Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are often misunderstood. For years, Hollywood has used hypnosis as a credible excuse for wholly incredible story lines.  The truth is that hypnosis isn't the dark tool that Hollywood would have us believe.

First of all, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. It is a state of deep relaxation, during which the subconscious mind is in a heightened state of susceptibility to suggestion. That's why it works.

Hypnosis has been around for a couple of hundred years and was first hinted at by Anton Mesmer (yes, the word mesmerize is derived from his name), but his beliefs were more supernatural that psychological. Modern hypnosis was defined by a Scottish physician called Charles Braid in 1843. Braid discovered that by inducing relaxation, he could affect change in his patients that he was unable to achieve when they were in a fully conscious state. 

Some 40yrs later, a French philosopher Hippolyte Bernheim defined hypnosis more clearly as a state of sleep of the nervous system that facilitates the subconscious acceptance of suggestion.  

When something is accepted into the subconscious, it becomes a part of our natural habits, making it simple and natural to achieve. Much of this is achieved through habit and repetition. Think about the things you learned as a child like riding a bike or learning the alphabet. at first they took effort and concentration, but over the years with practice and rehearsal, they become so natural and so internalized that we no longer even need to think about them when we recite the alphabet or ride a bike. Imagine having to think about everything we do in life, every detail, every move. Life would be unbearably slow and difficult. Walking, talking, driving, answering the phone... are all examples of things we do naturally and subconsciously. By using the subconscious mind, we can affect changes that then become as natural as walking, talking, driving etc.

When we try to lose weight, for example, the biggest barrier to success is the fact that we have to make a conscious effort to change our diet or exercise more.  Gaining weight takes no effort because we just eat what we want when we want, and exercise as little as we want. Now imagine eating what you want and when you want, exercising when you feel like it, but instead of gaining weight you actually lose weight. That's the power of hypnosis!