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Soul Therapy in Bristol and London offers Clinical Hypnotherapy, Advanced Scientific Hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming, Past Life Regression and Weight Loss Hypnosis to assist with all your conscious and unconsciousness thought processes. Clients travel from as far as Bath, Cheltenham, Cardiff, Swindon and Reading. Click on the Book A Therapy Session button above to make an appointment with hypnotherapist Stephen Shaw.
Is hypnosis / hypnotherapy the same as sleep?
Hypnosis is an altered state of mind similar to daydreaming, 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. Stephen Shaw is a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist who can help you make positive life changes.
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. Hypnotherapists with solid experience in clinical psychology and scientific hypnosis may lead you into a deeply relaxed hypnotic state.
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. However, entering a deep hypnotic state should take no more than 3 minutes. So you need to thoroughly check the psychology and hypnotherapy qualifications of your 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 unconscious resistance, possibly because of a trauma. Often this unconscious mind monitors the environment to ensure its safety, and is less inclined to relax.
It helps if you trust your therapist. Ensure you ascertain the qualifications, experience and ethics of your hypnotherapist. This will help you relax in the therapist's chair and a have a great experience. Check out Stephen's qualifications here: Stephen Shaw.
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 is quite rare.
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 therapy, 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. Invest wisely in your mind at Soul Therapy in Bristol and London
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).
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 many modern scientific advances in hypnosis and hypnotism, 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 very effective hypnotherapy.
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 spontaneously disappear now. In management and research and development circles, the term 'innovation' is commonly used to refer to bringing a new product or service into existence.
Peter Drucker said "Every organisation has to prepare for the abandonment of everything it does." What does that mean? Why do we often hear that Innovation beats Efficiency?
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 suitably qualified life coach or you can simply use various hypnotic exercises to unleash your unconscious genius.
Your unconscious has stored every thought, every sensory input, every event, every conversation that happened near you, every television programme you ever watched, every book you ever 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.
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 intelligent conscious suggestion.
The first thing you can do is 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.
Somehow an abundance of ideas will gradually 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 them down 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. Soul Therapy in Bristol and London offers advanced hypnotherapy and life coaching to guide you.
The Trance State Deepens
Well, you got this far, so here are some juicy facts for you. If you have an avid interest in hypnosis and hypnotherapy then you may enjoy the following article: Electrophysiological Alterations During Hypnosis for Ego-Enhancement by Stevens, Brady, Goon, Adams, et al.
Brain Waves During Hypnosis
For a long while it was thought that alpha wave patterns were characteristic of hypnotic states. However, there is only a brief appearance of alpha waves once the eyes close and the body relaxes. It is now clear that it is theta and to some extent delta waves and 40Hz gamma waves that are predominant during hypnosis. Other wave patterns occur, even active beta waves, but these are due to the content of the suggestions and visualisations.
The interesting part: it is the very low theta and delta frequencies that correlate with deep hypnotic states, altered states and shamanic trances. Many shamanic practices, Tibetan mantras and Buddhist chants typically make use of these special frequencies.
You may be interested to know that sleep is categorised into stages of a cycle between REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and NREM sleep. NREM sleep is further divided into four stages: stage 1 (a light sleep period), stage 2 (a consolidated sleep period), and stage 3 and 4 (slow wave sleep periods). This is followed by stage 3, stage 2, stage 1, and a REM period. This cycle will usually last about 1.5 hours.
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 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 on 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. Soul Therapy in Bristol and London incorporates neurolinguistic programming into hypnotherapy and psychotherapy work.
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