I'm a hypnotist (remedial, not stage) AMA

[Eyesopenwideawake]

As per the title! I love my work and happy to answer any questions 😊

@Trug - done.

Thank you!

Hello @Eyesopenwideawake , thank you for a very informative AMA. My friend is currently training in this so I was interested to find your thread. I’m thinking about trying it for myself but obviously don’t want to go to my friend for therapy, so please could you pm me the list too?

My friend is learning rapid transformational therapy - is that the same thing?

@WowStarsWow - sent! I've heard of RTT and have watched a few of Marisa Peer's presentations, she's very experienced.

The reason I trained with Tim Box is that his method means that you don't need to use trance to communicate with the subconscious.

A colleague and I were running a workshop yesterday and she gave a brilliant explanation (which I have permission to use!).

Imagine your subconscious is a nightclub, full of beliefs, thoughts and actions and with a bouncer on the door. He decides if conscious thoughts are suitable to be allowed in, i.e. that they fit with what is aligned to the core beliefs you developed as a child and which are stored in your subconscious. If they are not, they are rejected (which is why we struggle with concepts which we know, as adults, are rational but as a child we believed something different. Spiders are a classic example).

In traditional hypnosis, the bouncer is distracted by the trance and the hypnotist can go into the nightclub to try and find the part of the subconscious which is causing trouble or is unhappy. This can be a bit hit and miss and, of course, the client is not able give immediate feedback.

With non-trance hypnosis, the practitioner connects directly with the relevant part(s) of the subconscious, via the imagination, and brings them out of the nightclub to find out what the issue is and then changing the problematic thinking or behaviour. Because the client is awake and alert throughout, they can feel the changes happening and answer any questions that pop up during the consultation.

Hi OP, I have had hypnosis before for needle phobia and it worked really well.

Back in the day I used to do a lot of painting and decorating and home maintenance on my own home as I couldn't afford to pay people to do it. I could do it to a decent enough standard and it saved me a lot of money.

The house now needs fully decorating again and I don't really want to pay someone to do it but I seem to have developed an absolute hatred of decorating. It's like a phobia, a paralysis - it's hard to describe but I can't bring myself to do it anymore. I do have the money to pay someone now but unfortunately all of the decent decorators are booked up for a long time.

Is there any hypnosis I could have which would give me my motivation and enjoyment of decorating back again?

That's an interesting one. I'd certainly be happy to have a chat with your subconscious to see why it's producing this reaction. Can you think of any reason why this has happened?

Fascinating that you can access the subconscious while your client is completely awake and aware - how do you achieve this in practice?

@BobGalaxy - By using one of the two processes that are 100% run by the subconscious. One is emotion and while, in theory, we could talk to the mind by making you angry, sad, joyous or fearful it's not a recipe for a great therapeutic relationship! So instead we use the imagination which is limitless.

In practice I communicate by asking the subconscious to raise fingers via IMR (ideo-motor response) which simply means it's the SC that's lifting one finger for "yes" and another for "no" with no conscious input from the client. When he/she says "fuck me, that's weird" I generally know that the fingers are moving independently 😁

If the IMR doesn't work - which is rare - we can use visual, auditory, kinesthetic (feel), gustatory (taste) or olfactory (smell) indicators instead.

Thanks so much OP ☺️ Have a lovely day!

Thanks @Eyesopenwideawake, that's so interesting! Even within long periods of therapy and having established a positive relationship with the therapist, I have still struggled to access and articulate my emotions/memories, so will definitely consider hypnotherapy.

I had hypnotherapy for severe anxiety/agoraphobia.

It changed my life, it was the most dramatic change I could explain.

However he never attempted to figure out the cause.
He simply counted me down to really relaxed and spoke to my conscious.

i get the impression that you do it differently?

I've just read your most recent post. Most definitely a different a approach!

what is your approach called (and do you work in Sussex? 😃)

It's called the CONTROL system and is the brainfart brainchild of Tim Box - have a look at his Ted X talk on anxiety, it's excellent 😊

Sorry, missed the second question - yes, I can work in Sussex as it can all be done by Zoom or similar. Alternatively you can visit me in Portugal 😁

I would bloody love to!

Do you feel like there are some cases where it just opens a can of worms?

Do all behaviours need to find the cause? Or can we just deal with the coping strategies instead (for example alcohol for anxiety?).

What benefit is it to know the cause of the anxiety (a childhood trauma for example) when that could exacerbate the alcohol use by bringing it to the surface.

Imagine your mind as a computer. Your childhood trauma started a program running to figure out what happened, how it happened and if you were in some way to blame (could you have done/not done something different? was it your fault?). That program is designed to prevent you getting into that position every again - to steer you away from harmful or dangerous situations like the one(s) you experienced - because the mind is always looking for safety and happiness and how to avoid conflict and danger.

The problem is that that program is still working, and working on the basis that you saw it then, as a child; not as you can see it today, as an adult with the wisdom, understanding and knowledge you have now. By talking to the part of your subconscious that's still grappling with the problem and explaining that it can stop now, that's there's never going to be a satisfactory answer and that to keep focussing on it is getting in the way of your happiness, is often all it takes to shut down that program, permanently. And by doing that you find that there's no longer any need for coping strategies because the underlying problem is resolved.

Interesting!

I'm glad this thread has revived 😊 Another question from me - can hypnosis helped with insomnia? Could you also send me the list of practitioners please?

@Oblahdeeoblahdoe - Yes, it can help with insomnia, lack of sleep is one of the worst things for MH. Will send you the practitioner list now.

It's such a big problem for a lot of people.
Thanks for the list

@Eyesopenwideawake
I wonder if you could dm me your details asi am very interested to try hypnotherapy for a couple of things.

I have been looking into this recently as i was thinking of getting a pre-recorded thing/app but actually i think i need a face to face/zoom with an actual hypnotherapist.

@Hanch99 - sent :)

I just wanted to add that I actually worked with OP over Christmas and was genuinely so helpful for my health anxiety - feeling much more optimistic than I have in a very long time.

😊