance. This is why a qualified hypnotherapist will take a lot of time, the first time you meet, to answer your questions and earn your trust before any hypnosis takes place.

The main thing we emphasise in this book is the need to work with a hypnotherapist before trying self-hypnosis. Even then we would not wholeheartedly recommend – as other books do – that you practise hypnotherapy on

Yourself.

You Go to Sleep during a Hypnosis Session

You You

It is practically impossible to work on your own unconscious problems unaided. Even experienced hypnotherapists seek help from others to work on their deeper psychological issues.

However, once you experience hypnosis with a hypnotherapist, you are in a

Stronger position to decide when, and when not, to apply self-hypnosis. (For more information on self-hypnosis, turn to Chapter 14.)

In This Chapter

^ Looking at what a phobia is

^ Understanding that phobias can be about anything ^ Getting rid of your phobia with hypnotherapy ^ Contracting to face up to your phobia

J\ Re you scared of the dark? Do you freeze with fear whenever a cat saunters nonchalantly across the road in front of you? Do you go apoplectic at the very thought of visiting the dentist? Does the idea of taking a flight to some sunny holiday destination send ice-cold tingles of dread down your spine? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you have a phobia!

Phobias are one of the most common reasons people seek hypnotherapy.

Many millions of people in this world have phobias. Most manage to get

Along in life without the phobia interfering too much in their day-to-day existence; in other words, the phobia is mild. However, a significant number of

People have phobias that greatly restrict their life in one way or another, and

When these phobias get really bad, people seek out therapy.

Rationalising the Irrational: Defining Phobias

Phobias are not something you are born with. They are something you learn. You learn to fear an object or situation of some kind, and that fear is accompanied by many irrational thoughts and behaviours.

Explaining phobias

A Phobia Is an abnormal fear of an object or situation, experienced immediately when confronted by the object or situation, directly or indirectly,

Through seeing it on television, or in a magazine or book, for example. In general, fear makes you avoid whatever it is that triggers your phobia. So, a phobia involves fear and avoidance, but what else makes a phobia a phobia?

Well, you may have a phobia if you experience any of the following: W Excessive or unreasonable fear: Some situations may induce just a mild

Fear response considered normal or non-phobic, something most people would experience in that situation. Your fear is excessive or unreasonable if you find yourself frozen in place, perhaps wanting to escape, possibly trembling or sweating in that situation.

A fear of heights is a phobia if you are paralysed by fear on the third rung of a ladder, or if simply watching someone standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon on television makes you break out in a sweat.

W You recognise that the fear is excessive or unreasonable: You know

That what you are experiencing is out of proportion to what you should be feeling. You know, for example, that going to visit your dentist should

Only give you a mild anxiety, not that ‘running down the street shrieking

Your head off’ anxiety you experience when you walk in through the

Surgery door.

W The trigger of phobic response always causes anxiety: You either have the response, or not. You can’t be scared of mice one moment and think

That they’re cute the next. W You avoid whatever causes your phobic response: All phobics avoid

Whatever it is that they are afraid of, which is a logical response, really. If you can’t avoid it, then you suffer the experience with intense anxiety or stress. For example, imagine that you have avoided flying for years, travelling wherever you needed to go by car, bus or train. However, for one

Reason or another, you find that you need to travel by plane somewhere.

Getting you on the wretched thing may mean that you have to be dragged

Kicking and screaming, or else you have to be pumped full of enough

Tranquilisers to stop a rampaging bull elephant in its tracks!

Phobic fear most often causes physical and emotional reactions, including any, or all, the following:

W Your breathing may become shallow and your heart race, with just the

Thought of the Possibility Of encountering the object of your fear.

W You feel tense and anxious, altering your life to avoid any encounter.

W You feel a sense of shame or embarrassment at harbouring an obsessive fear, which may, in turn, cause you to withdraw from people who don’t understand your terror.

As your fear looms large in your mind and in your life, you spend a great deal of your time, energy, and thought on it, which actually fans the flame of your phobia.

Oh, and just so you know, phobias can sometimes be accompanied by a Panic attack, Too. During these nasty episodes, your fear rockets through the roof

And rational thought flies out the window, causing your breathing to become

Very rapid and shallow, which is known as Hyperventilating. Hyperventilating increases the amount of oxygen in your blood and brain. You may think that

More oxygen is a good thing, but too much oxygen in your system increases the symptoms you experience during a panic attack, resulting in more fear, trembling, sweating, weakness and tingling sensations in your limbs, and irrational thoughts that you are going to die.

To stop hyperventilating, put a paper bag over your nose and mouth, and breathe into it. This causes you to breathe in carbon dioxide and subsequently brings down the level of oxygen in your system.

Comparing phobias to plain old fear

Phobias involve fear. But does that mean that all fear is really a phobia? The answer is no. One or two things about the fear you experience when you have

A phobic response make that fear very particular to a phobia.

Fear is a natural survival mechanism. In the ancient past, when humans

Lived in caves, the fear response kept us away from things that could harm us. If we didn’t have it, you probably wouldn’t be reading this book today, because the human race wouldn’t exist. Imagine for a moment, that we didn’t

Develop a fear response. You have just left your cave for a nice stroll around your Palaeolithic neighbourhood. On your way you notice a rather large and

Cuddly looking pussycat, fast asleep under a tree. You go up to it (remember, no fear) and start stroking it. The next thing you know: snap! You’re a sabre-toothed tiger’s hors d’oeuvre! Apply that to the rest of the human race and it

Wouldn’t last for very long.

Put fear into the equation and things are different. You’re having your little caveman stroll and see a bundle of fur curled up under a tree. From past experience, you know that similar bundles of fur tend to attack you. As this registers in your brain you begin to feel fear. The fear that you feel makes you become very wary, you back off and return to your cave.

Many feelings of fear stem from a rational sense of survival; you fear what may physically harm you. You may also fear what others around you fear,

Or fear the unknown, or fear what may happen to others close to you.

-jjjABE* The fear you experience with a phobic response is an Irrational fear. YJi\ Basically, it is a fear of an outcome that statistically won’t happen. For exam-IM ) Ple, air travel continues to be far safer than any other form of transportation, so being afraid of dying in a plane crash is an irrational fear. Likewise, pho -

Bias are born of fears of an improbable result you believe will happen when

You encounter the object or situation. For example, it’s highly unlikely that

You will actually have a heart attack if a spider comes near you.

You may be thinking ‘So what about a phobia of snakes? They can hurt you, so that must be a rational fear!’. Yes and no (you probably knew we

Were going to say that). If you walk down the street and come face to face with a boa constrictor slithering along then yes, the fear you experience would be a rational fear. If you were flicking through a magazine and came across a picture of a snake and let out a shriek of fear, then that would be

An irrational fear – a phobic fear. After all, the wretched thing won’t leap out

Of the page at you, will it? Therefore there is no threat to your survival.

So where do phobias come from in the first place? How do you develop them? After all, no one sets out to deliberately become scared of something.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a simple answer. The causes of phobias are as

Varied as phobias themselves. Starting with stress

When you experience severe stress, such as being stuck on a crowded bus in

A traffic jam, or having a project deadline looming at work, your objectivity and ability to rationally analyse the situation may be compromised. The feelings you have as a result of the stress – such as anxiety or fear – can attach

Themselves to whatever you are stressed about.

Even though this is not always the case, when it does happen that means that

If you enter into a similar situation, or come across a similar object, then you

Experience anxiety or fear. Remember, a phobia can occur to anything, so any

Situation in which you find yourself stressed has the potential to turn into a phobia.

Pointing out triggers

Going through an extremely rough patch with your significant other obviously causes a lot of stress. This feeling can become attached to any confrontational situation and therefore result in you developing a phobia of confrontation.

However, your mind is a fickle thing and sometimes the fear is attached to something unrelated; you become scared of that and not of whatever it was that frightened you in the first place.

KPUi A patient came for therapy with a phobia of buttons (quite a common phobia, as it happens). He felt okay when confronted by buttons attached to clothes, ) but experienced an incredible sense of dread and anxiety when faced with a

YTJ Loose button lying around; convinced that it would suddenly lodge itself in his windpipe. He experienced the fear to such an extent that he couldn’t

Enter a room if he knew there was a loose button somewhere inside. On top of wanting to get rid of his phobia, he also wanted to understand where it

Came from. Using a regression technique (see Chapter 2), he was taken back

To a time in his early teens when he had been summoned into his headmaster’s office in order to atone for some transgression or other. This was in the days when headmasters were still given free rein to take out their sadistic frustrations on their pupils, and our patient ended up being given the cane! What came to light during the regression was that as he was bent over the headmaster’s desk receiving six of the best, he caught sight of a loose button. The stress and anxiety he felt by being given the cane transferred to the button, and from that moment on he began to fear loose buttons in general.

Picking up a phobia from another person

A classic way to assume a phobia is to inherit it from someone who serves as a role model for you. Through witnessing that person’s phobic response, you learn to be afraid of whatever it is that they are afraid of.

A mother who is afraid of mice passes on that fear to her daughter. A son picks up his father’s fear of spiders. When you witness your role model being scared, you believe that the object that he is afraid of is something that you need to be scared of too. Obvious really, if he is scared of it, then there must be something terrible about it. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily true!

However, you don’t pick up phobias only from family members. Anyone you are in close contact with – be it a friend, neighbour, or complete stranger -

Can transmit their phobia to you. Even witnessing a phobic response on film or television can do the trick!

Building up to a phobia

A single experience of something mildly anxiety provoking may not necessarily end up with you developing a phobia of it. However, if you’re repeatedly

Exposed to the same, or similar, experiences then the anxiety can become

Cumulative, reinforcing each experience with more and more fear until,

Wham! – you’re slapped in the face with a full-blown phobia. It’s as though you didn’t see it coming.

Take for example flight crew members who frequently experience varying degrees of turbulence during the flights they make. They appear to cope

(and in most cases they do so very well), but for a few members there is

An underlying feeling of anxiety that gets reinforced with each bout of turbulence, accumulating away in the back of their mind until it springs forth in the form of a full-blown flying phobia.

Creating a phobia from past trauma

A Trauma Is an event that produces a severely painful physical or emotional experience – and could realistically lead to your death or injury. A trauma

Can lead to the development of a phobia of whatever it was that caused you that pain. Even witnessing such an event is traumatic and can result in the development of a phobia.

You’re driving along in your car and some idiot swerves in front of you. Unfortunately, they misjudge the distance and – crash, tinkle! You both end

Up with a trip to the garage to get the major dents in the bodywork of your vehicles beaten out. A car crash comes under the heading of a trauma and is a very frightening experience for all concerned. The next time you think about getting behind the wheel to drive, you may very well begin to experience anxiety. Perhaps you begin to avoid driving. Unfortunately, the more you avoid driving because of the anxiety, the more the anxiety builds. The more

The anxiety builds, the more likely you are to end up with a full-blown driving

Phobia!

Examining the Various Types of Phobia

Each individual phobia has its own particular characteristics. To be helpful, medical science has divided phobias into the following categories:

W Animal and insect phobias: The heading says it all. Any type of animal

Can be included in this category, from cats and dogs, through to cows

And wombats! Insects are traditionally objects of fear, and any of the

Thousands of species that survive on this planet can become a phobic’s worst nightmare.

W Natural environment phobias: These are phobias about some aspect of your environment. For example it may be that you are afraid of the dark – typical in children, but also afflicting many adults too. Or maybe you are

Scared of heights, or water, and so on.

W Blood, injection, and injury phobias: It’s never pleasant having an injection. However, for some this can prove to be the object of a very severe

Phobia. In fact, any medical procedure that is invasive can come under

This category. The sight of blood too, is often the trigger for a complete freak-out!

W Situation phobias: All phobias that are the result of having to do something, or of having to be in a specific place, come under this heading. If you have a fear of flying you belong under this category, for example. Fear being in a lift or elevator? You’re here too. Shake and tremble

Before going to school? This is your category. Get the picture?

Perhaps the two most famous situation phobias are Claustrophobia, A fear of enclosed spaces, and Agoraphobia, A fear of open spaces.

W Miscellaneous phobias: A bit of a cop out, this heading! Anything that doesn’t come under the other headings in this list belongs here. For

Example, a fear of clowns (honest!), a fear of falling down when standing away from a wall (honest, too!), or a fear of getting ill (now that one you’ve heard of!), are all included in this category.

You can develop a phobia to anything. So don’t worry if you have a phobia

You think is strange. It’s a dead cert that someone else has had it before you.

Table 11-1 offers a very incomplete list of the variety of phobias out there. (We can’t list everything on the planet!) Don’t worry if yours isn’t there. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t really exist, or that you are unique; all it means

Is that for whatever reason (not enough space, for one thing) we didn’t include it.

No matter how strange some of these phobias seem to be, they are very real

Fears for the people who experience them.

Before we get to the table, one phobia deserves special mention, if only for the sheer audacity of its name. And that is the phobia of long words, ironically known as hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Who says scientists

Don’t have a sense of humour!

Specific phobias

If you’re phobic about only one thing, you have a specific phobia. This used to be called Simple phobia, But as any phobic will tell you, there’s nothing

Simple about a phobia. Perhaps in recognition of this, science changed its

Name.

A Specific phobia Means your irrational fear is attached to one thing, and one thing only. You’re scared of heights and nothing else, for example. And it is

Only when you are in the presence of the actual phobic stimulus, or when you think about it, that you feel the fear.

More complex phobias

A Complex phobia Develops when the specific phobia you started off with

Spreads into other areas of your life. For example, you have a fear of snakes. You only felt scared when you thought about them, or when you were confronted with one in the zoo or on television. But now, your fear is starting to

Spread. You see a rubber snake in a toyshop and go apoplectic. The hosepipe

Lying on the ground fills you with fear and dread – after all, it looks like a snake!

Unfortunately, your phobia is generalising out and you are starting to fear other objects. This can lead to you becoming multi-phobic. In other words, you begin to develop phobias for other things. If this continues, your life can become more

And more restricted. In the end, you may end up with Agoraphobia - fear of open or crowded spaces – and become increasingly confined to your home. Being

Out, in the outside world, becomes an object of fear itself.

Some people are naturally Multi-phobic, Meaning they may well have more

Than one specific phobia, each one contained in its own little phobia world, bearing no relation to the others. A multi-phobic person may have a fear of flying. And a fear of wasps. And a fear of cats. And so on.

Removing Your Phobia through Hypnotherapy

One thing about phobias is that you can avoid dealing with them for only

So long. Eventually you have to face up to the fact that you must sort out

Your phobia. Why? Because your phobia is making your life unbearable and

Increasingly interferes with your family, social, and work life. Have no fear (get it? Have no fear?); your hypnotherapist is there to help.

A hypnotherapist can take several approaches to helping you get rid of your phobia. What all approaches have in common is that they bring your

Fear under control. In fact, hypnotherapy allows you to confront the thing

That freaks you out, with a sense of calmness and appropriate relaxation. You no longer avoid whatever it is; in fact, you look it straight in the eye and thumb your nose at it! You put your fear into proper perspective.

This doesn’t mean to say that you go from being unable to climb up a ladder

To standing on the very edge of the Empire State Building, looking down on

New York City below. It simply means that you’re able to deal calmly with

Those everyday occurrences of whatever it was that you were phobic about.

Your therapist won’t spring surprises on you. Many phobics come to hypnotherapy fearing that their therapist will suddenly produce whatever it is that they fear. That approach went out with the Ark! You won’t suddenly have

A spider dumped in your lap, nor will your therapist shut you in a room with his pet canary to cure your bird phobia. Of course, if this is what you want, it can be arranged. However, by far the majority of hypnotherapists don’t work this way. If you are at all concerned about unpleasant surprises, ask your

Hypnotherapist, in advance, about the approach they plan to use. If they intend to do something you don’t agree with, say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’,

And find someone else.

Starting with the basics

You’ve done it. You turned up for your appointment and are about to undergo

Hypnotherapy. So what can you expect? Well, for a start, your hypnotherapist

Is going to take a good case history (see Chapter 13 for complete info on giving a case history). As part of that case history, your therapist wants to know as

Much about your phobia as possible. Be prepared to tell your therapist

W When your phobia first started: This gives an indication of how your

Phobia came about in the first place, and may provide a pointer as to the therapy technique your hypnotherapist will use.

W When your phobia first became a problem for you: Could you cope

With the fear to begin with? What was it that eventually turned your fear

Into a full-blown phobia?

W Your worst phobic experience: This can be important as it may be a

Major contributing factor to the continuing build-up of your phobia.

W Your last phobic experience: How long is it since your last experience? How did that affect you?

W Whether anyone close to you has the same phobia: This may indicate

Whether you picked up the phobia from someone else. If you didn’t get it

From the person who shares your phobia, perhaps that person could be reinforcing your phobia, because they talk about their own phobic

Responses in front of you.

W Specific information about your phobia: The specifics are important, and your therapist will want to find out as much as possible about how you experience your phobia.

For a fear of heights, your therapist may want to ask you about the heights you can cope with, whether you cope if there is a barrier between you and the drop, how you feel if you see someone else standing in a high place, and so on.

For a fear of cats, your therapist may want to know if you cope more effectively with black cats or ginger cats, if a sleeping cat is less scary

Than a moving cat, how you feel when you see pictures of cats, and so on.

W How you want to be after your phobia is gone: It’s no good just focusing on the negatives, your therapist also wants to help you focus on the reason you are sitting in their therapy room. And that means finding out from you just how you want to be when you encounter that phobic stimulus. Remember, you can’t make things perfect – you must be realistic.

