For those people who have an aversion to using medication to treat specific ailments, addictions or psychological conditions, hypnosis is a viable option. Hypnosis is proven to work among those who believe in it and truly want it to work for them. In this article, you’ll learn what exactly happens during hypnosis and some of the many conditions it’s used to treat.
What is Hypnosis?
By definition, hypnosis is when a person is conscious but their attention is focused and their peripheral awareness is reduced. This opens up doors and possibilities for patients to become more responsive and susceptible to suggestions made by the hypnotist. Some people confuse a hypnotic state with sleep, which it’s not. Patients are fully awake and alert but are in a state of complete relaxation. This trance can be compared to daydreaming. A person’s focus is completely directed at the task or subject at hand and all other thoughts are forgotten.
During a hypnotic trance, patients are extremely open and susceptible to what the hypnotist is saying. Everything the hypnotist says becomes reality in your mind. You are also more apt and willing to embrace any ideas or suggestions that are made. This method is what makes hypnosis an effective and successful way to treat certain conditions.
Three Frames of Hypnosis
A hypnotherapist may institute the help of three frames that change a patient’s way of thinking about a specific idea or circumstance. This framework can help put someone’s problem in perspective and lead their thoughts and feelings toward a specific idea. These three frames are the preframe, reframe, and deframe.
- Preframe – A hypnotherapist will set the scene for the patient before a session to help them better focus on the issue at hand.
- Reframe – This frame is where the hypnotherapist changes the patient’s perception of their current circumstance or condition.
- Deframe – This process helps the patient view their original argument or objection as irrelevant to their current situation and eliminate it as a roadblock in their path to success.
These three frames help patients make significant lifestyle changes more quickly and easily during hypnosis by identifying the issue and the potential roadblocks.
Smoking
With over 38 million adult smokers in the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of people trying to quit each year. A small fraction of smokers are able to quit “cold turkey”, meaning they simply stop smoking without any outside help or use of nicotine products. Others, need to slowly wean off of cigarettes. This is achieved using products like gum, E-cigarettes, patches or by vaping. But what if you want a more holistic, psychological way to quit smoking? Hypnosis can help.
Hypnosis helps change the patient’s thoughts about smoking and discover their own, internal motivation to quit. Following hypnosis, smokers often change the way they feel and think about smoking on a deeper level and are more able to resist the urge to smoke. Hypnosis for smoking cessation can also be combined with some of the other methods mentioned above.
Weight Loss
Another billion dollar industry, people across the world are struggling to find the secret to weight loss. Even with regular exercise and diet, it’s sometimes more difficult for some people to shed those extra pounds than others. For those people who find it hard to get started, don’t feel motivated to workout or struggle battling food cravings, hypnosis may help change your mind frame and help you reach your goals. If food is currently controlling your life, a hypnotist can help change your mindframe and help put you back in control of your food choices, resulting in potential weight loss.
Trauma
Any type of traumatic experience can impact a person’s life greatly. And not just in the moment, but long-term. Traumatic events cause stress, depression, anxiety, and can interfere with a person’s ability to live a happy, normal life. One hypnotic method for dealing with trauma is known as regression. During regression, a hypnotherapist will ask the patient to revisit the time and place when the traumatic event occured. This helps individuals to realize that the event was in the past and that the fear and danger no longer remains in the present. This often allows patients to identify, accept, and release those feelings of traumatic stress.
Past life regression is another interesting form of hypnosis that involves helping patients recover memories, thoughts, and experiences from past lives or incarnations. Some hypnotherapists believe these memories from the past can help improve and shed light on a patient’s current life.
Pain Management
For people living with chronic or acute pain, it can be debilitating. Pain stops people from working, moving about freely, socializing, and living a full, active life. It can lead to depression and even addiction to pain medications and other pain management techniques. Hypnosis can create welcomed relief for pain sufferers. When the individual is in a state of complete relaxation, the conscious mind is tuned out. This allows the patient’s mind to block out distractions and tap into the unconscious mind. When a person dips into their unconscious mind, they’re able to fully focus on one, specific idea. If this focus is placed on pain relief, it can actually help to target, reduce, and sometimes, eliminate that pain completely.
Keep an Open Mind
Hypnosis patients must be open to the idea of healing. Without a completely relaxed and receptive mind, you can’t focus on your current issue or condition. This focus is needed for success. If you’re looking for a new or different way of treating any of the above mentioned conditions, it might be worth giving hypnosis a try. This technique can also help those suffering from irrational fears, stress, anxiety, allergies, and other addictive behaviors. With an open mind, it’s amazing what the body can achieve.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
