Hypnosis is a natural state that most people have entered thousands of times. Just about everyone can be hypnotized. All people go through a state akin to hypnosis before falling asleep. In this state, we feel deeply relaxed physically but mentally we are many times more alert than in the conscious state of awareness. Under hypnotic trance, the client consents to an altered state and with the therapist determines the depth of that state to which s/he needs to go. Hypnosis is a highly effective tool for change in the hands of a skilled practitioner.

Hypnotherapy is a method of psychotherapy conducted under hypnotic trance which facilitates behavioral and emotional changes in the subject to achieve desired results. Also known as clinical hypnosis, it is different from stage hypnosis in that it is not used for entertainment, but rather to achieve therapeutic gains. Hypnosis can work for you by helping you to utilize a greater proportion of your unused potential. Through trance work, you become enabled to take more control and gain greater understanding of yourself. Hypnosis can contribute to helping you feel good about yourself and the world and improve your mental and physical functioning.

CAN HYPNOSIS BE HARMFUL?

People cannot be "made" to violate their own values or accepted patterns of behavior. It is your choice to enter the trance state and likewise it is your choice to leave it at any time. If left in a trance state by your hypnotherapist or by your hypnotic tape you would either return to full consciousness on your own or enter a natural sleep and awaken after a pleasant nap. Trance feels very comfortable, peaceful and natural. You are not anesthetized, unconscious or asleep. Your mind is active, your thoughts are under your control, you perceive all stimuli and you are in complete communication with your therapist.

BENEFICIAL FUNCTIONS?

• Improve sleep, reduce stress, control painful symptoms.
• Control organic functions such as blood pressure and heart rate.
• Potentiate a regression to an earlier experience.
• Increase the ability to concentrate, learn and remember in unusual detail.
• Compress a great deal of thinking and recall into a very short amount of real time.

WHAT IS A HYPNOSIS SESSION?

A typical hypnosis session consists of a discussion of the client's goals and a resolution of any misconceptions about hypnosis; induction, hypnotherapy. After hypnotic trance, the client is returned to full consciousness and the hypnotic experience with its attendant implications for the client's life is discussed. Hypnosis puts your conscious "censoring" mind to sleep so that you can access your "uncensored" subconscious mind. This allows deeper, authentic thoughts and feelings to surface, helping you locate, uncover and edit memories of past experiences to make the positive and permanent changes you desire. By working through old memories and suggesting more positive and productive feelings and actions, people achieve permanent change.

You, the client, are always in control. The hypnotist is simply a collaborator who facilitates the process. You will always be aware of what is going on, and are never in any danger or pain. You can never be made to do anything against your will, nor will you reveal anything you don't want to.