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Is hypnosis / hypnotherapy the same as sleep?

Hypnosis is an altered state of mind similar to day-dreaming, or becoming so absorbed in an activity that you lose all track of time. During these times you are not asleep, merely less concerned about your surroundings at the time, while still feeling in control.

Hypnotherapy enables you to enlist the power of your conscious mind, subconscious mind and body consciousness to create a formidable therapeutic combination, allowing you to focus attention internally and create new associations, patterns of thinking and behaviours.

What's the difference between a hypnotist and a hypnotherapist?

Hypnotists and hypnotherapists use hypnosis tools including hypnotic suggestion, trance states and visualisations. Hypnotherapy is the positive and ethical use of hypnosis to help people access their inner resources in a powerful and transformative way.

How does a trance state feel?

A trance state simply engages theta waves in the brain. Right now your brain is producing beta waves; if you close your eyes, it slips into alpha waves. Feel the difference? When you are falling asleep at night or waking up, your brain is in a highly receptive theta wave state. Hypnosis tries to emulate this. Advanced and highly trained hypnotherapists can lead your brain into a delta state, where powerful change can occur; however this type of hypnosis requires solid experience in clinical psychology, scientific hypnosis and energy healing.

Will I lose control during hypnosis?

It depends. Just how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? Most people resist hypnosis either consciously or subconsciously or both. No hypnotist can do more than you allow. Consider a few of the natural trance states, for example becoming absorbed in a book: are you ever concerned that your eyes will become transfixed and will never be able to let go of the page again? No! Your attention is merely absorbed in the story, often to the exclusion of everything else, including nearby sounds or even bodily sensations.

Less experienced hypnotherapists tell you a long story to relax your body and mind into hypnosis, using a costly 30-45 minutes of your session. Highly experienced hypnotherapists can engage your mind into deep theta-delta wave hypnosis within 3 minutes. The important thing is to check the qualifications, experience and ethics of the hypnotherapist.

Will I give away my secrets?

No, there are strong boundaries in the human mind, and private information cannot be accessed without permission. Even when the conscious mind is asleep, dreaming or hypnotised, the subconscious always keeps a little sentry on duty. This cannot be bypassed, even when trying to elicit private details, so you are always safe and protected.

Can anybody be hypnotised?

Yes. Hypnosis works on everyone. All of us experience trance states on a weekly basis - like being completely absorbed in a good film and being completely oblivious to your surroundings. Remember, you can never by hypnotised against your will, so if you choose not to be hypnotised, you will not be. This is called conscious resistance.

A few people have subconscious or unconscious resistance, possibly because of a trauma. Often the subconscious mind monitors the environment to ensure its safety, and is less inclined to surrender consciousness. A highly experienced hypnotist can move around this challenge, although it might take a little longer.

It helps if you trust your therapist. Ensure you ascertain the qualifications, experience and ethics. This will help you relax in the therapist's chair and a have a great experience.

Will I remember everything during hypnosis?

The majority of all hypnosis involves your ongoing awareness, as you need to learn in both minds. It is very useful if the hypnotist engages both the conscious and the subconscious minds throughout the therapeutic process. Total amnesia will only occur if you completely trust the therapist, and you choose to go all the way down the rabbit hole ... but that is a whole other adventure related to advanced esoteric energy work.

Does hypnosis or hypnotherapy involve drugs?

Of course not! However, if you are engaging with an advanced energy healer or esoteric hypnotherapy practitioner, you will often feel spaced out and experience some wonderful altered states. If your hypnotherapist is simply using the voice to create pleasant scenes and visualisations, this is quite relaxing. Yet there is a lot more to experience in hypnotherapy.

Can I use to hypnosis to explore spiritual states?

