Calming your thoughts with cognitive hypnotherapy
We wouldn’t blame you for panicking slightly when you hear the word “hypnotherapy”. After all, it tends to conjure up images of innocent people in front of an audience, being convinced they’re a chicken or pretending that they’ve got superpowers, while hundreds of people laugh and point at them.
Thankfully, there’s a big difference in both the practice and results you get from cognitive hypnotherapy. It’s designed to target stressed, overactive minds, giving them the tools they need to tackle the root of the mental strain they’re suffering. It’s calming, therapeutic and clients report an improvement in their mental state after just one session.
What is cognitive hypnotherapy?
You probably don’t even realise it, but you go into a trance several times a day, without realising. Your brain tunes out, or becomes so absorbed in what you’re doing – it could be a movie, a meeting or just sitting on the train or bus – that it seems to switch off, and you enter a dream-like trance state with no awareness of time flying by. Not once do you act like a chicken, or tell your fellow passengers that you’re a superhero. Your brain is simply super relaxed, and it’s this state which cognitive hypnotherapy helps you to achieve.
How does it work?
Your hypnotherapist will be highly trained in cognitive behaviour therapy and will help you to enter a relaxed, trance-like state. There will be no swinging pocket watches, or clichés like “Look into my eyes”, just calming words to allow your brain to tune out distractions.
While you’re in this relaxed state, the therapist targets the behaviour areas which cause you distress. It could be a phobia, like a fear of flying. Working on the basis that the brain has developed this fear for a reason (perhaps to keep you safe from the dangers of being in an aeroplane), your therapist talks to your subconscious, explaining why the fear or behaviour is nothing to worry about.
With the brain more open to hearing reason in this relaxed state, the problem can be easily addressed and the fear or distress rationalised. Check out the Healthypages directory to help find the treatment you need.
What outcome should I expect?
Each person’s life experience is different, so everyone will need a different approach to achieve a successful outcome. By the same token, not everyone will see an immediate result, although many participants acknowledge an improvement after a single session. Generally, two or three sessions will be needed for genuine, long-term improvements.
If you’re looking for a new way to help deal with the stresses and strains of everyday life, cognitive hypnotherapy may be exactly what you need. Take back control of your brain, and your life, and enjoy new found calmness. There’s not a pocket watch or chicken impression to be seen.
