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In this part…

Ypnotherapy is a very powerful therapy, particularly because it not only affects the mind, but also the This dual action can produce rapid and lasting

Changes in many different treatment areas. As you read

This part, you may be amazed to discover the range of areas that hypnotherapy can treat, including lifelong habits and deep-rooted phobias.

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In This Chapter

^ Communicating between your mind and your body

^ Your emotions and your body

^ Why anxiety can be good and bad

^ Hypnotising your mind hypnotises your body

^ Levitating your fingers and hands

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Back, t

Hypnosis doesn’t exist and people only pretend to be in trance. Hang on.

Before you start writing to our publishers and demanding your money back, take a few moments to read on! This statement has been around for years in various forms, and has proved to be one of the most stubborn sticking points used by hypnotherapy’s detractors when trying to debunk our profession. Well, have we got news for them: Hypnosis does exist and people

Really are in trance!

^ALf^ Over recent years a whole new scientific discipline has come bursting onto &^77\ The scene: Psychoneuroimmunology. (Try saying that after a glass or two of

\ wine!) Psychoneuroimmunology is thankfully shortened to PNI, or sometimes mind-body medicine (or even psychosomatic medicine, or behavioural medicine, if you want to be picky!). This discipline proves that there is a very real connection between what happens in your mind and what happens in your

Body. In this chapter, we highlight how PNI research – in conjunction with other disciplines – shows that hypnosis and trance are very real things.

Hypnosis detractors, eat your heart out!

Understanding the Mind-Body Connection

Many years ago the great French mathematician and philosopher, Rene Descartes, put forward the point of view that the mind and the body were

Completely separate entities, with neither one influencing the other; a theory

Known as Cartesian Dualism. Unfortunately, the medical and scientific world

Mainly accepted this idea, ignoring or rejecting the concept that the mind can and does influence the way the body works, and that what happens in

Your body also influences how your mind works.

Fortunately, a few hardy souls steadfastly researched that very concept, and eventually published convincing research that made the scientific and medical world finally sit up and take notice. The research shows that the immune system, which is responsible for protecting you against infection and disease, also influences your moods. In addition, the research shows that chemical messengers, found in the nervous system, help protect the body against illness.

These findings led to a fairly radical new approach to treating patients.

Instead of purely symptom-based treatment, in which the symptom and

Symptom alone were treated, clued in healthcare professionals now use a

More holistic approach that treats not only the symptom but takes the

Patient’s psychological state into consideration as well.

Fitting up the connectors: Your nervous system

In order to perhaps understand how the mind and body can work together, it’s useful, first of all, to know a little about the nervous system. Think of it as

A very complex and intricate system of wiring, controlled by a very advanced

Supercomputer. It is divided into two parts:

^ The central nervous system: This consists of the brain (you know, that squidgy lump of porridge in your head), and the spinal cord (an extension of the squidgy porridge that runs down the centre of your spine).

^ The peripheral nervous system: This is made up of the cranial nerves

(wires, as it were, that stick out of your brain), the spinal nerves (wires that stick out of your spinal cord), and the autonomic nervous system (the system of wiring that controls all your automatic body functions).

Both the central and peripheral nervous systems work together to keep you

Going on a day-to-day basis, and it’s worth having a closer look at how various bits of them work:

^ The brain. This extremely complex grey matter runs the whole show. If

You take a closer look at the brain, you find that it’s split up into many

Different bits, each with their own individual function. Some are very primitive and ancient in evolutionary terms, like the amygdala, which is

Responsible for things such as emotion and aggression. Some are much

More intricate and modern, again in evolutionary terms, such as the cerebral cortex – responsible for consciousness, memory, and thought.

The brain gives you your intellect, emotions, memories, and so on.

^ The spinal cord. This is the second part of the central nervous system

And dangles from the bottom of your brain, passing down the centre of your spine. Like the brain, the spinal cord is also made up of various bits that all combine together to essentially pass messages back and forth, between your brain and the rest of your nervous system.

Between them, the brain and the spinal cord control all your body’s functions.

^ The autonomic nervous system. Found throughout your body, this

System basically controls all your body’s automatic functions, such as the beating of your heart and your breathing. To make things interesting, the autonomic nervous system is divided into two halves that are basically the opposite of each other:

• The sympathetic nervous system. This part of the autonomic nervous system is responsible for you being active. Amongst other things, it reacts to danger and is partly responsible for the effects you feel when you are stressed or afraid (such as increased heart rate and faster breathing).

• The parasympathetic nervous system. The opposite to the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the effects you feel when you are calm and tranquil (such as slow heart rate and breathing deeply and calmly).

In order to keep functioning properly, both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems must work together.

^ Nerves. These carry messages around your body, to and from the brain

And spinal cord. They connect your organs, muscles, and skin, to the

Supercomputer that is your brain, either directly through the cranial

Nerves, or through the spinal nerves via the spinal cord.

The central and peripheral nervous systems work together. Some of the functioning is under conscious control and some seemingly automatic. For example, if you want to get up out of a chair and walk across the room, your brain makes a conscious decision to do this. Your brain sends messages down your spinal cord and out, via a whole network of nerves, to your muscles, which start to contract to raise you out of the chair. Then your autonomic nervous system kicks in and you start to walk. Your sympathetic nervous system causes some of these muscles to contract (such as those in your thigh and calf), propelling you forward on one leg. Your parasympathetic nervous system then makes some muscles relax as the leg is lifted (such as your calf

Muscles, because they’re not needed for a few moments).

The act of walking is under the control of your peripheral nervous system and your spinal cord, whilst the decision to start or stop walking is under the control of your brain.

A similar process lets you experience emotion. Your peripheral nervous system registers information from the outside world through your eyes, ears, nose, and skin. Those messages are relayed to your brain via your nerves and your spinal cord. Your brain then interprets these messages.

If for example, your brain interprets something as scary, then the amygdala – that primitive part of your brain that is partly responsible for emotions such

As fear – becomes active and you feel fear. Messages are sent out via your

Spinal cord, and the sympathetic nervous system kicks in causing your muscles to tense, your heart rate to rise, and your rate of breathing to increase. When your brain registers that the scary thing has gone, messages are sent to your brain that are interpreted in a way that lets you know not to be scared. The amygdala turns off and you feel calm. Messages are sent out, again via your spinal cord, and the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and your muscles relax, your heart rate and breathing slow down and hey presto, you are calm again.

Making the connection with hypnosis

Hypnosis happens in the brain, that’s for sure. Studies show that the brain wave activity of a person in a trance is very different to when that person is alert, asleep, or pretending to be in trance.

Brain waves Are a measurement of the electrical activity of the brain. This activity changes very distinctly when you’re sleeping, being alert or experiencing trance. And for those of you who like big words, the machine that measures these brainwaves is called an electroencephalogram. For those

Who don’t, you can call it an EEG!

A number of studies confirm that brainwaves are measurably different when you’re in trance. Alpha waves, theta waves, and something with the very

Grandiose title of the 40-Hertz band, are all altered when we are in hypnosis. These waves and bands have nothing to do with the sea or popular music; they refer to the frequencies at which the electrical activity of the brain is

Operating. When you are alert the electrical activity is running at a certain frequency, when you are asleep it changes to another frequency, and when you are in trance, to yet another.

Further evidence can be found in PET studies. No, not the study of how Fido is behaving, but something called Positron Emission Tomography. This very

Interesting technique allows scientists to look at your brain and work out what parts of it are active when you are experiencing something. And guess

What? The brain in hypnosis shows different activity than the awake brain or

The sleeping brain.

KPU – A study was carried out on how the brain reacted to hypnotic pain control

(for more on hypnosis and pain control see Chapter 6). In a non-hypnotised

Person experiencing a painful stimulus, two areas (amongst several others)

Were ‘lighting up’ as it were: the Somatosensory cortex - the rather posh name

For the part of the brain that processes painful stimuli – and the Anterior cin-gulated cortex - an even fancier name for the area of the brain that is involved

In your perception of suffering. In a hypnotised person being given a painful

Stimulus, the researchers noticed that the somatosensory cortex was still

Lighting up; however the anterior cingulated cortex wasn’t. In other words, the pain stimulus was being processed, but the brain did not perceive any suffering. Proof positive that hypnosis directly affects the brain.

When you’re awake and alert, your sympathetic nervous system is very

Active. It helps you walk, talk, exercise, and sometimes feel stressed. On the other hand, when you enter into trance, the good old parasympathetic nervous system comes to the fore, turning off the sympathetic nervous system and allowing you to go into a state of relaxation and rest.

So to pull it all together, when you enter into trance, your brainwaves alter, various areas of the brain change their activity, and the parasympathetic nervous system becomes dominant. Small wonder that many patients report that they feel wonderfully relaxed when they are experiencing hypnotherapy.

Considering How Your Emotions Affect You

Everyone experiences emotions. These emotions are products of your brain;

They are mental states and as such mean that your brain is active in promoting them. If your brain is active, the rest of your nervous system is too. That

Means that when you experience an emotion of any kind it will have a knock -

On effect in your nervous system. And, by extension, other physical parts of

You – remember that the nervous system controls your entire body.

If this emotion that you experience is having an effect on your body, is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer is that it’s a little of both. It all depends on the type of emotion that you are experiencing. The good ones -

Such as happiness, elation, and joy – have a beneficial effect on your body;

Helping you to feel relaxed, keeping your immune system healthy, and so on.

Positive emotions help you to recover when you’re ill by boosting your beleaguered immune system. On the other hand, negative emotions such as anxiety, stress, and depression have a detrimental effect on your immune system.

Your body is quite a resilient thing and can take a fair amount of punishment before it starts to fail. It takes a good old battering from such things as physical knocks, the environment, and your negative emotions. Between these bouts of battering it does need to rest and recuperate. If it is not allowed to do so, then the pressure of keeping you going builds and builds, and if you are not careful, your body eventually starts to fail. It may seem obvious that physical and environmental factors can do this to you, but how do emotional factors figure in this? Read on to find out.

Depressing the effects of low moods

When you are in a good mood your body is in a state of balance in regard to the various biochemicals coursing through it. These biochemicals all have their own specific functions that help to keep your body in tiptop condition.

When you are down or depressed your mind is in a very negative state. You end up having bad feelings coursing through your body, which in turn puts a myriad of hormones and biochemicals out of balance. As a result, your body no longer functions as it should.

For many people these low moods are transitory, you perk up and your

Resilient body gets a bit of a break – no harm done. In some cases though, these moods persist and your body doesn’t get any respite from the imbalance, ending up in a descent into bad health. In fact, studies have shown that

People who stay in prolonged low moods, like depression, are more likely to fall ill than those who don’t. Now that’s a depressing thought! That’s because

The imbalance in your body is having a negative effect on your immune system – the part of your system that is responsible for keeping you free from infection and disease.

