The New Hypnosis
Hypnosis isn't as mystical or magical, as you might think. Dr. Daniel Araoz, in the forward to my book on weight-management , THE THIN BOOK, colorfully describes what we call "the new hypnosis" and my use of it to benefit weight-management clients.
"Food, glorious food!" chanted Oliver with joy. And, yes, if food were merely a means to satisfy our hunger and to solidify our bonds with others, it always would be glorious. But food can also create problems, as it does in mostly affluent cultures: over-eating, undisciplined eating, eating for its own sake. The poor eat to live and often the rich live to eat. Hal Brickman, a psychotherapist with much experience, and even more sensitivity, common sense, and wisdom, approaches the problem of eating with a method that goes to the core of the problem: athe mind's using negative self-hypnosis and convincing the person that consuming more food is good even when there is no physiological need for it.
Negative self-hypnosis explains many obsessive-compulsive problems, including addiction. After a while the person has developed a strong habit, "a second nature" by then, which, in itself, is difficult to break or change. But underlying the habit is the erroneous thinking that continues to justify eating in the face of satiety. This is what I called negative self-hypnosis, since it leads a person to repeat the harmful behavior with a sense of conviction. Brickman goes straight to that level: one's thinking...."
Hypnosis, here, intends "to transform the negative self-hypnosis into healthy self-hypnosis." In effect, it is changing the person's thinking.
"Still, today there is great ignorance about hypnosis, even among health professionals. The myths are not dead: the hypnotist takes control of the client's mind, the subject can be made to do immoral or hurtful things, only some people can be hypnotized and so on. Unlike the traditional view of hypnosis, the New Hypnosis, which Hal Brickman uses here, involves the predominance of the imagination or right-brain activity, rather than logic and outward-reality orientation or left-brain activity. On the other hand, for some traditionalists, hypnosis is the behavior that follows the induction selected and directed by the hypnotist, deemphasizing the role and input of the client, whereas the New Hypnosis uses various diverse spontaneous client behaviors to facilitate hypnotic functioning.
Those practicing the New Hypnosis do not believe that they hypnotize anybody. They simply guide the client so that he or she can use hypnosis for personal gain. When someone sees a hypnotherapist because he or she believes that his or her weight is a problem, the therapist helps the client to focus on the non-problem, the possible solutions to the problem. The solutions come from the client's own inner-resources, which hypnosis is effective in tapping and utilizing, not from the therapist. Thus, in traditional hypnosis, the clinician is like a surgeon, whereas in the New Hypnosis, the hypnotherapist is a guide, a teacher, a facilitator, and a coach...."
The New Hypnosis approach is respectful of the client's individuality and personal life experiences. There are frequent invitations to consider associations and connections that come to mind while using hypnosis---memories and images from past events, people, places, and situations. This leads naturally to "the unconscious" and to aspects of the self of which the client was not aware, and that often explains the existence of such symptoms as irregulated eating, and, at the same time, mapping new roads to recovery. And because the client is considered an expert in using hypnosis, reframing and optimistic thinking are substituted for the negative elements of helplessness on which the patient has been relying on his or her own."
Issues Treated with Hypnotherapy:
* Weight Loss Hypnosis
* Stop Smoking Hypnosis
* Getting Past Fears/Phobias
* Dealing With Anxiety
* Increase Performance
* Public Speaking
* Focus/Concentration
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