(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.
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Sara
R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern
California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in
2005. In July 2019 she was voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita,
California. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2019