Stressing about fear and anxiety

Even the most chilled out people in the world experience anxiety once in a

While. It’s one of those annoying moods that you can’t escape.

In this chapter, we use the words Stress And Anxiety To describe the way that your body and mind respond when you experience something that you perceive as threatening to your physical health. You may call this Fear - we

Prefer the terms stress or anxiety.

Whatever the word used, your body reacts to this state by releasing a whole host of biochemicals that are usually kept in balance. The quantity of bio -

Chemicals released determines the strength with which you experience these

Feelings – the greater the volume, the stronger the feeling. In an ideal world, this response – mild to intense – should only last a short while. However, this is not an ideal world – more’s the pity – and this response is often left

Switched on for long periods of time in many people.

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Moderate anxiety is good – without it the human race would probably not

Exist. No, we haven’t lost the plot; all we are saying is that anxiety has a very

Functional role within your life. It helps to keep you focused on things in your life that need to be attended to. The only time you really need to worry about anxiety is when you experience too much of it, and for too long a period of

Time. Then it can become a downright liability by increasing your risk of

Having a heart attack, or lowering your immunity to disease, for example.

Your body has a wide variety of warning and alarm systems that help to keep

You safe and out of harm’s way. Anxiety is one of them. Anxiety warns you that something is a potential threat to your safety. It keeps you wary and away from harm. Should you decide to explore whatever it is that is potentially dangerous, then feeling anxious will mean that you approach whatever

It is with caution. What we are talking about here is what anxiety is Supposed To do for you, and what it Actually Did for your ancestors. You’ll see what we

Mean by going back in time for a few moments.

Fighting or fleeing: Facing the fear response

Experiencing anxiety, stress, or fear is also known as the Fight-or-flight response.

Several things happen the moment you feel anxious:

W Your sympathetic nervous system becomes over active. V Your heart rate increases. ^ Your breathing rate increases. ^ Your muscles become tense.

^ Blood is diverted to the muscles in your arms and legs. ^ Your digestion slows or stops.

These physical responses happen whether you’re confronted by a bear, or just a beastly boss warning you that your job is at risk.

Unfortunately, the biochemicals that help you to run away and fight also end

Up damaging your body and immune system if they’re left active for a prolonged period of time. If you don’t get a chance to take your system off high

Alert status, the effects of your flight-or-fight response can cause physical damage: an overactive sympathetic nervous system can cause your body to shake; an increased heart rate wears down your heart muscle; increased breathing may end up as hyperventilation, which in turn can lead to a panic attack; muscle tension can cause tension headaches and muscle pain; diverted blood may cause hot flushes; and decreased digestion can result in a number of problems associated with your gut.

Staying aliVe in caVeman days

This response proved very useful to your ancestors! The anxiety response

Has kept the human race from being eaten into extinction by predators.

Imagine one of your ancestors wandering along nonchalantly through a

Forest, when a sabre-toothed tiger jumps out in front of him with the intention of picking up a caveman takeaway. Your ancestor’s immediate response is to fight for his life or to run away: His fight-or-flight response is turned on as a reaction to a perceived personal threat. His body is flooded with a whole variety of chemicals that prepare him for action. After saving his own life (and

Possibly picking up a sabre-toothed tiger takeaway in the process), his fight -

Or-flight response is turned off and his body returns to normal.

Just imagine that the human race evolved without an anxiety response. Ah! Nirvana! Or is it? Imagine your everyday caveman hunting for some animal

That has the potential for being a pot roast. As he is walking through the forest he hears the sound of branches breaking behind him. Without an anxiety response, he turns nonchalantly around to see what it is that is making the sound, perhaps striding boldly over to investigate. Before he knows it, a bundle of fur, sharp claws, and very long teeth comes hurtling out of the undergrowth and sends him into oblivion.

The moral of this story: no anxiety equals no caution equals no life! Add anxiety back into the equation, and the moral changes: anxiety equals caution equals staying alive (with a nice lunch too!).

During periods of real danger, your stress response can actually save your life

By giving you the energy to defend yourself or run away.

Surviving in the modern jungle

You don’t meet very many sabre-toothed tigers today, but you do have nagging bosses, threatening bullies, troubling financial concerns, and so on,

Which are the modern day equivalents. However, in today’s society you do very little fighting or fleeing in response to your anxieties (unless you are in a war zone or a dangerous inner city area). In fact, all you tend to do is to let

Your feelings grow and grow. This is not good, because you have a body that is ready for action, but isn’t doing anything.

When your body switches to the fight-or-flight response it prepares to become explosively active. Today, you don’t often actually fight and you don’t actually run away. As far as your body is concerned, it’s a bit like

Having your foot pressed down on the accelerator and brake at the same

Time – your engine is revving and going nowhere. The result: breakdown.

All of these responses are like revving your car. Take your foot off the brake

And away you go! In this day and age, you tend to keep your foot firmly on the

Brake, risking damage.

Integrating Hypnosis into the Mind-Body Connection

If your mind can affect the way your body functions, and hypnotherapy can affect the way your mind functions, then it stands to reason that hypnotherapy

Can ultimately affect your body’s responses. Using hypnotherapy to change

The way you think about and respond to situations and events that affect your life can ultimately change the way your body reacts. This effect can be a by-product of therapy or an actively sought response. For example, if you are

Coming for therapy to help reduce your levels of stress, a by-product could be better health. Or perhaps you are coming for therapy to help manage and reduce the pain you are experiencing. In this case, you are actively seeking to

Alter your body’s response to whatever is causing the pain (see Chapter 6 to

Find out more about pain control using hypnotherapy).

Whatever you are seeking therapy for, the hypnotherapy process makes a variety of positive changes to your body. The next sections highlight some of these.

Hypnotherapy does not cure disease and should never be advertised as

Doing so. Hypnotherapy does help to make changes to the way you think and

Feel, and the way your body responds in certain situations. De-stressing may, in itself, reduce or eliminate any stress related ailments you may experience

Such as headaches, ulcers, and rashes. But any effects on a disease state are

Lucky by-products that may or may not be attributable to your therapy, and can never be guaranteed.

Relaxing mentally and physically

Through hypnosis

Even though you often don’t know how to handle stress, anxiety, or fear, that

Doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do about it. In fact, you can take a

Lesson from your primitive ancestors. After any burst of activity that resulted

From a fight-or-flight response (have a look at the previous section, ‘Fighting

Or fleeing: Facing the fear response’ for more on this), your caveman ancestor

Would probably seek out a quiet and safe place and take time to rest, to sleep, to perhaps enter into a trance-like state. By doing so, his mind would

Calm down. As his mind calmed down, it would communicate with his body, which would release all the muscle tensions and turn down the biochemical responses that resulted from the fight-or-flight response. In effect, he would relax.

The key to combating that excess of anxiety, stress, or fear is to relax. How

Your body responds when you relax is much the same as when you enter

Hypnosis. The most common body responses are:

^ Your heart rate slows down.

^ Your breathing rate slows down and becomes deeper. ^ The muscles throughout your body become less tense. ^ Blood is evenly distributed throughout the body. ^ Your digestion system works efficiently.

^ Your thoughts become less concrete and more abstract – more image

And feeling based

Of course, you will always have periods of anxiety. It’s how you handle that anxiety that is important.

If you can get into a regular pattern of relaxation and exercise, you can minimise the nasty effects of long-term anxiety. It’s also worth mentioning that if you stop smoking, eat healthily, and cut down on the amount of alcohol and caffeine you drink, then you will be on tiptop form to beat that anxiety firmly into the ground.

Manifesting the mind through the body

Many of your body movements are the result of conscious decisions to move a specific part: perhaps lifting your hand to pick something up, or maybe shutting your eyes to block out an unpleasant sight. However, many of your

Movements, such as walking, are unconscious (see the previous section

‘Fitting up the connectors: Your nervous system’). You make a conscious

Decision to start walking, however the movement itself is controlled by your

Unconscious mind; you don’t actively have to concentrate on the mechanics

Of lifting first one foot and then the other.

This unconscious response is very useful in hypnotherapy as it can help

Induce or deepen hypnosis, or it can be used as part of your therapy. The suggestions given by your therapist create ideas in your unconscious mind. These ideas stimulate the connection to your body, which acts on the suggestions being given.

In the following sections, we refer to closing your eyes, lifting fingers, and moving your hand or arm – all actions that can be carried out by your conscious mind. However, the movements we refer to are all examples of the

Mind-body connection, because they are automatic and result from ideas that

Are suggested to your unconscious mind. In other words, the movements are not under conscious control.

Shutting out the external World with eye closure

When you go into trance, there is a good chance your eyes will become droopy, feeling heavy, and wanting to close as a result of the suggestions your therapist is giving to you. This shows that you’re entering a relaxed and receptive state.

When you close your eyes you become a little removed from the outside

World. Sure, you still hear and feel things, but removing your sense of sight encourages you to focus inward. Try it as you read. Put this book down, close

Your eyes and take a few deep, slow breaths. You will probably experience a

Slight (and hopefully pleasant) sensation as a shift in your consciousness

Begins to occur. This is the first movement towards a trance state. And it all comes from simply closing your eyes.

The simplest way to get a patient to close her eyes is to ask her to do so!

However, hypnotherapists being what we are, also use a host of other methods. Here are a couple to be getting on with:

^ Prolonged fixation of the eyes on a single spot: If you stare at one spot for a period of time your eyelids become tired. They want to close. And

When your therapist directs you to do just that, you experience a sense of relief and relaxation that moves you towards the trance state.

^ Eye rolling: Looking upward, without moving your head, produces a

Small level of discomfort and tension in your eyelids. When your hypnotherapist asks you to relax and close your eyes, again the sense of relief and relaxation moves you towards trance.

Your eyes are closed and you’re nice and relaxed, so how do you keep from

Falling asleep? In our experience it is rare for a person to fall asleep during a

Hypnosis session. By altering the volume, tone, and pitch of her voice your therapist will keep your unconscious mind sufficiently interested to prevent

You from drifting off!

Letting your fingers do the talking: Ideo motor response (IMR)

During a hypnotherapy session your therapist may need to communicate

With you by asking you questions that require ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. Your treatment may necessitate your responding to these questions on an unconscious level in order to avoid too much conscious thinking, intellectualising, or second-guessing the answer.

So how do you communicate at this unconscious level while in trance? While it is perfectly possible to have a verbal dialogue while hypnotised (though some people struggle to maintain the trance when they are talking), a more elegant solution is to use ideo motor responses.

Defining IMR

^Alf^ The term Ideo motor response Literally means a physical (motor) response to F/77\ An idea (ideo). In a hypnotherapy session, an IMR is a slow, hesitant, jerky R( r ‘) ) Movement of any limb or muscle of your body controlled by your unconscious mind. IMRs are used to signal an answer to a yes/no question.

