20 Conditions you didn’t know Hypnosis could Help

What is hypnosis?

While there is no debate as to whether hypnosis works. However science simply cannot agree on what it is and how it works.

The British Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis states:

“In therapy, hypnosis usually involves the person experiencing a sense of deep relaxation with their attention narrowed down, and focused on appropriate suggestions made by the therapist.”

The use of suggestions help people make the positive changes they want within themselves.  The biggest fear I have come across with clients is that they are not in control and may be made to do something they don’t want to do. It is important to stress that you are always in control and you are cannot be made to do anything you do not want to do in a Hypnotherapy session.  I merely help to facilitate your experience – hypnotherapy is not about being made to do things, in fact it is the opposite, it is about empowerment. 

Hypnotherapy involves the induction of a trance-like condition. When this occurs, the client is in an enhanced state of awareness, concentrating entirely on the hypnotist’s voice.  In this state, the conscious mind is suppressed and the subconscious mind is revealed. The therapist is then able to suggest ideas, concepts and lifestyle changes to the client, with these ideas becoming firmly planted in the their subconscious.

Dr Hilary Jones’ explains in her book, “Doctor, What’s the Alternative?”

“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 believed to work by altering our state of consciousness in such a way that the analytical left-hand side of the brain is turned down, 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 behaviour and physical state to alter.

What problems can be treated by hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy can be applied to many psychological, emotional and physical disorders. 

It is thought to help people to overcome addictions such as smoking and alcoholism. 
Children are generally easy to hypnotise and may be helped with nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting) and chronic asthma.
Teenagers can conquer stammering, blushing problems or public speaking 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 behaviour, 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.

I even had a sceptical friend who cured seasickness with hypnotherapy (he’s a sailing skipper!) after everything else had failed.

For the month of February Elaine Oliver is offering $80 for a 1 hour initial Hypnotherapy consultation.