As noted in other posts, hypnosis is simply a state of mind where the attention is focused and the subconscious mind can be influenced. So hypnosis in and of itself is not necessarily “effective.” To produce a change with hypnosis, hypnosis must be paired with effective strategies for change.
Hypnosis helps grease the wheels of change by influencing the emotional subconscious mind. Practically, what that means for you is that once you know what you want to change hypnosis makes change happen much more easily. But hypnosis needs to be “aimed” at a target, which is why the study of hypnotism is important.
Hypnotism is the study of the use of hypnosis paired with effective change strategies and techniques. For example, I could teach you to produce a hypnotic state in another person in under ten hours. Some people can learn to do hypnosis much more quickly. I routinely teach my clients to do self hypnosis in under thirty minutes.
However, even after learning the basics of hypnotic induction, it is unlikely that you would be able to help someone conquer a fear or overcome a bad habit because you would not yet know how to effectively utilize the trance state to produce change.
The commitment to help people overcome their problems and to improve their lives in an effective manner is a lifelong study and there are many different schools of thought and much research is being done on what kind of change techniques are effective for different types of problems.
My approach to change has been heavily influenced by a number of cognitive behavioral change techniques, a number of brief therapy interventions, and by hypnotic approaches. I have studied with most major hypnotic schools of thought and have a wide range of strategies at my disposal to help the individuals that come in to my office.
My son just went into the doctor for a terrible pain in his right knee that turned out to be septic bursitis (he is doing much better now). The doctor considered using a needle and syringe to aspirate fluid from the bursa. Several days earlier, that same son was at the dentist and had a Novocain injection before a tooth was repaired.
Needles and syringes can be used in many ways in medicine and dentistry. Perhaps sometimes a needle is used to aspirate fluid. Other times, it is used to inject a numbing agent. Yet other times, it may deliver an antibiotic. No one would confuse the needle and the syringe with the medicine inside. In a similar fashion, hypnosis is simply a vehicle to deliver and amplify effective change strategies to help you change your life and reach your personal goals!
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