A reason people often give when they choose not to have hypnotherapy is apprehension. They feel they could lose control, get lost in trance, reveal embarrassing secrets or endure serious side-effects afterwards.
As a professional hypnotherapist for over 20 years and having undergone hypnosis myself many times, I would like to allay these fears. The actual state of hypnosis is close to how you feel just before you go to sleep or just after you wake up. In other words an aware but dreamlike state in which your conscious thoughts are quieter than usual. Some say it's like daydreaming.
In a clinical setting the therapist will guide the client into this state, perhaps using soft relaxing music in the background and through the use of voice and evocative imagery. The quality , pace and tone of a voice can it itself lead others into deeper and deeper comfort. Together with the description of imagery ( nature is a good example ), clients may find this language reminding them of times and places where they themselves have felt a profound sense of comfort and ease.
Then the activity of the mind , thoughts and feelings, slows down - as it does in meditation. The major difference being that in hypnosis you are being guided into this sensation by another.
Most clients report a calm, comfortable experience - some may even feel they have not been hypnotised because they were expecting something really deep. This can happen of course but usually after 3 or more sessions - and the depth of the hypnotic state is not an indicator of success anyway. Most clients receive and accept hypnotic suggestion even in a light state of hypnosis - no being stuck in a trance or being dominated by a Svengali. That is, surely, good news for any prospective client.
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