Most spider phobics don’t want to have one of their nemeses crawling

Around on their hand. Rather, they want to feel okay about picking one

Up out of the bath, on the end of a piece of newspaper, and flicking it out the window.

We’ll let you into a little secret. Even though you probably assume that the therapy occurs only when you are hypnotised, the truth is that the taking of the case history information is very therapeutic in its own right. Being able to

Talk about your problem to a sympathetic pair of ears is a great set-up for the

Formal hypnotherapy to come. And don’t worry; your therapist has heard it

All before. No matter how strange you think your phobia is, your hypnotherapist has, more than likely, encountered it at some point. Oh, and he won’t laugh, either!

Approaching the trance

So, what can you expect to happen in the trance? Your hypnotherapist may use several different approaches, alone or in combination with each other.

It may take more than one session to help you get rid of your phobia. Be prepared to carry out any homework assignments your therapist gives you to do

Between sessions – such as self-hypnosis – because these help the therapy

Process along no end. Being hypno-desensitised

A very popular approach based on a behaviour therapy technique, created by behaviourist Joseph Wolpe, has the rather posh title of Reciprocal inhibition. What that means is you can use one feeling to override another. The feeling you get when you experience your phobia is anxiety. Your therapist uses relaxation to override the anxiety. After all, you can’t be relaxed and anxious at the same time!

Several approaches to hypno-desensitisation exist. A very common one is

For your therapist to help you create something known as an anxiety hierarchy. Simply put, an Anxiety hierarchy Is a series of events you come up with regarding your phobia, ranked according to how much anxiety they produce. You rank these events from 0, which means that you feel no anxiety, to 100,

Which means that you feel the worst anxiety you can imagine. In hypnosis, your therapist gently takes you through the hierarchy, starting with the events ranked at 0, whilst giving you suggestions that you are calm, relaxed, and in control. He will then question you to find out whether you are indeed calm and relaxed. If you are, he then moves onto the next scene on your hierarchy. If at any point you feel anxious, your therapist will emphasise suggestions for relaxation so that you begin to feel relaxed again.

This is where the reciprocal inhibition really comes in – letting the relaxation wash away the anxiety. Don’t worry, your therapist won’t force you up the hierarchy too quickly, nor will he take you beyond the point at which you

Feel comfortable. By creating the association of relaxation with the various images from your hierarchy, you change the way your mind thinks about your phobia. When you encounter it in real life, you find that you cope very well indeed.

Going back to regression

This approach is sometimes used by analytical hypnotherapists who believe that to get rid of a phobia you need to understand and deal with its origin.

Your therapist basically takes you back into your past, to the time when the

Phobia began.

Your hypnotherapist asks you to witness what happened, and perhaps to

‘alter’ the event in your mind, so that you experience yourself coping well in

That situation.

Of course, you won’t alter the real event but rather your perception of it. By

Doing this, you create a domino effect that tumbles into the present, wiping

Out that irrational fear. For more on regression, see Chapter 2.

Accessing positive resources

This approach also uses regression, but this time to get resources from your past. These resources are positive feelings that allowed you to cope and feel good before; feelings such as relaxation, confidence, an inner sense of self-control, humour, and so on.

While in trance, you’re asked to create an image that represents your phobia.

You’re then asked to drift back in time and pick up wonderful, positive feelings that help you cope, and bring them forward to the present. You then are guided to fuse your positive resources to the image you created of your phobia.

By doing this, the resources overlay the anxiety the image produces (good

Old reciprocal inhibition!), and helps to alter the way you think about whatever it is you were scared of. When you are out and about and eventually

Encounter your phobia; you’re fine – calm and relaxed and wondering what

All the fuss was about.

Trying the fast phobia cure

This one is worth a brief mention as many hypnotherapists use it. It comes from a school of therapy called Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), which

Hypnotherapists have adapted so that it can be carried out in trance.

The fast phobia cure essentially disrupts the way you maintain the thoughts and images you hold in your mind about your phobia. For more on this, and

NLP in general, turn to Chapter 15.

Following EMDR

Not strictly hypnosis this one, though many hypnotherapists are trained in its use. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a very powerful technique originally developed as a treatment for trauma. However, it has also been shown to be very effective in the treatment of phobias.

In EMDR, you are asked to follow your therapist’s fingers with your eyes

As you hold certain images or thoughts in your mind. The idea is that this speeds up the way your mind processes upsetting events, allowing you to

Get rid of that phobic fear. Chapter 15 has more on EMDR and how it works.

Picturing your life without your phobia

The images, feelings, thoughts and pictures you had in your mind with regard to your phobia are what encourage and egg on the phobia in the first place.

After the main part of your therapy is complete, your therapist will take you

Forward in time, in your mind, so that you experience yourself coping effectively and thinking and feeling in a more positive way about whatever it was that used to cause your phobic response. This technique is called Pseudo orientation in time And is explained in Chapter 2.

The idea is to reinforce those changes made during therapy to the images, associated thoughts, and so on, which have been causing your anxiety. This allows you to view your phobia differently; to no longer view it as something that strikes terror into your heart, rather to view it as something you know

You can cope with very effectively. It is the icing on top of the proverbial therapy cake.

Confronting Your Phobia: A Contract for Action

If the icing on the cake is pseudo orientation in time (see the previous section), then the cherry that tops it off is the Contract for action. No, this doesn’t

Mean getting your lawyer in to look over some complicated legal contract.

Far from it; The contract for action Is simply an agreement between you and

Your hypnotherapist that, after you complete therapy, you will go out and confront your phobia. Some hypnotherapists may even write down what they want you to do in the form of a contract and ask you to sign it (remember it’s only symbolic, and definitely not legally binding!).

You may be thinking that this sounds very daunting. And, yes, it may seem daunting to you now, but remember that you’re asked to do this only After

Your therapy is complete. So, you should be feeling fine about your phobic object or situation. Also, as it’s you who is making the choice to go out and confront your phobia, you are in complete control of the situation.

By Mike Bryant and Peter Mabbutt

JOHN WILEY & SONS, LTD

Hypnotherapy For Dummies®

Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England

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About the Authors

Mike Bryant Is an African-American who has lived in England since 1984.

Mike is a qualified psychiatric social worker, counsellor, and hypnotherapist and has also worked as an information technology and project manager.

With extensive experience in both America and the United Kingdom, Mike has established a range of innovative mental health schemes in London as well as

Having provided senior service development consultancy to NHS Mental Health

Trusts across England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as a Senior Consultant with the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH). While at SCMH, he published a range of papers and reports on mental health issues.

Mike currently lives in London with his wife and family and has a private practice as a counsellor and as hypnotherapist. You can find more information about Mike’s practice at Www. londonhypno. com.

Peter Mabbutt Is Director of Studies at the London College of Clinical Hypnosis

(LCCH) and lectures throughout the UK and overseas to both lay students and

Medical practitioners. He is responsible for the development of the LCCH’s core courses and with his colleagues has introduced many new techniques

And subjects to the curriculum, ensuring that it continues to meet the needs of the modern-day hypnotherapist.

With a background in psychopharmacology Peter co-authored a range of

Papers on tranquilisers, anxiety, and learning and memory before training with the LCCH to become a hypnotherapist. Peter has a specialist interest in the mind-body connection, weight control, the treatment of trauma, and hypertension.

Authors’ Acknowledgements

From Mike Bryant: I would like to dedicate this book to my family: My lovely wife Toni, and my gorgeous daughters Jodie and Jessie. Jodie, sorry I couldn’t use your working title of Daddy’s Wicked Hypnotherapy Book. Maybe next time.

A big thanks goes to my parents, and my brother and sister from

Indianapolis. Howdy.

Michael Joseph: Thank you for creating some of the best hypnotherapy training in Europe – the London College of Clinical Hypnosis. A big appreciation to

My teachers and colleagues there at the LCCH.

I would also like to express my deep appreciation to all of the people who

Have come to me for hypnotherapy. They have also been my teachers and I owe them a great deal in my development as a clinician, trainer, and author.

From Peter Mabbutt: This book is dedicated to my parents, Christine and

Charles. Though sadly no longer with us, they always encouraged my dreams. Hey mum and dad, I realised another one! To my sister Nadine and her family, jHola! And to the rest of my family a big thank you and hello too.

Thank you Michael Joseph, Principal of the London College of Clinical Hypnosis (LCCH), for guiding me along a path that consistently proves to be exciting and fun and for the many groan-worthy jokes that punctuate the day

When you are in the office. On top of this I would also like to say a very special thank you to all my colleagues at the LCCH for their support in all things hypnosis and beyond. We make a great team! To all my hypnotherapy students

Past, present and future; you may think I’m teaching you, but there is a lot that you teach me. Tom Connelly of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis, many

Thanks for searching out those niggling snippets of information for Mike and I.

There can be no replacement for good teaching and good teachers (thanks again LCCH) but the icing on the cake comes when you are out in the field, and with this in mind I extend another set of thanks to all my patients from whom I have learned and continue to learn so much about the wonderful world of humanity.

Mike, a big thanks for bringing me on board this project. It was great fun and

You are a joy to work with. Here’s to the next one!

To all my friends out there who have been patient with my absence whilst

Writing this book: I’m free again and the drinks are on you!

To my ‘other’ family: Sandra, Gerald, and Andrea Winston, thank you for welcoming me in and letting me share in the laughter.

And Elijah (kiddo!) and Dalya (princess!) Winston: Howzit dolls? The laughter you bring is all the therapy I need.

And finally the biggest thank you of all to my partner Steven Winston for your love, enthusiasm, encouragement, support, humour, nags, and glasses of wine. The boy done good!

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In This Chapter

^ Evaluating ethical issues ^ Seeing how children are affected by hypnosis ^ Being helpful in your child’s hypnotherapy ^ Looking at childhood issues

/f you’re considering taking your child to a hypnotherapist, you can play a crucial role in assuring successful treatment by reading this chapter. We describe how safe hypnosis is for your child, and how you as a parent (and in

This chapter we use the word Parent To refer to the primary guardian of the

Child) can feel comfortable about their hypnotherapy experience.

Children live in a fantasy world for much of their waking hours. Their play and their involvement with television and books require deep imaginative participation.

Watch children at play. When they are deeply engaged and unselfconscious, they are transported to another world! They literally hypnotise themselves into the role they’re playing – be that a warrior, a mother whose doll has become their ‘baby’, or some famous celebrity or sports figure. When my (Mike’s) children are watching the Dora the Explorer Cartoon, they are right there beside Dora and her monkey friend Boots, sharing their adventures in the jungle!

This same state of self-hypnosis would require some work from a hypnotherapist to create in an adult. But children enter this state regularly and with ease. This imaginative sense is exactly the quality of trance that can lead to

Effective hypnotherapy.

Kids – and as an American, I (Mike) use this term affectionately to include children and adolescents – are much easier to hypnotise than adults because they readily access their unconscious mind. As you become an adult, you

Lose some of this ability as society encourages you to become more focused and realistic.

Considering Ethical Issues

As you can imagine, working with children is an extremely serious business

That requires the highest levels of professionalism and sensitivity. There are strict rules that hypnotherapists must adhere to when working with adults, but particularly when working with children.

&H&tr The word Ethics Pertains to the principles of conduct governing an individual " or a profession. Any qualified clinical hypnotherapist belongs to some profes -

Sional hypnotherapy organisation that has a written document explaining the professional do’s-and-don’ts. Usually called something like a ‘Code of Conduct’ or a ‘Code of Ethics’, this list is available for anyone interested to read before an initial session. Simply contact one of the national hypnotherapy organisations listed in the Appendix of this book.

An ethical hypnotherapist will allow you, as the parent, to be with your child throughout treatment sessions in order to ensure you and your child’s confidence. However, the therapist may insist that the child answer some questions him or herself, so that the hypnotherapist can engage with your child

Directly. Also, your view of the problem may be completely different from

Your child’s.

If your presence in the room is absolutely forbidden, you have every right to question why, and if not satisfied with the response, to seek help elsewhere.

You’re welcome to be present in any part of the session, as long as your child agrees. Your absence may be necessary at times to allow your child to speak

Freely.

Alternatively, you may be happy to leave your child alone with a therapist you have confidence in. However, in our experience, by far the majority of

Parents want to be present in sessions and that is usually all right.

The hypnotherapist makes clear his reasons for his decision whether to have you involved in the session, and negotiates the outcome of treatment accordingly. However, he won’t make you (the parent) feel that you have been doing

Things in the wrong way. He may however, occasionally suggest a different strategy to your approach to your child’s problem to ensure success.

Some hypnotherapists may act as brokers between parent and child by asking the child what they would like their parents to do differently in order to help them feel better, or solve their problem. The hypnotherapist can then feed this information back to the parent(s) privately.

Noting the Differences in Hypnotising Children

Working with children is great fun because it’s more like play than work. In fact, it is play. Children don’t require the same sort of explanations of trance or even the same sort of trance inductions used on adults. So a hypnotherapist has to be good at imaginative play to work well with children.

Children are already in a state of hypnosis most of the time. Their world

Revolves around them. Until they develop their Critical factor, A level of maturity that enables them to more objectively analyse information, children tend

To believe that anything is possible and that what adults and authority figures say is true.

An ethical hypnotherapist, skilled at imaginative play, can work well with a child to bring about the desired results. To the observer, the interaction

Between hypnotherapist and child may seem like mere play. But the hypnotherapist understands the heightened state of suggestibility of a child, and is watching for opportune moments to offer therapeutic suggestions when the child is most receptive.

When I (Mike) first hypnotised children, I was often not sure if they were really hypnotised. They would appear wide awake, fidgeting sometimes and still speaking to me. Hypnotised adults are easier to spot because their eyes

Are usually closed, their face and body muscles are very relaxed, and they may even occasionally drool! But because children may not close their eyes,

Their response to trance is very different. This situation requires a more subtle detection on the part of the hypnotherapist.

Of course, children don’t directly tell you that ‘I am now in trance’, so knowing when this occurs is more likely to happen with someone who has been trained to observe the physiological signs of trance – like a

Qualified hypnotherapist!

Two of the biggest differences in hypnotising children and adolescents, as

Opposed to adults, are:

^ Kids don’t need to close their eyes to go into trance. They may still fidget while in trance, but in a subtly different way – more slowed down.

^ Children and adolescents are more trusting, and go more easily and deeper into trance early in therapy. They are particularly suggestible to

Ideas while in trance.

With eyes wide open

Children – and to a lesser extent, adolescents – have such powerful imaginations that unlike most adults, they don’t need to close their eyes to go into a

Hypnotic trance.

You can probably recall vivid childhood imaginings – perhaps something as simple as becoming really involved with playing with dolls, or dreaming of being a superhero. Sporty children may also pretend to be their favourite athlete, and recreate the scenes of prowess and skill they view in sporting events.

Children put themselves into imaginary situations quite easily and naturally. Adults don’t do this without a degree of effort in hypnosis. Adults have to be highly suggestible or in a very deep trance, with previous experiences of hypnosis, before trance is possible with their eyes open.

Similarly, when hypnotising a child, not only is eye closure unnecessary, insisting a young child close his eyes may make him feel unsafe, or at the

Very least, too suspicious to maintain trance.

Adults tend to think that trance requires that you remain physically still. This does not apply to children in hypnotherapy. Children can be in trance and receive hypnotherapeutic suggestions while they are fidgeting in their chair.

In fact, movement can be used as part of inducing a hypnotic trance – if done

Skilfully.

Trance through imagination

Because of children’s strong imaginative sense, hypnotherapists don’t have

To induce trance the same way as they do with adults. Trance with children is

A normal, natural state. It can also be gained, or deepened, through play and by invoking the child’s favourite fantasies or images. This is very different

From adults, with whom it is necessary to answer questions about hypnosis

And gain a great deal of trust first.

For a child or adolescent, the main hypnotherapeutic goal is to engage

Them in their favourite imaginative scenario. The hypnotherapist does this

By simply talking and playfully encouraging them into making this scenario as

All-encompassing as possible.

For example, if you were asked to imagine one of your favourite holidays and what you specifically enjoyed about it, you might be encouraged to elaborate at great length by someone who was genuinely interested in your experience. Chances are that your recall of the events would become increasingly vivid. These memories would be the beginnings of trance.

Trancing through talking

Steve, 15, is an adolescent who came into my (Mike’s) clinic for a problem with nail-biting. Steve’s dad brought him, and asked me a few questions in my office initially. After talking to me about Steve’s problem, asking me standard hypnosis questions and generally checking me out, Steve’s dad volunteered – unprompted – to return to the waiting room. This was great,

Because Steve had remained quiet with his

Father around. Steve was a shy 15-year-old who had begun to experience problems with nail-biting after his parents divorced. He’d had to move to a new school, as a result of the downsizing of the family home. Rather than talk to him in-depth about these changes, I just chatted to Steve to find out what his interests were and what excited him. He began to talk about music and his love of ‘grindcore’ bands – an extreme form of heavy and death metal rock

Music.

He talked about how he had been playing guitar for a while. After moving to his new

School, Steve couldn’t believe his luck when he met two boys who played bass and drums, and who were looking for a guitarist. They liked the same style of music and immediately formed a band. Steve began to go into a light trance as

He described how they ‘totally rocked’ at a

Recent party. This led him into even greater

Fantasies about the band’s plans to record a demo of three songs he’d written. (He sang

A couple of verses which perfectly reflected his own teenage angst. His songs were an appropriate therapeutic outlet for his recent upheavals. They also reflected his feelings of powerlessness in his parent’s break up.)

