What Is Hypnosis?
Clinical hypnosis is a way to gain access to a person’s subconscious mind through deep relaxation.
Every one of us has at some time or another let their imagination wander. This is usually known as day dreaming and it is a great distraction when sitting on a bus or train, in the garden or a café. It is also a way of excluding all the pressing thoughts and worries we carry with us during the day. Taking time out to listen to music, watch a film, a TV programme, or practice yoga, for example, all these provide a necessary distraction for our conscious mind and generate some relaxation by shutting out other things around us.
None the less, we still remain aware during any form of relaxation. If the doorbell or phone rings we quickly come back to full consciousness to answer it.
Under hypnosis the hypnotherapist is merely placing you into a highly relaxed state and in this state, without any distractions, suggestions can be placed directly into the subconscious mind, much in the same way as programmes can be written on to the hard drive of a computer.
What then is the difference, you may ask, between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind?
Your conscious mind contains such things as your willpower, how you analyse something, the reasons (right or wrong) for doing things and also has your temporary memory for day to day needs such as telephone numbers, your address, car registration number and so forth.
Your subconscious mind is really who you are and what you are. It contains permanent memory. In other words, everything that has happened since you were born is recorded on your subconscious including your habits and emotions. It is your subconscious that controls all your automatic bodily functions too, such as breathing, blood flow, movement (for example, imagine running up stairs whilst consciously thinking which leg to move next). Most importantly your subconscious mind’s primary directive is protection, against anything that is mentally or physically harmful to you.