IMRs can also be used as a Ratifier, Which simply means a way of proving you

Are hypnotised. The mere act of having your fingers respond, seemingly independent of your conscious mind, firms up your belief in the trance state, leading to a deepening of the trance itself.

Flexing your fingers

So how does an IMR work exactly? Your hypnotherapist assigns your unconscious mind to lift different fingers to indicate different responses.

For example, while in trance, your hypnotherapist may suggest that when

You need to indicate a ‘no’ response you will lift your left index finger. They

May also suggest that lifting your right index finger would signal a ‘yes’

Response.

Additional fingers can be assigned to indicate other responses, such as one of your middle fingers could be assigned an ‘I don’t know’ response. Another finger, for example, could be assigned as an ‘I don’t want to answer’ response, allowing you to maintain privacy. However, most hypnotherapists may

Choose to keep it simple with this technique, choosing only a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ finger. In this case, if you really don’t want to answer, then either both fingers

Will rise, or nothing will happen at all!

Communicating without talking

Have you ever watched a card game involving high gambling stakes? A professional card player can easily spot an inexperienced or bad card player. The bad card player will unconsciously signal what type of hand they are holding. They are like an open book to a trained

Observer and it will be easy for the gambler to take their money. The inexperienced player will invariably give something away on an unconscious level through facial expressions, hand movements, and other unconscious body movements. In effect, the novice player is communicating unconsciously with the seasoned pro.

You probably observe many similar examples of this on a daily basis. Unconscious movements

Made by others communicate a lot of information about that person: how they are feeling, the direction in which they are thinking, and so on. How often have you heard someone say ‘I’m fine!’, yet you know that they are far from fine? The reason that you know is because you have picked up on physical factors generated by that

Person’s unconscious mind, such as muscle

Tension or an unhappy expression. Even though they wanted to convey a happy exterior, that person’s unconscious mind is very aware that they feel bad. Their autonomic nervous system responds to this unconscious reality by automatically generating the physical factors you pick up on.

Treating With IMR

Your hypnotherapists can use IMRs to achieve unconscious communication with you while you’re in trance. Here are a few examples of the different uses

IMR can be put to:

^ Treating phobias: IMRs might be used to indicate whether or not you feel comfortable with a potentially anxiety provoking scene you are imagining, that relates to your phobia. See Chapter 11 for more on phobias and their treatment.

^ Regression hypnosis: This involves a fair bit of questioning while you

Are hypnotised. Your therapist may need to ask a series of yes/no questions and may use IMR to ensure a good level of communication.

^ Replacing a symptom with something more acceptable: It is never wise

To just help someone remove their symptom. Take it away and you leave a gap in that person’s life. That gap needs to be filled with something. IMRs can be used as part of the filling process. Your therapist could ask your unconscious mind to come up with a healthy alternative to your unwanted symptom, and to indicate when it has done so by giving a ‘yes’ IMR.

Raising your hand

You may be aware from stage hypnosis shows that it is possible to hypnotise someone to ‘levitate’ their entire arm unconsciously. This concept is not just

An entertainment technique – there are also very valid uses for it in a therapeutic setting.

Hand levitation – or sometimes arm levitation – is primarily a way of inducing

Or deepening trance, with the entire arm being made to rise unconsciously.

One way to demonstrate the process of hand levitation is to give you a

Couple of examples of what a hypnotherapist might say to induce hand levita-tion in a patient not yet hypnotised.

^ The ‘I don’t know which hand will lift first’ technique: ‘Now, when I tell you, I’d like you to lift your left hand or right hand deliberately and consciously. . . but your unconscious mind can lift the other hand. . . before we start I’d like you to look at both of your hands, and I’m going to ask you a question. . . you do not know the answer to that question, but your unconscious mind does. . . so you’ll just have to wait and see what the answer is. . . I’m going to ask you which hand your unconscious mind is going to lift up first. . . the right hand or the left hand?. . . and you really don’t know. . . but your unconscious knows.’

W The lifting balloon technique: ‘Imagine that a balloon filled with helium is tied to the wrist of your left hand. Imagine the feel of the string on your wrist. Now lets say that this balloon has a particularly strong pull as it floats upwards. It is really pulling on your wrist, lifting, lifting your hand. Imagine the balloon is now lifting your hand higher and higher.’

So what is the point of hand levitation? How does it help you with your therapy? The main aim of hand levitation is to induce an Unconscious Movement of the hand and arm.

Activating your unconscious is what hypnosis is all about. The process of hand levitation also activates that part of you that keeps you breathing,

Keeps your heart beating – and all other life sustaining, Unconscious Bodily

Activities. So the deeper you go into trance the better for hypnotherapy purposes, as you turn down your consciousness and turn up your unconscious. This will in turn help you to absorb the hypnotherapeutic suggestions being

Given by your therapist more deeply and effectively. That is the how the therapy ‘sticks’ with you.

Hand levitation may be used to treat problems that involve using your hand, such as:

V Smoking

V Nail-biting

V Hair pulling

V Eating disorders such as bulimia and overeating

The rational for using hand levitation is that with these problems the conscious mind ‘switches off’ and the hand movements become unconscious. Mimicking these unconscious movements in therapy with hand levitation helps bring the unwanted behaviour to conscious awareness when it is being

Carried out, subsequently helps stop the habit. Pretty ingenious, eh?

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.

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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!

(g

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!

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.

In This Chapter

^ Discovering what hypnotherapy can and can’t do ^ Realising the role of motivation ^ Foiling your inner saboteur

^ Understanding your hypnotherapist’s legal and ethical responsibilities

Ou’re considering sorting out a problem by paying a visit to a hypnotherapist. Before you do, we suggest that you mull over a few things about

The responsibilities of that hypnotherapist, as well as some of the realities

Of hypnotherapy itself. After all, you want to go in for therapy with realistic

Expectations and a clear understanding of what to expect from your therapist and the process itself. The information in this chapter gives you just that.

Realising That Hypnotherapy Helps, It Doesn’t Cure

Okay, the truth is that hypnotherapy is not magic and hypnotherapists do

Not have special powers. You’re not going to walk in for a hypnotherapy session and walk out an hour or so later with all your cares and woes miraculously cured, hallelujah!

Many myths surround hypnotherapy (see Chapter 16 for the most unrealistic) and many people walk into a session expecting the impossible. When you go

For therapy, enter into it with realistic expectations. That means understanding what can be done and what can’t be done.

And now a word that is an anathema to hypnotherapists: Cure. Cure is a word often misused by patients – and by some hypnotherapists. Cure implies that something is going to go away. Possibly for good. Oh, how we wish therapy

Were that simple. Unfortunately, it isn’t, and it never will be.

No hypnotherapist worth her salt will promise a cure to her patients because she cannot guarantee that the problem you work on will go away. It may; or you may learn to live more comfortably with it; or it may go away and return

At a later date; or it may be that nothing changes at all. All these possible

Outcomes apply to any form of therapy or medical procedure. You may be thinking ‘What’s the point in going for therapy then, if there’s no guarantee of change?’ The fact of the matter is that no therapy can guarantee change. However, hypnotherapy does have an excellent track record and the evidence shows it to be very effective at Helping People to make changes to

Their lives and to achieve their goals.

Hypnotherapy helps. That means it is an aid to overcoming something, and as such, relies on the effort you are prepared to put into the therapy process.

It can’t do it all on its own.

Accepting Hypnotherapy’s Limitations

When you go for your hypnotherapy session you need to be realistic about

What it can achieve. Although hypnotherapy’s effects are wide-ranging, like any other therapy approach it does have its limitations.

Setting yourself up for success

As with anything, many factors determine the outcome of hypnotherapy:

V Your symptom: Hypnotherapy can help resolve many different symptoms. However, it cannot help with everything. The chapters in Parts 2 and 3 of this book give you a good idea as to the type of symptoms that

Can and can’t benefit from hypnotherapy. For example, cigarette addiction can be treated, whereas the treatment of heroin addiction should be left to the medical profession. If in doubt, ask your therapist if hypnotherapy is right for your symptom.

Your symptom itself often determines the length of time you spend in therapy. Smoking cessation can take as little as one session to complete. However, if you are being treated for something more involved, such as bulimia, you can expect a longer course of treatment because of the deeper issues involved with this condition and its treatment.

V Your expectations: Are you expecting too much from hypnotherapy? Do

You think it is a magical panacea that will get rid of your symptom at the click of a finger?

The ‘I want to lose two stone by Friday’ mindset is doomed to failure.

Your expectations must be realistic from the outset. Hypnotherapy is therapy, not magic! Discuss your expectations with your therapist and be prepared to have the reality of the process pointed out to you.

So what can you realistically expect from hypnotherapy? You can expect to have a very good chance at relieving your symptom. However, there is also a – much smaller – chance that hypnotherapy will have little or no effect.

As with any course of treatment, medical or not, you can’t have an absolute guarantee that the treatment will work. Why? Because of the factors we discuss here.

You can also expect to put some effort into your therapy process by carrying

Out homework assignments (see Chapter 13) that continue the therapy process, even when you are not with your therapist. You can also expect that your therapist will put in as much time and effort as is needed to help you overcome your symptom.

V Your fears: Are you at ease with your hypnotherapy session? Do you fear

Anything about the process you’re going through, such as whether the

Effects of your therapy will be long-lasting, or just how effective it will be? Perhaps you’re worried that you aren’t going into trance in the way that you thought you would. Maybe you’re concerned that being in trance

Now will affect you during the meeting you’re chairing later in the day.

If these or any other fears spring to mind during your therapy session, discuss them with your therapist before, during – yes, you can talk in trance – or after the trance has concluded, and let her put your mind at

Ease. Letting such fears fester away without discussing them interferes with your chances of having a good outcome for your therapy.

V The relationship you have with your therapist: Is it a good one? Do you

Feel comfortable with her? Is your therapist someone you can work with? Like any relationship, the better it is, the smoother things run. If you

Don’t feel comfortable with, or dislike, your therapist for any reason, the all-important trust factor will not be there. If you don’t trust your therapist then your mind won’t trust the therapy process itself. If this is the case, then politely say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to your therapist, and

Find another in whose company you do feel comfortable. Remember, the therapy sessions are for you, not your therapist. For more information on how to create a good working relationship with your therapist, and what to do if it grows bad, have a look at Chapter 12.

V What’s going on in your life at the moment: Life has its ups and downs and these may help or hinder your therapy. If all is hunky-dory and good

Things are happening in your life, you tend to feel upbeat, positive, and

Motivated – you have what’s known as a positive mindset. These good

Feelings affect the way you view the course of your therapy, making you more optimistic, positive, and motivated about the whole process and

Its outcome. With this positive mindset you could very well find that

Your unconscious mind is more open to the suggestions your hypnotherapist is giving; speeding up the process of change.

On the other hand, if life at the moment is seemingly stressful or dull,

Then the opposite may be true. The negative mindset that these feelings

Create may hinder your therapy, giving you a pessimistic outlook

Towards it and consequently slowing the whole thing down.