The more Steve talked about his music ambitions, the deeper his trance became. I encouraged him to talk more about his dreams of

Success and shifted this into an encouragement of how any success could lead to other, possibly unrelated, successes in his life. The old ‘success breeds success’ aphorism. I increasingly talked more generally about success, with the intention of pleasantly relaxing him, and soon he was in a medium-deep level trance. I then gradually introduced suggestions of success in alleviating his nail-biting. And you will be pleased at how successfully and easily you can stop any unwanted habits and have smooth fingernails. See those healthy fingernails as you play guitar. You can also see those healthy nails as indicating your ability to have other successes in the future…’And so on.

I also gave Steve a lot of suggestions for feeling better and happier. (I only hoped that becoming happier would not get him in trouble with his grindcore band members!) When we ended our first session, Steve found it difficult to believe that he had gone into trance, but he was aware that somehow he had. We scheduled one final

Session for the following week.

Interestingly, before our second session Steve’s father rang me excitedly to tell me that Steve had stopped nail-biting for the first time in several years! We still met for one final session to ensure that Steve could learn self-hypnosis to maintain his success.

The same is even truer with children and adolescents; they are likely to go

Even further in their imaginations than adults. This means that an excellent level of trance can be reached as their recollection deepens.

Helping Your Child with Therapy

As a parent you play a crucial role in how effectively hypnosis can help your

Child’s problems.

It is natural for parents bringing their children to hypnosis to be apprehensive. However, the better informed you are (say, from reading information like this), the more relaxed you can be when you come to a hypnotherapist with your child. If you convey confidence, your child feels safe and can benefit from their session. Your child picks up on how you feel about his upcoming hypnotherapy. If you are anxious and uncertain, your child will be more so. Showing confidence that the experience will be a good one has a positive effect on your child’s participation, and on the results.

As a parent you want to know what you can do to help your child overcome their problem before you make a decision to seek help from a hypnotherapist. Some general things you can do to help your child are:

^ Don’t force them to talk about the problem if they feel uncomfortable. ^ If they Do Want to talk about it, become a better listener by

• Checking with them that you understand what they say.

• Repeating back some of the words they said to you. ^ Avoid blaming, shaming, or teasing them. ^ Avoid offering unwanted, unhelpful advice.

^ Let them know that you love them, and will support them through their

Problem.

^ Gently suggest that they have more control over the problem than they may realise, and that they can solve this problem and not be a victim of it.

^ Encourage them to have hope that the problem will be solved.

The general idea is to give your child support, and really try to restrain from commenting, criticising, or giving advice. Make it your main goal to say less

Than you would normally and convey a supportive attitude.

Making the decision to seek therapy

Try gently suggesting getting help from a hypnotherapist to your adolescent, so that he thinks it’s his own idea. With the increased popularity and success of hypnosis as a therapeutic tool, an adolescent may well recommend it to resolve a personal problem or issue, and have a more vested interest in achieving that goal.

As a caring parent, you can talk about a hypnotherapist to a younger child as

A professional who can help with a particular concern, the same way other

Professionals help with other concerns.

In either case, the parent will accompany the child and ensure the child’s comfort and wellbeing with the hypnotherapist, before and possibly during the first session.

Never pressure your child (or an adult) into seeking help. It may only cause

Resistance to therapy. This can even lead to the child sabotaging their own

Chances for success, out of resentment towards the parent and hypnotherapist.

So one of the best things you can do is to decide together that seeking help is a good idea.

Listening to your child’s hypnotherapist

Every hypnotherapist works with parents differently. Be guided by your child’s hypnotherapist and remember the importance of not undermining your child, or the hypnotherapist. Listen to your child’s hypnotherapist about how to handle your own anxieties.

Ask your child’s hypnotherapist, when you first make an appointment, how much information they need from you. Find out whether he wants you to be present during the session, or for part of the session, or just during the ‘get

Acquainted’ phase. Your child may ask you to be there initially, but discuss

With the hypnotherapist whether you should excuse yourself from the room

At some point. When the time is right will vary, of course, depending on the

Age of your child.

As a concerned parent, you may certainly tell the hypnotherapist what you

Perceive the problem to be with your child, but do it privately. However, be open about how the course of therapy may proceed. Let your child explain

Their problem to the hypnotherapist in their own words. You may be surprised that your child’s perception of the problem is not necessarily the

Same as yours!

It is important that your child feels that he is in the driver’s seat, so that his unconscious mind can prepare to go to work, and not have to depend on

Your authority as his parent. Remember that it is your child’s mind that

Needs to be activated through hypnosis.

Understanding Some Common Childhood Issues

What are some of the problems that hypnotherapists see children for?

^ Anxiety

^ Bed-wetting

We explain in detail how hypnotherapists remove habits in Chapter 5.

A range of other issues may exist. Speak to a hypnotherapist before arranging an initial appointment, to see if hypnotherapy can help your child.

Hiding behind sofas: Dealing With your anxious child

Arguably, children are under more emotional pressure today than ever

Before. Societal, academic, and parental pressures often lead children to anxiety issues that show up in a multitude of ways, including shyness, stuttering, bed-wetting, insomnia, and appetite problems (including both food avoidance and overeating).

If your child is experiencing anxiety related problems, hypnotherapy may be

Ideal for them. Remember, hypnotherapy can help to relax the body, which is

At the root of treating anxiety. Please do not hesitate to speak to a hypnotherapist to see if they can help your child.

Solving bed-Wetting

Bed-wetting – enuresis in medical terms – is one of the most common childhood problems hypnotherapists address.

—

Enuresis Is the repeated, involuntary voiding of urine, after an age at which continence (staying dry) is usual – about 3 years of age. This is assuming of

Course, that there are no other possible medical or physical causes. In other

Words, the inability of the child to avoid wetting himself or herself. Enuresis

Is a term most used in conjunction with children, but on rare occasions, it applies to adults.

Housing Cathy’s nightmares

Five-year-old Cathy’s favourite cartoon character is Bob the Builder. Her parents brought her to hypnotherapy because of her recurring, and

Extremely disturbing, nightmares. When her

Parents asked her to describe the nightmares, Cathy could never recall their content.

Cathy could not describe the nightmares to me

Either, so we played Bob the Builder instead. I

Asked her to pretend to be Bob and build something. She became very physically involved with

Building, and during this physical activity I

Spoke to her about the details of the house.

Cathy told me that she was building an imaginary toy doll’s house for the doll she had

Brought. When she completed it we both stood back and admired it. Then I asked her if she could build another house. This time I asked her to build a larger house – one which would be big enough for her to go inside. She agreed.

By now she was in trance, and I suggested that she build a Safe house Made of bricks, like the

One that the Three Little Pigs hid in to escape from the Big Bad Wolf. She smiled and became

Physically very active in building her safe

House. She told me when it was completed and

We commented on her fantastic handiwork.

She enjoyed the praise immensely and added a few more details to her safe house.

I then suggested to her that she could take this house back home and put it in her bedroom. I suggested that she could use that same safe house each night before she went to sleep, and that no one but her could enter it. I said that she would feel very, very happy and safe each night inside the house that she had just built. I asked her to promise me that she would pretend to go inside her safe house each night, before she fell

Asleep. She agreed.

Her parents reported back to me that her nightmares had stopped soon after our first meeting.

^.rABEfl It is common for children to wet their beds during the first two to three years of life. At this age hypnosis is inappropriate as bed-wetting is natural. Even IM ) Continued bed-wetting after the age of 3 years, does not necessarily indicate a problem. However, bed-wetting is considered a problem after the age of 6 years.

Children who bed-wet after the age of 6 years may not have yet developed strong enough bladder muscles to retain large amounts of urine. This is why it is so important to seek your doctor’s help to receive medical tests to confirm if this is the case for your child. Expect the hypnotherapist to ask if your child has been thoroughly tested medically before starting any hypnosis.

There are two types of enuresis: ^ Diurnal enuresis: Wetting occurs during the daytime. This is more

Common in females.

^ Nocturnal enuresis: This is what is more commonly called bed-wetting,

And is more common in males.

Nocturnal enuresis is more common than diurnal enuresis. It can obviously cause unhappiness and distress to the child who experiences it. Parents and

Siblings may inadvertently cause additional shame by chastising or teasing

The child. If punished for bed-wetting, the distress is even further enhanced

For the child. Further unhappiness may occur because of the limitations nocturnal enuresis imposes on social activities and holidays.

The good news is that hypnosis is a very powerful tool in relieving bed-wetting. The hypnotherapist speaks to the child’s subconscious, suggesting that they avoid drinks before bed, wake up if they need to urinate, have

Greater bladder/muscular control, and most importantly, to imagine waking up to a dry bed. (The word Wet Is avoided in treating enuresis – the desired state is dryness – so any words involving wet are counter-productive.)

In This Chapter

^ Meeting your hypnotherapist ^ Relaxing your way to clarity ^ Going deeper into your session ^ Making positive suggestions ^ Following up on your session

Our very first hypnotherapy session can be an exciting or an intimidating experience. Exciting if you’re prepared and know what to expect.

Intimidating if you have fears about hypnosis and are worried about how the session will go. (Check out Chapter 3 for tips on preparing for your first session.)

So what should you expect when you arrive? While specific techniques differ from therapist to therapist, most sessions follow the same general course. In this chapter, we take you through all of the stages of a typical hypnotherapy session, from the first getting-to-know-you questions to the follow-up activities.

A hypnotherapy session really is one of the few things in life that’s truly about you. And other than a few common sense items, you don’t have to do a great

Deal of preparation. So relax. Armed with the knowledge in this chapter, you can achieve the best possible results from your hypnosis sessions.

Entering the Office

One of the most empowering things to do when you go to your hypnotherapy

Session, is to arrive just a bit early. The reason for this is simple: You have a

Fixed amount of appointment time. Arriving early ensures that you don’t

Waste your money by being late. Besides, being early allows you to relax,

Compose yourself, and focus on your goals for the session.

4Y^1$\ Hypnosis is most effective on patients who are able to relax. So find your ( HI! ) Inner calm and be prepared to see what a difference hypnotherapy can make \J§|j/ In your life!

Caring enough to pay your oWn Way

Money and session payment are two very interesting subjects for us hypnotherapists. Not only because we pay our mortgage and grocery bills

Through the fees we collect, but from a motivation perspective. Consider two hypothetical clients:

Joan saved her money for a quit smoking session.

Musa was given the money by his father for a quit smoking session.

Who do you think has the greater chance of success?

It may be unscientific, but it’s safe to say that Joan probably has the better

Shot at quitting smoking than Musa does. In general, self-paying clients tend

To be more motivated. This may simply be due to the fact that when you use your own money, you’re more highly motivated to get value for it.

When we meet a patient who is not paying for their own therapy, we ask additional questions to determine whether they’re motivated. We want to ensure

That they aren’t being sent to therapy against their own wishes. Because, if

That is the case, hypnotherapy is much less likely to be effective for them.

Budgeting for your hypnotherapy sessions

The cost of hypnotherapy varies so much that even stating a ballpark figure would lead to misrepresentation, confusion, and inaccuracy.

Hypnotherapists with expensive premises in city centres will charge more than suburban or ruralbased therapists. Hypnotherapists who are

Medically qualified charge differently. There are many possible permutations on fees.

Your hypnotherapist will be happy to tell you his fees, whether you’re having a one-off session of a couple of hours, or several sessions over a number of weeks.

Knowing how many sessions it may take

Every hypnotherapist is different, but hypnotherapy is very solution focused.

It generally achieves results rapidly compared to most talking therapies. One

Reason may be that counselling and psychotherapy are concerned with gaining insight, and understanding Why You have a problem and what its origins

Are. Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, is more concerned with obtaining rapid and lasting change than in finding a cause. Gaining insight is a bonus in hypnotherapy, not the goal. Rapid change is the goal, and in our experience, what most clients want.

You may wonder how rapid this rapid change is. Well, for example, many hypnotherapists conduct a stop-smoking treatment in a single session. Granted,

The session may involve an extended, slightly longer period – 90 minutes

Being a common time duration for a stop-smoking session, as opposed to

The normal 50 minutes for all other treatments. The reason for a single stop -

Smoking session is to give the message that once you’re hypnotised to be a non-smoker, subsequent sessions are redundant and actually undermine that

Message.

However, if you’re coming to hypnotherapy with a fairly serious problem – something like an eating disorder, or a problem that is profoundly affecting your quality of life – expect anywhere from two to half a dozen sessions and possibly more, depending on the seriousness of the problem.

Starting Your Hypnotherapy Session

So are you ready? You booked your first session. What’s next?

A hypnotherapy session, rather like most stage presentations, follows a

Familiar sequence of events with a beginning, a middle, and an end. To be

Sure, some stage presentations mix the sequence up a bit, like Phantom of the Opera, Where the curtain rises on a scene years after the masked man finished playing the organ. A bit odd, that. Of course, if the phantom had undergone hypnotherapy, maybe he wouldn’t have had quite so many

Personal issues. . .

A hypnotherapy session begins, well, at the beginning, probably with introductions and a little small talk to put you at ease. This gentle start not only helps the hypnotherapist establish a good rapport with you, it helps you

Relax – and relaxation is the key to allowing hypnosis to happen.

After the small talk, the hypnotherapist asks you on what issue you want

To work. Tell him. Don’t be surprised if he tells you that it’s an issue he has

Worked on successfully with other patients. In our experience, most patients do a bit of homework and are familiar with some of the basic areas that hypnotists can work with. After reading this book, you will also be familiar with lesser-known issues hypnosis is effective with.

After that, although therapists may differ slightly in their approach, a single hypnotherapy session typically has specific stages. The rest of this chapter

Goes into each in detail. No mask or organ music required.

Many hypnotherapists avoid doing any hypnosis during the first session.

They may prefer to take a detailed personal history during the initial session. Then again, other hypnotherapists may treat you during your initial session.

There really aren’t any clear-cut rules about this.

Getting acquainted With your hypnotherapist

Hypnotherapists are skilled at helping people to relax, so feel free to have a chat with yours. He no doubt already realises that you may be a bit nervous,

Or even sceptical of hypnosis. Feel free to tell him exactly how you’re feeling

And what concerns you have, even if it’s that you see hypnotists as strange

Beings – a cross between a mystic with mind-reading powers and a stage performer. Your honesty helps to get the session underway and helps the hypnotherapist to learn a bit about you and what helps you.

The aim is to ensure that you feel comfortable about working with this

Person.

This whole getting acquainted stage should only take a few minutes. In other

Words, 4 to 5 minutes out of your (most likely) 50-minute session.

Creating a Working relationship

Relationships are a big deal to hypnotherapists. Remember that your hypnotherapist is like other helping professionals in that he’s genuinely interested in working with you to help you to achieve your goals.

The basis for any effective therapeutic relationship is trust. It is important to

Feel that you can trust your hypnotherapist – always trust your instincts. By establishing trust, you build rapport with your hypnotherapist. Rapport Is

A mutual trust and confidence between two people. Yes, rapport is a two-way

Street – not only do you need to have trust and confidence in your hypnotherapist, but your hypnotherapist needs to feel the same way. The hypnotherapist must feel confident that you’re there for the right reasons, that you

Really want to achieve your goals, and that you can be honest in discussions about your problem. And that you won’t do a runner and leave him with an unpaid fee!

Think of rapport as an emotional bridge between you and your hypnotherapist. Effective hypnotherapy begins with building a rapport and making the

Patient feel respected, welcomed, and reassured that their therapy will be

Effective. When you have rapport, you have empathy and understanding of

How someone’s problem may affect their life. This is as important for the hypnotherapist as for the client.

Establishing rapport in any type of personal development work is a crucial

Part of the therapy. Ample research evidence explains that establishing positive rapport enhances treatment efficacy.

*»HBE*

Teaming up With your hypnotherapist

If you can approach the work that you are about to do as a joint effort with

Your hypnotherapist, you have a greater chance of achieving your goals. Some patients expect the hypnotherapist to do all the work without putting

In any effort themselves. It just don’t work like that folks!

In fact, you can liken you and your therapist to a sports team. You are the excited player, eager to win the game, which may mean overcoming a phobia, or being able to stop smoking. Your hypnotherapist is like a powerful coach, enabling you to unleash inner resources you may have been unaware you

Possessed. Together, you combine into a powerful unit, ready and able to

Tackle the toughest opponent.

All hypnosis is a joint effort. This is why we emphasise the need to consider you and your hypnotherapist as a team.

Supplying a Case History

Your hypnotherapist wants to know how best to help you, so logically he needs to know a little about you before he begins. During your initial session

He’ll probably ask you a few questions in order to obtain information relevant

To your stated problem or goal. This helps him to formulate a treatment plan to determine how best to use hypnosis for you. Some of the questions you’re asked are similar to those that other professionals ask at a first meeting.

They include:

^ Your full name

^ Your contact details

^ Your date of birth, medical history, and current employment ^ How long you’ve had the problem

^ In what ways you’ve tried to solve the problem, and the results of these

Attempts

Taking a case history involves asking about the whole of your life. This may include asking who the members of your immediate family are, getting an overview of your medical history, relationship patterns, your current relationship situation, and discovering whether you have children. Your hypnotherapist may also be interested in any other therapies you’ve engaged in -counselling, psychotherapy, alternative or complementary treatments, and earlier attempts at hypnotherapy. Your hypnotherapist may not ask about all of these, but he will try to touch on anything he deems relevant to your current problem.

During the course of this portion, the therapist may ask permission to take notes. First check that his notes remain confidential, and then give him that permission. Notes help the therapist recall important information that enable him to make your sessions more productive.

Is your hypnotherapist just being nosey?

Why does your hypnotherapist need to know about your recent messy divorce? Or how many brothers and sisters you have? Or what your

Hobbies are? Those questions have nothing to

Do with your problem. . . do they? Isn’t the hypnotherapist just being nosey?

