Being self-reliant is important in life, even though we are social animals who need each other. Because it is one thing to need each other, and it is quite another to be a block on someone's leg.
In life, it is normal to not be completely self-reliant as a child, and as an elder, it can also become more difficult to maintain self-reliance in your life. In the period in between, though, it comes in handy.
To determine how self-reliant a person is, a self-reliance matrix(click here for more info) is often used. This self-reliance measurement tool gives an indication about:
- Finance
- Work and training
- Time spent
- Housing
- Relationships
- Mental Health
- Physical Health
- Substance abuse (drugs or booze)
- Be able to perform your daily life actions
- Social Network
- Community participation
- Contact with Justice
This matrix with indications about these areas is used by counselors to see where people need help.
In terms of hypnotherapy, hypnosis primarily helps people improve their self-efficacy in terms of mental health, physical health (provided it is not due to a disability), substance use, relationships, finances, work and education.
Mental health and self-efficacy
As for your mental health and self-efficacy, it's all about being able to cope with stress or stressful life events. Do you get totally upset when you experience an accident, for example, lose someone in your life and react to this more extreme than usual. Does this really get in the way of your functioning? If so, then you have mentally impaired self-efficacy.
Hypnotherapy gives people the tools to deal with stress and other adversities in life. Knowledge of self-hypnosis, mindfulness, reframing (also known as overlearning) and NLP gives people know-how to still handle difficult situations well.
Sometimes such a difficult situation can still affect a person's life for a long time. In that case, a hypnotherapist can help process trauma, for example. This can improve functioning in daily life.
Physical health and self-efficacy
Fatigue, obesity, we all suffer from it from time to time, but when it causes you to not be able to get out of the house or do your own shopping, there is something wrong.
Research shows that obesity can be treated well with hypnotherapy because it changes the mindset about healthy eating and exercise. A 2020 study that sort of summarized previous studies found that people who had received hypnotherapy not only lost weight during therapy, but also after therapy stopped. They moved more and ate healthier. The hypnotized people also experienced a higher quality of life[1].
For physical problems that doctors can no longer do anything about, hypnosis can help people deal with them in a different way. Learning to live with physical problems can be made easier with hypnosis, and some unexplained complaints can even be completely resolved.
For example, if you have somatic complaints that cause pain, hypnosis can be used against this[2].
Substance abuse and self-efficacy
About substance abuse, I can tell you a thing or two. If you have been following me for any length of time, you know that I used to take a few pills and that a violent event in my life caused me to drastically change course and "suffer" from post-traumatic growth.
Before this, I actually couldn't handle stress well at all. My mental self-efficacy was not optimal. Hence, I was "substance abusing," but because I have studied hypnosis very deeply, I have become much more self-reliant. Maybe even extremely self-reliant.
While deepening my understanding of hypnosis, I even discovered that what I did during that violent event was a hypnosis technique that therapists can use to help people who abuse substances to stop doing so.
So this technique is also taught to students at Hypnosis Institute Netherlands.
Research shows that hypnosis can be well used to become more resilient and prevent relapses. It does not matter if a person is addicted to amphetamine or opioids, for example[3].
Relationships and self-empowerment
This may sound a little crazy, because if you are self-reliant then you can manage yourself, right? True, but for your mental health it is also good to have good relationships. A good relationship with family (or at least friends), so you have people around you who you can talk to and who can help you if you do need help. Just think about who would help you if you fell off your bike and broke a leg? No one would blame you then for needing some help for a while anyway.
To improve relationships, we at the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands use the social panorama. This technique is very similar to a family constellation, but you do it all yourself with visualizations rather than using actors.
After all, the idea is that your family and friends are in a certain place. And that place says something about the relationship. Perhaps someone is too close or too far away. A hypnotherapist can then help you change that placement. Changing that placement can already change your view of a relationship. Which causes you to act differently toward that person, and that can transform the whole relationship[4].
Once when I myself used this technique, immediately afterwards one of my sons called me to just chat. Something he had never done before. So you see, when you change something in yourself, it can directly affect your surroundings. Even if they are not even near you.
Finance and self-reliance
Money is an important tool for your survival. If you can't get your finances in order then it doesn't help your self-sufficiency. You may have to keep asking your parents or even friends for money and that just doesn't feel right.
A hypnotherapist can help people look at money differently. For example, if you believe that money is a source of evil, that doesn't help you be motivated to make enough money. So by checking your beliefs about money and making them more positive, your whole dealings with money can be changed.
We also call this improving the money mindset. Something we especially help entrepreneurs with, but which is actually good for everyone to have positively.
For example, progression - a counterpart to regression - can help you with financial planning by planning precisely from the point where you want to be financially.
Work and education and self-efficacy
Depending on your age, one of these two things play an important role. In fact, in itself, training can play an important role throughout your life. For example, if you're not doing the work you enjoy, and end up in burnout because of it, taking another course can help you get back to doing work you do enjoy. What gives you energy.
Many people also take a course from the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands to complement previous psychological, social or educational training or just because they want to do something completely different in their lives.
However, it often takes guts to change jobs or even start a new training program altogether.
With hypnosis, you can become more confident in your abilities, so you just might do that college-level education or course instead of going for something college-level. Or if your office job is making you completely ill, you can actually gain more confidence in the power of a practical education and that it will actually make you happier. Meanwhile, at least for the money, it often doesn't really matter anymore. So you are really doing something to yourself if you pursue a college education just for the money.
For problems such as exam anxiety, hypnosis can also be used well. At our training, we even provide an mp3 recording for self-hypnosis against exam anxiety before exams, so that everyone can perform optimally on the exams.
Improving self-efficacy with hypnosis
So hypnosis can play an important role in improving people's self-efficacy. So knowledge of hypnosis can benefit you as a counselor tremendously and help your clients tremendously.
Want to get started with hypnosis? Then come to a free online master class for an introduction.
Or enroll directly in one of our training courses. The training is hybrid. This means that you can take it in a classroom setting or live from home. You can follow the class via cameras and there are computers available so that people in the class can practice with you as well.
How cool is that!
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