No matter what’s happening in your life at the moment – good or bad -

Your therapy is still likely to work under the guidance of a skilled therapist. In fact, let your therapist know if you are feeling negative; she can

Include suggestions during the session to help lift your mood – something the majority of therapists do as par for the course.

However, if these negative feelings are persistent and don’t relate to the reason you are in therapy, you may want to consider booking a few sessions to help you overcome them. Have a look at Chapter 7 to see how hypnotherapy can help you with a variety of emotional issues.

Highlighting the importance of your motivation

The most important thing you can do to ensure success for your hypnotherapy sessions is to look at your motivation and make sure that it is correct.

The motivations that bring people for therapy are many and varied. For

Some, the motivation is positive, helping them along the path to change.

For others, the motivation is negative, and can actually hinder that process. A couple of examples of the negatives and why they hinder:

V Because someone said you should: So someone in your life is urging you to try hypnotherapy. Take a look at why that person is pushing you toward therapy. Is it because they have a genuine concern for your welfare, such as not wanting you to die from lung cancer because you smoke, or wanting to help you get over the turmoil you experience when public speaking – or is it because they are trying to manipulate you? Do you feel that you need to go for therapy because if you don’t they are going to

Leave you? Do you feel that they’re using emotional blackmail to get you to therapy for their own selfish ends?

If you’re going for therapy only because someone else wants you to and

You have no real desire to change, then your therapist can sit with you waffling on to her heart’s content without making the slightest bit of difference. Even if change does happen, the likelihood is that you will be

Back to your old ways faster than you can say ‘therapist’! Why? Because you never really wanted to change in the first place. And short of elaborate brainwashing techniques, no therapist is going to be able to make you! By the way, if someone urges therapy on you out of genuine concern, perhaps you should take a little time to listen to them. After all, if

You act on their concern and go for therapy, it could very well improve

Your life no end – if not save it!

V Because you don’t want to make any effort: This applies to the lazy amongst us! If you’re trying hypnotherapy because you think it’s the easy option, you aren’t going to get very far. Sure, hypnotherapy can certainly speed up and ease the process of change, but this only happens if

You put some effort into it too.

If you don’t put any effort into the process you aren’t going to get anywhere. Imagine wanting to push a stalled car. You need to put some effort into pushing, in order to get it to move. Simply rest your hands

Against it and you will be standing there all day getting nowhere fast! So, in order for therapy to have the greatest chance of succeeding, you need

To have the appropriate motivation. Your chances for success are much greater if your motivation:

V Genuinely comes from you: You are going for therapy because You Want

To make the change.

V Is realistic: You understand that change may take time and that hypnotherapy is not a magical panacea for all ills, and you’re prepared to put some effort into the process.

Letting Go May Be Harder Than You Think

Sometimes giving up your problems isn’t easy. Okay, tell us something new!

Perhaps you are thinking this is a bit of an understatement. After all, you’re

Probably reading this book because you want to get rid of a problem that’s

Proving difficult to shift. However, some problems can be very easy to get rid

Of, so why is it that others prove to be difficult blighters?

Facing the fact that you may want to keep your problem

The human mind can be as fickle as the human being to which it belongs. So, even though on one level you are desperate to get rid of your problem, on

Another level there really might be a good reason for you to keep it. This is known as a Secondary gain: Your problem has something of benefit to give you.

Oh yes, your problems can be beneficial, even though you may not be aware of what that benefit is! That benefit may be misplaced and dysfunctional and can be achieved by other, healthier means; but the problem is still serving some important function. You may find, for example, that your problem keeps you away from a job that you don’t like, or perhaps it’s stopping you from having to do

Tasks you dread, such as shopping, ironing, or picking the kids up from school. Of course, you may be able to resolve an issue without the need to address

The secondary gain. However, you may find that you develop new and equally

Dysfunctional symptoms in order to provide the same benefit! In this case there would be little point in having therapy in the first place.

Uncovering secondary gains

Sometimes, uncovering the secondary gain is the key to helping a patient resolve their problem. A couple of examples:

V A patient who came for treatment for panic attacks arrived, accompanied by her husband, mother, father, and a neighbour. Now, it is not uncommon for patients with panic symptoms to be accompanied by someone else because it helps them to feel safe on their journey to the hypnotherapist, in case they have an attack. But being accompanied by virtually her entire family was a bit of overkill! However, as skilled therapists (well, at least we like to think we are!) this

Immediately suggested to us that something else was going on – a secondary gain. What was it that necessitated her bringing all these people with her? During the consultation, we asked what would happen if she no longer had the panic attacks. After a moments pause, she replied that she would no longer be getting any attention from her family. Bingo! Secondary gain uncovered! She went on to explain that she basically did everything for the family, with very little attention being paid towards her. It was nothing malicious, that’s just the way the

Family had developed. However, when she had a panic attack, everyone crowded round her, being kind and gentle.

V Another patient presented for pain control. She had a bad back and wanted to be able

To control her pain. She had been through

Every conceivable approach to getting rid of it, but to no avail! During the consultation, she was asked what she would be able to do, that she can’t do now, once the pain had gone. After listing several things she gave a

Sheepish pause and then stated that she

Would once again be able to have sex with her husband. Something about the way she stated this implied that this was not something that she was looking forward to – at all! When asked how she felt about once again being able to enjoy that side of her relationship with her husband, she stated that she dreaded it. That, in fact, she no longer found her husband sexually attractive. Ta-dah! Secondary gain uncovered at last!

In both cases, the secondary gains needed to

Be addressed before the symptom could be

Dealt with appropriately – and they both were, as it happens.

Overcoming your secondary gains

It is your hypnotherapist’s job to recognise, and to help you address, any issues with secondary gains. After all, if you were aware of them you would

Probably have done something about them already! Sometimes the secondary gains are very obvious, and sometimes they’re hidden. You need to

Address secondary gains, because you don’t want another symptom springing gleefully into your life, in order to meet the gain.

Of course, not all your problems are beset by these annoying quirks of your psyche. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Your therapist may want to work with you in several ways when helping you

To overcome a secondary gain:

V Discussing: Where the secondary gain is obvious, you can discuss what is happening with your therapist and develop a strategy from there.

Your therapist can develop suggestions to give you in trance to help.

V Dissociating: If the secondary gain is not obvious, your therapist may

Wish to use dissociation techniques that allow you to safely isolate the

Part of your mind responsible for your problem and to have a conversation with it to help uncover what is going on. Once the secondary gain is uncovered then something can be done to alleviate it. (See Chapter 2 for

A complete discussion of dissociation.)

V Allowing your unconscious mind to sort things out appropriately:

Maybe you don’t know how to address the secondary gain at a conscious level. However, your unconscious mind knows what’s needed, and can collaborate with your skilful hypnotherapist to come up with a

New behaviour or response that addresses the secondary gain in a much

More appropriate way.

V Referring you to another agency: Maybe the secondary gain cannot be

Addressed through hypnotherapy alone. For example, if couples counselling is needed, your therapist may want to refer you to a relationship counsellor in order to get the matter sorted.

Whatever the secondary gain, you can find ways to address the issues that it

Brings forth. After you address those issues, your symptom will probably be much more amenable to therapy.

Sabotaging your own therapy

As we said before, your mind can be a fickle creature. On the one hand,

You’re desperate to get rid of a symptom, and on the other, your mind seems

To pull out all the stops in an attempt to retain it. It’s as though the mind has

Put up a barrier to change. You can agitate your inner saboteur without realising it. For example:

V Unconscious defiance: Some people have a natural resistance to authority figures. That means offering up some measure of defiance to anyone they perceive as being in a position of authority. These people may look upon their hypnotherapist as being in such a position (even without knowing it) and unconsciously block or do the opposite to whatever the therapist says or does.

If you fall into this category, be prepared to discuss this part of your

Personality with your therapist. There are ways around this. But just

Remember that you are in the therapy session as an equal and that the work you are doing is a team endeavour.

V An unconscious need to prove superiority: Some people seem to have

The mindset that no matter what their therapist does they always try to

Go one better, or try to prove her wrong. This is certainly the case with

Some hypnotherapy patients. The therapist suggests X and they do Y.

Not only is this frustrating for the therapist (though once they are aware of it they can rework their strategy), but it could end up with the patient having to spend much longer in therapy than is strictly necessary.

V ’Forgetting’ to tell your therapist some important piece of information: We are all forgetful to some degree. However, some hypnotherapy patients have selective memories, omitting to tell their therapist some

Piece of vital information that is relevant to their symptom – despite the

In-depth questioning they underwent during the taking of the case history. Not being in possession of that snippet of wisdom, their therapist

Goes ahead with therapy only to find that things aren’t working the way

They should.

A way round this is to begin to write down, well in advance of your first session, every piece of information you feel may be relevant to your visit to the hypnotherapist. In this way, if your mind begins to play tricks during your session, the information will hopefully be at hand on that

Piece of paper – as long as you remember to bring it with you!

Don’t worry. If any of these gremlins of sabotage begin to rear their ugly head, your hypnotherapist will be able to plan a strategy to foil their little

Game!

^ALf^ Resistance Is a conscious or unconscious attempt by a patient to avoid going ‘y^/7X Into trance or to avoid accepting the therapeutic suggestions given by the ( r ) ) Therapist. Despite seeking out hypnotherapy in the first place, you may resist \hJy Attempts to change. Your hypnotherapist may explore the reason for this resistance because it may be central to resolving your problem.

Examining Your Hypnotherapist’s Ethical Responsibilities

Any reputable, professional hypnotherapist holds an ethical responsibility towards every person she treats. But what does this term mean and how

Does it apply to you? In therapy terms, Ethics Refers to a code of conduct based on Morals - the ability to distinguish between right and wrong -

That govern the professional conduct of your therapist.

So, your therapist’s ethical responsibility is to ensure that her professional

Conduct is appropriate when working with you. That means:

V Telling you about their fees and availability in advance.

V Explaining the therapeutic process to you.

V Answering your questions honestly.

V Not prolonging therapy unnecessarily.

V Ensuring that you are as comfortable as possible during the therapy

Process.

V Showing a professional regard towards other therapists and therapies

(for example, not criticising them!)

V Working within their own level of competence.

V Ensuring the confidentiality of anything that you may tell them.

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On top of this, your therapist should show you what is known as Unconditional positive regard, Which means not being judgemental and accepting you as you are – a complete human being with the normal human problems that affect us all. After all, your therapist is only mortal and is subject to the same

Pitfalls in life as the rest of us. If you ever have the misfortune of meeting a

Hypnotherapist who says that they aren’t, then walk away quickly, as you have just met a very deluded person. Unfortunately, one or two of them are

Out there!

Your therapist’s professional ethics come from a variety of sources:

V Personal ethics: Derived from her own belief systems and moral values.