Not at all. You can be assured that the information being sought is relevant to developing a fuller picture of you and your problem. The hypnotherapist is not in this line of work for titration. He is asking you these questions in order to discover how best to help you.

You can assume that information you give is treated as confidential and not

Shared with any other parties. (The only exception is if any incidents of violence towards children arise. In most cases, a confession of violence towards children has to be reported to social services or the police, by law.)

Going Into a Trance

In Chapter 1 we define Trance As the altered state of consciousness you enter

Into naturally, many times, daily. In this section, we describe what being in trance may feel like, and talk about how the hypnotherapist ensures that your trance is deep enough to be effective.

Basically, being in trance is a pleasant, relaxed feeling. Hypnotherapy is generally very enjoyable.

Inducing a trance

Induction Is the technique used to establish a hypnotic trance state.

Inductions are wonderful. They help you to relax and go deeply into trance.

Inductions can be done in as many different ways as there are hypnotherapists and patients, though they don’t usually involve the corny expressions you see in TV shows or movies. You won’t, for example, be induced into a trance state by someone waving their hands in front of your eyes and shouting ‘You are getting sleepy. . . sleepy. . . SLEEPY!!!’. Not unless your hypnotherapist turns out to be Vincent Price.

Hypnotherapists use a variety of ways to induce a trance, including asking you to give your attention to one particular idea, such as:

^ Fixating your eyes on your hands.

^ Listening to your therapist count down from ten to one, with each

Number helping you to become more deeply relaxed.

^ Evoking images in your imagination that bring up feelings of safety or

Relaxation.

Induction involves speaking to you in some way that both relaxes you and

Gets you to focus on a single thing that is somehow relevant to your problem – for example, staring at your hands to eliminate fingernail biting.

The hypnotic induction process consists of fixating your attention internally. The hypnotherapist gradually gets you to remove your awareness from the outside world (the room you are in, the ticking of the clock, street sounds, and so on), and to focus your attention on your thoughts and feelings. Focussing your attention in this way, has the double effect of slowing down

Your conscious mind and bringing to the fore your unconscious mind – the

Abstract part of you that dreams and holds your unlimited memory and inner

Resources for healing. The feeling is a bit reminiscent of pleasantly daydreaming during your school maths class.

The hypnotherapist may aim at getting you so relaxed that your eyes close. Alternatively, you may be asked directly to close your eyes while you are

Spoken to about becoming more relaxed.

Homing in on what a trance feels like

Trance is a common state of mind that you experience many times daily.

You’re in a trance state – without hypnosis – whenever you focus your attention onto a single thought or feeling for an extended time.

Entering a trance state through the guidance of a hypnotherapist is a no less pleasant experience, and one in which you feel you’re contacting a very deep, resourceful part of yourself.

Examples of trance states include a range of emotions and experiences such as:

^ Reading: Have you ever ‘lost yourself’ in a good book? This is a form of trance that can be very pleasant.

^ Exercising: Look at people immersed in exercise and you can see trance

In action. These people may be very much ‘in the zone’ and imagining competing, or even imagining a scene unrelated to the physical exercise they are doing, to spur them on.

^ Daydreaming: This type of trance can produce vivid, real life feelings. ^ Studying: This can be like mental exercising, in that the focus excludes

What is happening around you.

^ Anger: Being in a blind rage can lead people to act while they’re in a ‘dream like’ state. After an outburst of rage, people may struggle to

Accept the actions they committed during their anger induced trance state.

Anxiety and panic: Depending on the level of anxiety, you may even

Change your heart rate and other physical symptoms while you’re

Entranced by fear or stress.

^ Obsessive or compulsive behaviour: People with obsessive or compulsive behaviours may easily enter a trance state as they repeat behaviours and envision what these behaviours are doing for them, such as helping them to feel safe, avoid illness, and so on.

We list these to give you the idea that trance is Not Simply a pleasant, dreamy

State of mind. The character of a trance is influenced by what you focus on. Your hypnotherapist encourages you to focus on pleasant sensations that

Help you to feel safe and relaxed. This enables you to comfortably receive

The suggestions for therapeutic change that come later.

Taking you in and taking you deeper

Once you are in a state of hypnotic trance, the hypnotherapist proceeds to deepen your trance state. Deepeners Are the words or techniques used to

Keep you relaxed, and help you go even deeper into trance.

Why do you need to go deeper if you are already in trance? Because the deeper the trance state, the more successfully you can absorb the therapy. Also, the deeper the trance state, the more easily you can bypass your critical conscious thoughts that may try to sabotage the therapy. Remember, change is very scary to the conscious mind, whereas the unconscious mind

Is quite mutable and receptive to change.

Experiencing the Actual Therapy

Now for the part that you’ve been waiting for – the magic! You’re relaxed and

In a very deep and relaxed trance. What happens next?

This is the stage of the session when the actual therapy begins. By Therapy, We mean the process in which suggestions given by the hypnotherapist are

Transformed by your unconscious mind. ‘Transformed’ because your mind

Finds its own way to implement the suggestions that you’re given.

The therapist doesn’t necessarily tell you what to do, but he is more likely to

Make suggestions so that it is possible to achieve the change or goal you’re seeking. New possibilities are suggested, changing your negative beliefs and

Counterproductive thoughts – the ones that are causing you to feel stuck with

Your problem – into positive and productive feelings. In this way, you become unstuck.

Choosing the best approach for you

Does a hypnotherapist use the same suggestions for all problems, regardless of the individual? No way! Your hypnotherapist designs the therapeutic suggestions so that the words spoken while you are in deep trance have the maximum chance of success.

‘How does he do this?’ you may ask. Well, during the initial meeting (see the ‘Starting Your Hypnotherapy Session’ earlier in this chapter) the hypnotherapist subtly assesses you and the language you use. This evaluation shouldn’t make you self-conscious – it’s part of his job! Your hypnotherapist does all

This to understand your perspective on your problem and your life. The

Vocabulary you use, the emotions you express – or don’t express – are all

Noted in order to tune into your wavelength. Then, when it is time to do hypnosis, the therapist can speak to you in your language, which makes you feel

That he understands you. In this way the rapport between you and him is

Increased.

If you think about this approach you realise that you do the same thing all

The time. You unconsciously speak differently to different people. Think

About the different voices you use when you speak to

^ Your mother or father ^ Your boss at work ^ Your partner

^ Someone you find attractive (partners included!) ^ A child

^ A policeman about to give you a speeding ticket ^ Your best friend ^ Your worst enemy

I’m sure you get the idea. You don’t use the same voice, or even vocabulary,

With different people. Likewise, a hypnotherapist tailors his approach with different patients, to give each the best possible chance of success.

Receiving post-hypnotic suggestions

After you’re deeply hypnotised, the therapist helps you by making post -

Hypnotic suggestions. Post-hypnotic suggestions are the therapeutic part

Of hypnotherapy; they’re what you come to hypnotherapy for; they’re what

Alters your way of dealing with the problem, and leads you to achieving your goal.

Specifically, a Post-hypnotic suggestion Is a therapeutic suggestion given when you’re at a sufficiently deep level of trance. The Post Part merely signifies that

The suggestion is given after you’re hypnotised.

Post-hypnotic suggestions deal directly with your problem. The style of the

Suggestion varies depending on your specific issue and your personality. For example, if you are a person who respects strong authority, your hypnotherapist will speak more directly to you in the suggestion offered. If you are more of a rebel, who resists authority, the post-hypnotic suggestions offered to you will be more gentle and indirect.

Language is critical at this stage. Effective post-hypnotic suggestions involve a sort of logic that you would agree with even if you were not in trance. Skilful hypnotherapists use suggestions in ways that agree with your mindset, suggestions such as:

^ The more relaxed you are, the more confident you become.

^ Your unconscious mind is more resourceful than you realise.

^ With each breath your unconscious searches for answers.

^ You may be pleasantly surprised how easily you make the changes.

Strengthening Your Ego

After the main therapeutic suggestions are given to you, your hypnotherapist may well add some ego-strengthening suggestions to make you feel more

Optimistic and confident. The term Ego-strengthening Is simply technical

Speak for a pat on the back.

Ego-strengthening is a powerful tool hypnotherapists use in promoting your aims. How exactly does feeling better about yourself help to achieve your goals? Why should you stop smoking, for example, just because you feel better? The answer is simple: when you feel defeated, you find it more difficult to struggle against adversity or challenges. Conversely, when you feel

Confident and energised, you are more likely to take on board the sort of challenges that you want to overcome. Ego-strengthening is a bit like getting extra

Emotional energy to become more resourceful.

Adding the feel good factor

Most problems can benefit from additional ego-strengthening suggestions.

However, you need to imprint these suggestions permanently in your subconscious. By receiving a carefully worded ego-strengthening statement while

In trance, your unconscious absorbs the positive suggestion and begins to believe deeply in it which, in turn, gives a boost to your self-esteem and your ability to succeed.

Some possible ego-strengthening suggestions include:

^ You begin to feel increasingly optimistic.

^ You are better able to cope with challenges.

^ You feel more energetic than you have felt for a long time.

^ You are able to obtain your goals easily.

Ego-strengthening suggestions are usually spoken after the crucial therapeutic suggestions. However, they may be the main focus of the therapy if, for

Example, your main issue is linked to low self-esteem. Low self-esteem problems are taken seriously. If the problems worsen, they can lead to a range of

Psychological problems from loneliness, panic disorders, social phobias, and even alcohol or drug dependency.

Ego-strengthening techniques are most effective with people who are very critical of themselves. People who tend to think negatively about themselves and view life in a negative way are prime candidates for ego-strengthening suggestions.

«J»NG/ There are groups of people for whom ego-strengthening may Not Be beneficial. •Y^"]^ This group includes people having problems with hostility or Narcissism (obses-(9k Sion with one’s self to the exclusion of others), and those who have distorted, grandiose views of themselves. Even though some of these problems may

Actually involve low self-esteem, ironically enough, ego-strengthening is not

Be the best therapeutic approach to use initially, as it may make the problem worse.

Bolstering a Weak ego

To understand how ego-strengthening helps you to achieve your goals,

Answer this question: What’s the opposite of a strengthened ego? If your answer is ‘a weak ego’, congratulations! But what exactly is a weak ego? Check out these examples of characteristics of a weak ego:

^ A victim attitude: ‘I can’t win no matter what I do.’

^ Dependency on substances and/or external props: alcohol, drugs,

Money, social status, and so on.

^ Highly critical and damaging self-thoughts: ‘I’m a loser,’ ‘I’m disgusting,’

‘I’m a sinner.’

^ A tendency to belittle others in order to feel better about yourself.

These and similar behaviours and modes of thinking are counterproductive to understanding your true self-worth. In fact, if these weak ego states

Worsen over time, they can lead to some form of self-destructive behaviour.

People who think negatively about themselves generally benefit from some education about how their negative attitude links to difficulties achieving their goals. Hypnotherapists are used to helping patients change their world view from negative to positive, and then witnessing how they meet their goals a short time after.

Working toward a more healthy, strengthened ego can reverse a fatalistic world view.

^St*M»E* When you feel good about who you are, the world and the people in it sud-Y]t\ Denly seem more benign. You’re able to meet challenges with a good chance

IM Of success, people respond positively to you, and life is more likely to give Vjfj!/ You what you need, when you need it.

Do not underestimate the power of ego-strengthening techniques.

After successful ego-strengthening sessions, patients often find happy ‘coincidences’ begin to happen, where the world starts to give them an opportunity.

These ‘coincidences’ are, of course, not coincidences at all but a demonstration of how our view of the world directly influences our reality.

Waking Up

After the therapeutic and ego-strengthening suggestions are delivered, the next critical step for your hypnotherapist is waking you from the trance state.

The awakening process usually involves two elements: ^ A gradual awakening: Your hypnotherapist may count up from one to

Ten, with the suggestion that with each number you become more awake. So, for example, with each ascending number from one to ten, your hypnotherapist may suggest that you begin to feel more optimistic, more energetic, and happier than you have felt for a long while.

^ A full awakening: Your hypnotherapist tries to ensure that you feel fully awake and present – that you feel completely normal. If you have been in

A particularly deep trance during your session, the hypnotherapist will ensure that you are given ample time to feel alert and clear, before the session ends.

The way that you’re awakened is directly related to both the induction method used and, if relevant, the type of therapy conducted. For example,

If you were induced into trance by methods involving feeling heavier and deeply relaxed, your therapist would remove this suggestion when waking you up. The hypnotherapist may do this by suggesting that ‘When you awake, you will feel wide awake and all parts of you will feel normal’.

If the type of therapy applied involved changing your perception of time, such

As age regression (going backwards in time), age progression (going forwards in time), or past-life regression, your hypnotherapist will also return your perception of time back to the present, as it was before you were hypnotised.

Jarring you awake

If your hypnotherapist says something upsetting to you while you’re in trance, you are most likely to simply reject or ignore the idea. If you feel very strongly about the comment, you may come out of the trance.

Most hypnotherapists are very skilled at listening to your phrases and using language that you

Are comfortable with, to ensure that the therapy is effective. Only an inexperienced hypnotist would ever say something so jarring that it takes you out of trance.

Be assured that this is a vary rare situation that you are unlikely to encounter if you seek help from a qualified hypnotherapist.

Coming completely out of trance

If you’ve ever seen someone sleepwalk, this is not dissimilar to what you’d be like if you weren’t carefully emerged from a hypnotic trance. This somnambu -

Lant state wears off eventually, but a good hypnotherapist wants to ensure that your trance is completely terminated before the end of the session.

As a matter of routine, clinical hypnotherapists look after their patients carefully when awakening them. Another reason we stress for making sure that

You visit a qualified hypnotherapist. There are many unqualified practitioners around who may not be careful in this sense. In particular, stage hypnotists don’t take a lot of time carefully awakening and talking with hypnotic subjects.

Do not leave the therapist’s office if you are still in a trance state! The feeling is the equivalent of sleepwalking. Take your time when leaving and be sure that you’re clear-headed. Most hypnotherapists check with you for this, but

It’s also good for you to make sure that you are completely alert and out of

Trance when you leave your session. The easiest way to test this is from your

Physical sensations – during hypnotherapy, your body may feel numb, but

When you emerge from trance all normal sensations should return.

Continuing therapy while you’re coming out of trance

When you’re emerging from the trance state, you are still highly suggestible. This state is not dissimilar to the state you’re in every day of your life, just

Before you go to sleep and just after you wake up.

Most hypnotherapists are very skilled at using these final moments of awakening as it’s a good time to give you some of the most powerful post-hypnotic suggestions, as a sort of therapeutic seal on the main work you’re doing together.

Your hypnotherapist may seize the opportunity to give you a final ego -

Strengthening suggestion, or repeat what was said while you were in the deepest level of trance. He may repeat or rephrase key points as you emerge from trance, or even in the first few minutes after you come fully out of trance.

Doing Your Homework

Don’t worry – no equations are involved!

Some – though not all – therapists give their patients some work to do after

The session ends. The homework is meant to keep you involved in the work until the next session. Think of homework like reinforcing glue between hypnotherapy sessions.

Someone being treated for a phobia, and who has had a few sessions, may be given a task related to facing their phobia in some way that isn’t too threatening, to see how it goes before the next session.

Homework tasks can involve a range of activities that you’re responsible for practising. These tasks can include just about anything relevant to the work

You’re doing with your therapist, although you won’t be expected to do deep therapy on yourself!

Something simple is the norm. You may be asked to visualise your goals, or, if

You’ve been taught self-hypnosis, doing some really simple trance inductions

On yourself.

The most common type of homework is practising self-hypnosis – if this is

Appropriate and your hypnotherapist has told you how to do it. Chapter 14

Explores self-hypnosis in detail.

Your hypnotherapist may use the beginning of subsequent sessions to follow up the homework he asked you to do. A tiny review may take place, to discuss what worked well and what you found difficult. In this way new tasks can be set that ensure that your therapy is successful.

In This Chapter

^ Understanding how the mind can control pain

^ Controlling skin problems with hypnosis

»> Helping your heart

^ Giving birth the hypnotherapy way

^ Addressing intestinal issues

^ Rooting for the dental/hypnosis combo

^ Coping with physical problems with a psychological component

Ypnotherapists have to restrain themselves when describing the range

W I of physical ailments hypnotherapy can help with. The challenge is to not oversell the incredible variety of treatments possible, nor in any way to

Imply that hypnotherapy is a substitute for medical care.

Hypnotherapy is a wonderful complementary adjunct to medical care and it can alleviate an amazing range of physical problems. Patients often seek help from a hypnotherapist After A doctor has ruled out any physical cause for a complaint and relegated it to the area of ‘it must be emotional’.

Common areas of treatment that people come to hypnotherapists with include:

V Pain management

Skin problems

Pregnancy related issues

Irritable bowel syndrome W Bulimia

This is in no way a complete list, but rather the areas of physical treatments we discuss in this chapter.

Letting Go of Pain

Nobody likes to talk about pain – except maybe sadists and masochists. When you’re healthy, pain probably never crosses your mind. However, when you

Experience pain, it takes up some part of your awareness and can affect your

Mood. If the pain is serious enough or becomes chronic (long-term in duration),

It can make you feel irritable and depressed. Chronic pain can even weaken your immune system, making you susceptible to other health problems.

Although the American Medical Association listed hypnosis as an approved treatment for pain as early as 1958, it is a sad fact that medical science has

Been very slow to acknowledge the powerful pain relief that hypnosis can provide. The evidence of how effective hypnosis can be is available to anyone who wishes to review it.

