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HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnotherapy involves the person experiencing a sense of deep relaxation with their attention narrowed down, and focused on appropriate suggestions co-created with the therapist. The hypnotic state is what you experience every day. That feeling between awake and asleep. In a hypnotherapy session, you are always in control and you are not made to do anything. 

You experience an enhanced state of awareness, concentrating entirely on the hypnotherapists voice.  In this state, the conscious mind is suppressed and the subconscious mind is revealed.


The therapist is able to suggest ideas, concepts and lifestyle adaptations to you, the seeds of which become firmly planted. These are co-created between you and the therapist during the assessment phase.


Definition of hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme patterns of behaviour within the mind, enabling irrational fears, phobias, negative thoughts and suppressed emotions to be overcome. As the body is released from conscious control during the relaxed trance-like state of hypnosis, breathing becomes slower and deeper, the pulse rate drops and the metabolic rate falls.   Similar changes along nervous pathways and hormonal channels enable the sensation of pain to become less acute, and the awareness of unpleasant symptoms, such as nausea or indigestion, to be alleviated.


How does it work?

Hypnosis is thought to work by altering our state of consciousness in such a way that the analytical left-hand side of the brain is turned off, while the non-analytical right-hand side is made more alert.  The conscious control of the mind is inhibited, and the subconscious mind awoken.  Since the subconscious mind is a deeper-seated, more instinctive force than the conscious mind, this is the part which has to change for the patient's behavior and physical state to alter.


For example, a patient who consciously wants to overcome their fear of spiders may try everything they consciously can to do it, but will still fail as long as their subconscious mind retains this terror and prevents the individual from succeeding.  Progress can only be made by reprogramming the subconscious so that deep-seated instincts and beliefs are abolished or altered.

What problems can be treated by hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy can be applied to many psychological, emotional and physical disorders.  It is used to relieve pain in surgery and dentistry and has proved to be of benefit in obstetrics.  It can shorten the delivery stage of labour and reduce the need for painkillers.  It can ease the suffering of the disabled and those facing terminal illness, and it has been shown to help people to overcome addictions such as smoking and alcoholism, and to help with bulimia.  Children are generally easy to hypnotise and can be helped with nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting) and chronic asthma, whilst teenagers can conquer stammering or blushing problems which can otherwise make their lives miserable.


Phobias of all kinds lend themselves well to hypnotherapy, and anyone suffering from panic attacks or obsessional compulsive behavior, and stress-related problems like insomnia, may benefit.  Conditions exacerbated by tension, such as irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis and eczema, and excessive sweating, respond well, and even tinnitus and clicky jaws (tempero-mandibular joint dysfunction) can be treated by these techniques.


Most importantly, hypnotherapy can be used to reduce day to day stress which increases the person’s quality of daily life. Happier relationships, healthier mind and emotions.

©2014 by RCS-Health - First Nations, Gamilaraay Owned Service.

      I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Dharawal Nation & I pay my respects to their Land, Water, Sky and Dreaming of which I live and work.

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