Yes, this is an advanced practice reserved only for clients who are truly ready to experience something mysterious and exciting. These experiences can advance your life profoundly. This hypnotic work involves mystical states only recently shared by secretive spiritual masters and advanced esoteric energy practitioners, like the Peruvian Q’ero shamans and Vajrayana Buddhists. Very few people have even met the Q'ero as they have kept themselves hidden at very high altitudes in Peru. The Q'ero are known as the 'Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge'. For more details click on the Magic Trip In Peru button at the top of the page.

What is NLP?

Neurolinguistic Programming is a special set of communication and therapeutic techniques designed to create healthy thinking patterns and manifest your unlimited potential. It is best used in conjunction with hypnosis or hypnotherapy. NLP is often referred to as the 'owners manual' for the brain.

Neuro refers to how the brain interacts with the mind. Linguistic refers to how careful attention to the use of language can create reality and shape your life. Programming refers to the thinking and behaviour patterns or ‘programmes’ which you use every day.

What is Brief or Solution-Focused Therapy?

Brief Therapy is sometimes known as 'Solution-Focused Brief Therapy'. Essentially the move in psychotherapy has been away from months and years of ongoing therapy sessions. With the exception of clinical cases (e.g. bipolar disorder), the majority of counselling psychology issues can be dealt with in one brief session or in just a few sessions.

Brief Therapy can help people make significant, positive changes in a relatively short period of time. It is often used in the areas of confidence, self esteem, depression and anxiety disorders (e.g. panic attacks, social phobias, specific phobias).

There are a number of excellent modern techniques which facilitate rapid cognitive, emotional and behavioural change. These techniques are drawn from many sources, including cognitive-behavioural therapy, neurolinguistic programming, subliminal cognitive therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Are there any side effects from hypnotherapy?

The power of the subconscious mind can be harnessed only through a clear understanding of the conscious mind and its various connections to body consciousness, altered states, trance states and the subconscious.

Few people truly understand hypnosis or the subconscious mind, and there are currently no legal or government regulations covering the field of hypnotherapy. Would you trust your car to a mechanic who had only a two-month diploma in wheel alignment and engine tuning? If something goes wrong, where do you complain?

Psychotherapists and hypnotherapists need thorough training in psychology and plenty of supervised experience. Psychology teaches a range of methods and approaches to safely and effectively assist each individual in a unique way - whether through cognitive behavioual therapy, regression, past life regression, depth psychology, neobehaviourism, humanism, existentialism, gestalt, transpersonal work or clinical hypnosis.

You deserve to experience therapy of the highest standard. You deserve safety and security and peace of mind. You deserve a life of happiness and joy. Invest wisely in your mind!

There are many excellent London and Bristol psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, counsellors and life coaches who can help open a new world for you. Soul Therapy is a London and Bristol psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and life coaching practice that offers a range of services tailored to each individual client. Soul Therapy was founded upon a decade of experience in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and healing.

 

A Brief History Of Hypnosis

Modern hypnosis may only be three hundred years old, but hypnosis in various guises has been employed since ancient times by priests, shamans, indigenous healers, and medicine men and women across the planet.

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), a Viennese physician, is widely considered to be the originator of western hypnosis. Mesmer called this persuasive influence 'mesmerism', and believed that some type of energy or magnetism was at work. Mesmer was a charismatic showman with great presence, and used a variety of methods to direct his 'magnetism', including wands, music, mirrors and a commanding stare.

One of Mesmer’s students, the Marquis de Puysegur (1751-1825), discovered how to lead a client into the deep trance state called 'somnambulism'. Many hypnotherapists still use this term to refer to deep hypnotic trance states, although scientific hypnotherapists prefer to use brain wave terms as references.

Scottish-born surgeon James Braid (1796-1860) experimented with hypnotherapeutic procedures and hypnotism. It is believed that he changed the name from 'mesmerism' to 'hypnotism' and popularised this term. The term hypnotism is derived from the Greek word hupnos which means sleep. Today it is more commonly known as hypnosis, and practitioners are known as hypnotists and hypnotherapists.
 