V Workplace ethics: Laid down by the powers that be, at any institution

From which your therapist works.

V A professional code of conduct: Mandated by any professional society your therapist belongs to. As a condition of membership, your therapist is required to comply with rules governing her conduct in therapy.

Maintaining a therapeutic relationship

When you visit your hypnotherapist, you are going to see a professional, and as such they should treat you in a professional manner. That means that they maintain a professional working relationship with you. In other words, if any other relationship develops between you both, the therapeutic relationship should cease.

The dynamics of a professional relationship are very different to those of a friendship or love

Relationship. In a professional relationship, the therapist can provide impartial help; in other

Associations, impartiality is compromised by

The close emotions that accompany more personal relationships. As nice as these feelings are, they won’t necessarily lead you to a successful outcome for therapy.

If you want to know what your therapist’s code of ethics is, just ask her. As a member of a professional body that governs her professional conduct, she should be able to show you the code of ethical conduct she agreed to abide

By. Check the Appendix for an extract taken from the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis Code of Ethics to see what such a code may include.

Make sure that your hypnotherapist is a member of a bona fide professional organisation. Such a membership means that she’s bound to act in a professional way during therapy. It also means that you can use the society’s complaints procedure should you have any concerns about your therapist’s conduct – which we certainly hope you won’t!

Looking at Your Hypnotherapist’s Legal Responsibilities

Okay, now for the legal bits. Your hypnotherapist is bound by whatever laws

Are applicable to your particular country of residence. State laws (in the US), national laws, and international laws (in the European Union) apply to determining who can practise hypnotherapy, how they can advertise, what they can advertise, and so on.

The extent to which hypnotherapy is regulated depends on the individual laws in each country. For example, in the UK and certain other European

Countries, no laws directly govern the training and practice of hypnotherapy. (A disgusting state of affairs, we know. Thankfully, moves are afoot to rectify

This!). In the US, some states have very stringent laws, whilst others have virtually none.

On top of all this, every hypnotherapist should have professional indemnity insurance, that covers for malpractice, should a case be brought against

Them. To check whether your therapist is insured you can, of course, ask her;

Or better still, make sure that she belongs to a professional body that insists

On professional indemnity insurance as a requirement of membership. How

Do you do that? Find out which professional body your therapist belongs to and phone them up and ask.

Incidentally, if you’re worried whether your therapist has had any lawsuits for malpractice brought against her in the past, the professional body will

Also hold that information.

In This Chapter

^ Understanding your habit and how hard it can be to change it ^ Fighting nicotine and food ^ Getting a good night’s sleep ^ Talking with confidence ^ Chewing away at nail-biting

Makes y

E all have habits. Some are good, some are not so good and some are downright dangerous to your health. Your habits are part of what

Makes you who you are. They’re a part of your personality; part of those

Quirky little things that draw some people to you and repel others. On the

Whole, you happily live with your habits. Happily, that is, until habits go bad!

In this chapter, we address the most common bad habits and tell you how hypnotherapy can help you change them.

Examining Habits and How to Change Them

The word habit has several different meanings, but we use it to refer to any

Pattern of behaviour you carry out time and time again with little thought

Or effort.

A habit is not an addiction. Having an addiction means that you depend on some form of drug – such as nicotine, alcohol, or cocaine – to help get you through the day. When you’re addicted to a drug, your body Needs It to be present in your system. If it is not, you tend to feel awful – something known

As withdrawal. In order to get back to feeling normal, you have to take some more of whatever it is you are addicted to.

Of course, habits can be part of an addiction. Just look at the smoker who

Habitually lights up when he talks on the phone, or reaches for his packet of cigarettes, the moment he steps out of his office. His body is addicted to the nicotine and he also has habits that maintain the addiction.

Hypnotherapy is a very effective way of helping you to overcome those

Annoying bad habits that interfere with your life. Even habits associated with addictions can be effectively treated. However, it is important that you realise

That certain habits/addictions can be treated using hypnotherapy – such as smoking – and certain habit/addictions – such as those to do with heroin, cocaine, and alcohol – should be treated by a doctor. Of course, hypnotherapy can play a very important role in helping you stay drug-free, after you

Successfully beat a serious addiction.

Where do habits come from? In general, you learn them. You start a pattern of behaviour for one reason or another and after a while it becomes so

Ingrained in your mind that you carry it out almost unconsciously. Aha! Unconsciously! This word should give you a pretty hefty clue as to why hypnotherapy can be so effective in treating habits. If habits are stored in your unconscious mind, and hypnotherapy can help make changes to what is

Stored in the unconscious mind, then it stands to reason that hypnotherapy can help to change habits.

So, why would you want to change your habits? After all, your habits are a

Part of your personality aren’t they? Of course they are, but that doesn’t mean to say that you’re happy with every aspect of your personality. And by extension, it certainly doesn’t mean to say that you’re happy with those

Habits that are harming your health, or making your life less pleasurable to experience.

‘Right, I’m unhappy with my habit so I am just going to change it. Simple!’

For some people, changing habits can be as straightforward as that. Make the decision and then make the change. But for many other people, changing

Isn’t that simple. The habit has become a part of your life, something you’re used to doing on a day-to-day basis. Changing a habit means removing something that has been an integral part of your life.

You may miss your habit. Quite strongly! You may associate certain activities with the habit and feel at a loss when you carry them out. You may erroneously

Associate the habit with reducing your stress and feel even more anxious when

You are under pressure because you can’t turn to your habit. In the end you give in to your feelings and suddenly the habit is back with a vengeance.

When giving up an old habit, you must replace it with something else: a new and healthy habit or a suitable strategy for coping effectively without the old

Habit.

After a while, the new habit or strategy becomes part of your make-up and the old one is left safely in the past. And it is with this process that hypnotherapy can play a huge role.

You acquire your habits from somewhere. If you can learn bad ones, you can

Certainly learn good, healthy ones too.

Quitting Smoking

Smoking is bad for you. You know it, and you know what it can do to you in

The long-run – make you very ill and kill you. No point in mincing words here. So, why do people do it? Why do people, when they know the consequences,

Continue to puff on the old coffin nails? Probably because:

V Smoking is addictive. Nicotine is a drug that causes your body to

Become addicted to it. This means that after you have been smoking for

A while your body gets so used to the nicotine coursing through your

Veins and invading your nervous system that in its absence your body

Misses it. Because your body is missing it, it throws a metaphorical

Temper tantrum and you experience the effects of withdrawal. To make yourself feel better you grab another cigarette, light it up and take a long

Drag (Cough, splutter, wheeze!), and hey presto! You give your body

What it wants and, just like a child, the tantrum subsides.

V Smoking is a habit. Oh boy! Is smoking a habit! Every smoker knows about this. Every smoker associates their smoking with various activities they carry out during the day. It’s not that they need the cigarette at

That point, it’s just that they always have a cigarette when: they talk on

The phone, have a cup of coffee, walk to the station, read a book, sit on the loo, watch television and so on. The list is endless. They do it for no other reason than this is what they have always done at this time. It’s

A habit. And if they don’t do it at these times they feel uncomfortable because they feel something is missing; they don’t know what to do with

Their hands and so on. To fill that missing gap, or give their hands something to do, they light up.

If you ask a smoker to tell you which cigarettes they need to smoke

During the day because of the addiction factor, you probably find that there are only a very few. All the other cigarettes are smoked simply out of habit.

Preparing to quit: What to do before visiting your hypnotherapist

Okay. You want to quit. And you want to do it through hypnotherapy. So here’s some useful advice for you to think about:

V Plan the right time to quit. Think about a good time to quit. Make sure

That you plan to quit at a time when your life is going to be reasonably stable – when you have no major events over the coming month or two such as getting married, birthday parties, exams, holidays such as Christmas, and so on. On the other hand, many people find that quitting

Just before they go on holiday is a great time to do it, as the change of

Scenery and lack of all those familiar smoking triggers can reinforce their new non-smoking habit. Fix an appointment with your hypnotherapist and mark it in your diary. Oh, and keep to the date!

V Tell people, who you know are supportive, that you’re quitting. It’s

Always nice to have support and encouragement. These are the people you know you can turn to when your resolve is wavering, or who you know will give you those little words of encouragement just when you need them. Avoid at all costs those who would delight in your failure!

V Get rid of all your smoking paraphernalia just before your hypnotherapy session. Throw out your ashtrays, your lighters, and your stash of

Emergency cigarettes. You won’t need them any more. Once they are gone they won’t be there to tempt you from the straight and narrow.

And ensure that your home becomes a strict no smoking zone.

V Do something that you know will increase your motivation to quit.

You’re motivated, but what else can you do that cranks up that motivation? Half-fill a jamjar with water and drop your old dog ends into it after you smoke each cigarette. Every so often, shake it up and smell the mixture. Nice! That’s what’s going on in your body each time you smoke. Or

Take another jamjar and each time you buy a packet of cigarettes put the

Equivalent amount of money into it. At the end of the week count it up

And see how much you are spending on ruining your health. And then think how much you save once you have stopped. Plan to do something nice with that money.

At your first hypnotherapy session your therapist obviously asks you about your smoking habits. It can be helpful to think about these in advance. You can think about:

V Why you want to quit.

V How many cigarettes you smoke a day.

V The cigarettes you feel you need each day.

V The cigarettes you have just out of habit.

V How smoking affects you.

V How you think being a non-smoker benefits you.

V How old you were when you first started smoking.

V Why you first started smoking.

V Why you haven’t quit before.

V If you have quit before, why you started smoking again.

V How much you spend on smoking each week and what you are going to

Do with all that extra money once you are a non-smoker.

V Any fears you may have about quitting.

This last issue often proves to be a sticking point when it comes to helping people quit.

Addressing your fears about quitting

Hypnotherapy for smoking is not just about helping you to stop. After all, you stop smoking between each cigarette you have. No, it’s also about helping you to remain a non-smoker. That means it should not only address the process of stopping and keeping you stopped, but also those fears that you may have of what happens when you’ve done so. It’s often these fears and

Concerns that prompt a person to fall off the healthy wagon and go back into

The tarpit of smoking. So it is very important that you talk through any fears or concerns you have with your therapist to enable him to create strategies to help you get around them.

Some of these fears and the way your hypnotherapist can help you deal with them could include:

V ’I'm scared that I will put on weight.’ This is perhaps the most common

Fear. It is a fact that some people put on weight after they quit smoking.

But hold on. That doesn’t mean to say that nothing can be done about

It. Far from it. It just means that these people have probably traded one

Habit – smoking – for another – eating. Not to worry, your therapist can

Give you suggestions designed to help you gain greater control over your eating habits. In fact, you should find that you only replace the habit of smoking with the wonderful habit of healthier living!

V ’Smoking helps me manage my stress, so what do I do once I quit?’

