Hypnotherapy is a gentle talking therapy using guided relaxation techniques (hypnosis), where one if fully awake and aware of one’s surroundings, yet deeply relaxed. This trance-like state is similar to being completely absorbed in a book, film, or one’s own thoughts or meditation. This state helps to turn our full attention within to tap into our subconscious, where it is possible with careful guidance to change our thought patterns and create positive changes in the areas of life we wish to address.
Hypnotherapy can therefore be applied to a wide spectrum of health conditions and mental health issues, as well as stress-related concerns and societal pressures. In addition it helps with pain management, insomnia, learning disorders, phobias, relationship issues, undesirable behaviours and habits, substance abuse and a wide range of medical conditions.
Ericksonian Hypnotherapy
Ericksonian hypnotherapy (or indirect, metaphorical hypnosis) is the term used to describe a very specific type of hypnosis which is hallmarked by using indirect suggestion, metaphor and storytelling, as opposed to the direct typeof suggestion that was its predecessor. Ericksonian hypnosis is considered a highly effective type of therapy and is the preferred style of many hypnotherapy practitioners today, who use these solution-focused techniques to give their clients excellent outcomes.
Milton Erickson (1901 - 1980) was an American psychiatrist who specialised in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the AmericanSociety for Clinical Hypnosis and is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. He is also noted for influencing brief therapy, strategic family therapy, family systems therapy, solution focused brief therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming
During his long career Erickson established himself as an outstanding therapist, putting forward the concept that we all go in and out of trance many times during the day without even being aware of it.
Everybody experiences moments of daydreaming or times when we might drive to a location and then wonder how we got there. These moments are indicative of a change in brainwaves that leads to trance. Our subconscious mind takes over and our conscious mind has no recollection of this drift in awareness.
MiltonErickson’s work has inspired many areas of therapy today, including neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Richard Bandler and John Grindler, who are the founders of NLP, studied Erickson’s style in depth and incorporated many of his inductions and communication skills into their NLP set, naming the MiltonModel in honour of this revolutionary therapist.
Trance-like states to improve mental state or alter behaviour have been used throughout history in spiritual and religious practices, with the first known written indicator dating back to 1027 in a publication called 'The Book of Healing'.
However, notable explorations for therapeutic uses of hypnosis only began in the late 1700s with the physician Franz Anton Mesmer, though these did not achieve universal scientific credibility.
In the mid 1800s, the pioneer of French neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot pioneered the use of hypnosis, a term first coined by James Braid in 1842, to treat a condition that was then known as hysteria, with great success. From then on, hypnosis became increasingly recognised in the medical and scientific circles and was even used as a form of anaesthesia for surgeries. By late 1800, the use of hypnosis was shifting more towards psychology, as practiced most famously by Sigmund Freud, rather than medical use, and in the1960s, hypnosis was recognised as a valid psychological treatment by the American Psychological Association, eventually leading to the growth of modern-day hypnotherapy.