A French physician, Ambrose Auguste Liebeault (1823-1904) postulated that suggestion was the cause of the hypnotic state. Liebeault founded the School of Nancy. Hyppolyte Bernheim (1837-1919), a reputable neurologist, developed a strong interest in hypnosis. Together they expanded Braid’s theories and treated thousands of patients. Jean Martin Charcot (1835-1893) also developed a strong interest in hypnosis, and went on to found the Salpetriere School. Pierre Janet (1859-1947) was a French physician, psychiatrist and philosopher who proposed the dissociation theory of hypnosis.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), considered to be the originator of modern psychology, studied hypnosis at both the Nancy and Salpetriere Schools. His own efforts at hypnosis and hypnotherapy with patients were not entirely successful, resulting in Freud leaving hypnosis and adopting other psychoanalytic methods (e.g. interpretation of dreams).
 
Émile Coué (1857-1926), a French psychologist and pharmacist, introduced a new method of hypnotherapy based on the simple use of self-suggestion. Coué learned hypnosis from Liébeault and founded the Lorraine Society of Applied Psychology.

In the 1920s, hypnosis began entering mainstream psychology because of experimentation by respected psychologists and psychiatrists. The legendary Milton Erickson (1901-1980) is considered to be the father of modern hypnosis. Erickson was tone deaf, colour blind, dyslexic and paralysed with severe polio at the age of seventeen, yet he went on to become a doctor, psychiatrist and world famous hypnotherapist. Erickson’s brilliant and innovative hypnosis ideas spread across the world. NLP, or neurolinguistic programming, is partly derived from Ericksonian hypnosis and hypnotic techniques.

Dave Elman (1900-1967) was another pioneer of hypnosis and trained thousands of physicians and psychotherapists in the USA to use hypnosis. Elman also introduced rapid inductions to the field of hypnosis.

There have been tremendous modern advances in hypnosis and hypnotism from a scientific frame, and much research has been done on brain wave states, with the concomitant use of sound and visual imagery. Modern hypnotherapists who have been comprehensively trained are able to integrate clinical hypnosis and scientific hypnosis to produce powerfully effective hypnotherapeutic techniques.

There are many excellent London and Bristol psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, counsellors and life coaches who can help open a new world for you. Soul Therapy is a London and Bristol psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and life coaching practice that offers a range of services tailored to each individual client. Soul Therapy was founded upon a decade of experience in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and weight loss.

 

Hypnotherapy And Phobias

Nature has programmed us to have certain innate fears for our own safety and protection. It is important to understand that to have no fears would be highly unusual and worrisome! We naturally fear wriggly, fast-moving insects and animals; we naturally fear heights and falling to some extent. These and many other fears are programmed into us. Sometimes these natural fears are escalated into phobias by psychological and emotional factors.

For example, many people are gripped by acrophobia - a fear of heights. An individual may have had a first fearful experience in early childhood. This is often reinforced over the years during various at-height events and experiences. Acrophobia typically presents as a sudden, uncontrollable sense of panic often accompanied by shakiness, dizziness, elevated heart rate and difficulty breathing. Psychotherapy is a useful method for dealing with this fear. Hypnotherapy, hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) may also provide excellent outcomes for an acrophobic individual.

It is also important to analyse the eating lifestyle. Phobias are often created when a sudden drop in blood sugar causes feelings of dizziness, trembling, nausea, clammy skin or anxiety. When any or all of these physical symptoms are experienced in conjunction with an external event, they can often become linked by unconscious association. Over time this is misinterpreted and reinforced as a fear of a particular situation, object or living thing. Click here to read about the glycaemic index and a healthy eating lifestyle: Weight Loss.

Sometimes a person may notice a physical symptom, immediately interpret it as the onset of fear or panic, and then become mentally and emotionally fearful and actually start to panic! Many panic attacks and panic disorders result from the mind stepping in and assuming danger when none exists.