People who deal with people in pain recognise two types of pain:

V Acute pain: Pain that is severe but lasts for a relatively short period of

Time.

V Chronic pain: Pain that ranges from mild to severe and is present for

More than three months.

Both acute and chronic pain can involve periods where the sufferer is pain free.

If you have chronic pain that inhibits you from pursuing normal, everyday activities, consult your doctor. Obtain a physical examination from your doctor before seeking any help for pain. It is important to eliminate any medical issues before seeking a psychological cure, such as hypnosis. A qualified hypnotherapist will always gain confirmation and permission from your doctor, prior to using hypnosis, to work with pain related issues.

Experiencing pain

Simply put, pain is your body’s warning system that protects you from hurt or provides a warning that something is wrong somewhere in your body. We all react differently to pain. No two individuals are likely to have the same response to a similar pain-inducing event. But how do you describe something as subjective as pain? The experience of pain can be put into two

Broad components:

V Sensory pain: This tells you the location of the pain and its sensory

Quality – whether the pain is an aching, burning, cold, stabbing, or tingling sensation.

V Affective pain: This refers to your personal, subjective experience of

Pain – how much it bothers you.

An athlete may experience injury during her performance but isn’t bothered by the pain while she focuses on winning. After finishing the competition, she may gradually, or suddenly, become more aware of the pain.

Perceiving pain

There’s a distinct relationship between your perception of pain and how you experience it. If, for example, you’re having fun playing football and experience a minor cut on your finger, you are likely not to feel the pain until the

Fun ends. However, if you are sitting in a quiet office, slightly bored and irritated and a little unhappy when you get a paper cut, the chances are that cut

Will really hurt because you have nothing to distract you.

The mind perceives pain subjectively. If you are distracted from your pain,

You are less likely to focus on it and less likely to register it. For example, you have probably had the experience of suffering some minor injury, like a

Bruise or a paper cut, without realising it and then, suddenly, when you see it, only then do you begin to feel it. So pain does not necessarily cause suffering. How you perceive pain plays a large part in how you experience it.

Doctors cannot help you to have greater control over your perception of pain. Interestingly, hypnosis can. Your unconscious mind, however, has the

Power to alter your experience of pain.

Hypnosis can help you manage a variety of pain including headaches, muscular pains, dental operations, and childbirth. Hypnosis can even be used as a supplement to, or complete replacement for, anaesthesia used in surgery!

Relieving pain

During hypnosis, you relax and your mind focuses on something other than

Pain, possibly even something pleasurable. The combination of these two events – lowering your anxiety through relaxation and moving your focus

Away from the pain – lets your nervous system register less pain, or no pain at all. It is mainly through relaxation and removing fear that hypnosis pain reduction has its greatest advantages.

Two options in dealing with pain management are:

V Analgesia Refers to the partial loss of pain sensation.

V Anaesthesia Refers to the total loss of any pain sensation.

Theorising about how hypnosis manages pain

There are many theories about how hypnosis is effective with controlling pain. Until recently, it was believed that being in a hypnotic state produced Endorphins - the body’s natural painkillers. This theory now seems to have been

Disproved, or at least placed in dispute, by a

Number of researchers. Currently a more popular idea about the theory of hypnosis and pain control involves the ‘gate control theory’. This theory was proposed in 1965 by researchers Melzack and Wall, and modified in 1978 by Professor Wall. It states that the brain and the spinal cord pass information about pain in the

Form of continuously flowing impulses. These

Pain information messages are sent via the central nervous system to the peripheral nerves.

According to the theory, certain cells and nerves within the body register any signals of injury or

Pain. These signals are then directed (or not) through a system within the body, not unlike a gate, that lets some message pass onto the brain. The messages allowed through the gate

Are then received by the brain and interpreted as pain. Because hypnosis can directly influence the nervous system through relaxation, it can decrease the amount of pain signals that are

Registered.

Research shows that the hypnotic management of pain is not a placebo effect, but has a physiological action that explains its effectiveness.

Through PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans, it has been demonstrated that hypnosis directly affects areas of the brain involved in the perception of suffering (the anterior cingulate

Cortex). Activity in this brain area decreases during hypnotic pain control.

Analgesic and anaesthesic techniques

Hypnotherapists may suggest using either the analgesic or the anaesthesic approach to your pain control. You may wonder why they don’t use anaesthesia in all pain control work. After all, why not lose all the pain instead of just

Some of it? The reason is that it is usually a good idea to leave just a small amount of the pain behind after a hypnosis session. For example, if you suffered a badly sprained ankle, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to hypnotise all the pain away so that you could go out and run the Boston marathon!

Hypnosis to induce anaesthesia – the total loss of pain sensation – may be

Useful in a situation such as a surgery, where having an anaesthetic drug is not possible, or unwanted. In such a situation, hypnotherapy can be an alternative where a total absence of pain is required.

Using hypnosis to induce analgesia – the partial loss of pain sensation -

May be useful for treating conditions such as migraines. In this situation, the

Migraines may be occurring for a reason, such as providing an indication of an underlying problem; a food allergy or a yet undiagnosed medical problem. Leaving a trace amount of pain serves as a reminder that more investigation may still be needed. Of course, the approach on whether to use hypnotic

Analgesia or anaesthesia is negotiable with your hypnotherapist.

^.rABEfl Your hypnotherapist may very well avoid the word Pain And substitute the

Word Discomfort. Discomfort sounds much less serious than pain, and by ( IM ) Deliberately reframing your perception of pain and subtly changing it, your Vijj/ Hypnotherapist encourages your unconscious mind to shift your perception

Of the pain that your body is registering.

The level of trance directly correlates with how much pain can be made tolerable. Broadly speaking, the deeper the trance you experience, the deeper the pain you are able to endure. However, it’s possible to undergo minor surgical procedures even in light and medium-deep trances.

With practise, you can use self-hypnosis to undergo routine dental procedures. Dentists with minimal hypnosis training can use it to perform minor procedures on their patients.

Glove anaesthesia has nothing to do with mittens

Glove anaesthesia is a hypnotherapy technique in which the entire hand is made insensitive – from the fingertips to the wrist. This area is numb, wooden-like, and lacks feeling – as if an anaesthetic had been injected. I (Mike) first saw this demonstrated as a student at the London College of Clinical Hypnosis. Michael Joseph, a master hypnotherapist, used a fellow student on our very first day in class – without inducing a trance. He simply

Spoke a few words and asked the student if she could imagine wearing a

Glove on a freezing winter day. The student said ‘Yes’ and he asked permission to test her hand. He then pinched her skin – very hard. She didn’t flinch!

But this was for demonstration purposes only. Your hypnotherapist will always work slowly, inducing a trance and being very careful with you!

Glove anaesthesia can be effective in a variety of uses, including treating arthritis and rheumatism, glaucoma, migraine and tension headaches, obesity, and skin disorders. It can be used to ease the pain of dental procedures, childbirth, cancer, and the phantom limb pain amputees feel. Psychological disorders may benefit from glove anaesthesia, and it can be used before and

After surgery.

The Ice bucket technique Involves your hypnotherapist asking you to imagine

Placing one of your hands in a bucket, full of crushed ice, up to the wrist. The

Hypnotherapist vividly describes how your hand feels as it gets colder and

Colder, eventually becoming numb. She then tells you that she’s going to test

Your hand for sensitivity – gently – by pinching your hand with various

Degrees of strength.

This technique can be demonstrated without trance induction and still be effective. However, for deep and sustained levels of anaesthesia, such as for surgery, trance induction is required. In surgical hypnosis, several hypnosis sessions will typically take place prior to surgery. These will involve helping

The client practise self-hypnosis, and experiencing sustained periods of trance and hypnotically induced anaesthesia.

Additionally, the hypnotherapist may inform you that the absence of sensation in your hand will remain even after awakening. She awakens you and tests for sensitivity by pinching the hand, with various degrees of strength. She then re-induces trance and places your ‘anaesthetised’ hand over your other hand, and informs you that the sense of numbness will be transferred to the non-anaesthetised hand.

You are then told to remove your hand only when the numbness has been

Transferred. This newly numbed hand is tested as before and then both hands are restored to normal. Your hypnotherapist teaches you self-hypnosis – While

In trance - and awakens you. Then you are asked to hypnotise yourself, and while in the trance you are asked to anaesthetise one of your hands and to

Then transfer the numbness, to the part of your body affected by pain. The

Hypnotherapist then suggests that you will be able to do glove anaesthesia at any time in the future, and that you will be able to use it to reduce pain. You are awakened with the new skill of being able to conduct glove anaesthesia on yourself!

Helping Your Skin Look Good

Care to guess what your body’s largest organ is? (Men, be very careful with your answer!) Actually, your skin is the largest organ of your body, and what

A protective organ it is! Skin acts as a defence against bacterial and viral

Attack, as well as protecting you from heat, cold, physical injury, and ultraviolet radiation. Skin regulates your body temperature, detects potential harm before injury can occur, provides input to the brain regarding the physical nature of the environment, and even allows you to become sexually aroused.

Since both the skin and the nervous system share a common organ – the Ectoderm - it is not surprising that stress and anxiety can adversely affect the course of any skin disorder. Conversely, once skin disorders develop, they often

Produce and prolong the mental and emotional disturbances that can perpetuate symptoms. Hypnosis can be a wonderful adjunct to conventional medical treatments in providing relief from a variety of dermatological problems.

In the following sections we talk about three of the four main types of derma -

Tological problems – eczema, psoriasis, and warts.

Hypnotherapy can’t do a lot for someone with acne, the fourth type of skin

Problem, other than bolster their sense of self-worth. Acne is best treated by dermatologists as it has fairly serious medical implications.

Scratching aWay at psoriasis and eczema

Both psoriasis and eczema are also known to be stress-related diseases that respond well to reduction in stress levels. Hypnotherapy can help to alleviate

Stress and thereby factors that may exacerbate both conditions.

Relieving the rash of eczema

A common condition, Eczema Is a very itchy, peeling, thickened, sometimes weepy area of inflamed skin, typically found in the creases of joints and the trunk of the body. The rash may fluctuate both seasonally and over the

Course of a day. Scratching may lead to bleeding and infection.

Eczema may have physical causes, such as with varicose eczema, in which

Swollen or twisted veins may influence the condition, but eczema is thought to be a stress-induced condition.

Scaling back psoriasis

Psoriasis is characterised by plaques of red, scaly, easily bleeding skin, often

Over the knees, elbows, trunk, and back. Finger and toenails may develop pitting. Some people with severe arthritis are prone to getting psoriasis as well.

The disease varies widely from one patient to another and in rare, severe cases, may be life-threatening because wide areas of skin are exposed to infection.

The cause of psoriasis is not known, although genetic factors appear to play a role. Environmental factors such as injury, stress, cold climate, and other

Illnesses are known to adversely affect the condition with some patients.

Stop kissing frogs: Treating your Warts

Warts Are overgrowths of skin cells caused by the human papilloma virus.

The major symptoms are cosmetic, and treating warts is primarily a matter of preference, although warts in certain locations (the sole of the foot, for example) can cause pain.

You can spread warts by person-to-person contact and you can increase the

Number of warts you have by scratching or picking at them.

Whether you develop warts depends on your immune response to the virus. Though people with known immune deficiencies are more susceptible, most sufferers have a normal immune system.

About 25 per cent of warts go away on their own within 6 months, 50 per cent within a year, and 65 per cent by two years.

Easing skin problems With hypnotherapy

Skin conditions are often exacerbated by anxiety as well as through scratching. Hypnosis – as you know by now – is excellent for lessening anxiety. A

Hypnotherapist working with someone with a skin disorder would make suggestions to address any emotional problems that may be causing anxiety, and would pay particular attention to the patient’s everyday circumstances.

If a client’s anxiety is linked to issues of low self-esteem, part of the treatment

Would include direct suggestions for ego-boosting. Approaching techniques

For skin problems linked to psychological or emotional problems, your hypnotherapist can choose from a range of techniques, based on your individual needs, such as

V Suggestions to decrease the perception of itching sensations. For example, ‘You might still feel itchy, but you no longer have any desire to

Scratch.’

V Post-hypnotic suggestions providing practical techniques to alleviate the desire to scratch. For example, you may imagine breathing through the itchy parts of your skin with sensations of ‘calmness’ and ‘coolness’,

And feel relaxed as you do so, or ‘You have no desire to scratch’.

V Symptom substitution to eliminate scratching. The hypnotherapist may suggest substitute feelings, such as numbness or pressure, instead of itchiness.

V Analytical techniques similar to doing counselling or psychotherapy in

Trance. These techniques may be used when the previously mentioned

Techniques are deemed ineffective. Analytical techniques are more of an advanced treatment approach and may involve a deeper application, not

Dissimilar to psychoanalysis. Don’t worry – they’re not physically

Painful!

These analytical techniques may involve such approaches as:

• Regression: Using hypnosis to take you back in time to before you

Had the problem. This allows the therapist to demonstrate to you the link between your mind and body, thus giving you control over the symptoms.

• Dissociation: This involves working with any unresolved issues

That contribute to the skin condition. Dissociation techniques allow you to gain insight into your condition, as well as develop strategies to resolve your problem. Chapter 2 has in-depth information on dissociation.

Glove anaesthesia (see the ‘Glove anaesthesia has nothing to do with mittens’ section earlier in this chapter) is an effective treatment for burning

Sensations and can be used to ‘freeze’ a wart. How does this work? In a

Word, Dissociation. The hypnotherapist creates a split between your conscious awareness of pain sensation and the normal response of reacting to pain, thus dissociating your normal reaction to pain. It’s like watching a film of yourself having the wart frozen. You wouldn’t react with the pain sensation if you were simply watching yourself having the wart removed (although you might cringe!).

Sampling scripts for treating skin problems

In this section are some typical scripts a hypnotist may use for skin problems. The scripts are phrases that broadly represent what a hypnotherapist

Might say as part of post-hypnotic therapy; that is, after you’ve been hypnotised and are still in trance.

Keep in mind that these scripts are worded generally, and in a real session

Would be specifically tailored to your particular problem. Your hypnotherapist won’t use the exact words we use; she tailors her words to be meaningful

To you and your situation. Still, you can get a good idea of the various approaches from reading the following scripts.

Stopping scratching

In this script, your hypnotherapist would identify the specific areas most affected by the rash, to personalise the suggestion for you.

‘. . . and you have no desire to scratch. . . if at any time. . . your hand moves toward your skin in order to scratch. . . the moment your fingers touch your skin. . . you will instantly. . . and immediately become aware of what you are about to do.. . and your hand will move away from your skin. . . and because of this. . . your comfort will increase. . . and your skin will continue to heal. . . and any rash will begin to disappear more and more rapidly. . . even while you sleep at night. . . the moment your fingers touch your skin in order to scratch. . . instantly and immediately your hand will

Move away from your skin. . . and your skin will continue to heal. . . as you

Sleep. . . because of this treatment. . . you will be able to exercise enough self-control to. . . allow your skin to heal. .

Improving circulation

A hypnotherapist may treat itching by suggesting that your blood circulation is improving. Research shows that the mind can directly affect circulation.

‘. . . your heart will beat more strongly. . . so that more blood will flow through the little blood vessels in the skin. . . carrying more nourishment to the skin. . . because of this. . . your skin will become well nourished. . . it will become healthier. . . and the rash will gradually diminish. . . until it fades away completely. . . leaving the underlying new skin. . . perfectly

Healthy and normal in every way. . . and. . . as your circulation improves. . . and you become stronger and steadier in every way. . . so. . . the unwanted itching and irritation of your skin will subside. . . and disappear. . . the comfort increasing each day. .

The next brief script is for lowering blood circulation:

. . as a result of this treatment. . . you are going to feel fitter and stronger in everyway. . . your circulation will improve. . . particularly the little blood vessels that supply the skin. .

The above script would actually allow your circulation to improve and allow blood vessels to become healthier.

Solving skin-caused insomnia

If you have a severe skin condition, you may have trouble sleeping, either

Because of the pain, or the itch. Your hypnotherapist can use your discomfort to ease you into a restorative slumber, through a reverse suggestion:

‘. . . the more you notice the discomfort. . . the drowsier you become. . . until you fall into a deep. . . refreshing. . . healing sleep. .

So you can see that the suggestions leads you into a feeling that healing is

Taking place, even as you become progressively sleepier.

Working on Warts

In assisting you in ridding yourself of warts, your hypnotherapist may give you suggestions including:

^ The blood flow to the wart has stopped. You then imagine your wart

Shrivelling and dropping off, leaving an area of healthy skin behind.

^ Your wart becomes smaller and smaller until it disappears.

^ Your wart is an unwanted building. You then imagine that your immune

System is a demolition company, taking apart the unwanted building and carting it away.

Relieving the Pressure of Hypertension

Hypertension (high blood pressure) affects millions of people every year,

And is a major contributing factor to coronary heart disease and stroke. Until recently the main treatment approaches involved pharmacological intervention and lifestyle changes. However, more eclectic approaches have been developed involving clinical hypnosis.

Hypnosis can play an important role in maintaining a healthy heart as well

As aiding recovery from a variety of cardiovascular diseases. When entering

Trance, a shift in the autonomic nervous system from sympathetic (responsible for activity) to parasympathetic (responsible for rest) control occurs. When the parasympathetic nervous system is dominant the heart rate decreases, thus reducing the burden on the cardiovascular system.

