“You do hypnosis? Really? Can you make me bark like a dog?” These are the questions that people ask me when I tell them that I specialize in clinical hypnotherapy.
These are things that I don’t do: past life regression, imitating any animal (barking dogs, clucking chickens), and uncovering lost or repressed memories. The people that do stuff like this are not clinicians, they are usually magicians or other people not properly trained in clinical hypnotherapy. They will call themselves “hypnotists” not hypnotherapist.
Usually, I tell people that everything that they know about hypnosis is wrong. It does not produce amnesia, you won’t do anything you would not normally do, and it is not a magical pill that fixes all of your problems. If anyone found a magical intervention that fixes everything in one session, psychotherapy as a field would not exist.
Hypnosis is just a way to increase focused attention. Most of my patients say, “that was cool and is that it?” They are waiting for that mystical quality from movies that just doesn’t happen. However, it does help people connect thoughts and feelings faster and come up with new ways of problem-solving issues. It can be used for almost anything: depression, anxiety, trauma, insomnia, specific phobias (eg: flying, needles) and pain management.
Try this short self-hypnosis technique (yes, you can do it yourself). This can be done for as long or as short as you’d like, even 2 minutes. It can help you feel calmer and more focused.
Sit in a chair and close your eyes. Do a quick body scan to let go of tension.
Focus on both hands. Silently tell yourself, “in a few moments, my thoughts will slow down.”
Focus on a comfortable feeling in your body (eg: warmth in your hands, relaxed feelings in your arms) and try to increase that feeling. Silently tell yourself, “my hands can become a little warmer” or whatever the feeling is.
Focus on the small changes. Even if your hands become a tiny bit warmer, great.
You can continue to become more comfortable using suggestions like this.
Or, if you feel like you are done, take a deep breath, let it go, silently tell yourself, “I can keep this comfortable feelings with me for the next hour)
And open your eyes.
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