This old chestnut! If this is one of your fears, then think about this: nicotine Causes The physical effects of stress. Nicotine increases your heart

Rate, increases your blood pressure, and causes your nervous system to release various stress hormones such as adrenaline.

So why do people associate cigarette smoking with stress relief?

Probably because when a stressed smoker lights up, he’s distracting himself away from the stress by the very process of lighting up and

Smoking the cigarette. He may also remove himself from the environment where the stress is occurring by having to go outside to smoke.

If you use cigarettes as a stress management tool, discuss this with your hypnotherapist. Through a process of suggestion and strengthening

Your ego (see Chapter 13 for more on ego-strengthening) your therapist

Can help you manage your stress in a much more healthy way. And perhaps you might like to book a session of stress management with him

Too! (Chapter 7 addresses stress.)

V ’What do I do with my hands when I’m in a bar?’ This is a very

Common fear among smokers who want to quit. Picture this: You’re in a

Bar, holding a drink. What do you have in the other hand? A cigarette!

It’s as much a part of your drinking as raising your glass to your lips.

Take away the cigarette and you take away part of your drinking behaviour. This can leave you with a sense of loss, a sense that something is missing and because of this you can feel a little out of sorts; perhaps a little anxious because you don’t know what to do with your hand. This is

Easily dealt with in hypnotherapy by the use of suggestion. Suggestions

That you forget about your hand and focus on what you are doing, the people you are talking to and the people around you help you to divert

Your focus of attention away from the empty hand. Another suggestion

That may be used if you do notice your hand, is to replace that thought with a sense of pride that you are now a non-smoker and that your fingers no longer reek like a week-old dirty ashtray.

V ’I find it difficult to say no, so how do I react when I am offered a cigarette?’ You react by saying ‘No thank you. I don’t smoke.’ Your hypnotherapist will give you suggestions to respond in this way when you’re

In a situation like this, and to feel proud about doing so! At the same time your therapist helps you to build up your willpower to resist through a whole variety of suggestions.

V ’I don’t know if I can cope with the withdrawal symptoms.’ Some people give up smoking with no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever, whilst others go through the mill with them. Why is this? The answer probably has something to do with the psychological resources accessible at the time a person gives up. What is meant by psychological resources? Well, things such as beliefs (a strong belief that you won’t have withdrawal symptoms),

Or positive feelings (a strong sense of confidence that giving up is straightforward). Whatever it is, your hypnotherapist will do his utmost to try to reduce any withdrawal symptoms you may experience, by strengthening

Your own psychological resources through the use of direct suggestion and other techniques.

You’re quitting smoking. And that means ALL types of smoking. You can’t quit

Cigarettes and start smoking a pipe or cigars, because you’re still smoking and before you know it, you are back on the cigarettes again. Oh. And that also means you can’t (and shouldn’t because it’s illegal) smoke the, er,

‘herbal’ variety of cigarettes either!

Using hypnosis to become smoke-free

How many sessions is it going to take you to become a non-smoker? Well,

Hypnotherapy can help you to quit in as little as one session.

Just as in medicine, several approaches can help you become a non-smoker.

The approach your therapist uses with you could simply boil down to how

They have been trained. Some schools teach a one-session approach to quitting, during which all your smoking issues are dealt with in one go. On the other hand, some approaches take three or four sessions to complete. In

These, each session deals with a separate aspect of your smoking habit. Each

Is as good as the other, though we both favour the one session approach as it is immediate and takes into account that at your first session you are perhaps most motivated to quit.

So, what can you expect during your therapy session? First of all, your therapist will take a complete case history (see Chapter 13) and ask you questions

That allow him to fully understand your smoking habits. From your answers

To these questions he will then be able to design a therapy session (or sessions) that is personal to you, allowing you to take control of the habit whilst breaking your daily associations with smoking.

What happens if you have had your therapy sessions but still have a strong

Urge to smoke? Don’t worry; pick up the telephone and call your hypnotherapist rather than pick up a cigarette. Any reputable therapist will make an

Appointment for you as soon as possible, so that they can help you through this crisis.

Before you go in for your hypnotherapy session, have that last cigarette.

Enjoy it, as it will hopefully be the last one you will ever want.

Using hypnotherapy to quit smoking is not magic, and very much relies on

Building up your willpower. If you enter into your therapy session with the right motivation and a genuine desire to quit, then hypnotherapy is

Extremely effective in helping you to become and remain a non-smoker.

-jjjMG/ Never Think that just because you have successfully managed to quit through

Hypnotherapy that means you are now so in control of your smoking habit, (mk ) that you can allow yourself to have the occasional cigarette with impunity. ^/ Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. One cigarette leads to another (after all, you’re in control aren’t you?), and then another (Hmm! Not so in control

Now), and then another (Ooops! Control has completely gone), and before you know it you are back where you started (and probably back to forking out for another trip to see your hypnotherapist).

Cessation suggestions

In general, a hypnotherapist helps you quit smoking through the use of suggestion. He gives suggestions that link your desire to quit to the various

Times of day that you smoke. For example, he may suggest that ‘You have no desire to smoke when you first wake up in the morning’ Or ‘You have no desire to smoke after a meal’.

Sounds too easy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not that straightforward. What your therapist helps you do is a form of reprogramming. By associating your problem times with having no desire to smoke, the suggestions break the old unconscious associations you have with smoking; they reprogramme you. You may

Well find that you go through the day and, because of these suggestions, you

Forget about smoking for long periods of time. Why? Because your mind is no longer focused on the smoking behaviour. The association of various points in

The day with smoking has been broken.

Of course, the issue of cravings and withdrawal will be taken into account.

Many people who quit smoking through hypnotherapy say they have very few cravings and very little in the way of withdrawal. That doesn’t mean to

Say that everyone gets off this lightly. Your hypnotherapist will give you suggestions to help you cope with any cravings – after all, they only last a very short time – as well as suggesting that you have the willpower to get through

Any feelings of withdrawal.

Aversion associations

Some therapists use aversion therapy as part of the process. In Aversion therapy, Your hypnotherapist reminds you of all the terrible harm smoking does to your body, or perhaps associates the smell and taste of tobacco with something like dog poo in an attempt to scare or revolt you out of the habit.

Your hypnotherapist may even use age progression (covered in Chapter 2) to

Let you see how you damage yourself in the long run if you remain a smoker; then show you how great your life will be as a non-smoker. What a wonderful motivator!

Analytic techniques

A few therapists (more and more in the minority) use analytical techniques such as dissociation and regression (again, discussed in Chapter 2) to discover why you have been a smoker and to then move you away from the

Habit. They feel that understanding why you became a smoker in the first

Place plays an important role in your becoming a non-smoker. Our own personal view is that this isn’t necessary. Most smokers know why they started – peer pressure, rebellion – and are quite content with simply getting on with

The process of moving on into a healthier future.

Managing Your Weight

We have a hefty problem with obesity in the Western world. And this means

That more and more people are trying to find an effective way to lose weight.

They hop onto the passing bandwagon of each and every fad diet that rears its head, only to fall off again later and to then bounce back onto the next. . . and the next. . . and the next! Sound like anyone you know?

The plain and simple fact is that many diets probably do little more than make money for the people who invented them. (Is that the sound of a contract being taken out on our lives for uttering such heresy?). The majority of

Diets rely solely on restriction of food intake and therein lies a problem. By

Relying solely on food restriction, these diets do not teach people to eat

Healthily, nor do they help them to modify their lifestyle. So, once you are off

The diet you return to your old eating habits and the next thing you know all that weight you have lost is piling itself back on. In fact, studies show that

Around 95 per cent of all people who lose weight through dieting alone subsequently put it back on again! Not good news.

So why bother in the first place? Well, your health for one thing. People who

Are overweight are at a greater risk of developing:

It’s well worth shedding those pounds then!

Taking the safe route to the body you Want

So, how can you lose weight safely and effectively (and that means keeping

The weight off too)? Of course you need to look at what you eat and how much you consume, but weight loss and weight control do not solely rely on restriction of food. For effective weight management, the following should apply to whatever route you take to shed the pounds:

V It must not be arduous. There is nothing worse than having to force yourself to do something. If you are forcing yourself too much it becomes a drag. In the end it is much easier and enjoyable to slip back into your

Old ways, and any weight you may have lost slips back on. Remember

That losing weight is your choice and that means you have to put in some effort to accomplish it. However, with the help of hypnotherapy, the whole process can become something that you can enjoy.

V It must be flexible. Don’t be rigid. Just because eating chocolate can make you put on weight doesn’t mean you have to give it up completely. Control the amount you eat. Reduce it, but don’t ban it. Prohibiting

Something leads to desire. As the desire grows, you may find that you lose control and end up bingeing on the chocolate.

V It must be realistic in terms of weight loss and time. Most experts agree that 1 to 2 pounds a week is a safe and effective amount to lose.

V It must be nutritionally balanced. Basic common sense here. Ideally you should be eating as much fresh, organic food as possible, but not to the extent that you put weight on. This means that you should be including portions of all the food groups in your diet. Yes, that means fruit and

Vegetables too. Eating fresh and healthy food provides your body with a

Quality source of fuel. That means your body runs more efficiently and burns up that fat with more gusto. Oh, and you feel fitter, have more energy, are less prone to illness – the list of positives goes on and on.

V It must include exercise. No, this doesn’t mean having to take out a

Membership to your local gym (though that would be a positive step), but rather it means that you should be prepared to increase your levels of daily activity. The more active you are, the more fat you burn off. Simple steps such as walking more, climbing the stairs rather than taking a lift, and walking up the escalators all help you to lose weight and keep that weight off, not to mention the good it does your heart (you know, that thing in your chest that keeps you alive!).

V It must promote behavioural change. This means that your lifestyle

Needs to change. If you take on board all the preceding points, you find

That behavioural change occurs naturally and your weight drops.

Remember it was your old behaviours and habits that led to that weight piling on in the first place!

<i CHEty If you haven’t taken much exercise before and are thinking about starting to S work out at the gym, or go running, or whatever, get checked to make sure

That you are fit enough to do so. Also, get advice on how much exercise you should be doing. Suddenly going from a sedentary lifestyle to running ten

Miles a day won’t do you, your heart, your muscles, or your joints any good

At all. However, with some sensible advice and by building up the amount of

Exercise you do, you could eventually be running that marathon as you run

Off that excess weight.

Feeling hungry? Then you must be thirsty! No, you haven’t read that wrong, nor have the proofreaders of this book missed a glaring mistake. In this day

And age many people don’t drink enough fresh water. That means many of us

Are dehydrated. Unfortunately, your brain sometimes gets mixed up when

Interpreting those messages from your body that say you’re thirsty; and mistakenly registers that you’re hungry. Consequently you eat to satisfy a nonexistent hunger instead of drinking water to satiate your thirst. In fact, you should be drinking at least two litres of water each day. And that means

Water alone. Not in a cordial, tea, or coffee. These drinks are all Diuretic,

Which means they cause your body to urinate out more water than it should. Drink water and you feel far fewer hunger pangs, eat less and lose more weight.

