Can Hypnosis Be Therapy?

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Hypnosis

(v) to influence, control, or direct completely, as by personal

charm, words, or domination.

Hypnosis, while we can define the word, we cannot clearly define the experience. Yes, the origin of the word is from the Greeks with “hypnos” for sleep, but it isn't really sleeping. Every website for a Hypnotist or Hypnotherapist will tell you it’s perfectly natural and normal, that we go into it at various times of the day and in life, but I’m not too sure that it’s quite reassuring to people who don’t really know what hypnosis is from personal experience. It is personal. It is subjective. It doesn't feel like anything, yet it can be used to relieve pain. We are hypnotized all the time but don't realize it because Hypnosis does not impede our ability to function or have mobility. In fact, while we are driving and we miss our exit because our mind has gone off into consuming thought is a form of hypnosis. Marketing firms also use hypnosis to establish brand relationships and loyalty. If you care to take it a few steps further and see how programming of mental ideas and beliefs are created in the way it can alter perceptions, life, behaviors and outcomes; you'd see that what we are under is for the most part, a collection of hypnotic sets. Some of these are created as children and others are generated over time, experiences, and the environment. Hypnosis can be, for example, when someone believes that to be happy they must be financially successful and to be financially successful they must work in a certain field, own a lot of material things, dress a certain way, consume certain brand products, follow the latest diet and emulate celebrities.

Some believe youth is beauty and beauty is somehow more favorable. Believing that they can only ever have so much luck, money, success. To think that the way things have always been in the family is how it must always be, whether in professional, romantic or family relations. The collection of beliefs that create our behaviors, actions and habits are generated over a lifetime of experiences, but it is mainly that which we experience OR PERCEIVE to experience in childhood that forms who we are individually. Everything from the foods we eat, the way we cope, to the colors we prefer and the partners we select, is established and justified based on what the mind takes in for the first 8-9 years of life. The environment of our childhood and some would even say from the womb, makes up some very fundamental elements in how we make choices later in life. Understanding that all our actions come from thoughts that have foundation based on our childhood seems a bit far out, but it comes from the “Pain Pleasure” principle from Freudian theory.

Pain Pleasure Principle is the instinctual seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain in order to satisfy biological and psychological needs.

In Freudian theory of Pain Pleasure, people are more likely to direct their actions towards that which will create the least amount of pain. Pain doesn’t always have to be experienced in a physical way, but sometimes, the experience of going to a new and unfamiliar place can cause such an emotional upset in that moment, that it can create a trauma. Pain. Even if it was “not a big deal”, in the perception and impressionable mind of a child, it may have been.

Pleasure is absence of pain. This is where we can come to understand “self-sabotaging” behavior, repeated poor decisions, perpetually bad relationships and so on. These aren’t pleasant or pleasurable experiences, but they are familiar to the homelife of children, and these become blueprints or scripts for their life and the decisions they will make. In Kappasinian Hypnosis, what we refer to as “knowns and unknowns” is the same as the “Pain / Pleasure” theory. People tend to make their decisions based on what they know, what is familiar and what is perceived to be “safe”, even if it’s not good for them. Over the course of childhood, memories are created and kept. Many may be distorted, some are perfectly clear. The words and ways of expression are learned as well and any repeated words spoken to the child will become a part of their character, their decision making skills, reasoning, analytical skills, will power and logic. As they come closer to the age of 9, they no longer continue to believe everything they are told and begin to use more of a Critical mind, they will now begin to make decisions based on what their Subconscious Mind has stored in itself over the years. In order to be effective with Hypnotherapy, it is important for the client to understand that it’s not about repeating affirmations and positive suggestions that will change behaviors, it’s about going to the root of the problems, challenges, beliefs - the reasons for being.

Hypnotherapy

(n) the use of hypnosis to help people with

emotional and psychological problems.

Knowing that who we are, what we do and don’t do stems from the Subconscious Mind makes it somewhat easier to create effective change for those using Hypnotherapy for Self-Improvement. The Subconscious Mind controls anywhere from 80-90% of our life, Mind and thoughts. The 20-10% that is left, is consumed with daily activities, the business of modern living, the environment, the body, memories (from the Subconscious Mind) and the senses.

As life gets busier, more distractions are created. Sleep and recovery time diminishes and the Critical Mind begins to go into abeyance. With the Critical Mind in remission, the experiences of life begin to take people into the Primitive Mind much faster than if they had more calm and rest in their daily life. The Primitive Mind houses the “Fight/Flight/Freeze” responses that are familiar to us all, except now, it’s not a visible threat like the infamous Saber Toothed Cat, but invisible intangible stressors of modern living. Instead of fighting, we have anxiety, rather than escaping into flight, people will have some days of depression and freeze is still freeze or “numbing out”, zoning out. When the Primitive Mind is being utilized more than the conscious Critical 10-20% of the mind, the Autonomic Nervous System begins to work to preserve the body. If the mind perceives a threat - whether it is tangible or intangible, it will go into survival mode and redirect blood flow, tighten certain muscles, affect the skin, the heart, the lungs and sleep. Over time, too much of this type of mental experience can cause problems in health, weight control, vitality, perception, relationships and life. Coping skills, stress management, and resilience are essential to overcome the challenges of these times. Thousands of people are looking into Wellness and Self-Help programs, books, apps and while some of these work for some people, others don’t - this comes back to the Subconscious Mind. When someone has made a decision to change an old habit, they’ve reasoned over why it’s time to change, analyzed the benefits of this change versus not changing, they have will-power to move forward and make the change and every logical reason says - IT'S TIME TO CHANGE!!

Sometimes, nothing happens. And that same nothing happens over and over again. During our sleep, the ideas and thoughts in our mind go into long term memory or short term, gets kept or tossed … we ruminate over plans and ideas during the first stages of sleep and it is during this time that those great new plans for changing come to the Subconscious Mind. It is here that new ideas are compared to what’s “known or unknown”, what’s going to bring “Pain or Pleasure”. With 80-90% of the minds power being stored within the Subconscious Mind, homeostasis and the familiar tends to win, over and over again. During Hypnotherapy sessions, the Hypnotherapist can recreate the feeling of “sleep” but the person is completely aware of what is going on. In session, they can discover what events, beliefs, experiences or emotions have created the current problems. In hypnosis, the negative experiences are replaced with positive suggestions, repeated, anchored, lexically bound and reaffirmed. Over the course of repeated sessions, the “hold” from negative beliefs and thought patterns on the mind of a client begin to weaken and dissipate as new associations are created. While hypnosis may have its stigma from movies and stage performers, it does have very therapeutic benefits that can come from it. Hypnosis has been said to be the epitome of the Mind Body connection, and it’s true. Whether a client comes in for physical reasons or behavioral challenges, hypnosis has proven to be effective in studies and over time.

Contact me if you have any questions about Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy and Therapeutic Imagery. I look forward to your questions and appointments.

Susana Padilla-Burns

Susana@HypnosisHaven.com