Hypnotherapy has enjoyed rapid growth over the last decade. As it grows in popularity, hypnotherapy is now easier to access more than ever and is being applied to wide range of topics. In this article we will take a tour of the world of hypnotherapy and how it is used to make change. Well look at the definition of hypnotherapy and what to expect after you settle into your hypnotherapists comfy couch.

According to Websters Dictionary hypnotherapy is psychotherapy that facilitates suggestion, reeducation, or analysis by hypnosis.
Hypnosis is defined as a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination.

The aim of hypnotherapy is to help you get more of what you want, either stopping behaviours, like smoking cessation or weight loss, or starting behaviours like public speaking or stress management. A hypnotherapy session will lead you to rethink, review and change the way information is stored in your brain.

A typical hypnotherapy session will gently lull you into an altered state of consciousness. This altered state of consciousness feels like being drowsy, or zoned out and this feeling will last for the length of the session usually an hour or 90mins. You are still awake but you are so happily focused on what the hypnotherapist is saying that you pay more attention to the story and less to your immediate surroundings.

This story typically has several parts:
a beginning, called an induction to help you settle and begin to focus your attention,
a bridge or deepener, this will help you relax even further,
the middle, this is an imaginative story about a sequence of events that changes the way you see or experience a behavior,
and an end, this refocuses you on your immediate surroundings and returns you to a normal wide awake state.

The information that makes up the middle part of this story varies from topic to topic. For instance, if you are having hypnotherapy for smoking cessation the story might be about how fresh, clean air feels good in your lungs, or how when you were a child you breathed fresh air with enthusiasm and felt satisfied. If your session is about public speaking skills the story might be about how easy it is to speak with friends at a caf and how you speak in public often without any hesitation or fear.

The suggestions embedded through a hypnotherapy story lead you to rethink and change the way information is stored in your brain. What once was seen as positive and necessary can be seen as outdated and unhelpful, what was seen as frightening and impossible can be seen as easy and fun.

With every new connection comes the possibility for different behavior, some people make enough connections through one session to begin new behaviours straight away. Other people will see gradual change over the weeks following their session or will need more than one session of hypnotherapy to start to make the changes that they want.

Overall, hypnotherapy is extremely popular with its wide application and the impressive results it can give. The most common uses of hypnotherapy are smoking cessation and weight loss, so confident are some hypnotherapists that they guarantee success or your money back.

When you begin hypnotherapy you can expect a therapy session to send you almost to sleep and to focus your attention with a story full of suggestions. As you relax your brain makes different connections and these new connections can bring new behaviours and perspectives. The real benefit of a hypnotherapy session can be felt in the days or weeks following a session and can literally give you a chance to rethink who you are and how you behave. The application of hypnotherapy is constantly evolving and will continue to shape how we think about what we are capable of. If you want to change your behaviours, hypnotherapy is a remarkably relaxing way to do so.