Eating yourself thin

We’ve said it before and will say it again – hypnotherapy is not magic. You cannot go in for a hypnotherapy session and come out ten pounds lighter; it just doesn’t work that way! What hypnotherapy does is help you make

Changes to your eating and exercise habits, as well as help you enjoy the process of managing your weight. All in all, it helps you to change your lifestyle to one that keeps you slimmer and fitter and looking great.

In order to make sure you get the most out of your hypnotherapy sessions, think of the following before your first visit:

V What weight do you want to achieve? Make sure it is something sensible for you. Perhaps discuss this with your doctor if you don’t know.

V Over what period of time do you want to achieve this? Again, make

Sure it is sensible. Remember that experts recommend 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week.

V What is your motivation? Do you have a genuine desire to lose weight for health reasons or your body image – a good motivation – or is someone bullying you into it – the ‘I won’t marry you unless you drop 2 stone’

Brigade, which is a not so good motivation. With a good and healthy motivation your chances of success increase.

V How should you be changing your diet? Examine your diet and see

Where you can make changes. For example:

• Grill instead of fry

• Cut down on portion size

• Eat more fresh produce including fruit and vegetables

• Cut down on eating sweets, biscuits, fatty puddings, and so on

• Drink more water!

V Should you cut down on alcohol? Sorry folks, but alcohol is Fattening! We’re not saying that you need to cut it out completely – after all, a small

Amount is good for your heart (thank goodness!). Rather, reduce the amount you drink and have a couple of alcohol-free days each week.

V How can you improve on the amount of exercise you take? Remember

To be sensible. Think of times during your day when you can be more energetic (and to put the smutty minded in their place: yes, sex Is A great calorie burner!).

V What hurdles do you need to overcome? Let’s reality check. There are

Times when it is difficult to remain in control, at parties for example. How do you want to respond to the situation when temptation rears its fat, ugly head?

V How do you want to look? Hey, we all have a streak of vanity. Why not

Pander to it? But again, make sure what you want to achieve is realistic.

V Do you binge on anything? Are there any foods that when you eat them,

You lose control of how much you are eating? You know, opening that box of chocolates and simply having to eat its entire contents!

Armed with the answers to these and other questions that you’ll be asked at your first session, your hypnotherapist creates an appropriate plan of action for you. And that plan of action is probably constructed from a variety of

Techniques that certainly include direct suggestion. For example, ‘. . . You have no desire to eat sickly. . . sweet chocolate. . . in fact. . . you only enjoy the wonderful flavours of the right kinds of healthy food. . . that you know are

Right for you. . . ‘

Your hypnotherapist may put your imagination to use. For example, he may ask you to imagine that you are shopping for food and that all you buy are small amounts of healthy fresh food. He may take you into the future in your mind, so that you can experience what it’s like having lost that weight and maintained its loss too. This mental picture can help you to stop thinking of yourself as a fat person; rather, you can start focusing your self perception on

Being a thin person. Very motivational!

Some therapists may use analytical tools such as regression or dissociation, though we feel that these analytical tools should be left alone and used only

As a last resort. Why? Because for the majority of people coming for weight

Control it’s a simple case of too much of the wrong kind of food into the stomach, and not enough energy out through the muscles! Of course, there are

Some people for whom being overweight is a symptom of something deeper,

And in these cases the use of analytical tools is entirely justified.

However he works, your hypnotherapist aims to help you to:

V Take control of your eating habits.

V Improve your levels of exercise.

V Deal with any issues you may have with regard to losing weight.

V Build up and maintain your motivation.

Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

Sleep is something you normally look forward to. A time to rest and recharge

Your batteries, to take you into the next day alert and full of energy. However, sometimes the process of sleeping may be arduous and less than restful. If you fall into this category, then perhaps a visit to your hypnotherapist is in order.

Solving your insomnia

Most people experience periods when they find it difficult to sleep. Perhaps you’re stressed, or travelling from a different time zone, or just don’t know why you can’t sleep. These times are transitory and are little more than an inconvenience. However, your periods of sleeplessness may become more than transitory and develop into a recurring pattern when you are trying to get to sleep.

There are basically three types of insomnia:

V Initial sleep difficulties: You have difficulty falling asleep when you first

Go to bed.

V Intermediate sleep difficulties: You fall asleep when you first go to bed, but awaken in the middle of the night. Once you awaken you find it difficult to return to sleep.

V Early morning awakening: You sleep throughout the night, but awaken

Much earlier than you normally would, feeling unrefreshed and sleepy.

Typically you’re not able to return to sleep.

There could be many reasons why you are experiencing insomnia, but eventually the insomnia becomes a habit – a faulty sleeping strategy, as it were.

Hypnotherapy helps you:

V Develop a healthy sleeping strategy

V Deal with any underlying issues contributing to your insomnia

As with any trip to see your hypnotherapist, a little forward thinking goes a

Long way (and may mean you don’t have to see them in the first place!). Think

About the following:

V What was happening in your life when the insomnia first started? Was

There a trigger point for the insomnia, and is this still an issue for you?

V Do you eat a meal too close to your bedtime? Going to sleep on a full stomach is not a good idea. You can feel uncomfortable and the process of digestion may interfere with your ability to fall asleep. Ideally, you should not eat for two to three hours prior to going to bed.

V Do you drink a caffeine drink before bed? This may seem so obvious, but you may be surprised by the number of people who come for therapy for insomnia who drink coffee or some other caffeinated drink just

Before going to bed. Remember – caffeine is a stimulant that keeps you

Awake. If you have a drink before going to bed, make sure that you look at the label of what you are drinking to ensure that it is caffeine free.

V Do you nap during the day? If you do, you could be using up your quota of sleep before you get to bed. Try cutting out the napping and see what happens to your sleep.

V Do you drink alcohol close to your bedtime? You may think that a little night-time tipple helps you to sleep. Wrong! Even though alcohol is basically an anaesthetic, it can act as a stimulant in small doses. So have your last alcoholic drink a couple of hours before going to sleep. Oh, and don’t think that you can drink more alcohol so that you are anaesthetised into sleep! Alcohol-induced sleep is not the same as natural sleep and you still wake up unrefreshed in the morning.

V Are you overestimating the amount of sleep you think you need? Try

Going to bed a little later. See what happens.

Hypnotherapy techniques centre very much on helping you to re-associate bed with sleep. With this in mind your hypnotherapist may give you some

Advice that could include:

V Banning anything except sleep from the bedroom. That means no

Eating, drinking, watching TV, reading, or sex when in bed. You want to

Re-associate the bed with sleep and only sleep. Any other activity can be done elsewhere – and that includes sex, so why not spice up your relationship and get amorous in the kitchen or the living room? And don’t

Worry, once you’re sleeping well then all these activities can once again return to the boudoir.

V Going to bed at the same time each night. Develop a regular pattern.

V Getting up and doing something else if you can’t sleep. If you awaken and aren’t able to get to sleep again, get out of bed and go and do something else. The great hypnotherapist Milton Erickson had his insomnia patients polish their kitchen floor over and over again, no matter what

The time of night it was! When you’re feeling sleepy again, return to your bed. By doing this you associate your bed with sleepiness and eventually sleep.

V Writing down any worries or concerns before you go to bed. This is

Called Externalising. Writing down any worries or concerns helps to

Remove them from your mind, increasing your chance of focusing on sleep, rather than stress.

Trance strategies to help you to sleep

Okay, so what happens when you are in the trance? Well, a very common

Technique applies: the Law of Reverse Effect. This law basically means that

The harder you try to do something, the more difficult it is to achieve. For

Example, your hypnotherapist may try the following suggestion: ‘. . . When you go to bed at night. . . you will try to stay awake. . . and the harder you try to stay awake. . . the drowsier and drowsier you will become. . . until you fall into a deep and refreshing sleep . . . ‘ You may be thinking ‘Go to bed and try

To stay awake? Are you mad?’ Actually, no we’re not. All your hypnotherapist

Is doing is taking a strategy that you already use – going to bed and trying to sleep. The harder you try to sleep, the more awake you become – and turning

It round, putting the Law of Reverse Effect into play.

Your hypnotherapist may use direct suggestion to help you become less aware of disturbances such as the ticking of a radiator as it cools down, or the barking dog outside your house. Of course, he’ll give you a suggestion that you hear your alarm when it goes off in the morning!

If your insomnia is pretty stubborn, then an analytical technique such as dissociation may be used to help you work with the part of your mind that is responsible for your inability to sleep, helping you to understand it and to

Then get it to change.

Of course, where there is an underlying cause for the insomnia such as anxiety or depression, these are dealt with as part of the therapy process.

Your therapist may also want to teach you self-hypnosis so that you can practise it in bed at night (Chapter 6 explores self-hypnosis). This allows you to relax and to enter a state of mind that is very close to sleep. In fact, it is a

State of mind (called the Hypnogogic state) That is a natural part of the sleep

Process anyway. You can use self-hypnosis to help you deal with any unwanted thoughts as you lie in bed; perhaps imagining that as each thought comes into your mind, you pluck it out and put it into a magic box that keeps it safely locked away until the morning.

Sweet dreams are made of this – turning your nightmares into nothing

Dreams are great: a time to let your unconscious mind revel in frivolous fantasy. But what happens when dreams go wrong? Anxiety. Sweating. Waking up terrified in the night. In a word: nightmares! We all have nightmares at one time or another, and they pose little more than an inconvenience to us. However, if you have them repeatedly, they can disrupt your sleep and make you fear the very act of going to bed. With hypnotherapy, you can find a solution, so that you return to dreaming those sweet dreams that have so sadly been lacking. A visit to your hypnotherapist helps you to alter the mindset driving the nightmares. Your hypnotherapist may use several approaches:

V Direct suggestion: Your hypnotherapist can give suggestions that as

Soon as a nightmare begins, it changes into a different, more pleasant dream. Your therapist probably discusses with you the type of dream you would like so that it can be as close to what you want as possible.

V Lucid dreaming: Some therapists may teach you how to Lucid dream,

Which means experiencing your dreams in a way that allows you to control them. Through lucid dreaming you can eradicate nasty characters

From your nightmares, fly away from bad situations, or just delete the

Entire thing and replace it with something else.

Lucid dreaming does require some practise, though. However, for those who do, it proves to be very rewarding and useful. More information on

Lucid dreaming can be found at Www. lucidity. com, the Web site for

The Lucidity Institute.

V Dealing with the underlying cause: Dissociation again! Your therapist encourages you to become aware of the part of your mind that is driving the nightmares. You enter into a dialogue with it to find out what it’s up to, why it’s doing it, and how you are going to change that. During this process, you may come up with issues that need to be treated with other techniques such as regression (if, for example, there is something unresolved from your past) or direct suggestion (if, for example, you need to manage your stress levels more effectively).

