The Power of Imagery

(This blog was originally posted on February 21, 2017)

“Imagination is a place where all the important answers live.” – Joe Meno

Photo by Rick Hustead

I use imagery in every hypnotherapy session. Let me tell you why.

• It is an effective deepening technique. When you use imagery, you invoke every perception: visual, olfactory (smell), auditory (hearing), tactile (touch) and taste. All of the senses are more finely attuned during hypnosis. Therefore, when I suggest that you “Visualize, imagine, picture or pretend…” that you are in the middle of a specific scenario you subconsciously incorporate the experiences of these sensations/perceptions, which also strengthens the hypnotic suggestion. The more perceptual details you notice and process, the greater sensory overload you will experience and the more deeply relaxed you will become during your hypnotherapy session.

• The subconscious mind does not know the difference between fantasy and reality, you can practice in your mind those new beliefs and behaviors you want to adopt before you try them out in the real world. Therefore, once you have imagined doing something—as far as your SCM is concerned—you have actually done it.

• Imagery of nature scenes/being in nature is a great way to release stress and tension. Many people experience a deep sense of relaxation and state of calm when they are in nature. Virtually any natural environment—at the beach, in a mountain forest or desert, or near a body of water (moving or still)—brings a sense of calm and comfort that can be difficult to match in our daily lives. The opportunity to take a mini-vacation to one of these scenes during a guided-imagery journey can be just what you need to rejuvenate and feel re-energized to complete a task at work or resolve a problem.

• Through imagery, you can access problem-solving skills and resources that you have used before to help you overcome a similar situation and conquer the current setback. The theory behind this practice is: If you have overcome ‘X’ before, your subconscious mind knows how to use these skills to succeed, again!
  

For more information about how therapeutic guided imagery in hypnotherapy can help you achieve your vocational and avocational self-improvement goals, please contact me at (661) 433-9430 or send an e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2018

How Hypnotherapy Is Like Muscle Memory

(This blog was originally posted on May 18, 2014)

      People use the term “muscle memory” a lot in the context of sports and athletic participation. But what is it all about, exactly? Wikipedia.com describes this phenomenon as a product of motor or procedural learning in which specific muscles or muscle groups learn and remember how to do a particular movement after repeating that motion many times over a period of time. It is even possible to improve how you execute this motion as it becomes more automatic in your behavioral repertoire of sports or other movements, such as dancing or playing the guitar.

      While I do not discount the existence of muscle memory, I would contend that it is born not just in a specific part of the body that you use for the desired behavior (e.g., body, arms or legs). Rather, I would argue that muscle memory starts where every other memory begins: in the mind—specifically, in the subconscious mind. The SCM triggers every action we make by sending an electrical impulse through the nervous system to activate the muscle(s) we need to carry out the intended or even unintended or undesired behavior. According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, our only natural or innate responses are the reaction to a fear of falling and the reaction to a fear of loud noises. As the subconscious mind takes in more and more new information, we learn new behaviors and develop personal beliefs. Eventually, we don’t even don’t even think about what we need to do to achieve a desired result, we just do it. Most of us have not thought about what our body must do in order to just walk since we took our first steps as a toddler. Who hasn’t heard the expression, “Once you ride a bike, you never forget how”?

     In fact, I use the idea and theory behind muscle memory in almost all of the hypnotic suggestions I craft for my clients. I create suggestions to reinforce the person’s motivations to change the undesired habit or adopt a desired behavior; then, I reinforce this motivation with guided imagery in which the individual is achieving the desired goal. The subconscious mind does not know the difference between you swinging a golf club on the links versus imagining or pretending that you just made the perfect swing an achieved a hole-in-one while you are in hypnosis. Furthermore, the more times you repeat these desired behaviors in hypnosis or in a guided-imagery exercise, the more opportunities you have to lock those actions into your subconscious mind and in your muscle memory. It just takes repetition of the desired behavior—so I guide my clients through these exercises over and over to reinforce the behavior change during the hypnotherapy session and send them home with a track from the session to further reinforce this work. Hypnosis and guided-imagery techniques enable you to replace unwanted behaviors and adopt the ones you want using a process of repetition and memory similar to the way the muscles in your body learned and remember how to walk.

 Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

Imagery and Sports Hypnosis

(This blog was originally posted on June 29, 2014)

 

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

       Imagery is a powerful tool to help improve your performance in a sport (or just about every other activity in which you participate). Remember: the subconscious mind does not know the difference between actually participating in that sport and “imagining, visualizing, picturing or pretending” that you are working on specific aspects of your training. Therefore, when you can create that mental movie of yourself pitching a no-hitter baseball game, nailing that landing on the balance beam or riding a perfect canter pirouette, etc., the SCM processes this information like it really happened. 

It is beneficial for me to know as much about the sport in which my clients participate so I can create an effective, powerful hypnotic script that will help them achieve their goals. My scope of expertise is in hypnotherapy—i.e., how to help a person become relaxed and change unwanted habits or behaviors to achieve their vocational and avocational self-improvement goals. I am also an equestrian; so while riding and horse-related activities resonate most strongly with me, I understand the commitment, dedication and sacrifice that all athletes must make to succeed in their sport. Before our first appointment, I spend time learning about my clients’ sport, including its rules, terms/lingo and history to get a better sense of their athletic environment.

When I work with clients to help them achieve sports-improvement goals, I encourage these athletes to video-record their training sessions and/or competitions so they can analyze what they would like to improve and why. It is great if their coach or trainer will watch the video with them to provide an objective assessment of their performance, including acknowledgment or praise of what they did right and constructive criticism of the errors to suggest ways of correcting any mistakes. The client can bring notes from this discussion to the hypnotherapy session so I can incorporate the instructions or advice in the hypnotic suggestions. If my client would like me to do this, with his or her permission, I am also happy to speak with the trainer to get information or clarification about specific nuances of the sport. These conversations can be especially beneficial because the coach will outline specific tips to improve the athlete’s technical execution of a technique, and I can incorporate these technical suggestions in the hypnotic script.

I like to use therapeutic guided-imagery when I work with athletes because, again, these techniques activate my client’s subconscious mind to mentally engage in their sport. It doesn’t even matter whether the person is physically (responds better to literal and direct suggestions) or emotionally suggestible (prefer metaphor and inference). When I customize the hypnotic script for an athlete, I take the person’s suggestibility into account when I incorporate his or her sport-improvement goal(s). During the imagery journey, the client will have several opportunities to rehearse or practice making the desired changes to his or her athletic performance while in hypnosis. In so doing, he or she will be able to virtually experience how it feels to make these changes by engaging all five senses: What does it look/feel/taste/smell/sound like when you do “x”? Engaging the senses in this way not only increases the intensity (“reality”) of the imagery experience, it also reinforces the behavior as a new known in the SCM, which facilitates the desired change in behavior (improved sport performance).

               

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

© 2015