Hypno Mike
So what is it, how does it work, and is it safe? The easy way out is to invite you to find a copy of The American Association for Marriage and Family Practice’s Family Therapy Magazine, July/August issue that devoted the entire issue to hypnosis. Or, if you had too much time on your hands, I’d invite you to read some of the many dozens of books in my hypnosis library. One of the contributors to this issue is Michael D. Yapko, PhD, well know in the psychology and the hypnosis communities as a prolific author and educator writes, “If one were to do even a cursory review of the scientific literature attesting to the value of hypnosis in a variety of medical, dental, psychotherapeutic and educational settings, one would find an enormous array of high quality research that supports its use.”
How one defines it may differ depending on how one was trained to use it. But, essentially, it is a slowing down of brain waves enabling the practitioner, or the person himself, to access the subconscious which controls the autonomic nervous system in order enable positive changes to happen. It’s not magic or voodoo. Everyone passes through hypnosis on their way to sleep and emerging from sleep. Those who have been trained to use various techniques to access this portal and to use the appropriate verbiage to enable the client to achieve their goal are called hypnotherapist.
Despite what one may have seen in the movies, on TV, or some comedy stage, it’s a therapy of consent. The client must want to do it, agree to do it, and agree to follow the instructions. If they do that their chance of success are pretty high; if they don’t it’s not. No one can be made to do or say anything that would violate their moral code of conscious or they just don’t want to do or say. Of course, it’s sometimes hard to convince someone who comes to the office with chronic pain and emerges from hypnosis pain free that it isn’t magic.