A person having a phobic response has therefore subconsciously learned to misidentify a neutral situation as a perceived threat. This is reinforced every time the phobic person encounters the same situation. Sometimes this reaction can be generalised to other similar situations and events, leading to regular panic attacks, generalised anxiety disorder or even agoraphobia (the inability to leave home for fear of having a panic attack).

Hypnotherapy, hypnosis, NLP, and other powerful hypnotic therapeutic techniques can rapidly dissolve phobias, panic attacks and panic disorders. CBT, or cognitive behavioural therapy, as well as some psychology education and information, is often very useful too.

There are many excellent London and Bristol psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, counsellors and life coaches who can help open a new world for you. Soul Therapy is a London and Bristol psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and life coaching practice that offers a range of services tailored to each individual client. Soul Therapy was founded upon a decade of experience in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and weight loss.

 

Hypnosis And Weight Loss

Hypnotherapy and hypnosis are excellent for dealing with weight loss, fat loss and body shaping. It is essential that a good eating plan is followed to ensure safe, healthy and gradual weight loss. Weight loss is greatly facilitated by hypnotic and hypnotherapy processes and techniques, although neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) may also be used.

Soul Therapy in Bristol and London Weight Loss works with rapid hypnosis for weight loss. Conscious and unconscious re-education of the mind is applied through special weight loss hypnotherapy suggestions and hypnotic triggers. Once the mind is firmly in control, the client notices the strong desire to follow the discussed eating plan which facilitates optimum weight loss. Soul Therapy in Bristol and London clients can gradually move toward their ideal body weight by losing weight in a safe and healthy way under the inner guidance and drives resulting from hypnotherapy, hypnosis and hypnotic suggestions.

Soul Therapy in Bristol and London has seen many satisfied clients, and firmly believes that weight loss and body shaping is best achieved through hypnotherapy, hypnosis and hypnotic re-education. For more information, click here: Hypnosis for Weight Loss.

Soul Therapy in Bristol and London Weight Loss recommends the G.I. Diet as an excellent weight loss and eating lifestyle programme to stimulate safe, healthy and gradual weight loss. My highly recommended G.I. weight loss books may be found in the Health section of the Soul Therapy Book Shop. The G.I. Diet combined with hypnotherapy, hypnosis and unconscious hypnotic triggers and drives makes for a powerful weight loss stimulus.

As Rick Gallop says on his weight loss website: "All diets will let you lose weight so why do 95% of them fail? The answer is simply that people cannot sustain them because they feel hungry or deprived, diets are too complex with measuring and counting of calories and quotas, and they don’t feel healthy". Developed by Dr. David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto, the G.I. measures the speed at which foods are broken down by the body to form glucose, the body’s source of energy.

The G.I. Diet simply lists all foods in three traffic light colour categories: red light foods, which you avoid if you want to lose weight; yellow light listings, which are foods that are to be used occasionally; and green light foods, which are eat as much as you like.

Soul Therapy in Bristol and London Weight Loss recommends purchasing one or more of Rick Gallop's excellent weight loss books; reading and learning about the principles and correct foods for weight loss; and then finding a hypnotherapist who can reinforce all the weight loss principles by using unconscious automatic healthy drivers and triggers.

There are many excellent London and Bristol psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, counsellors and life coaches who can help open a new world for you. Soul Therapy is a London and Bristol psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and life coaching practice that offers a range of services tailored to each individual client. Soul Therapy was founded upon a decade of experience in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and weight loss.

 

Hypnosis And Creativity

Hypnotic states occur all the time. Whenever your attention is narrowed to the exclusion or minimising of outside events, you are in a trance state and experiencing hypnosis.

As you read these words and you find your attention increasing, and you start to really grab onto the ideas being presented, you find yourself slipping into an altered state, a kind of heightened awareness, a readiness to learn something new, to make changes, and things gradually start to feel really positive and interesting.

