What is Cognitive Hypnotherapy?

"Cognitive Hypnotherapy is a modern scientific form of therapy bringing together ideas and techniques from various disciplines and binding them together with hypnotic language to create a powerful integrated approach."

Trance

A core part of what I do is to use trance to enable changes to be made at an subconscious level, which means both that the changes are easier to make and also that they are far more likely to be long lasting. However, the trance will probably not be what you expect: I will not be clicking my fingers, saying "Sleep" in a deep voice, and having you drop like a sack of potatoes into a chair!

The level of trance needed for most techniques to be effective is only a very light one, and one which you will be familiar with. How can I be sure of that? Well, have you ever daydreamed? Been so absorbed in a book or film that you haven't heard someone speak to you? Or, driven a familiar route to find that at the end of it you don't recall much of it? Well, this is the sort of trance we need, and sometimes you don't even need to close your eyes to achieve it. There is also a place within Cognitive Hypnotherapy for the deeper trances that most traditional hypnotherapists rely on. For these I will just guide you into deeper and deeper levels of relaxation, and I have not yet come across anyone who has not found this a pleasant, enjoyable state to be in.

NLP

A lot of the techniques that we could use to help you with are drawn from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP explores the relationships between how we think (neuro), how we communicate (linguistic) and our patterns of behaviour and emotion (programmes).

What this means in plain language is that a dedicated group of gifted people have worked hard since the 1970's to develop techniques which actually do 'what it says on the tin'.

A key concept of NLP is that we all have our own unique "map of the world", through which we perceive and interact with our environment. Your particular map has been created through your life experiences, and will determine whether you see the glass as half-empty or half-full.

I will aim to join you in your map of the world in order to help you most effectively, which is why you will probably not hear me telling you to "imagine yourself lying on a sandy beach, with the sound of the waves and birds in the background". This is not likely to be very relaxing for you if you hate the water, are phobic of birds, or nearly drowned in the sea when you were four years old and haven't been on a beach since!

This is one way in which I am different to many traditional hypnotherapists, who often work from scripts. These could work well for you if your map of the world is similar to that of the therapist (or the person who wrote the script, if it were one of the many available you can download of the Internet), but how likely is that?

Many of the NLP techniques I use will involve a dialogue between us, and I will be both guiding you through the techniques and ensuring that you are getting the most benefit possible from them. It's a two-way process.

Other techniques

I may teach you other techniques to use yourself, for example Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which you can use between sessions to enhance the work done. You can also continue to use them when the therapy is finished as they will be life-long skills that you will be able to apply to many different situations.

Interactive sessions

It is important to realise that Cognitive Hypnotherapy isn't something that is "done" to you. It is an interactive process between us, with you helping to guide the direction the therapy takes through your preferences and feedback.

If your impression is that I have some kind of magic wand to 'make' you change you are clearly fooling yourself. This indulgent nonsense is for comedy stage-shows. There are many 'hypnotists' out there who will happily indulge this delusion - and relieve you of your hard-earned cash. I am not one of them.

Let me be clear, to the point of bluntness, for a moment.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy is a two-way process. If you want to just sit there waiting for the 'hypnosis' to either do all the work, or to fail so you can say 'told ya it wouldn't work' then you should seek therapy elsewhere. I would rather make this crystal clear right now than us waste each others time.

One of the central tenets of nlp is that you already have all the resources you need to solve your problem. My job as a therapist is to act as a tour guide. To help you to help yourself.

If you are interested in a more detailed description of Cognitive Hypnotherapy and NLP please browse more information about Cognitive Hypnotherapy and NLP