If you were to choose a hypnotherapist, how would you go about it?  First of all, and most importantly, choose a hypnotherapist with suitable qualifications, then find out how they work and what their fees are. If you have a specific problem that you are seeking help for, ask how their therapy will help you. A good hypnotherapist will base their therapy around the client’s problem.  This is called client centred therapy.  Some hypnotherapists simply read general scripts using suggestion and imagery.  This is called ‘Clinical Hypnotherapy’ and will work on its own for some of the people some of the time.  However for the therapy to be successful, the hypnotherapist should base their practice on a solid foundation. 

Roy Hunter, world renowned hypnotherapist says that the ‘Four Cornerstones of Hypnotherapy’ are four important Hypnotherapy objectives which provide a blueprint for increasing the probability of client success.  These are:

1. Suggestion and Imagery

2. Discover the Cause

3. Release

4. Subconscious re-learning 

The Four Cornerstones of Hypnotherapy

1.  Suggestion and imagery

If you, the client, have a strong emotional desire to change, then just using suggestion and imagery alone may be helpful.  However, without a strong emotional desire to accept the suggestions, either the conscious or the subconscious may block or resist the suggestions and the improvement may only be temporary.  For lasting success the other three cornerstones should be employed.

2.  Discover the Cause

When you are in a state of hypnosis, you are deeply relaxed, your conscious analytical mind starts to recede and let go.  The subconscious or inner mind can then be guided back in your imagination, to reveal the cause of the problem.  It is then possible to look at childhood perceptions of the past with adult eyes and allow the emotion attached to this to be redirected or released in a positive way.  This leads us to the third cornerstone  - Release.

3.  Release

There are a number of different techniques that can be used to gain release from the cause of the problem without confronting anyone.  The hypnotherapist can facilitate forgiveness or release in an appropriate way, freeing the client from the bondage of holding a grudge and resolving the problem.  CBT on the other hand, is useful in that it teaches the client to learn to cope with their problem, but does not help them to resolve it.

4.  Subconscious re-learning

The fourth Hypnotherapy objective uses suggestion and imagery to facilitate adult understanding at a subconscious level.  Clients verbalise their own re-learning and the hypnotherapist paraphrases back in the form of suggestions and imagery giving the client a more mature understanding and a new perception of the problem.

How does Hypnotherapy work?

First of all, let’s think about the 4 states of mind:

If you think of a staircase, at the top of the stairs is when you are wide awake, your conscious mind is in Beta state; the mind is in high gear ready for making decisions, reasoning and logical thinking. At the bottom of the staircase is when you are fast asleep; this is when you are in Delta State. The states in between are Alpha State and Theta State; these are the hypnotic states.  In Alpha State you are still conscious but very relaxed and as you drift down into Theta State you drift deeper into relaxation and Meditation. 

When you are in a hypnotic state you are open to suggestion, learning, creativity and imagination; the door between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind begins to open and this enhances communication between these two parts of the mind. Roy Hunter says that imagination is the language of the subconscious mind.  The subconscious does not know the difference between what is fact and what is fantasy; it responds to what is imagined just as though it is real.  In our imagination we are able to discover and eliminate subconscious blocks, leaving us free to let go of limiting beliefs, free to move forward and live more fulfilling lives - achieve whatever we wish to achieve, be anything we wish to be.