For many of us, creativity is a vital part of our jobs. Whether you are a therapist, artist, musician, writer, a manager or an office worker, creativity is essential. Writers and artists often experience blocks in creativity, and these can simply disappear as you read further. In management circles, terms like 'innovation' are commonly used to refer to bringing a new product or service into existence, usually to gain market-share.

Peter Drucker said "Every organisation has to prepare for the abandonment of everything it does." What does that mean?

Many people feel stuck in the creative process, and never quite make it to innovation. Some people makes excuses like "it has all been done before". Charles Duell, Commissioner at the US Patents Office in 1899, said "Everything that can be invented has been invented". Makes you think, doesn’t it?

The seat of your creativity is the unconscious mind, and hypnosis has the power to unleash your creativity and therefore innovation. You can choose to visit a hypnotherapist, hypnotist or life coach or you can simply use various hypnotic exercises to unleash your unconscious store-house.

Your unconscious has stored every thought, every sensory input, every event, every conversation that happened around you, every television programme you have watched, every book you have read. All this information is at your fingertips, on the tip of your tongue, just waiting for the right trigger, the right key phrase. It wants to be released now, tomorrow and every day.

It is simply about balancing your left-brain and right-brain; balancing your conscious efforts with your unconscious creativity. Neuroscientists estimate that your unconscious database outweighs the conscious on an order of 10 million to one! You are simply learning to use natural hypnotic states after simple and cogent conscious input.

The first thing is to use your conscious mind and Ask The Right Questions: Why do we do things this way? How can we restate the problem? What are we assuming about this situation? What would happen if we challenged those assumptions? How would someone from another planet solve this problem? How would someone in a completely different line of business solve this problem? What would a child, an artist, a clown, an engineer suggest?

Michael Dell was 18 when he founded his company in 1984. He went up against the mighty IBM and Compaq. He avoided the resellers and retailers and went direct to the end-users. By building to order, Dell carries only 4 days worth of sales in stock whereas its competitors carry 75-100 days. Dell is now a multi-billion dollar business.

Edward De Bono, the father of lateral or creative thinking said "You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction".

Start a diary and record your issues, concerns and challenges. Write down unusual or different questions related to the problem. State the questions firmly in your mind, perhaps even shouting them in your mind. Put the diary away.

Here comes the unconscious mind. Somehow an abundance of ideas will start to pour into your mind at the strangest times. Jot down the ideas and observations as they occur every day. Let ideas just flow and do not judge or analyse them; simply write as they come to you.

Richard Branson said: "I jot down my thoughts at once. Anything I see or hear can spark an idea in me, and I often look back through old notebooks to gain fresh ideas".

How does this happen? You go into natural trance states all day, every day. This is when the ideas pour out of the unconscious mind. No effort required. You may get an idea when you are in the shower or bath, while taking the dog for a walk, just before you fall asleep, in a dream, while listening to music, sitting in the train or driving your car.

You can accelerate this process by learning all the secrets that stimulate and encourage the conscious and unconscious minds, e.g. stream of consciousness exercises. An experienced hypnotherapist and life coach can guide you through various interesting techniques, or you could attend a Life Change Seminar (see button at top of page), e.g. the Business Secrets For Therapists, Coaches And Trainers seminar.

There are many excellent London and Bristol psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, counsellors and life coaches who can help open a new world for you. Soul Therapy is a London and Bristol psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and life coaching practice that offers a range of services tailored to each individual client. Soul Therapy was founded upon a decade of experience in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and weight loss.

 

Neurolinguistic Programming or NLP

Neurolinguistic programming is the study of what works in thinking, language and behaviour. It is a way of coding success strategies and producing excellence in your life.

NLP co-founders Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder called their system neurolinguistic programming because they posited a connection between neurological processes (neuro), language (linguistic) and behavioural patterns that have been learned through experience (programming).

