A new client, suffering severe anxiety and anger, was nervous when she came to me. At her first session, she brought her partner in with her. She did not know what to expect in a hypnotherapy session. She had handwritten her expectations, and we began talking about what her handwriting says about her.
As we finished the handwriting analysis, she finally was settling down. I reassured her that while hypnosis was powerful, she could not — under any circumstance — do anything she would not do in a waking state. I guaranteed her she would be aware of everything said to her. She would find that she was more alert in hypnosis than in her waking state.
I recalled for her the 1876 two-person experiment I have mentioned several times. One went to sleep, the other was hypnotized. Both had one paragraph of a book read to them. When they were later asked if anything had happened, the sleeper did not remember anything, the hypnotized fellow quoted the passage almost verbatim. It became plain to them that when asleep you are out, and when hypnotized, you are alert.
Bringing Her Back
During the hypnotizing process, my client became afraid. She shook uncontrollably. With her partner watching, I used a stage hypnosis shock induction. This rapidly put her into hypnosis, bringing significant relief from her nervousness.
Suggestibility is important to a hypnotist. We communicate generally in a mixture of two ways. The first is literal or direct. The second is inference. An example of direct is, “No food or drink in the store.” An inference would be, “Thanks for leaving your food and drink outside.” How ever we take information in, we speak out the opposite way.
If the hypnotist does not know the client’s suggestibility, he is guessing and he won’t be as effective with the suggestions offered while the client is hypnotized. If the client takes in information literally and the hypnotist talks to the client with inference, the hypnosis will not work. The client will have wasted time and money.
In the present case, my client’s situation was compounded because she was a somnambulist. Outside of hypnotherapy, a somnambulist is one who walks in his sleep. Inside hypnotherapy a somnambulist is a deep level hypnotic candidate. One person in five is a somnambulist. These are the people called out of the audience at a stage show. They are chosen because they hypnotize deeply, almost instantly.
The somnambulist’s single negative is lack of a filter. Everything he hears enters his conscious. The result: A somnambulist walks around in a state of hypnosis all day, but he doesn’t know it. This is why my client was anxious and angry all the time. Once she understood what somnambulism was and how it was affecting her, she was able, with hypnotic intervention, to release her anxiety and anger. She also was able to change her suggestibility and no longer be a somnambulist.
Once these blocks were in place, she became much less overloaded. She focused with clarity.
Within a short time, she used hypnosis to desensitize herself to anxiety triggers. The introduction of a high protein, low carb diet swiftly resolved her issues.
These days she is more focused, less anxious, and has few outbursts.
She and her partner are thrilled at her new behaviors, and their relationship is greatly improved.
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
