How To Make Hypnotherapy Work Faster

By Stuart J Adams

A lot of people have some very unhelpful misconceptions about how hypnotherapy works. For example, being in a trance does not mean that you are completely out of control. If anything, quite the opposite.

Doing hypnosis is all about getting the usual racing thoughts to slow down long enough to become more receptive to new suggestions. Put it this way: Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, and it's clear as day that they're just not 'taking it in'. They're stuck in their own head so to speak, and rather than spending energy thinking about what you are asking them to consider, instead all they are thinking about is the next thing they are going to say. It becomes a pointless exercise because the person is not taking anything new in at all, but simply defending a belief they have been holding onto.

So now consider that the entire purpose of any kind of psychotherapy (especially hypnotherapy) is to let go of unhelpful beliefs and to change your way of thinking. The catch is, most of those unhelpful beliefs are unconscious. Meaning - you don't even necessarily realise that you've been holding onto them.

It's a common fault in human thinking for us to assume that we would know reality from a belief that we have been holding onto to serve an emotional cause. Let me give you a classic example to demonstrate.

In a recent psychological study, researchers recruited people who were either climate skeptics (people who do not believe in global warming) or climate believers (people who do believe in global warming). Each person was introduced to a panel of scientists (who were actually actors). They were told one of two things.

They were either told: "All the world's leading experts on climate change have put together all the evidence and have reached the conclusion that climate change actually isn't real". Alternatively they were told that "All the worlds leading experts on climate change have put together all the evidence and have reached the conclusion that climate change is actually not only real but worse than first thought."

So this is what happened.

When the climate skeptic were told that the evidence showed climate change to be worse than first thought, it didn't change their beliefs. But when they were told that the evidence showed it to not be real, it strengthened the beliefs they already had.

But when climate believers were told that the evidence showed global warming not to be real, it didn't change their beliefs. Yet when they were told the evidence showed it to be worse than first thought, it strengthened the beliefs they already had.

So here's the lesson.

Humans will naturally seek out evidence to reinforce existing beliefs whilst resisting evidence to the contrary. That's fine when their beliefs are serving them, but what about when it's not?

So if you go to see a therapist of any kind - especially a hypnotherapist. Remember - no matter how contrary their suggestions sound, stop and consider it. The more you stop and consider it, the more your brain activity starts to slow, and the faster their suggestions for change will start to sink in deeper, and deeper.

If you'd like more tips and tricks to get more out of your hypnotherapy, see the Hypnotherapy Hornsby website by Stuart Adams.