Hypnotherapy is a talking
therapy using hypnosis as a platform to enhance and accelerate the therapeutic process.
How does it work?
Hypnosis works by allowing us access to the subconscious mind;
the storehouse of all knowledge, learned or experienced. The term Hypnosis, is the name given to a natural phenomenon,
in the same way breathing is a term used to describe the respiratory process. Of course, people were breathing long before
it was given a name and people were entering natural trance long before it was called Hypnosis!
The most common form of trance is what we may call day dreaming or perhaps
the drivers trance; suddenly being unaware of large sections of the journey or did I just jump a red light syndrome?
It is believed that we store every experience we've ever had in
the unconscious mind. Current thinking says we have around 100 billion brain cells. It is estimated that we have
as many brain cell connections as seconds have passed since the dinosaurs walked the earth; so, there is plenty
of room to store this information. Exactly how these memories are stored isn't known, but what is known is that people have
various ways of retrieving memories. The brain is made up of many different parts and each part has a particular function
as well as working in unison with other parts of the brain. The net result is a computer more powerful and complex than any manmade
computers!
So, why do we have problems?
Well, the primary cause of all human problems is the way we think. When
we can change our thoughts very often we can change our experience. So, how do we change our thoughts? We do this by challenging
our thoughts and/or changing our self talk. At some level every experience-emotion-feeling we have is transmuted into
language, this affects or determines the way we think. If we knew better we would do better. So, by challenging
our self talk we can become more objective in our outlook, we get better or fuller information on which to base our assumptions.
A new experience had when in a very negative frame of mind can
or will create a new set of neural pathways (connections) and this will create a baseline for how that experience is perceived
(by you). If the next time we encounter that experience we are in an extremely positive and happy mood, possibly one of two
things can happen; 1/ we can reframe this experience and new neural pathways associated with it, or 2/ be directed
to the last reference we have for this experience and can develop the negative mindset that existed with that first experience.
Option 1 is a much more healthy and (quote) normal response. Quite literally you are experiencing something and relating that
experience to how you perceive it at that point in time; based on HOW YOU FEEL! Option 2 relates to a stored representation
of that experience based on other factors which could or may have influenced your thinking processes and have no correlation
to the actual experience. The ability to challenge our thinking process helps us to be objective in our thinking
and helps us to make better choices. Does this mean that we should ignore a past experience, of course not,
but we should check it out. Is it the same experience? If not why should we react the same! If it is, then was the way we
reacted the last time helpful, did it support us, could we change it in any way? By asking questions we can create options
and choices and with it better solutions. The past does not equal the future; and the future is only a NOW view from a present
perspective; it is not the future.
Trans4mational
Therapy Calming Life’s Ripples