For anyone experiencing cardiovascular disease, the following lists ways hypnotherapy techniques may be useful:

^ Mastering self-hypnosis for relaxation

^ Using hypnosis to cope better with lifestyle issues such as stress management, weight control, diet, alcohol consumption, and smoking

^ Using hypnosis to engage in appropriate exercise

^ Working with issues of depression related to health problems

Relaxation techniques are an important part of helping to alleviate feelings of stress, which are often contributing factors to hypertension.

Let’s get things straight, right from the start. Your hypnotherapist will Not Give

You suggestions that your blood pressure becomes lower and lower. It just

Doesn’t work that way. However, the very act of going into trance lowers your

Blood pressure. In fact studies show that people who have regular experience of trance, either with a therapist or through practising self-hypnosis, can achieve a significant lowering of their blood pressure, with some being able to come off their antihypertensive medications. So, when your therapist asks you to practise self-hypnosis, make sure that you practise it. And regularly!

Going into trance isn’t the complete story. An important part of managing

Hypertension is making some important lifestyle changes according to your doctor’s recommendation. Many external factors influence hypertension, and

Working with a hypnotherapist can help you by looking at strategies designed

To control these. Your hypnotherapist can strengthen your resolve to carry out your doctor’s orders.

^St*M»E* These changes are not just for the short term. If you keep them up, you can definitely help to reduce your blood pressure to a much safer level. And if

( IM ) You need a boost in your determination, pick up your phone and call your hypnotherapist!

■jjjttMG/ Never Stop taking your medication without your doctor or consultant giving the go-ahead. You’re taking it for a reason, and that is to keep you healthy! If (gk ) you make the required lifestyle changes and stick to them, you have a very

V^/ Good chance that you’ll be able to either cut down or stop taking your meds – but Only With your doctor’s say so!

Taking a Pregnant Pause for Childbirth

Hypnosis is useful for a range of issues around conception, pregnancy, and

Childbirth. Many people are unaware that hypnotherapy can help in this area, but hypnotherapists are regularly involved with helping couples conceive

And also get through childbirth with minimum difficulties.

Conceiving options

How does hypnosis help someone become pregnant? Mainly through helping

Decrease the anxiety associated with having sex with the goal of conceiving. The Law of Reversed Effect States that the harder you try to do something, the

More likely you are to fail at it. The body works this way too. If you’re desperate to conceive each time you have sex, your body may activate hormones that kill off the very sperm that you want to fertilise your ovum. So hypnosis simply helps you to relax, and may offer suggestions of you becoming

Extremely fertile.

Hypnosis can help only those people who can’t conceive due to Psychogenic infertility - infertility without a physiological cause. Put another way, hypnosis may be able to help if there’s no known biological or physical obstacle to

Pregnancy, and the problem is most likely emotional. Around 17 per cent of

All couples experience psychogenic infertility, with psychological stressors

Possibly playing a central role.

However, hypnosis can help a significant percentage of people with psy-chogenic infertility conceive. The scientific community is still trying to

Explain exactly Why Hypnosis is effective in this area, but if you have been

Unsuccessful in conceiving, and your doctor has found no medical reason

Why you shouldn’t be able to have a baby, you can have hope that there is a good possibility that hypnosis may help you. Given the choice between hypnosis and expensive and complicated In vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatments,

There really is no competition.

For many people who are having difficulty in conceiving, it becomes an arduous task for both sides of the parental divide: making sure you do the act at the right time, when the woman’s temperature is right, having to lie back for

20 minutes with your legs in the air to let gravity do its job, and so on. It takes

All the fun out of it and more importantly, on a biological level, it adds stress into the equation.

When you’re trying to conceive, stress puts a major biological spanner in the

Works! When you’re stressed, your body’s biology switches from long-term

Survival priorities to immediate survival priorities. And the last thing the

Body wants at this time is for its all-important biological resources to be

Drained by having a baby growing inside it! Changing the biological balance of the body makes it a much less welcoming place for the sperm and egg to

Meet and unite. Think how you feel when you meet someone in a warm and inviting environment. The lights are low, soft music playing in the background, and love is in the air. Turn a couple of spotlights (playing the role of stress) onto the scene and turn the music up loud, and the last thing you think of is romance!

We’ve all heard the tales of couples who spend years trying to conceive a baby. In the end, they give up and adopt. The next thing you know, the woman is pregnant. The stress of trying to conceive prevented the very thing the parents were after. Take away the stress and the body reverts to long-term survival priorities, the biological lights and music are lowered, and the next thing you know, a baby is on its way!

Both the male and female in a couple experiencing psychogenic infertility should undertake treatment. Women who are stressed out because of this

Problem experience chemical changes in their pH levels that make pregnancy

More difficult, and men who are stressed may experience decreased sperm

Counts.

■^"iK Hypnosis does not work in cases where there is a known medical problem. ( A qualified hypnotherapist will always ensure that you have a thorough

Medical examination prior to seeking hypnotherapy.

Delivering the goods

Many mothers have discovered that hypnotherapy can dramatically improve their ability to enjoy the experiences of both pregnancy and labour. If you are

Pregnant and considering hypnosis, we encourage you to try hypnosis and

Enjoy your child’s introduction to the world.

In the ‘Relieving Pain’ section earlier in this chapter, we describe Hypnotic analgesia - the loss of the sensation of pain. Analgesia can also be successfully applied to childbirth, with no problems for you or your child. Many

Studies consistently show that hypnosis can be effective in pain management, as well as in improving the birth experience.

The main goals for hypnotherapy are to help the mother-to-be achieve control over her pain and develop a greater sense of self-control throughout labour and delivery.

To make this happen you schedule a series of hypnosis sessions when you’re

Pregnant – for you and your birth partner, if possible. Your hypnotherapist takes you through the stages of self-hypnosis – probably during your first session – so that you can practise pain control techniques (Chapter 14 is

Devoted to self-hypnosis). You may also benefit from visualisations that

Increase your confidence and ability to relax.

Your hypnotherapist will help you, while in trance, visualise going through

The stages of labour and delivery safely and easily, and give you suggestions

To enable you to conduct self-hypnosis and induce a loss of sensation of pain as you experience these stages. The hypnotherapist may also suggest that during all this you are in constant, reassuring communication with the child in your womb.

During your sessions with her, your hypnotherapist will take you through all the stages of labour and delivery. Keep in mind that the hypnotherapist

Will help you and your partner reach a level of skill in self-hypnosis (for the mother), and skills for the partner to make simple, post-hypnotic suggestions to ensure that the mother is relaxed and able to cope with any situation that arises. The following list offers a stage-by-stage approach to how this occurs:

^ Pre-birth stage: Your hypnotherapist addresses any specific concerns

You may have, and helps increase your confidence about the birth and post-birth period. This is when you become familiar with pain control techniques.

Your birth partner can find out how to cue you on relaxation and trance

Responses.

^ Birth stage: Your hypnotherapist will probably suggest that, no matter

What level of relaxation or trance you are in, you will always respond to your midwife’s or doctor’s instructions.

You will probably also be given suggestions that, no matter what happens, you will remain calm. This will prepare you to cope well with anything unexpected that may arise.

^ Post-birth stage: For the post-birth stage, you may receive suggestions

For healing and recovery. Also helpful for this stage are suggestions for confidence and helping you, as a new mother, to feel able to cope. Further hypnosis pain control techniques appropriate for this stage

May also be helpful. See the ‘Letting Go of Pain’ section of this book

To understand more about pain control techniques.

Examples of what a hypnotherapist may say at this stage are: ^ ‘As the process of bringing your baby into the world begins. . . you will find

That the contractions will be weak.’

^ ‘You will feel the contractions merely as pressure in your stomach. . . and you will feel calm. . . relaxed. . . and in control throughout.’

^ ‘As the contractions continue. . . you will always follow the advice of your

Midwife or doctor. . . and as soon as you feel the urge to bear down. . .

Tell the midwife. . . but do not give way until she tells you to. . . when she

Does. . . take a deep breath. . . hold it as long as you can. . . and push down as hard as you can. . . as long as each contraction lasts. . . if you have to breathe out before the contraction is over. . . take another deep breath as quickly as possible. . . and continue to hold it and push down. . . since it is usually the last part of the contraction that produces most progress. . . you will find that this will greatly reduce any discomfort.’

Improving Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) Is a disorder of the intestines. When your gut

Is working normally, you hardly notice that it moves food through its long passageway, through a series of muscular contractions known as Peristalsis. Problems with these contractions are classified under the broad heading of IBS.

Hypnotherapy is a recommended treatment for IBS and most people respond rapidly. Usually three sessions are all that are required.

Before going to see a hypnotherapist for IBS treatment, get a proper medical Y\]t\ Diagnosis of IBS confirmed by a GP. The symptoms may indicate a potentially

IM ) Serious condition, and a qualified hypnotherapist will never work on a Vjjjj/ Patient’s self-diagnosis.

Problems with IBS can potentially extend throughout your entire digestive

System, which includes the area from your mouth to your anus. Hence, a great number of different conditions come under the heading of IBS.

Some of the symptoms that people with IBS may experience, and that hypnotherapy can help with, include:

^ Abdominal distress or pain.

^ Cramps or pains in the lower abdomen or rectum (often after eating). ^ Variations in bowel movements, including constipation and diarrhoea. Bowel movements may alternate between constipation and diarrhoea.

Even after a bowel movement, you may feel that the rectum is still full.

^ A feeling of urgency. People with IBS often need to rush and open their

Bowels, usually soon after eating. Incontinence may occur if a toilet is not nearby.

^ Bloating. IBS sufferers may experience flatulence or painful trapped wind. You may have rumbling noises in your abdomen.

^ Back pain associated with irregular bowel movements.

^ Nausea, belching, and vomiting.

Dealing with your IBS anxiety

Many IBS sufferers feel ashamed of their condition. They may experience

Extreme incontinence, or extreme constipation, or both. This may lead them to feel that this problem has to be kept secret, even sometimes from their own doctors. If their problem is a long-term one, it may lead to psychological

Problems such as anxiety and depression. Ironically, anxiety and depression

Exacerbate the symptoms of IBS. Relieving anxiety can be an immense help to

IBS sufferers, and confidence and relief from anxiety are areas in which hypnosis excels.

Conventional medical treatment of IBS involves stress management and dietary awareness, along with pharmacological intervention when needed.

^ Diet: Avoidance of foods that irritate the gastro-intestinal tract is recommended, including spicy food, cabbage, turnip, caffeine-containing drinks, and alcohol. Hypnosis can help to maintain good, healthy eating habits.

^ Pharmacological intervention: Bulk-forming agents and anti-diarrhoeal medications may be used. Antispasmodic drugs may also be used in

Severe cases, to regulate peristalsis. Hypnosis can help with overcoming any resistance to following the medication schedule.

^ Stress management: Guess what we recommend for an excellent stress management tool? Hypnosis of course! Through hypnosis-based stress

Management, IBS sufferers may experience significant relief.

Coping with constipation and diarrhoea

IBS sufferers may fluctuate between constipation and diarrhoea. So what exactly does a hypnotherapist do to help?

Depending on the individual, a hypnotherapist can provide a variety of areas

Of help, including:

^ Stress management: IBS is often related to stress and worry. Hypnosis

Offers other ways to see the problem as not so overwhelming. This can help to provide new coping skills and a sense of managing better.

^ Relaxation: A person with IBS invariably associates the toilet with anxiety. A common hypnotherapy approach is to ask the IBS patient to practise hypnosis while using the toilet, in order to be relaxed.

^ Metaphorical imagery: While in trance, a hypnotherapist can help to

Offer metaphorical images that provide relief. For example, to help with constipation, a hypnotherapist may tell you to imagine logs flowing

Freely down a river; for diarrhoea, imagining logs jamming up a river

Flow. These can be very effective if given while in trance.

Offering an ice-cold example

Imagine that you come to a hypnotherapist for treatment for IBS. Your session may go something like this:

‘… I would like you to imagine that there is a large bucket of very cold water, filled with lumps of ice…’

At this point your hypnotherapist will vividly describe the bucket to you, using all modalities of sensory representation such as touch, imagined vision, and so on.

‘… and now… you are dipping your fingertips into the surface of the water and you can feel the ice against your skin… you will notice that the sensation is changing in your fingertips, as they become more and more numb, and you start to lose all feeling in them. . . I now want you to immerse your whole hand into the bucket of water and ice, and notice how the numbness starts to spread over your hand… as your hand becomes… and continues to become… colder and colder… you are aware that all sensations are now disappearing from that hand… including any response that may arise from a painful stimulus… it will seem as if a thick leather glove has been placed on your hand. . . and the colder it gets the more like a piece of wood your hand becomes…’

When the hypnotherapist is convinced that your hand is numb, she instructs you to transfer the numbness to your belly, to help calm your overactive colon. She then gently places your hand on your stomach and tells you that you are

Going to transfer the analgesia from your hand to your colon.

‘… I want you to imagine that your numb hand is very cold… and that this cold is stored in the form of a blue dye. . . and when I count to three I want you to start transferring this dye to your abdomen… you may notice how the coldness and numb feeling begins to spread over your abdomen as the dye flows from your hand… ready… now… I… 2… 3…’

When the numbness has transferred, the hypnotherapist continues:

‘… Observe how free from discomfort your abdomen is and how your colon is quiet and free from tension… and unnecessary contractions… it just continues to do very little as far as you are concerned… you notice that your hand is now a normal colour and all sensation has returned… and… the numbness only persists in your abdomen and colon. . . as the days and weeks go by. . . and your unconscious mind is more and more able to control your inner feelings… you will feel less bloated as your inner tensions and anxiety flow from your body… leaving you calm and able to live your life in a way that is more satisfying to you… free from pain… free from your problems…’

Before awakening you from trance, your hypnotherapist may teach you to automatically hypnotise yourself, and to use pain control techniques whenever needed in the future. Then they awaken you from trance in the usual way.

Loving the Dentist!

Hands up those who look forward to going to see the dentist. Hmmm. . . very

Few hands seem to be appearing! Well, that can all change with a little hypnosis.

Various applications for dental hypnosis exist, including:

^ Controlling pain ^ Treating phobias

^ Controlling excessive salivation or bleeding ^ Controlling the gag reflex

^ Adjusting to orthodontics, such as dentures, braces, and so on

^ Stopping smoking (it adversely affects gums, and so is a dental concern)

I (Mike) work as a hypnotherapist within a London dental practice, and help a range of people overcome various psychological issues prior to receiving dental treatment. Some people fear even the simplest dental procedures, and would otherwise require an expensive anaesthetist to give them a general

Anaesthetic. Usually a couple of sessions of hypnotherapy can overcome

Life-long phobias.

Dentists and medical doctors are now beginning to learn hypnotherapy themselves. Since the 1950s and 1960s medical staff – admittedly in small numbers -

Have used hypnosis, or employed sessional hypnotherapists. Additionally, some training courses exist, such as at the London College for Clinical Hypnosis,

Aimed specifically for medically trained staff.

Drilling away at your problem

Many people have a fear of dental drills. This is understandable due to the noise, and occasional pain, that may accompany the use of a drill. The fear

Of drills for some patients can be extreme.

Hypnotherapy can help get rid of the fear of the dentist’s drill. Chapter 11

Deals with phobia treatments in detail, so here we only briefly mention some

Of the approaches that a hypnotherapist may use to help you receive a treatment that involves the dentist’s drill. Some of these approaches are:

^ Hypnotising you to float out of your body during the drilling.

^ Hypnotising you to speed up your subjective sense of time, so that the

Procedure seems to be over in seconds.

^ Hypnotising you to forget about being afraid.

^ Dealing directly with the fear itself through more extensive phobia

Treatments.

Grinding down your bruxism: Teeth-grinding and hypnotherapy

Bruxism Is the unconscious grinding and/or clenching of the teeth, when a person isn’t eating. It’s often associated with high stress levels, anger, or

Rage. Bruxism can happen day or night, though most people experience it while asleep. Problems bruxism causes may include:

^ Fracturing and/or erosion of the teeth.

^ Breakdown of the bone supporting the teeth.

^ Fracturing of the jaw if bruxism is severe.

^ The jaw may ‘click’ (frequently audible) when eating.

^ Problems in the joint connecting the jaw to the skull, which may lead to

A condition known as myofacial pain dysfunctional syndrome, a chronically painful condition affecting the face (often only one side).

If you grind your teeth while you sleep, your partner may point out another

Problem – that you keep him or her awake!

Hypnotherapists usually treat bruxism using very direct methods such as

Suggesting that, as soon as your teeth touch in order to grind or clench, you stop instantly, relax the muscles of your jaw, and drift into a deeper and more refreshing sleep.

Dealing with Problems with a Psychological Basis

Although hypnosis has been around for centuries, it was the medical profession, and in particular psychiatry, that brought hypnotherapy into mainstream use, over the past 200 years. In particular, psychiatrists Sigmund

Freud and Milton Erickson deserve credit for popularising hypnosis.

Currently, however, hypnotherapy is not used often to treat mental illness. Therapists in the 1960s and 1970s believed that hypnotherapy produced only

Temporary removal of symptoms, and that hypnosis should not be used in conjunction with counselling or psychotherapy.

Another argument against using hypnosis to treat emotional problems is the view – which is partially true – that hypnosis can make matters worse for some people with serious mental health conditions. For example, if someone is struggling with determining what is real and what is not (as is the case with

Schizophrenia), going into trance will certainly be destabilising. Also, a

Severely paranoid person probably will not allow herself to relax enough, or

Trust a hypnotherapist enough, to allow herself to be hypnotised.

So it’s safe to say that actively mentally ill people should not be hypnotised.

But does this mean that hypnosis should never be used with anyone who is

Mentally ill – even during periods of wellness? Much evidence suggests that hypnosis provides a useful tool in alleviating a variety of mental health problems. The following sections talk about conditions that hypnosis can benefit.

