What is hypnosis, hypnotic therapy, and how does it work

What is hypnosis and how can it help me in my therapy process?

I am sure that when we talk about hypnosis,  each one of you imagines something different, and many will think that hypnosis is what appears on television shows.

When I tell my patients that we are going to use it in their therapeutic process, many of them look at me as if I am crazy, with an expression on their faces that is a mixture of disbelief, fear, and curiosity. Not turning them into chickens is possibly the most recurring request (they tell me between laughs but with some nervousness). However, the reality is that hypnosis is simply a technique that psychologists use to help our patients, it is not harmful, and it has no side effects. It has been used since the very dawn of psychology, and authors as famous and varied as Freud, Pavlov, W. James, and even our Nobel Prize winner Ramón y Cajal, have used it and have spoken and written about it.

How is hypnosis defined?

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), Hypnosis is an increase in the ability to respond to suggestions, increasing the focus of attention and reducing the perception of peripheral information.

What will I feel if they hypnotize me?

When you are hypnotized your body goes into a state of deep relaxation. Your mind becomes more receptive to the psychologist's suggestions,  and that is why it is a very effective technique for the therapeutic process. At the same time, your "conscious" relax, giving way to your most unconscious world, the one that sometimes gives us problems that we don't know where they come from. That is, you will notice that your mind is active but will adapt to the hypnotist's suggestions while your body will be calm.

Can they take advantage of me during hypnosis?

In hypnosis, contrary to what is popularly believed, the patient does not lose control at any time or remain at the mercy of the hypnotist, moreover,  if he wants he can "exit" the hypnotic process. I can also assure you that during hypnotic therapy the patient will not do anything that he does not want to do. learn hypnosis online is a suggestion, but not submission or loss of consciousness.

How will hypnosis help me?

The patient who is in hypnosis is more receptive and flexible to modify his behavior, his thoughts, and his beliefs, making therapeutic change easier. The time spent in achieving the goals of therapy is also reduced. But it must be remembered that the thoughts or beliefs of the psychologist are not going to be “implanted”, this is impossible, but hypnosis acts as a facilitator to obtain the results that the patient wants.

Imagine being able to relax in a matter of seconds. Imagine being able to tackle topics that disturb you in a state of absolute relaxation. Imagine facing your problems without getting upset and creating in-the-moment resources that you can later use in your daily life, and all this while you are deeply relaxed. Also, imagine that you can take these benefits with you and use them in your day-to-day, that is hypnosis.

Is it dangerous? The only "danger" of hypnosis is that the patient remembers something that he had forgotten, but that, if used well, will help him heal.

Does hypnosis work for everything?

Hypnosis is almost as old as psychology itself and has more than demonstrated its effectiveness, not only from what psychologists see in consultation but also through controlled studies in the laboratory with neuroimaging techniques.

The most studied fields of application are anxiety and stress,  acute and chronic pain  (fibromyalgia, migraines, preparation for childbirth or even a visit to the dentist for people with allergies to anesthesia), and certain types of addictions such as smoking. . However, the application of hypnosis is much broader, coming to be used in processes of trauma, dissociation, phobias, regression or simply as relaxation.

Hypnosis can also be used to create new scenarios where the patient can relate to their thoughts and emotions in a safe and controlled way. What is my psychologist going to do to me in hypnosis? The first thing your psychologist will assess before performing hypnosis is whether there is a good relationship between you. If you mutually trust each other, it's time to do hypnosis. To do this, it will verify that you are a  "hypnotizable subject ", that is, that you are capable of letting yourself be carried away by your voice. These types of techniques are usually quite showy for patients. For example, the hypnotist can put your hands together without touching you, just with his words from her. Obviously, if you don't want to, you won't get it, but as they say in hypnosis, "

if you feel it, let yourself go”.

The second step would be the techniques of suggestion, that is, the way to enter the hypnotic process. Using different techniques, the psychologist will produce a sensation of sleep and/or deep relaxation, which will be followed by hypnotic deepening, the prelude to hypnosis.

When you are already hypnotized, as I said before, you will feel a pleasant sensation of relaxation. This is when the psychologist can begin to give you suggestions to help you with the problems that concern you. Finally, the process will end with the exit of hypnosis (the famous count from 1 to 10 and you open your eyes).

Self-hypnosis Hypnosis is not only done in the office. When you are hypnotized, the psychologist will join what you have worked on to a phrase or gesture, and far from turning you into a chicken or being at his mercy, this will help you to continue practicing hypnosis at home, by yourself, being able to enter that state of relaxation whenever you need (and want) it. Finally, remember:

Hypnosis is a  very old technique but widely validated in the laboratory, in controlled studies, and with neuroimaging techniques.

Hypnosis is neither bad nor dangerous, it is just a suggestion.

Not everyone is suggestible, so the therapist will have to do some kind of test to see if you will go into hypnosis.

Nobody will be able to do anything to you that you don't want and you won't be available to the hypnotherapist.

Your therapy process will be shortened, achieving your goals faster than with other techniques.

Hypnosis can help you with various problems.

Hypnosis is not a panacea or the Holy Grail, it is one more tool to use in therapy.

Remember that you have all your rights to be informed of what they are going to do to you, or to be told if you have entered hypnosis.

And of course, if you have doubts about the process, ask your psychologist about all your fears, he or she will be happy to help you.

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