(This blog was originally posted on July 27,
2014)
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| Photo by Rick Hustead |
Every now and
then, someone seeking hypnotherapy comes in for the appointment already hypnotized. Hypnosis is a
completely natural state which every one of us experiences for approximately 30
minutes, at least twice a day—just before drifting to sleep at night and right
after waking up in the morning. As I have
explained in previous blogs, we are also susceptible to experiencing a natural,
environmentally-induced trance at other times of the day. (For more information
about this topic, see: Have
You Ever Been Hypnotized Before?; An
Extreme Example of Environmental Hypnosis; and Hypnotized
by the Grocery Store. And then there are instances in which we hypnotize
ourselves. This is the state (and
kind) of hypnosis I will address in this essay.
Psychologist and hypnotherapist John Kappas, Ph.D. observed that hypnosis
occurs when an overload of message units disorganizes the inhibitory process,
which triggers the fight/flight response to result in this hyper-suggestible
state. Since we are more suggestible to ourselves than any other stimuli in our
environment, we can get caught in a pattern of carrying beliefs or behaving in
ways that do not work for us, but we continue to act that way because that is
what we have always done. For example, someone who continues to accept work
that is considerably below the individual’s skill and desired pay-grade may do
this because the individual follows a subconscious mental script that says this is the best
he or she can do. Now, despite expressing a desire to pursue a more lucrative
career and possessing obvious skill to do that work, the person doesn’t even try
to pursue a different career because he or she believes that original mental
script.
To help an
already-hypnotized client exit this state, Dr. Kappas advised deepening the
person’s state even further and blocking his or her subconscious mind from
accepting negative suggestions or influences from the environment. This must be
done before proceeding with the
regular hypnotherapy session to address the self-improvement goals that the
client wants to actualize, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder said. If
the client knows when, where and why these negative mental-scripts evolved, I
will systematically desensitize the person to the environmental stimuli that
trigger the undesired responses/behaviors.
However, if the
client does not know how these negative mental scripts evolved, I do not employ age-regression therapy to
explore and desensitize the origins of those negative beliefs. (For more
information about this topic, see my blog titled “Age
Regression…and why I Don’t Use This Technique. Rather, I use a technique called
“rejection-proofing,” wherein I provide hypnotic suggestions to help increase
the client’s overall self-acceptance, self-appreciation and self-approval. This
process enables the individual to dismiss the negative self-talk (“chatter”) in
the person’s subconscious mind and re-write a new mental script to reinforce
the positive beliefs about his or her abilities to pursue those goals.
Finally, to
increase the person’s ability to control entering the hypnotic state, I target
the logical (left-brain) side of the client’s subconscious mind during this and
subsequent hypnotherapy sessions. I also teach the person how to count out of
hypnosis whenever the individual notices that he or she is naturally entering
this state at home, work, driving or any other time.
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/.
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