Obsessing about change: Obsessive compulsive-disorder (OCD)

The word Obsessive Is part of everyday parlance, but the psychological condition known as Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) Is an anxiety disorder

Characterised by:

^ Recurrent and persistent thoughts, ideas, images, and feelings that are

Perceived as intrusive and senseless.

^ Repetitive, ritualised behaviours that the individual feels compelled to

Carry out in order to prevent the obsessional thoughts and the associated discomfort.

The obsessive thoughts, or compulsive behaviours, are severe enough to be

Time-consuming – occupy more than one hour per day – or may cause significant distress or impairment to the patient’s normal way of life. Often the person with OCD recognises that the obsessive-compulsive behaviour is excessive and unreasonable, but is powerless to stop it. The condition is usually highly secretive and can remain hidden from even immediate members of the patient’s family.

For people with OCD, attempts to resist the compulsive behaviour may cause

Increasing tension and anxiety, which is relieved by giving in to the compulsion.

Of the many compulsive behaviours that can be expressed with OCD, the

Most common are:

^ Washing: Washing or cleaning is the most prevalent compulsion, and is

Characterised by a fear and avoidance of contamination, as well as elaborate washing, cleaning, or decontamination rituals.

^ Checking: Checking behaviours – the next most common – involve

Elaborate and repeated checking in order to prevent a perceived disaster or dreaded event from occurring. Behaviours that may be expressed

Include ritual behaviours involving superstitions, and any range of other repeated, or extremely over-cautious behaviours, all intended to make

The OCD sufferer feel safer, although often causing great fear and worry instead.

Ordering: Having to be sequential about items – for example, having

Specific locations for every item of food and clothing, with no variation or exceptions allowed.

Hypnosis can help with OCD issues. A hypnotherapy approach can view the basis of OCDs as the splitting off of a certain emotional part of the individual.

This damaged, split-off emotional content is just out of reach of conscious

Thought, but is easily recognised in a dream, or in an altered state of consciousness induced by hypnosis. OCD disorders yield successfully to hypnotherapy, or any technique that seeks to reintegrate the split-off component of the personality.

The therapy approach is essentially a two-stage approach involving:

^ Stage one: The split-off part is identified and treated.

^ Stage two: The symptoms are removed as a separate stage of hypnosis.

(Chapter 5 discusses how hypnosis helps change habits.)

Beating bulimia

Bulimia nervosa Is an eating disorder characterised by:

^ Episodes of uncontrolled eating or bingeing. During the binge, the

Bulimic eats enormous amounts of food (often sweet and high in calories) rapidly, until she is uncomfortably or painfully full. For example, a bulimic patient may consume a whole loaf of bread, a pot of jam, an

Entire cake, and a packet of biscuits in one binge episode. This bingeing provides relief from the tension experienced prior to the binge. Guilt and disgust with regard to the binge rapidly follow. These feelings promote the consequent purge or excess exercise.

^ Extreme and inappropriate measures to control body weight, including

Taking diuretics and forced vomiting after meals.

^ Distorted ideas concerning body shape. For example, a thin person who believes that they are overweight.

The two distinct subtypes of bulimia nervosa are:

^ Purging type: A binge episode is followed by Purging - self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas – to control weight.

^ Non-purging type: The person uses excessive exercise or fasting to prevent weight gain after a binge episode. Purging is rarely seen.

Bulimic patients are usually of normal weight. Those who are underweight tend to be diagnosed as having anorexia nervosa of the purging type. Bulimics experience a profound loss of control over their eating behaviour, and may

Experience Dissociation. Dissociation experiences involve feeling cut-off from what is happening. Bulimics also cut-off when they are at their most ill and in the process of bingeing on food, or purging what they have eaten.

There may be several bouts of the binge and purge/exercise cycle within one day. The binge and purge cycle is normally secretive. Bulimic patients report complete lack of control during a binge. However, control can return, as the person stops eating if someone enters the room during the binge.

^ CHfty Contrary to popular belief, bulimia is not a ‘women-only’ condition. Although 90 per cent of all people with bulimia nervosa are female, men can experience "( §WL) It as well. Men who experience bulimia nervosa are more likely to have been \^jy|/ Obese prior to the onset of the condition.

Treating bulimia through hypnosis

One view of bulimia nervosa says that it’s similar to obsessive-compulsive disorders. The binge behaviour is the result of a dissociated part of the individual, with the purge/exercise behaviour becoming a conditioned response to the guilt experienced after the binge.

Low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety disorders are often associated with bulimia nervosa. Hypnotherapy can help with all these conditions. One

Of the main approaches to helping with bulimia is to educate and address, in hypnosis, the dissociative behaviour involved when bingeing and/or purging. Bulimics are, in a sense, ideal candidates for hypnotherapy as the process of trance involves dissociating the conscious from the unconscious, and bulimics are already skilled at dissociation. Emphasising the conscious awareness of bulimic behaviour gives the patient greater conscious control and awareness over their behaviour.

The hypnotherapist may give direct suggestions, while the patient is in trance, to alter or stop the splitting off, and to become highly conscious of

The hand-to-mouth behaviour that occurs during either bingeing or purging

Behaviour. Suggestions may be given directly to stop. That is an authoritative approach involving a powerful message to simply stop the behaviour.

Analytical approaches can also be used to deal with any of the underlying

Emotional issues that contributed to the behaviour. These approaches combined – dissociation awareness, direct suggestion and analytical work – can

Be a powerful therapeutic approach in helping people with bulimia.

Making sure hypnosis and medications mesh

When a medical condition could be part of your problem, most professional hypnotherapists will work with you only with the informed consent of your doctor. The general rule is: always go to your doctor first to ensure that all potential physical causes to your problems have been eliminated.

Be open with both your doctor and your hypnotherapist. They both want to help you. Check with your doctor that receiving hypnosis is safe for you. Likewise, always inform your hypnotherapist about medications you take that affect your mood, speech, or ability to concentrate. Other than that, medication is not usually a problem.

Hypnotherapists are often asked how hypnosis interacts with medication, at a first meeting. The question is usually something like, ‘I’m on Prozac. Will it be a problem for me to receive hypnosis?’ The answer is ‘no’. However, it is always a good idea to discuss fully the medications you have been prescribed, and the reasons for taking them.

In general, if you feel clear-headed enough to concentrate and work on your emotional issues, it is fine to undertake hypnotherapy.

Looking at binge eating disorder

Binge eating disorder is found in approximately two per cent of the population, and is predominantly seen in women. Binge eating disorder follows a similar pattern to bulimia, except that patients do not use extreme forms of weight

Management. Consequently, those suffering from binge eating disorder are

Obese. Binge eating disorder is treated in a similar way to bulimia nervosa.

Treatment for bingeing behaviour is very similar to the treatment for bulimia: awareness of dissociative behaviour, direct suggestions to stop bingeing and, if deemed useful, analytical techniques to deal with emotional issues. Additionally, for both bulimics and binge eaters, additional lifestyle issues, such as over-exercising, poor diet, and so on, can be addressed using hypnosis.

So, why would your hypnotherapist ask you to do this? Well, simply to find out if your therapy worked. You can lie back in trance imagining whatever

Your therapist wants you to imagine, listening to his suggestions to your heart’s content, but unless this translates into your real life, you still have your phobia. And after all, you went to see your hypnotherapist in the first place so that you can face up to your phobia.

Part of what makes a phobia a phobia is avoidance, so don’t avoid going to see your hypnotherapist. Don’t let that anxiety build and your phobia get

Worse. Pick up the telephone now and book your appointment.

In This Chapter

^ Accessing greater creativity

^ Becoming less anxious and stressed

^ Combating depression

^ Increasing your confidence

^ Improving relationships

/imagine feeling so good that you have that ‘I can’t lose today’ feeling. Everything is going your way for a change. Imagine that the things you want to do seem almost effortless. You begin to surprise yourself with how creative or lucky you are. You feel happy and this feeling runs throughout your body.

When you feel good, the universe provides. When you feel good, you have more energy, you feel healthier, and things just seem to fall into place. Being in a good mood often feeds on itself, meaning things that you want just seem to flow to you.

Feeling good is contagious. People relate to you more positively. It’s as if your good energy is being shared in a two-way direction, from you to others and back to yourself. You become more creative and perform better in every area of your life. You may even feel sexier!

But, hey! Maybe you don’t feel like this; maybe you want to, but something is blocking the way. Maybe you’re asking yourself whether a hypnotherapist

Can help you to feel like this. Can hypnotherapy help you to feel better? Be more creative? Have more confidence? In a nutshell, the answers are: yes, yes, yes, and yes!

Your mind has awesome potential and through hypnotherapy you can enhance

That potential, changing your critical thoughts into something more constructive and supportive. You have the ability to access untapped creativity, which

Can improve your emotional, intellectual, and physical responses. When this happens, some of the by-products are greater confidence, creativity, and an

Improved ability to relate to others. From this starting point, you can then combat and overcome a whole variety of problems. This chapter explores

Exactly how this is possible.

Conquering Performance Anxiety

Have you ever frozen with fear when giving a speech? Ever walked out on

Stage and dried up on the spot? Ever sat for your driving test and almost driven the car off the road because you shook so badly? If the answer is yes

To any of these questions, you have experienced Performance anxiety. The name says it all and basically means that anxiety has messed up what you

Are doing in front of others.

Your hypnotherapist helps you get the right amount of anxiety. ‘But wait!’ you say, ‘Get the right amount of anxiety? Are you mad?’ Actually, no. Anxiety can

Be your friend. A small amount can be beneficial to you; it keeps your mind

Alert, your adrenaline running, and your attention properly focused. In fact,

Without it your performance can suffer. Imagine that you are so relaxed and

Laid back that you can’t be bothered to remember your speech. Imagine that

You are so chilled out as you walk onto the football pitch that your muscles

Aren’t toned and ready for the match. Not a good idea. An appropriate balance between relaxation and anxiety (or as we therapists like to call it, stimulation) is a positive boon to your performance.

Playing the starring role

One thing to get straight, right from the start, is what we mean by the word Performance. The word may conjure up an image of a stage, an audience, and

A performer hoping to make a good impression. This is, of course, a correct interpretation, but the definition of performance can be expanded. Just think

Of the stage as the world in which you live, the audience are the people with whom you interact, and you are the performer hopeful of showing yourself in a good light.

A Performance Then is any interaction you make with others in which you are likely to feel you’re being evaluated. These situations can include:

^ Work

^ The performing arts such as playing music, dancing, acting, and so on ^ Sport

^ Public speaking

^ Exam-taking

^ Sex (oh boy, do we get evaluated on this performance! More later in the

‘Touching on Sexual Problems’ section.)

Feeling your star fade

You may have been performing perfectly well for some time, or maybe this is your first attempt. Whatever you’re doing, it only takes one bad experience to

Mess up the show. The nasty thing about performance anxiety is that when it

Happens it just keeps repeating itself. So where does the anxiety come from?

The following list offers some possibilities:

^ Incomplete or bad preparation: For any performance to be effective,

Preparation is paramount.

^ A focus on your negative feelings: For example you may believe that

Your audience can see that you’re nervous.

^ Negative criticism: This can include comments from others as well as

Your own self-criticism.

^ Memories of past bad performances: You forget your successes and remember only your mistakes or failures. Hypnotherapy can help you to

Put a variety of positive spins on past bad performances in order to help you focus on raising your game.

The awful thing about anxiety is that it fuels all your fears and doubts and

After it’s started. . .

In fact, the more you experience performance anxiety, the worse it gets until it forms a nasty and vindictive vicious circle from which you have great difficulty breaking free. Now is the time to call in your hypnotherapist.

Acting your Way to a better performance

Consider method actors. Before they perform a role, they begin to live it.

They become their character before they even get onto the stage, or in front of the camera. In essence, hypnotherapy helps you use method acting techniques. Through hypnosis, you live your good performance before you have to give it. The more you live it beforehand, the more likely you are to live it when you are up on your stage.

To fully understand a film, you really need to see it from beginning to end.

Come in halfway through and you may find yourself getting confused, unable

To make head or tail of the plot. The same principle is at work when dealing

With performance anxiety. You need to see the whole picture for therapy to

Be effective. That means you need to be able to view:

^ The pre-performance period, including your preparation and the buildup

To the performance.

^ The performance itself, with you performing well.

^ The post-performance period when you’re being congratulated, feeling

Good, celebrating, and relaxing.

Your hypnotherapist guides you through the complete process while you’re in trance so that you’re able to:

^ Prepare yourself properly. Your hypnotherapist is there to help you with

The most vital part of your preparation, which is your mental attitude.

^ See yourself performing well. Envisioning a positive outcome breaks

Down your negative self-image.

^ Experience what it is like to have the appropriate, positive, and constructive feelings throughout.

^ Change your negative self-talk into positive self talk.

By experiencing the complete process in trance, you get a good understanding

Of the plot and feel comfortable about how to direct your own performance. A wise piece of advice to get in trance is to forget about yourself. By following

This advice, you can focus on your audience, or your performance, instead of on your negative feelings that may sabotage what you are doing.

Actors respond to cues that prompt them to react in a certain way at the right time. And just as actors respond to cues, so your hypnotherapist helps you respond to cues. These cues are designed to give you appropriate feelings and responses at the appropriate time; before the performance, during it, and after it has been completed.

Regaining your lustre

You used to do it well, and then everything fell apart. This is a tough situation, but realise that if you’ve performed well in the past, you can perform well in the present and the future.

Your hypnotherapist may want to regress you to help you recapture that good past performance, and bring all those positive feelings back to the present. (Chapter 2 talks about what is called ‘regression therapy’, which means

Using your imagination, through hypnosis, to ‘live through’ one of your own

Past or future lives.) Or maybe your therapist looks for ways to transfer the

Feelings you had in a positive, yet unrelated, past performance to the present, merging them into your current performance in order to enhance it.

Summing up your parts

Don’t forget that you are the sum of all your parts and that some of these

Parts can help you give that excellent performance. Some of the resources you have may be hidden from you, some hide away when you need them, some you may not even know are there! Your hypnotherapist will be able to

Help you get in touch with these parts – confidence, relaxation, clarity of mind, for example – and bring them into play just when you need them.

Your hypnotherapist will give plenty of suggestions that will allow your mind to

Slip into the method-actor mode, as you start to live your good performance.

The more you rehearse through therapy and self-hypnosis and experience a good performance, the better your performance gets. You’ll soon be on your way to winning that Oscar!

Taking the Confidence Trick

Confidence is an elusive thing. You may be surprised to know that some of the people who come to hypnotherapy for confidence building are actually quite successful and are occasionally even well-known celebrities. Both of us have worked on confidence building with clients who are at the top of their professions. The point is that confidence is not something that arrives after you achieve a certain salary or status.

Confidence is extremely subjective, so the techniques your hypnotherapist

Uses to help you to regain it vary. However, through hypnosis your sense of self-assuredness is easily strengthened.

Feeling ten feet tall (when you’re used to feeling like a midget)

Do you know anyone you really envy because they are so confident, calm and cool? If so, you can through hypnosis, ‘borrow’ some of their attributes and

Place them into your own personality! This is a really fun technique that can help you achieve your goals. It is priceless to see people rapidly become Genuinely More confident and happy.

Try it for yourself: Pretend You have some positive attribute of someone you

Admire. Then Imagine What differences having that attribute would make in how you feel and behave. Speculate about how different people’s reactions

To you would be. If you really try this exercise – even without hypnosis – you

May begin to see how powerful it can be.

Changing your self-talk

If you have read the preceding section and are doubtful – perhaps even thinking to yourself ‘It might work for others, but not for me. . .’ – perhaps you

Have a strong critical sense that regularly results in putting yourself down.

If you regularly rubbish yourself – think self-critical thoughts or even use humour to put yourself down – you need to work on changing your self-talk.

The common parlance is to refer to this voice as your Inner critic. Everyone

Has a self-critical voice or inner critic. This is the part of you that says things

Like ‘I’m bad’, ‘I’m ugly’, ‘I’m unlovable’, ‘I’m stupid’, and so on.

But when you become consciously aware of your inner critic, you can bring it

Under control and actually change your inner critic into an inner mentor. Yes,

With a bit of work, the voice that once savaged you can become your ally and coach. Imagine how good it will feel to have a voice that guides and advises you instead of criticises!

Even before you go to see a hypnotherapist about your self-confidence worries, just start noticing all the ways that you undermine yourself or put yourself down through thought, words, or behaviour. Keep a mental awareness of the broad themes that your inner critic uses against you, such as ‘I’m dumb’, ‘I’m poor’, ‘I’m incompetent’, and so on.

Putting your confidence into practice

So you’ve just been hypnotised for greater self-confidence. You’re feeling

More optimistic than you’ve felt in a long time. You go through the whole week feeling great, and for the next few days even your friends can tell

You’ve changed somehow. But one week later, you’ve lost it.

The trick with sustaining any type of hypnotherapy treatment can be summed up in three words: Act as if. I sometimes think about putting these on my therapy practice room wall. Why are they so important?

‘Acting as if’ for any sort of behaviour leads to the creation of habit. If you act as if you are confident for a long enough period of time, you actually Become More confident. I also say this to people who have just stopped smoking by hypnosis – if you act as if you are a non smoker, then you remain a non smoker.

The important message here is that hypnotherapy is not a passive interaction. The hypnotherapist can provide some of the initial motivation, but the bulk of the work for Remaining Successful is your job. ‘Acting as if’ is the secret.

