What is it and how does it work?

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Clinical Hypnosis is officially defined by the American psychologist Association as “a process during which a health professional or researcher suggests to the customer or patient or subject to experience changes in feelings, understanding, thinking and behaviour”.

 

Hypnosis is a natural state which we experience in our everyday life without even  realising it. It is positioned near the feeling that we get by being absent minded or daydreaming. It is essentially part of the communications channel between conscious and subconscious mind. In the subconscious, one may find all those sources which can investigate, in order to discover internal strengths that would help him to find solutions to troubling issues.

 

Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic use of hypnosis. It is a safe method with fast and consistent results. It is experienced by the customer as deep relaxation since the hypnotic state is associated with increased theta brain-wave activity with a recorded  frequency varying between 4 and 8Hz (the feeling between sleep and alertness).

 

The therapist during this process uses sublimation, which passes through the conscious straight to the unconscious (subliminal suggestion is an idea or thought that becomes accepted immediately and without judgement). Suggestions are always within the moral boundaries of the client, in accordance  to their value system and always serve their interests. When the subconscious  accepts a new suggestion, it perceives it literally as the new reality. This process has the purpose of reprogramming thoughts, feelings behaviours and situations one chooses to change in order to improve their lives. 

 

 Hypnotherapy models. What are and how they help...

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 Therapy through hypnosis is short term but has lasting results, as the changes take place directly in the subconscious mind and are immediately perceived.

The purpose of the sessions is the improvement of the psychological and bodily state of the client and his dismissal of harmful habits, unhealthy beliefs and addictive behaviours.

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Motivational hypnotherapy

 it is used mainly for achieving a goal.  Typical examples with immediate and satisfying results in:

• loss of weight

• dealing with harmful habits, such as smoking or finger-nail biting

• athletic performance increase, supported in conjunction with stress management concentration increase, motivational abilities strengthening, self-control.

• creativity in any art form

 

Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy

Using cognitive and behavioural therapy techniques, with the purpose to deal with dysfunctional thoughts and behaviours, this specific model is used with high effective results in a short time frame,  in cases of:

• chronic and specialised phobias (claustrophobia, fear of heights, agoraphobia, arachnophobia etc)

• panic attacks / severe  anxiety

• sleeplessness and sleep disorders

• chronic pain

• irritable bowel syndrome

• lack of confidence

 

Analytical hypnotherapy

Used to discover early experiences (mostly from childhood)  that usually the client has forgotten, and which are the source of difficulty in their everyday lives or prevent them  from achieving their goals. These experiences surface and with the therapists' guidance are re-defined and placed in a new positive frame, aiming to personal Improvement.

 

What is useful to know about Hypnotherapy is…

• it is not sleep

• there is no way to "not wake up”

• the therapist does not have absolute control over you and cannot hypnotise you  against your will

• there is nothing metaphysical about it

• it is not an alternative therapy

• its history dates back to ancient Egypt  (2770BC) and  ancient Greece (1500BC) going through Mesmer (“mesmerised”), J. Braid (the father of its contemporary form and the person who also coined the term “hypnosis”), Jean-Martin Charcot and H. Freud all the way to contemporary times with Milton Erickson (the founder of the American Clinical Hypnosis community).

• It is accepted by the scientific community

  • the British medical community since 1955

  • the American Medical Community since 1958

  • the American Psychiatric Community since 1961

  • the American psychologist Community since 1969

 

Why choose it

 For its immediate and constant results

 The American Health Magazine (Alfred Barrios PhD August 2007) mentioned the following results of a comparative research with respect to the effectiveness of different psychotherapeutic approaches:

•  psychoanalysis 38% after 600 sessions

•  behaviourist therapy 72% after 22 sessions

•  hypnotherapy 93% after 6 sessions

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Financial benefit

 Due to its short term nature the total cost of the sessions is significantly smaller, comparative to other long-term therapies.