[img]560|left|Nicholas D. Pollak||no_popup[/img]I hear from clients who were turned off from hypnotherapy because, after a stage show, they believed the hypnotist takes control of their minds, makes them do things they do not want to do. I have said many times that no matter how good a hypnotist is, you never will do anything under a hypnotic trance you would not do when awake. You would not jump off a 20-story building when not hypnotized. You would not do so when hypnotized.
Any client who comes to see me already has decided hypnotherapy is a valid treatment, so there is an implied contract between the client and the hypnotherapist. The client has come to be hypnotized and I always ask, “Would you like to be hypnotized?” Then I ask, “Would you like me to hypnotize you?” In each case, the response is a yes. I set about hypnotizing the client, helping him or her to resolve issues.
A stage hypnotist always asks these questions of a candidate even though the person’s presence implies willingness to be hypnotized for entertainment purposes.
The key for both stage hypnotism and hypnotherapy in my office is that the client is willing to try, willing to follow my suggestions without thinking too much about what is being asked, really letting himself go with the flow. Highly analytical individuals have trouble entering a hypnotic trance. For this reason I attended the seminar to learn rapid induction techniques. I am happy to say these techniques are extremely effective. They are helping clients gain the happiness, success and prosperity that motivated them to see me.
In Order of Importance
Hypnotherapists are there to give the client the changes asked for. Less significant is whether the hypnotherapist agrees with the desired changes. The client calls the shots. The hypnotherapist’s responsibility is to assist.
Our subconscious minds are 90 percent of the five percent of brain capacity we use. To create change means access to the subconscious mind to create the requested changes. It is a matter of encouraging the subconscious to act on the new behaviors. To do that, the subconscious requires new images of the new behaviors. These images placed directly in the subconscious are so powerful that the conscious mind accepts them and acts on them, creating the new changes and behaviors.
As an example, a person experiencing chronic back pain knows that certain things make the pain worse and others make it less. The subconscious has learned to respond in such a way that the client is aware of the pain at all times. Pain is a signal to the brain something is wrong. Of course, the pain would need to be assessed by a physician. Once the diagnosis is made, the client’s decision is how to resolve the pain.
Too often, physicians prescribe pain-killing medications, which may ease the pain at first but may require increasingly larger doses to stave off the pain. This does not help because the client builds a tolerance to the medications and medications become ineffective as a result. This leads to more pain and a change of meds, starting a repetition of the pain/med cycle.
The Escape Hatch from Pain
The subconscious has learned from this pain/med cycle to become dependant on the relief the medications offer. As the effectiveness wanes, the subconscious has learned the medication is the answer. It demands ever greater amounts. When this stops working, the client becomes uncomfortable and can’t find relief.
A hypnotherapist helps break the pain/med cycle. By teaching relaxation and focus techniques, he can reduce the pain to nothing, or a much lesser severity. When the client fully learns the techniques and practices them daily, pain eases. Dependency on the drugs goes away. The hypnotherapist has shown the subconscious new methods to deal with the pain, and the conscious mind begins to accept the new techniques as a way to end pain. The conscious and the subconscious work together to create relief.
Studies show clients who used pain meds and clients who used hypnotherapy recovered at a much different rate. Five years along, users of pain meds still had pain at the same level, and the medication dosage had tripled.
Those who chose the relaxation techniques offered through hypnotherapy and practiced them daily for the same period no longer took pain medication. Their pain level dropped 70 to 80 percent.
This example of a body/mind connection illustrates the importance of the subconscious mind helping the conscious mind.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321, or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net