Sorting Out Your Anxieties

It has been said that the conscious mind creates most of your problems and if given half a chance, the unconscious can sort out the mess! In fact, some

Say that 70 per cent of what we worry about never happens and the 30 per cent that does, doesn’t happen in the way we thought it would.

Anxiety is a familiar state everyone experiences now and again. It involves a combination of feelings such as fear, restlessness, and worry. It may also be accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain, upset

Stomach and shortness of breath.

Different people react differently to anxiety, both in how much anxiety they feel and in their reactions to it. If you suffer high levels of anxiety over a long

Period, you may develop physical ailments as a result. At the extreme end

Anxieties can be irrational and form a mental health problem.

^St*M»E* Bear in mind that appropriate levels of anxiety are functional and desirable. Yf$\ You need a certain amount of anxiety to motivate yourself when things are ( IM ) Urgent and have to be attended to. It’s when that anxiety runs out of control that problems set in!

A variety of anxieties that people commonly experience include:

^ Panic attacks Are usually one-off experiences, involving intense, brief periods of abrupt, disabling fear. A variety of symptoms such as breathing difficulties, palpitations, and nausea may result.

A panic disorder is an anxiety disorder involving recurrent, unexpected panic attacks, where the fear of the next anticipated attack becomes itself an anxiety.

^ Obsessive thoughts Can involve a repetitive, anxiety-provoking tendency

To dwell on an idea, or series of related ideas. The thoughts can disrupt how you function and impact your quality of life.

^ Phobias Involve a powerful and constant fear of an object, a situation, or

Individual. Phobias can become disruptive and obsessive to the person experiencing them.

^ Stress Involves physical and emotional reactions that are the opposite

Of relaxation. Stress can result from either positive or negative events.

Stressors - anxiety-provoking events – are highly subjective for individuals.

^ Low self-esteem Refers to a negative view a person forms of themself.

Over time, low self-esteem can have detrimental effects on your physical and emotional health.

You may be relieved to know that hypnotherapy has a good track record of

Resolving many of these types of problems.

With the exception of severe mental health problems, hypnotherapy can help

Relieve your anxieties. A hypnotherapist can help your unconscious mind

Calm down and find new methods to cope with current and future anxiety-provoking situations in a variety of ways including:

^ Raising your self-esteem and confidence.

^ Identifying the themes or patterns of your worries in order to deconstruct them.

^ Finding a healthy way to cope with a legitimate concern. For example, you may be worried about your personal safety; through hypnotherapy

You can find practical ways to feel safe.

^ Seeing yourself (in trance) in the future without the inappropriate worries, whilst teaching your conscious mind to be that way in the present.

Your hypnotherapist is not there to remove all your anxiety; He is there to

Help you cope more effectively with it.

Beating the Blues

Part of the human condition involves feeling a bit low from time to time. However, if you have a long-standing problem, it may be that you now have two problems: the original one as well as depression. Having a problem you

Can’t seem to get rid of naturally makes you feel low. Hypnotherapists work

With helping people beat the blues on a regular basis.

The way that you think directly affects the way you feel. If you label an experience positive, you feel good, possibly even energetic, not only about the

Experience but about yourself. If you view an event as bad, you feel horrible and possibly drained. Successful people often have an ability to turn a negative event into a challenge and a crisis into an opportunity.

Your hypnotherapist will work to help you understand how powerfully your evaluation of life events influences both your thoughts and your emotions.

Understanding the different types of depression

Let’s clarify some terminology. What is the difference between the blues and depression? There are obviously different levels of feeling low. If you contrast

The feelings at receiving a parking ticket with the death of a loved one, you

Get the picture. The feeling about the parking ticket isn’t in the same league

As the feeling of bereavement.

It is entirely natural to feel depressed over the death of someone you love or when you have a serious illness, and in similar situations. This type of

Depression is known as Reactive depression Because your depression is a

Reaction to events.

Clinical depression, On the other hand, involves a more serious and long-term condition. Psychiatrists label it as a reaction to long-standing depression not

Necessarily related to a specific event. The attributes of clinical depression involve:

^ Loss of appetite ^ Inability to sleep

^ Loss of pleasure (also known as Anhedonia) ^ In extreme forms, suicidal feelings

Clinical depression is very serious and requires urgent medical attention. Psychiatric medication is a common treatment approach, unlike reactive depression.

Working your Way out of that black hole

The earlier section, ‘Taking the Confidence Trick’ deals with ways of making you feel good. A lot of the methods referred to involve the hypnotherapist giving suggestions to make you feel better, also known as ‘ego – strengthening’. These can be straightforward suggestions such as, ‘You will feel increasingly more optimistic’, or ‘You will feel happier and healthier than you have felt in a long time’.

Ego-strengthening is a core component with helping you to work your way out of a period of depression.

Stress Busting!

Stress, in the true sense of the word, refers to tension. Tension in itself is a neutral condition and not always negative. However, when a hypnotist meets a patient who wants to work on their stress, it is always referred to by the patient as a problem involving an overload or an unbearable tension causing fear, worry, and possibly other health problems such as headaches, or some

Type of emotional and/or physical problem.

You can think of Stress Simply as the opposite of relaxation. Because hypnotherapy is a marvellous way to induce relaxation, you won’t be surprised

To read that hypnotherapy is a marvellous stress antidote!

Because hypnosis helps you relax, it is an excellent tool in identifying new strategies for stress reductions that feel natural to you.

Cooling yourself off and hypnotherapy

Anger management has become such a buzzword recently that there is even a Hollywood movie about with that title. We haven’t actually seen it, as we’re

Too busy helping people to not be angry!

Let’s say that you are coming to a hypnotherapist for anger management treatment. Most hypnotherapists begin anger management work by collecting information about how long you’ve had a problem with anger and how you react. They may also ask you what helps make you less angry and what winds you up the most. These questions help you to start thinking about your own patterns of anger and how you deal (or don’t) with it. You may not even be

Hypnotised in your first session because there will be so much to uncover about you and your way of expressing anger.

Most people with anger issues feel out of control. This lack of control feeds their inner critic and makes them feel awful about themselves. So, early on, your hypnotherapist helps you to build up your confidence. You come to believe that it is possible for you to have greater self-control. At this point,

The hypnotherapist can introduce any number of new coping strategies,

Based on your recently enhanced sense of confidence and control.

Responding With stress

If the source of an alarm hangs around for a sustained period, whether in your mind or in real life, you translate this state of constant alert into what is called a Stress response. In short, sustaining a fight-or-flight response (which

Is covered in Chapter 4) leads to stress.

However, most people don’t experience stress by living for long periods in immediate physical danger (unfortunately, you’d probably get the sack if you

Physically fought your boss for survival!). More commonly, you produce stress as a product of the way that you think about the external forces affecting you.

The physical consequences of living under stress for prolonged periods can be serious. Stress can lead to stomach ulcers, a heart attack, a stroke, or other physical ailments. Your ancestors would rest after the threat was over (after either fighting and killing a sabre-toothed tiger or fleeing to

Safety), giving their body biochemistry time to return to normal. Unfortunately, in today’s society, many people don’t experience this respite from stress; they’re under constant stress – a situation that can, and

Often does, have adverse health effects.

Ft

Reframing your stressed-out World

Hypnotherapy can help you find strategies for changing your response to

The things that stress you out. Changing your attitude toward your stressors lowers your stress and helps you avoid any detrimental health consequences.

Reframe Is a therapy term that simply means viewing something in a new and more positive light. Once you can reframe a situation you view as negative,

You improve your ability to cope with that situation.

You’re stressed: Your life appears to be on fast forward, and you can’t seem to slow down. Work and home life are no longer fun, and you just want to

Crawl into a hole and sleep. Worry not, becuase help is on its way in the

Person of your friendly neighbourhood hypnotherapist. With his expertise,

Your hypnotherapist can help you stand back and re-evaluate your stressors. How he does that depends on what your particular issues are.

In general, a hypnotherapist can help you to:

^ Take off your blinkers and see that you do, in fact, have options.

^ Look at and change your current reactions to stress.

^ Reframe your feelings towards your stressors and perhaps look upon

Them as motivational and exciting.

^ Prioritise what is important and what are unnecessary pressures. ^ Ensure that you are putting appropriate effort into the necessities. ^ Access your inner resources and potentials.

^ Relax!

Making a molehill out of that mountain

Facing up to stress can seem overwhelming. You can think of stress as a mountain you’re standing very close to and need to get by, on your journey through life. Standing so close makes the mountain seem very daunting; you can’t see a way around it or through it. The only option appears to be the long, hard slog up its sheer face; a journey that is very tiring and fraught with

Danger. However, take some time to walk away from that mountain and you start to see it differently. For a start, it doesn’t appear so challenging. You notice paths that go around it; tunnels that take you safely through. In fact, you notice that there are many easier options than taking that dangerous route up its side.

Hypnotherapy finds the molehill in your mountains. In trance you can access your unconscious mind and open up new perspectives, which allows you to find easier and safer ways to get by that stress mountain and improve your effectiveness, and your health too.

Schedule in time for yourself. Regularly take yourself away from your stres -

Sors and do something that you enjoy. When you return, you return refreshed, invigorated, and able to deal more effectively with what you have to do.

Accessing Your Creativity

Have you ever had a dream and pleasantly surprised yourself? Maybe by telling a funny joke in your sleep and waking up laughing? Or maybe by simply having an astonishing dream that you could never have consciously devised? These simple examples are only the tip of the latent creativity within your unconscious mind. Now think how amazing it would be if you could consciously harness this sort of creativity. Well, through hypnosis you can!

Another way to understand your well of creativity is as an infinite inner oil well reserve. Imagine an oil engineer one day knocks on your door and tells you that you’re living on top of an oil well of such immense reserves that it will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams. Sound good so far? You

Allow him to access your oil by having an oil well constructed that plunges

Underground and eventually (hooray!) strikes oil! Unfortunately, a few hundred barrels later, the oil well apparently dries up and stops delivering. You call back your now trusted friend, the oil engineer, who promptly identifies the blockage in your oil well and in no time flat, you are producing twice as many barrels of oil as before. You are indeed thrilled!

As if that weren’t enough, your now very best friend, the oil engineer, gives you a crash course in DIY maintenance and construction of exploratory oil

Wells, making himself redundant and allowing you to now access all the oil

You want at will! And just before he leaves, he mentions the small fact that,

Unlike other oil reserves, which eventually dry up, yours is different. Your oil

Well has infinite resources, which means you will never run out of resources. Nice fantasy, eh?

But the fantasy is real!

You really Do Possess the metaphorical equivalent of the unlimited oil well we just described. Simply substitute ‘hypnotherapist’ for ‘oil engineer’ and ‘inner creativity and resources’ for ‘oil’. Self-hypnosis is the tool you use to

Access your inner resources whenever you need to. But by now, we have

Probably pumped this metaphor dry!

Tapping into your endless Well of creativity

Your creativity is the storehouse for all your memories. This is like an immense computer that remembers everything under the broad heading of

‘creativity’ that you have seen, created, experienced or heard. That alone is a

Staggering concept! Imagine a computer that would allow you to access any of that and we are describing your unconscious mind.

How does a hypnotherapist help you access this type of unconscious creativity? The process involves:

V Accessing Your unconscious mind in trance. This is like the computer

Example in the preceding section. For creative writing, click on your personal drive ‘Z:’, for a creative strategy to get you out of trouble, click on your personal drive ‘Q:’ and so forth. (Of course, the ‘drives’ mentioned

Are actually your unconscious mind. When given a task in hypnosis, you

Simply ‘go there’ without knowing how this happens, or that the info was

Even stored.)

V Releasing Is the process in which your hypnotherapist helps you

Change your negative thoughts, views, and feelings that are causing a delay in accessing your creativity.

V Endlessly releasing Your inner resources when needed. This means finding the previous step increasingly easy to access. The way to make

This easier is to learn self-hypnosis and practise it regularly.

Some techniques your hypnotherapist may use to help you release your creative side include:

V Directly requesting your unconscious mind to convince you that you can

Write/paint/draw/compose easily.

V Giving your ego a boost to remind you of past successes.

V Reminding you that your unconscious has infinite ideas.

V Increasing your motivation and concentration. This can be done through

Simple suggestions to your unconscious mind that you will find it easier to concentrate and that you will be more motivated.

V Asking your unconscious to become an ocean of ideas, awash with creativity that flows easily from within, breaking with clarity on the shores of your conscious awareness as and when you need them. (Can’t seem

To shake this metaphor thing, can we?)

V Practising self-hypnosis. Your hypnotherapist will probably give you suggestions to keep the well unblocked, and this is where self-hypnosis comes in. It’s a good idea to ask your hypnotherapist to teach you self-hypnosis at the beginning of your sessions. Through self-hypnosis, you

Can turbocharge the results of your hypnotherapy and continue to

Deepen and maintain the wonderful by-products of an unblocked unconscious for the rest of your life!

Relaxation is the key to unlocking your creativity. No matter what technique ( MO J your therapist uses, helping you to relax mind and body plays an important \|§g|/ role.

Don’t get us wrong. We don’t mean that in order to be highly creative you

Have to be so relaxed that you flop about all over the place! On the contrary, it’s all about creating the right balance between relaxation and tension. Too

Relaxed and you won’t get anywhere and will probably fall asleep. Too tense

And you block your creativity with anxiety, and start fretting over unwanted

Thoughts. Just the right amount of tension and just the right amount of relaxation keeps your mind alert and focused, and your creativity flowing.

It is down to the skill of the hypnotherapist to help you achieve this balance

By using, and teaching you how to use, the very thing you probably have a problem in achieving – relaxation.

Unblocking your creative floW

Whether in art, writing, or music, you may reach a state of impasse in your creative flow, particularly when faced with deadlines or overwhelming self -

Criticism. Suddenly concentrating becomes impossible and you are unable to supply the creative part of your nature with the necessary ideas. Your flow of creativity just dries up and with every attempt you make to clear it, the

Blockage just gets stronger and stronger.

The reasons for your blockage can be many and may include:

V Negative thinking about your ability

V Fear of failure

V Fear of success (oh yes, there are many out there who fear this!)

Time then to clean out your pipes and remove that blockage!

So how does this business of using hypnotherapy to access your creative resources actually work? Traditionally, once you are in trance, the hypnotherapist asks your unconscious mind to imagine its creative potential. When your subconscious mind begins to imagine being more creative, the hypnotherapist can additionally suggest that you find it easy to develop new strategies to deal with your problem.

Your hypnotherapist can choose from many techniques, depending on your specific needs. A couple of methods good for helping unblock creativity include asking your unconscious for the answers to questions about the

Blockage, and creating solutions. Because these solutions come without input from your conscious mind, they feel natural and intuitive. The same

System operates when you have a creative impulse, or when your muse

Inspires you. It is an uncalculated effort and usually feels particularly imaginative and creative because the thinking, analytical part – your conscious

Mind – cannot take credit for the solution. It is one of the most ethereal, yet

Real experiences that hypnotherapy regularly produces.

Hey presto, the flow of creativity commences once more.

In many cases, conscious insight is not necessary to remove your block. Oh

Dear, we hear the sound of many counsellors and psychotherapists preparing

The heretical bonfire! Despite what some authorities say, your conscious

Mind doesn’t need to understand why the blockage existed after the unconscious gives permission for it to be removed.

Touching on Sexual Problems

Your sexuality is key to your identity. Freud described the sex drive as core

To human personality. So if you have sexual problems, they quite literally

Undermine your self-esteem as well as your relationships. This double

Whammy can make it very difficult to seek help for sex problems (and a bit

Embarrassing too).

Hypnotherapy is a magnificent therapeutic tool for strengthening your ego, as well as addressing a range of sexual problems that individuals or couples may face (and remember that your hypnotherapist has heard it all before).

^JUBE* Although there may be physical causes to sexual problems, the majority of

Causes are generally psychological or emotional. A hypnotherapist will work ( IM J with many of these problems only after a doctor has ruled out any physical Vjfl!/ cause, because he wants to ensure that you are getting the proper treatment.

Table 9-1 shows some of the most common sexual problems for men and women.

Libido Is often used as a synonym for sex drive. More correctly, it is the emotional energy associated with all biological drives, including survival. So in

That sense, libido can be thought of as the source of your lust for life.

Different sexual problems require different hypnotherapeutic techniques, including many of those we talk about earlier in this chapter. Following are two examples of hypnosis working with sexual difficulties:

V Lack of sexual desire: If you have a problem with lack of sexual desire,

The hypnotherapist may put you in trance and ask your unconscious to scan memories of positive sexual experiences. The concept of repeatedly reviewing memories (or fantasies) of positive sexual experiences is

Suggested until long forgotten feelings of arousal are again made possible. Don’t worry, hypnotherapists are extremely sensitive and professional about ensuring your safety and dignity in treating sexual issues.

V Vaginismus: To help with this problem, your hypnotherapist may help

You to explore the fears or anxieties you associate with penetrative sex

While you’re in trance. Over several sessions, your hypnotherapist

Would increasingly suggest that your unconscious mind associates sex with feelings of relaxation and eventually, pleasure.

Doing it for fun

Famous hypnotherapist Milton Erickson once worked with a prudish married couple experiencing difficulties having sex. The couple had an arid approach to sex and were overly intellectual, analytical, and clinical about their

Intercourse – or lack of. Erickson suggested to

Their unconscious minds that they forget the

Analysis of sex and just ‘f**k for fun’ (his words -not ours!). Very soon they reported back that they had begun normal sexual relations!

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Sex is there for you (and us!) to enjoy. Learn to relax, be creative, and enjoy

Your performance every time. In fact, being creative and confident in your

Performance can lead you to being rampant in bed. Ooh! Err! Mrs!