How It Can Make Permanent Changes In Your Life!
By: Gwenn Henkel, CMH, MH.
Certified Medical Hypnotherapist, Master Hypnotherapist
Peninsula Woman September 2000
In the years that I have been a hypnotherapist, it amazes me how many people are still in the dark ages about hypnosis and still have fear about it! I have to admit that if I had looked up the definition of hypnosis in the Websters Dictionary, I probably would not be a Hypnotherapist now.
Websters defines hypnosis as: a sleep-like condition, psychically induced, by another person, in which the subject loses consciousness but responds, with certain limitations, to the suggestions of the hypnotist. WOW! That even scared ME when I read it! Lets take a closer look at this definition.
First, a sleep-like condition almost sounds like a disease of some kind. Something I certainly would want to avoid. Second, psychically induced, usually by another person would mean I guess that this person would psyche you out? I really know I would not want to go near someone like that! Third, the subject loses consciousness but responds with certain limitations. That is really a contradiction. How could someone be unconscious, and yet be able to respond? And, if theyre responding with certain limitations, just how effective could this process really be? I dont believe that I would be interested in this type of experience at all.
It amazes me that even in this day and age, books that we trust and rely on are still filled with misinformation about hypnosis. You would think that we would have moved way beyond the things we see in the movies, like THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI, where a doctor hypnotizes a man into becoming a zombie-like slave. Also, in the famous BELLA LUGOSE movies, Lugose simply fixates his red-eyed gaze on a victim, who then becomes a slave to the commands of COUNT DRACULA. As amusing as these stories might seem today, the notion of hypnosis is still clouded by myth and misunderstanding.
Let me take some of the mystery out of hypnosis for you here and now. You see hypnosis is a very natural state of mind. You are in a state of hypnosis, or trance -state over 50% of your day. It is so natural that you dont even know you are in it!
How many times have you been driving down the road and missed your exit because you were thinking about something else? Or perhaps you arrive at your destination and cant even remember the last 20 minutes of your drive, or sitting in church and looking right at the minister, but not able to recall much of what the sermon was about when it was over. You were in the second phase of trance, or self-hypnosis.
There are four phases of trance and you experience all of them every night when you go to sleep. Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta are the phases and as I said, it is very natural to go in and out of these phases throughout your day. Delta however, is the deepest and you would only experience that when you are in deep sleep.
Your subconscious mind holds the memory of everything that you have ever seen, heard or experienced since your birth and even in the womb itself. You even know what you ate for breakfast on January 2nd when you were 2 years old, what the weather was like that day, should you have happened to look out the window, and what your mother was wearing. Thank heavens you cant actually recall that entire trivia because that would mean you have way too much information going on in your head on a daily basis, when its sometimes hard to just remember where you left your keys!
As an infant or small child growing up, you learn all sorts of beliefs or mis-beliefs about lifeyourself according to others, and these things set patterns in your subconscious mind that develop and grow with you. These patterns may be positive OR negative, and they will develop traits in you as an adult that may help or hinder your own growth in various aspects of your life.
What messages did you possibly receive that told you that you can not loose weight, that made you afraid of the water, or that you will never be smart or amount to anything?
What happened in your life that gave you the idea that you will always be poor, or that made you afraid to talk in public or to fear success? What causes your obsessive thoughts or behaviors? Why cant you release your chronic pain that your doctors find no reason for? So many things and thousands more, that may keep you from fulfilling your highest potential in your life, or a healthy body, and you dont know why.
With the aid of a trained Hypnotherapist as myself, you can re- write or reprogram the negative patterns or messages in the subconscious mind and change them to positive ones. This brings about harmony between the conscious and subconscious mind. I do this by gently guiding my clients into a very relaxed state, using imagery to take the conscious mind on a vacation and allowing the subconscious mind to be easily obtainable so the work can be done there. When the mind and body are deeply relaxed, the mind is able to concentrate better. This is the principle reason for hypnosis.
Understand that what you see on a stage at the county fair with a hypnotist is not the same experience as a session with a hypnotherapist. Those people you see participating in those fun stage shows, go into that setting with a preconceived agreement with themselves that they are going to have a good time, that they will probably do some funny things just like they have seen others do before them. However, if the star of the show that Saturday night might have barked like a dog and sang and danced like Elvis, and then came to see me the next day to stop smoking, he would have made a much different contract with himself. Coming to see me for clinical hypnosis to stop smoking is not a laughing matter. If once in trace state, I asked him to cluck like a chicken, he would instantly look at me and ask what on earth I was doing!
You are not a blank slate when using hypnosis. You are very much aware of what is going on around you, even more so than out of that state of mind. NO ONE can make you do anything that you would not consciously or morally do. A free hour consult can show you how hypnosis can help you
Change Your Life by Changing Your Mind! TM
Gwenn Henkel is a Certified Medical Hypnotherapist, Hypnoanesthesiologist, and Master Hypnotherapist. She is a member of The National Board for Hypnotherapy and Hypnotic Anaesthesiology, the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists, The American Board of Hypnotherapy, and The International Association of Counselors and Therapists.
Source: http://www.entrancinglife.com/Articles/Index.htm
For more on Gwenn go to Hypnotherpy at Optimal Fitness.
