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Hypnotherapy – The Human Mind

Christina — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:02:02 +0000

Continuing my theme of discussing ‘What is Hypnotherapy?’ I thought it would be relevant to talk about the role of the mind in hypnosis.

The human mind is like an ocean and the very surface of this ocean is what we are conscious off. This is the ‘thinking’ or ‘working memory’ part of our mind which helps with our daily decision-making processes. It is realistic, logical and proactive, especially in new situations where we have to apply rational thought processes to work out what to do and how to do it. However, it can only deal with between five and nine things at any one time and is easily overloaded.

What we think about a situation is largely dependent on the information that is stored in the subconscious part of our minds, i.e. our past experiences or memories and how we responded to the events at the time.
The subconscious or main hidden layer of this ocean works on ‘auto pilot’, in that it moves in a direction away from pain (emotional, mental physical) and toward reward and survival. It is the seat of all our emotions, imagination, and instincts and stores all our memories, both remembered and forgotten. It governs our autonomic nervous system, which controls our internal organs automatically. These main functions are very closely interlinked – in other words the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. It is powerful and very clever at dealing with many complex instructions at any one time but is not able to make decisions.
More about the relevance of this next blog.

Hypnotherapy – The Human Mind is a post from: Isis Centre

What is Hypnotherapy? – The unconscious mind

Christina — Thu, 06 May 2010 09:54:28 +0000

As we recognise that the subconscious mind plays a very important role in the process of hypnosis and NLP, we continue with more ‘unconscious’ functions of the mind:

We can forget certain things but later spontaneously recall them.

Intuition.

We learn certain skills so that they become largely automatic e.g.
driving a car, playing a sport.

We can run downstairs without thinking where each foot falls.

Our instincts, such as self-preservation and sex, originate on an
unconscious level.

The origin of all the bodily urges, such as hunger and thirst, lies outside
the conscious mind.

Physical reflexes.

Subliminal perception. It is known that only a very tiny proportion of our
bodily stimuli actually reach consciousness. Otherwise we would be
swamped by billions of stimuli.

More on our wonderful subconscious mind next time and how hypnosis and NLP can influence our unconscious responses…

What is Hypnotherapy? – The unconscious mind is a post from: Isis Centre

What is Hypnotherapy? – The subconscious mind

Christina — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:17:03 +0000

It would be impossible to talk about hypnosis and NLP without addressing the subconscious mind. So, is subconscious/unconscious that important and what does it do any way?
Here’s a list of some of the things we may take for granted that are the
responsibility of the subconscious.

Most bodily processes that are not consciously controlled e.g.breathing, blood circulation, blinking.

Something – not the conscious mind – creates the dreams that we inhabit at night.

The mind spontaneously moving from one idea or recollection to another.

Creative ideas that do not appear to come from conscious thinking.

Waking up in the morning with an insight or solution to a problem.

All memory is unconscious. The act of remembering something means bringing the information stored outside our conscious mind into our awareness.

We can forget certain things but later spontaneously recall them.

Since without memory both thinking and learning would be impossible, the importance of the unconscious is far greater than may appear.

More subconscious/unconscious skills next time…

What is Hypnotherapy? – The subconscious mind is a post from: Isis Centre

What is Hypnotherapy? – The Hypnotic Trance

Christina — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:08:08 +0000

The actual meaning of the word hypnosis does not accurately reflect the nature
of ‘hypnosis’. The word comes from the Greek Hypnos meaning sleep. Let us
digress for a moment and consider this inactivity we take so for granted: Sleep
is a state of unconsciousness in which we rest our bodies and our minds. We
also dream in ways that make sense in the dream but if those events were
happening in a waking state we might think we’ve gone mad. Yet in an average
lifetime we spend a total of six years dreaming….. Is this a purposeless activity,
simply a side effect of rest or as has been suggested our unconscious sorting
and filing experiences that we didn’t have time for during our waking state?

Yet the hypnotic trance is very unlike sleep in at least one very important
respect. In hypnosis whether it is a light or deep hypnotic state we are actually
more aware, not less. In sleep our attention seems to have a mind of it’s own
but in trance it’s as though we choose what we experience. And as well as choice
we can also focus our attention in a way that is detached from our daily
concerns. This is extremely helpful, because then we are able to take a
perspective on problems in a more resourceful state and secondly consider what
life would actually be like without the problem.

What is Hypnotherapy? – The Hypnotic Trance is a post from: Isis Centre

What is hypnotherapy?

Christina — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:56:15 +0000

What is hypnosis?
As a hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer, I often get asked: What is hypnosis?
And so over the next few weeks I’m going to talk about hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and psychotherapy.

1. It is no easy thing to succinctly define hypnosis. In some ways it easier telling
you what it is not. Hypnosis is tricky to define. Firstly it isn’t new. Hypnotic or trance states have been utilised in rites of passage or celebration by communities and tribes since
humans collected together in social groups. It was accepted that people could go into ‘altered states’ or ‘trance’ under the influence of music, chanting and drumming.

Why use this ‘trance’ state at all? What skilful hypnosis does is use this naturally occurring human ability in targeted and meaningful way. The part of the mind below the surface (the
unconscious) is best able to respond creatively to suggestion and imagery. A
hypnotic trance can by-pass the (often necessary) self limiting faculty of the
conscious mind, with the result that unwanted behaviours and habits can be
modified, self defeating thoughts transformed and even the body’s autonomic
healing functions can be influenced.

More on how this will benefit a ‘client’ later this week.
Find out more about Hypnotherapy training

What is hypnotherapy? is a post from: Isis Centre