Sceptical Of Hypnotherapy?
Sceptical? You probably should be.
There are a lot of big claims out there – our lives are saturated with marketing. To have a business these days, everyone is clamouring to shout their message louder than everyone else.
It can be overwhelming, especially when the problem that you are trying to solve is overwhelm.
And so you are right to be sceptical. I'm not surprised that you are.
But here's the interesting thing – I prefer working with clients with healthy scepticism. I encourage my clients to come with curiosity and realistic expectations.
Change starts with Curiosity.
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Curiosity leads to understanding.
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Understanding leads to feeling more comfortable in your own mind.
You’ve tried, but nothing has worked
Perhaps you've tried CBT. You've tried counselling. You've tried eye-movement therapy, mindfulness, yoga and breathing, and maybe things have helped a bit, but nothing has changed dramatically for you.
And so you come away and tell yourself:
It's too deeply ingrained.
I've felt like this for so long; it's hard to move.
I'm damaged and can't be fixed.
It's part of who I am.
It's different for me from other people.
I'm beyond help.
I would like to encourage you to understand that none of these things is true...unless you believe them to be.
Maybe you've tried hypnotherapy before, and it did not work?
So what do I do that is different?
How therapy can fail and what I do about it
Your emotional discomfort is very real, but it is built on an illusion.
Your emotional discomfort is driven by a story in your mind that has become more real than reality. You do not agree with the story, or you would not be seeking therapy, but it feels real to you.
If someone comes to see me because they have a constant feeling that something bad is going to happen, they are not asking me to ensure that nothing bad ever happens to them. They are asking me to help them feel safer and more secure in their daily lives.
If someone comes to see me for social anxiety, they are not asking me to ensure that everyone they ever meet from now on is a lovely, friendly, compassionate person who likes them. They are asking me to help them worry less about what others are thinking and feel more confident with unfamiliar people.
When someone comes to see me for fear of flying, they are not asking me to ensure every future flight they take is safe. They are asking me to help them feel safer and more relaxed on a flight.
Someone who wants to stop or reduce their drinking is not asking me to make drinking less fun; they are asking me to help them change the way they think and feel about drinking.
If therapy has not worked in the past, it is because the thoughts and feelings that drive the discomfort still feel more real than the story that would drive the confidence and security.
Therapy with me helps you see and understand the psychological illusion at play here. Here is a story to explain:
Imagine a practical joke being played. Someone drops a large, knobbly chocolate bar in a swimming pool and then points at it and screams.
Everyone looks at what they are pointing at and then scrabbles in desperation to be as far from it as possible, feeling revulsion, feeling sick, feeling dirty, feeling scared.
The pool clears, and no one will get back in until it is drained and refilled...
...until it is discovered that it is just a chocolate bar, at which point everyone calms down, laughs, and begins to relax back into their pool activities
Nothing bad has happened, but everyone was reacting to their thoughts about the situation, not the reality of the situation. There was never any threat, but some people experienced some powerful emotional responses.
In therapy with me, we will investigate the psychological illusion behind your discomfort in order to disempower the thoughts and feelings that are creating the discomfort.
The more we can disempower those thoughts and feelings, the more likely your mind is to accept my assistance in letting go of the unhelpful story so you can get back to splashing about in the comfortable waters of your life once again.
Three phases to becoming more comfortable in your own mind.
We suffer when we mistake our uncomfortable thoughts for reality. By objectifying these thoughts, we disempower that illusion. This is the process I use in my recommended three-session structure:
Session 1: Explore The Psychological Illusion And Sow Seeds Of Change
Using hypnosis, stories and thought experiments, we will help you begin to change your relationship with your unhelpful thoughts and feelings.
We will also help you understand hypnosis, how it is a part of the problem and why it can therefore be an effective part of the solution.
Session 2: Identify and Change the Story
Hypnosis can be a great tool for finding out the subconscious story driving a problem. Is there something going on that you are not consciously aware of?
Then we will use what we learn to change the unhelpful story into something more helpful.
Session 3: Objectifying your thoughts and feelings
We will look more closely at how your mind and body create the unhelpful thoughts and feelings that are still lingering until they don’t feel real anymore.
To live the rest of your life without uncomfortable thoughts and feelings is unrealistic. Learning to be comfortable with the uncomfortable means they are no longer a threat and cannot escalate the way they did before.
Common feedback by the end of the third session is:
“It's so quiet in there...I don't know what to do...........”
“Thoughts feel further away and difficult to think about.”
“I feel so much lighter.”
“I can think about it, but it does not bother me anymore.”
“I just feel excited when I think about it now.”
How
will
I
feel
afterwards?
CONTACT
This can feel like a big step, but it’s time to start feeling better.
Book an appointment or contact me for a chat. If you’re not local to Worthing, online sessions are available.