10/06/2022
Hypnotherapy Myths Busted
So firstly let’s get to grips with how people perceive hypnosis. Many when thinking of a hypnotist will imagine an older male physician, swinging a pocket watch in front of someone’s eyes and making them go to sleep or put them in a trance. Once the said person is in this trance state, the hypnotist is often portrayed as having control over the subject and gets them to commit crimes, fall in love or reveal secrets of great importance. Alternatively some may think of wacky magicians or stage artists, who get people to “quack like a duck” and wander around the room pecking at imaginary food and flapping their arms, sound familiar?
Although hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to work, it is in fact a sound and proven psychological treatment in healthcare and is often used by the medical profession to help as a standalone treatment or in a supplemental role alongside other medical interventions, and often produces far better results in a smaller timescale than other therapy practices.
So let bust some hypnotic myths!
Myth 1: The hypnotist will be able to control my mind.
Fact: No one can take control of your mind, your hypnotherapist will give you suggestions which will change unwanted sensations, perceptions, thoughts or behaviours, and this is the important part ‘which you want to change’, because if you don’t want to have those changes made, you will not accept the suggestions and they will be rejected.
Myth 2: Hypnosis is just for entertainment, and to make people do funny things like quack like a duck.
Fact: Although hypnosis can be used for entertainment, this is not what a clinical hypnotherapist does. Clinical hypnotherapy is a serious process and is delivered by professional, qualified and empathetic people, for the improvement in both physical and mental health, and for resolving unwanted behaviours negatively affecting an individual’s life.
Stage acts have no place in a clinical hypnotherapy setting.
Myth 3: Hypnosis is “voodoo” or “supernatural”
Fact: On the contrary, hypnosis is a natural state of mind which has been studied and proven scientifically to be of benefit to an individual’s life. Hypnotherapy has been used and developed over hundreds of years, to the point where it is used in clinical and medical settings to improve certain negative aspects of people’s lives. Many years of research and development was done by famous psychologists such as Dr Sigmund Freud and Dr Carl Jung, and more recently by Dr Milton Erikson and Dr John Kappas.
Myth 4: I may become trapped in hypnosis and never wake up.
Fact: You would always wake up at some point, you may drift into a short sleep and wake up as you would normally or if there was an emergency, you would naturally be able to come out of the hypnotic state and be able to deal with the situation in the correct manner. No one has ever been unable to come out of a hypnotic trance.
Myth 5: I have never been in hypnosis before, so I may not be able to be hypnotised.
Fact: Everyone naturally enters a state of hypnosis at least twice everyday: just before falling asleep, and as you wake every morning. Most people also enter ‘environmental hypnosis‘, have you ever been watching a film or T.V .program and the next thing it’s the credits or advertisements that are running and you are suddenly aware you don’t know what exactly happened in the thing you were watching. Or you set off in the car and arrive at the destination not knowing what happened during the journey? Well that’s environmental hypnosis you become so engrossed in something or it’s something you do frequently, your mind goes into auto pilot and a hypnotic state takes over. Good news is that while in this state you are at a heightened state of awareness and would be able to react to emergency situations much quicker than normal.
Myth 6: Hypnosis is a miracle cure.
Fact: While Hypnosis is a relatively quick method of making permanent improvements, there is no such thing as a one-time “Hypno-Miracle”! Every individual makes progress at his or her own rate. Be wary of those who make wild claims of overnight success.
Myth 7: Hypnosis is a great tool to get someone to “confess” or divulge secrets.
Fact: Hypnotherapy sessions are kept private and cannot be used for court testimony. It is not an alternative to lie detector tests. Hypnosis cannot force anyone to “tell the truth” or to confess. You wouldn’t divulge anything you weren’t comfortable doing while in normal consciousness.
Myth 8: When Hypnotized, I will lose all sense of my surroundings, and will have no memory of the session.
Fact: Some people remember more than others of sessions, but most are aware of a heightened state of awareness in all their senses, hearing, touch, taste, smell and sight to some degree.
Myth 9: I can’t be hypnotized because my mind is too strong/ disciplined or I’m too intelligent.
Fact: this is an archaic belief that has, in recent times, been proven untrue. It was thought, long ago, that only 50% of the population could be hypnotized. Over the last 30 years, Dr John Kappas developed methods to induce hypnosis in almost 100% of the population. During your first session, we utilize Dr Kappas’ methods, and will be able to determine what type of suggestibility you have, and hence, how to Hypnotize you. Because it is your decision to use Hypnosis for self-improvement, your mind has already accepted the idea of Hypnotherapy.
Myth 10: It’s all just a placebo effect.
Fact: Not really, when using placebo’s you as a willing participant make conscious suggestions and place belief in something to help a given thing. During that process any negative result of the conscious minds questioning, analysing and criticizing everything, it can have a dramatic if not complete failure to the resulting effects of the placebo. Unlike hypnotherapy, which because you are in a hypnotic trance state, the suggestions are delivered directly to the subconscious mind making them much stronger than the placebo effect. Because you’re in a heightened state of focus, you may be more open to proposals or advice that, in your normal fully conscious mental state, you might ignore, brush off or flatly refuse.
It’s unclear how this intense level of inner concentration and focused attention has the impact it does. Hypnotherapy may place the seeds of different thoughts in your mind during the trance-like state, and soon, those changes take root and prosper. Hypnotherapy may also clear the way for deeper processing and acceptance. In your regular mental state, if it’s “cluttered,” your mind may be unable to absorb these suggestions and guidance.
Hypnotherapy may not be the medical cure, but with a 90-95% success rate after 4 to 6 sessions it’s a good place to start.
Thank you for reading and sharing this. I hope it has opened you to thinking differently about Hypnotherapy, and maybe you would like to use hypnotherapy as a way of getting rid of those things in your life that you’re unhappy with and would like to change, so take that first step and call 07888409266 and become the NEW YOU!
