Self-reliant: Hypnosis for greater self-reliance
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’s normal for children not to be entirely self-reliant, and as we age, it can also become more difficult to maintain self-reliance. In the years in between, however, it’s quite useful.
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
When it comes to your mental health and self-reliance, the key is being able to cope with stress or stressful life events. For example, do you become completely overwhelmed when you experience an accident or lose someone in your life, and do you react to these events more intensely than usual? Does this really interfere with your ability to function? If so, you have reduced mental self-reliance.
Hypnotherapy gives people the tools to cope with stress and other life challenges. Knowledge of self-hypnosis, mindfulness, reframing (also known as changing one’s perspective), and NLP provides people with the know-how to effectively handle difficult situations.
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 effectively treated with hypnotherapy, as it changes one’s mindset regarding healthy eating and exercise. A 2020 study that synthesized previous research found that people who had undergone hypnotherapy not only lost weight during therapy but also continued to lose weight after therapy ended. They exercised more and ate healthier. The participants who underwent hypnotherapy also experienced a higher quality of life[1].
For physical problems that doctors can no longer treat, hypnosis can help people cope with them in a different way. Learning to live with physical problems can be made easier with hypnosis, and some unexplained symptoms 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
I can tell you a thing or two about substance use. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I used to take some pills and that a traumatic event in my life caused me to drastically change course and experience “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 effectively used to build resilience and prevent relapses. It doesn’t matter whether someone is addicted to, for example, amphetamines or opioids[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 of the Netherlands use the social panorama. This technique is very similar to a family constellation, but you do it all yourself using visualizations rather than with the help of 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 refer to this as improving one’s money mindset—something we primarily help entrepreneurs with, but which is actually beneficial for everyone to cultivate in a positive way.
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 factors plays an important role. In fact, education can play a significant role throughout your entire life. For example, if you’re not doing work you enjoy and this leads to burnout , pursuing a different course of study can help you return to work that you do enjoy—work that energizes you.
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 courage to change jobs or even to start a completely new course of study.
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.
Would you like to get started with hypnosis? Then join a free online masterclass to get acquainted with it.
Or sign up right away for one of our courses. The course is taught in a hybrid format. This means you can attend in person or live from home. You can follow the lesson via cameras, and computers are available so that people in the classroom can practice with you as well.
How cool is that!
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