Is Hypnotherapy Safe?

Yes.

Hypnosis feels very much like a deep, guided meditation. When it’s over you will feel relaxed and awake, and very likely better than you’ve felt in quite some time.

Am I A Good Candidate For Hypnosis?

Hypnosis will work for you if you want it to work. Your attitude is the vital factor determining how well you will do in hypnotherapy.

People who have experienced hypnosis before, or who have a personal meditation practice, can usually go into trance with ease.

People, who cannot relax enough to let their brains shift into a slower brain wave, sometimes have difficulty with hypnosis, but extra relaxation work will usually accommodate that.

The subconscious mind speaks in pictures and metaphors. It is important to trust what your subconscious mind is showing you while you are in trance. There is plenty of time afterwards to analyze your experience with your rational, conscious mind.

Are you gonna make me bark like a dog?

No.

Perhaps the greatest fear people have about hypnotherapy is based on their exposure to stage or parlor trick hypnosis. Clinical Hypnotherapy is radically different from stage hypnosis in both intent, and procedure.

The foundation of clinical hypnotherapy in my practice is respect, permission, and patience. No one, including me, can make you do anything that violates your values.

As Clifford N Lazarus Ph.D. notes in a 2013 article for Psychology Today, “The truth is that stage hypnotism is essentially a theatrical performance and has about as much in common with bona fide clinical hypnosis as many Hollywood movies have with real life.”

Will I lose sovereignty over my mind during hypnosis?

No.

Another common fear expressed about hypnosis is the loss of mind control. Dr. David Spiegel, medical director of the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine, also answers that question with an emphatic “No.” He states, “People think hypnosis is about giving up control. But it’s actually giving control back to the patients.”

It is helpful to understand that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The therapist is there to facilitate and guide, but the therapist is not doing anything to the client. The client allows the therapist to guide them into a deeply relaxed state of trance so that together they can work on the identified problem. While in this relaxed state the patient’s conscious mind hears and observes everything. When brought out of the relaxed trance state, the client will be able to discuss what happened and consciously process the gained insights.