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Hypnotherapy

The Mind

Although the mind is capable of creating life-affirming stories, it has what neuroscientists refer to as a negativity bias, a tendency to pay more attention to negative experiences than to positive ones. The negativity bias evolved as a survival instinct millions of years ago, as our ancestors focused much more attention on avoiding potential threats than on rewards.

Stopping to savour a delicious meal or admire a Paleolithic sunset would have used valuable attention resources, leaving our ancient ancestors more vulnerable to attack by a predator. Those who survived to pass on their genes paid a lot of attention to danger. Their legacy is a brain that is primed to focus on negative experiences and has a tendency to get stuck in conditioned patterns of thinking, returning again and again to thoughts of anxiety, depression, and limitation.

We each have an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day – unfortunately, many of them are the same thoughts we had yesterday, last week, and last year. The mind tends to get stuck in repetitive thought loops that squeeze out the possibility for new ideas and inspiration. Hypnosis is a powerful practice for going beyond habitual, conditioned thought patterns. 

What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a state of inner absorption, concentration and focused attention. We all go into hypnosis everyday without evening knowing it, but we don’t usually call it hypnosis. It’s comparable to being so absorbed in a book or film that the hours seem to fly by. It is this natural state of mind that is used in hypnotherapy. You never lose control and are certainly never put under the control of anyone else. 

Like other states of consciousness, such as normal waking consciousness, sleep and dreaming,  the experience of hypnosis is unique to the person experiencing it. So although there are features of the hypnotic state that are common among people who are hypnotized, it is never exactly the same from one person to another, nor is it the same each time the same person is hypnotized.

The way people typically describe the feeling of being hypnotized, during hypnotherapy, is to be in a calm, physically, and mentally relaxed state, in which they are able to focus deeply on what they are thinking about. They usually feel open-minded, and willing to think about and experience life differently, often in a more detached way than usual. 
 
You are not losing control. You are allowing yourself to open up and heal.
The Mind and hypnosis

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to deliver focused psychotherapy to treat a wide range of issues. The goal is to resolve not just your symptoms but the underlying persistent discomfort, while also focusing on helping you achieve how you actually want to feel. In doing so lasting beneficial effects are achieved.   
 
Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to allow us to drop beneath the rational part of you mind. You can get hung up on not understanding why you do something or why you feel something because it doesn’t make rational sense. Hypnotherapy accesses those emotional beliefs that are running amok and helps you to update them to more positive and helpful beliefs. 
The subconscious mind is like a computer’s file system. Our subconscious is like our hard drive, where we store every experience, emotion, and thought we’ve had.

In the relaxed, focused state of hypnosis while using hypnotherapy we can run a Google search on our subconscious, searching then pulling up the repressed memories and buried emotions at the root of the client’s mental health challenges.

“Each unhealthy current behavior, such as losing one’s temper, excessive consumption, or compulsive overeating has a chain of events that laid the foundation for all of the clients current unhealthy choices. Through the ‘memory chip’ that has been laid down in the subconscious mind, we can trace back the experiences and subconscious decisions the client made as children that may be leading us to the behavior that is no longer healthy for them.”

For example there are two very different approaches to helping a client quit a smoking habit using hypnotherapy:

“With hypnosis, the therapist might help someone change a habit by suggesting the experience is worse than it actually is. But with hypnotherapy he will also use age regression to examine the impulse that fuels the client’s habit and discover old conclusions and behaviors. The healing will take place when the client creates new conclusions about old memories and chooses new behaviors rather than smoking.”

The second approach gets at the root of the problem, it is much more effective than the first. Results come quickly and they last.

Curious about how Hypnotherapy can help you?
Please contact James with your query or

Schedule your free 20-minute consultation. Weekend and evening appointments available.

BOOK MY SESSION NOW

EXAMPLES OF HOW HYPNOTHERAPY CAN HELP

SOCIAL ANXIETY

Do you have an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others?   Are these accompanied by physical symptoms such as nausea, shaking, or feeling faint when you are around people or performing? Do you find it hard to interact with friends?

Hypnotherapy can improve your confidence in social situations.

ANXIETY

Do you feel constantly tense? Do worry and fear dominate your decisions? Do you feel like something bad is going to happen? Is there a constant knot in your stomach or tightness in your chest?

Hypnotherapy can find and release the roots of the problem so you can feel calm and comfortable.

HEALTH ANXIETY

Health anxiety (hypochondria) is when you spend so much time worrying you’re ill, or about getting ill, that it starts to take over your life. 
 
Hypnotherapy can help you uncover the reasons for the anxiety and restore your ability to be more balanced and grounded about health concerns.
 

PTSD

After a traumatic event have you found that a certain sound, sight, small, taste or feeling that resembles or partially resembles the event can trigger those feelings you had while going through the traumatic event? The effect of trauma can affect you for months and years after the event.

Hypnotherapy helps you to neutralise those triggers without having to relive the past.

PHOBIAS

If you have a phobia you can experience an overwhelming fear and desire to avoid that trigger situation. It’s as if the brain’s safety alarm system has become over sensitive and triggers when there is not really any real danger or threat. Does your phobia makes you feel embarrassed, helpless, our of control or isolated?

Whether your phobia is about spiders, flying, small spaces or deep water to name just a few, hypnotherapy can help.

OCD

Do you have recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations (obsessions) that make you feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions) that interferes with your daily life? Do you experience severe anxiety as a result of obsessive thoughts or/and engage in extensive rituals in an attempt to reduce the anxiety caused by obsessions?

Hypnotherapy help you find and release the underlying cause driving the OCD.

DEPRESSION

When you’re depressed you don’t control your thoughts, your thoughts control you. Do you find yourself withdrawing from day to day activities, being less socially and physically active? Do you find each time you lie and say you are fine, you shrink a little more inside?

Hypnotherapy can help you to enjoy life again and to regain your energy, feel like doing things and an have an optimistic outlook.   

LOW SELF ESTEEM

Do you lack confidence, feel unlovable, awkward, or incompetent. Do you doubt your skills, feel ashamed or embarrassed? Do you believe you will always fail or blame other for your failures? Do you avoid compliments and are poor at setting boundaries?

Hypnotherapy helps you to find and remove the roots of these unhelpful beliefs so that you feel comfortable with yourself and know that you deserve good things in life.

GRIEF

—  “It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”  —  When we lose a loved one, the pain we experience can feel unbearable. Does the grieving process feel like it will never end or has it got worse over time?

Hypnotherapy can help you to move past the pain and to think fondly of those you have lost, knowing that they would want you to be happy and get on with your life.

SPORTS ENHANCEMENT

Sports performance has been found to have as much to do with mental abilities as physical abilities. Positive mentality and ideal expectations are everything in sport.

Every person, whether currently successful or not, has internal resources. Hypnotherapy can help you to develop new abilities to maintain motivation and enhance your skills when under pressure.

Curious about how Hypnotherapy can help you?
Please contact James with your query or

Schedule your free 20-minute consultation. Weekend and evening appointments available.

BOOK MY SESSION NOW

Why Choose Ascension Therapy?

It’s discreet

Enjoy the privacy of your own home while getting the help you deserve.

It’s accessible 

Online therapy is possible in even the most remote locations.

It works

Research shows online therapy is just as effective as in-person treatment.