NLP was originally promoted by Bandler and Grinder in the 1970s as an effective and rapid form of psychological therapy. However, NLP has continually received mixed reviews from psychologists, psychiatrists and scientists, and from academic psychology and science journals. NLP was subsequently repackaged as the 'science of excellence', with a new inclusion of the concept of modeling, which is the analysis and emulation of successful, remarkable and high-achieving people. NLP had its greatest influence in management training, sales training and life coaching. NLP training has become a lucrative business.

NLP originated when Richard Bandler, a student at University of California, Santa Cruz, was listening to taped therapy sessions of the Gestalt therapist Fritz Perls. Bandler noticed particular word and sentence structures which he believed facilitated the acceptance of Perls' therapeutic suggestions. Bandler discussed his idea with one of his university lecturers, John Grinder, a linguist, and the two academics began to collaborate.

Bandler and Grinder then began to study the language patterns of noted American author and psychotherapist Virginia Satir, who was known especially for her approach to family therapy and her work with systemic constellations.

Bandler and Grinder’s third model was the famous doctor, psychiatrist and hypnotherapist Milton Erickson. Bandler and Grinder wrote a book based their observations of Erickson working with clients, called Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, Volumes I & II. Again the focus was on the language patterns and non-verbal patterns that Bandler and Grinder believed they noticed Erickson using with clients.

NLP included Grinder's research based on Noam Chomsky's transformational grammar, which was essentially about challenging linguistic distortions, specifying generalisations, and recovering deleted information from client statements. Bandler and Grinder also borrowed ideas from Gregory Bateson and Alfred Korzybski, particularly in the area of modeling and the concepts associated with their expression 'the map is not the territory'.

Bandler and Grinder gradually honed and refined their ideas, and began to include a range of change-concepts such as anchoring, reframing, submodalities, perceptual positions, representational systems, eye-accessing cues, metaphors and stories, rapport building, unconscious filters and hypnotic language. Today NLP is known throughout the world.

There are many excellent London and Bristol psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, counsellors and life coaches who can help open a new world for you. Soul Therapy is a London and Bristol psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and life coaching practice that offers a range of services tailored to each individual client. Soul Therapy was founded upon a decade of experience in psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, counselling and weight loss.

Bristol is a vibrant city in the southwest of England. It offers a wonderful diversity of cultures and lifestyles and architecture. The Whats On Bristol website does an excellent job describing lovely Bristol. The sumptuous and beautiful city of Bath is also just around the corner - it is worth having a look at the Whats On Bath website.

There are so many attractions and places of interest in and around Bristol. There’s Explore-at-Bristol, a 21st science centre, and the majestic SS Great Britain, moored in the Bristol Harbourside. Bristol Zoo is situated in Clifton nearby Bristol’s famous Durdham Downs. As well as being a great family day out, the zoo has stunning gardens and grounds to enjoy. There are also several working animal farms in the West Country, which are very popular with children as they can see a variety of animals and even bottle feed new-born lambs.

There are steam trains to ride, beautiful gardens to visit, and castles and museums to explore. The Bristol Harbourside is home to many annual fairs, dragon-boat racing events and festivals. Bristol also hosts the world famous International Bristol Balloon Fiesta and the Bristol International Kite Festival, as well as the Bristol Wine and Food Fair, and St Paul’s Carnival. And there is the renowned Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Bristol is well known as a musician's city, with dozens of live music gigs being held in pubs and other venues from Wednesday through to Sunday nights. The new shopping centre in Cabot Circus has an array of lovely shops and restaurants and a great multiplex cinema.

Lastly, Bristol offers an array of Bristol hypnotherapy, Bristol psychotherapy, Bristol life coaching, Bristol healing, Bristol counselling, Bristol therapy, Bristol weight loss specialists. Soul Therapy is a Bristol and London therapy practice owned by Stephen Shaw.

 

The City of London

Finally, London offers an array of London hypnotherapy, London psychotherapy, London life coaching, London healing, London counselling, London therapy, London weight loss. Soul Therapy is a Bristol and London therapy practice owned by Stephen Shaw.

 

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