Clinical Hypnosis

Clinical Hypnosis Is Not Stage Hypnosis

Perhaps you have a persistent problem such as overeating, smoking or hyperhydrosis (uncontrollable sweating). Hopefully, you have first gone to your doctor to get treatment. Perhaps your doctor has suggested to you to use clinical hypnosis, often called hypnotherapy. Don’t just laugh in your doctor's face and dismiss the idea, thinking he is being paid by the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. Clinical hypnosis is nothing like the professional stage hypnotism acts done strictly for laughs.

You Will Not Become Brainwashed

We've all grown up with the notion of an evil hypnotist like Svengali who could control someone's mind with just a stare and a commanding voice. The hypnotized subject in these scenarios is completely helpless to the whims of the Svengali-figure. This is very akin to our fear of demonic possession, where we are completely helpless to someone else controlling our bodies.

That does not happen in clinical hypnosis. No hypnotherapist, no matter how good, can make you do anything that you don’t want to do. You always retain the power of choice. All clinical hypnosis does is plant helpful suggestions or reminders to come to the forefront of your mind when certain situations occur. It's up to you to pay attention to these suggestions or ignore them.

You Will Not Go Into A Trance Unpredictably

Clinical hypnosis does put the subject into a hypnotic trance, which is very much like the stage you are in right before falling asleep. This is when the subconscious is most open to suggestion and most likely to remember the suggestions. You don’t even have to go into a sleep state after or during the session. You usually contain a complete memory of what happens during the session.

Some people fear that anything can put you suddenly into a hypnotic trance. It could be a certain word or a song or a vibrational frequency. There have been some really frightening urban legends about people who underwent clinical hypnosis, then were driving on the freeway when all of a sudden they unexpectedly went into a trance and crashed. This is all nonsense. It won’t happen.

Going into a hypnotic trance takes at least five minutes and a conscious decision on your part to relax your body. You can’t just go into a hypnotic trance at the snap of someone's fingers. Just as it's a conscious decision on your part to listen to a hypnotic suggestion, it's also a choice as to whether you want to go into a hypnotic trance.