However it is done, your nightmares can become a thing of the past; just a dream that gradually fades into nothing!

Sorting out snoring – for both you and your partner

Maybe your partner’s snoring keeps you awake and causes your insomnia. Or perhaps your snoring has driven your partner to sleep in another room. Whatever is happening, snoring can be a problem for any couple (and the whole household, if the snoring is loud enough!).

A hypnotherapist can do several things to help alleviate snoring. Here are the facts:

V Most people snore when they are lying on their back. When you are

Lying on your back your airways are less open, restricting the passage of air through them, causing the tissues to vibrate and therefore creating the sound of the snore. When you move onto your side, your airways open up and reduce the chance of vibration.

Direct suggestions can be given to alert your unconscious mind when you are lying on your back, and encouraging it to shift you onto your

Side. For example, ‘. . . As soon as your unconscious mind is aware that you are lying on your back. . . instantly and immediately you will move onto your side. . . as you remain deeply asleep. . . breathing freely and

Easily. . .’

V Many people who are overweight snore. The fact of the matter is if there is an accumulation of fat around your neck or chest, it puts greater pressure on your airways when you sleep. Moving onto your side helps,

Though losing those pounds improves things no end! And obviously hypnotherapy has a major role in helping you do this, as we explain in the ‘Managing Your Weight’ section earlier on in this chapter.

V Smoking causes mucus to build up in the lungs and airways. Ugh! If

You are a smoker your lungs produce mucus to get rid of the tar and other nasties you inhale. When you go to sleep at night, as you breathe, the air rattles through that mucus causing the sound of the snore.

If this is the case, book a session with your hypnotherapist and quit the habit!

V Drinking alcohol causes the muscles in your neck to relax. Not only is alcohol an anaesthetic, but it also makes muscles relax (part of the

Reason people fall over when they are drunk!). If you’re in the habit of

Having an alcoholic drink or two before bedtime, you may find that your neck muscles relax, causing the air you breathe to vibrate the tissues of your airways. The result: you snore! Think about cutting down on your drinking, or if drinking is a problem for you, see your hypnotherapist for help in sorting things out.

You snooze; your partner loses

We mustn’t forget the snorer’s partner. It may be worth their while coming in for a hypnotherapy session too. The therapist can help them to distract their attention away from the snoring in several ways. Perhaps by suggesting that ‘. . .The sound of your partner’s snoring just fades into the background… as you find yourself focusing on those enjoyable feelings of drifting off

Into a deep… deep… and refreshing sleep… and I wonder how soon it will be before you… forget completely about that snoring?.. .’or’… as you become aware of your partner’s snoring you find that in a very strange and contradictory way… it just helps you to drift into an ever deeper and refreshing sleep…’

But before you go and see your hypnotherapist, it’s a wise idea to get checked out by your doctor first. This ensures that there are no physical causes for your snoring such as overly large tonsils or a problem with your adenoids. If this is the case, then a surgical procedure may be required. And if you have a problem about going in for an operation, guess what? Hypnotherapy can help you here too!

-JttNG/ If your partner tells you that you stop breathing every so often when you are asleep, and that when you do start again you do so with a loud snore, then ) you may have a condition known as Obstructive sleep apnoea. It is important ^7 that you see your doctor so that it can be sorted out. Studies show that

People with obstructive sleep apnoea are at much greater risk of having a heart attack or developing a stroke.

Controlling Your Words: Stammering

Stammering (or to use the medical term if you want to, Dysphemia) Is a very common condition that appears in approximately one person in every hundred. It can be expressed in several ways:

V Some people become blocked when trying to say certain words or sounds.

V Some people repeat certain words, phrases, or sounds.

V Some people have long pauses in sentences.

V Some people prolong the sounds of certain words.

One of the central features of stammering is that the stammer is often accompanied by a sense of a loss of control. This can lead to fear and anxiety building up around the pronunciation of certain words. In fact, many feel that there

Aren’t any words that are impossible for a stammerer to say, only those that they have come to fear!

Stumbling over anxiety

Fear and anxiety certainly promote a stammer. Overcoming these twin hurdles is hard enough for anyone meeting someone new. But for many who stammer, the situation is worsened as the anxiety of the situation increases

The worry of saying certain words, which then starts off the stammer. If the

Person is someone in authority, then the situation gets even worse (something known as Headmaster Syndrome). Add time pressure, excitement, or

Fatigue to the equation and things get completely out of hand.

However, when a stammerer is speaking to someone they know well, many

Are able to talk quite fluently. Why? Because their levels of anxiety are well

Down, no longer fuelling the fears that lead to the stammer in the first place.

Hypnotherapy can help you to speak more fluently, and your hypnotherapist

Works in conjunction with any advice you have been given by a speech

Therapist.

The main aims of therapy are to:

V Help you to enjoy a greater sense of self-control.

V Help you to reduce anxiety in general and in specific situations.

V Help you to reinforce your speech therapist’s recommendations.

V Help you to interact with strangers more confidently.

In order to do this, your therapist uses a variety of approaches that include:

V Direct suggestion: You’re given suggestions to direct your attention away from how you’re saying a word, and to focus more on what you’re

Saying. You may also get suggestions to help you feel calm and relaxed as you say certain words, or enter into certain situations.

Where it is appropriate, your therapist also reinforces your speech therapist’s recommendations.

V Self-hypnosis: This is very useful, because with a regular pattern of practice, self-hypnosis helps you to reduce your general levels of anxiety. Also,

You can imagine yourself in a whole variety of situations, speaking calmly and fluently (see the upcoming Rehearsal bullet point, as well as Chapter 5

On self-hypnosis).

V Ego strengthening: If you’re feeling demoralised, then ego strengthening

Can help you to feel much better about yourself. Your therapist gives you suggestions themed around enjoying greater self-control.

Ego strengthening also helps you to cope more effectively with your

Stress levels and can be directed to help you feel calmer, more confident and relaxed in specific situations.

V Rehearsal: If you fear a situation, you almost always think about that situation in advance, imagining all sorts of dire consequences. What you’re

Really doing is practising a form of negative self-hypnosis. The result is

That you end up having the bad time you predicted you would have.

In hypnosis, you can break this nasty habit and start to set yourself up for a good time. Your therapist helps you see yourself coping and speaking much more fluently at these times. By doing this, you set yourself to have a positive experience.

V Paradoxical advertising: Many people who stammer often fear that the

Person they are talking to notices their stammer. By adding this fear, you put yourself under pressure to try and hide your stammer, succeeding

Only in making the situation worse!

If you fall into this category, your therapist may advise you to advertise

The fact that you stammer by saying something on the lines of ‘Bear with me, I have a stammer’. By doing so, you immediately reduce one of your

Concerns and help to improve your fluency.

Reaching a Nail-Biting Conclusion

For someone who doesn’t bite their nails, nail-biting can seem quite trivial.

However, for those who do, it is an issue that preys on their minds and adds a

Sometimes considerable inconvenience to their lives. They sit watching TV and munch away at their fingers, they get stressed and dine out on their cuticles, they stop to think and chew away at their problem through their digits!

The result is ragged, excessively short nails and, in some cases, bleeding fingers. Not very pleasant.

Biting your nails is a habit that may be associated with some other activity. And, as any nail-biter can tell you, it is often something you do quite unconsciously. It may only be sometime after you have started that you become

Aware that you are, in fact, biting your nails.

So, your goal is to have fabulous nails. What’s your hypnotherapist’s goal? Well, obviously the same as yours, but therapeutically he attempts to take your unconscious habit and make it conscious. That means handing you control of your habit. Once it is brought into your conscious awareness and you gain control, you’re able to finally stop biting your nails.

And by the way, don’t expect to hear your hypnotherapist saying ‘. . . Stop biting your nails. . As part of your hypnotherapy session. Why? Because you

Have probably been hearing that most of your life, and has it ever stopped

You? No, we didn’t think so. That is why hypnotherapists avoid using this

Suggestion.

M&l/- So what do they use? Well, something called Reverse suggestion - suggestions 4^/77\ Designed to give you conscious control over a particular behaviour, by suggest-( r "") ) ing that you can carry out the behaviour – but only if you want to. Your hyp-\&Jy Notherapist may deliver suggestions something along these lines: ‘. . . As soon as

– your hand moves towards your mouth in order for you to bite your nails. . . . it will

Instantly and immediately STOP. . . and you will become aware of what you are about to do. . This brings the unconscious behaviour to conscious awareness and is followed by the reverse suggestion ‘. . . In fact. . . you will only be able to bite your nails through a deliberate. . . and conscious. . . act of will. . They may then finish off the suggestion with ‘. . . And you choose to have beautiful. . . healthy. . . shiny nails. . . of which you can be proud. .

That sounds straightforward, doesn’t it? However, there is a lot more to it

Than that. Your hypnotherapist also gives suggestions that associate all this with specific times in your day-to-day life, when you know that you bite your nails. And to cap it all off he also wants to take you into the future in your

Mind, so that you can see yourself enjoying these wonderful new nails. In other words, really firming up a good and strong goal image that motivates

You to succeed in your quest for the perfect manicure.

Biting off more than you

First things first. Nail-biting is Not A symptom of some deep-seated neurosis! So you can put your mind to rest; you’re not some psycho serial killer because of your habit! In fact nail-biting is simply a remnant of an old childhood behaviour that gave you pleasure: thumb sucking.

To explain this further, we need to take an extremely brief journey into the world of psychology. When good old Sigmund Freud was pondering his theories of psychosexual development, he identified a stage that he termed the ‘oral stage’. In fact, it is the earliest developmental stages and lasts from birth to 18 months

Can chew: Why you bite

Of age. During this period we are said to gain pleasure and gratification through putting things in our mouth (stop sniggering at the back!). As we develop past this stage, our pleasure and gratification is derived from, er, other areas of our body (we said STOP SNIGGERING!!!). Freud thought that some of us don’t fully move on from the oral stage and end up going through life with habits directly linked to

Gaining gratification through the mouth (oh,

Come on now!), which could include non-stop chattering, chewing the ends off pens, smoking, eating, and nail-biting.

For most people who come to hypnotherapy for nail-biting, this is all that is needed. However, the wonderful diversity of the human mind means that for

Some, for whatever reason, it may not be this straightforward. If you fall into

This category you may also find that your hypnotherapist uses an analytical

Technique such as dissociation (explained in Chapter 2), to help you work

With the part of your mind that is responsible for your nail-biting.

Anything else? Well, yes! How about doing something to help yourself along the way. Set yourself up for success by:

V Buying yourself a nail file

V Buying yourself a decent pair of nail scissors

V Booking yourself in for a manicure in a month’s time

And yes, that means men too! Come on, this is the 21st century after all. Oh,

And if you bite your toenails, then perhaps a pedicure would not go amiss either!