Hypnotherapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses hypnosis.
Hypnosis is another state of consciousness similar to how you feel just before you fall asleep. One way to measure whether someone is in hypnosis is to use an eeg device. This is because then they have different brain waves than when someone is not in hypnosis.
This state helps you find problems more easily and adopt suggestions that help you think differently about problems. This helps you have a more pleasant life after therapy.
In the process, hypnosis strengthens the networks in your brain that help you make decisions, reason, logic and your creativity. The activities your brain needs to visualize things are also strengthened when you are in hypnosis[1].
These are incredibly useful things when you want to solve a problem, especially if you get guidance from a hypnotherapist in doing so. These features make hypnotherapy work.
When you are in hypnosis, a hypnotherapist will use techniques to help you solve your problems. You are then going to tap into that other state and the good aspects of it so that you can actually benefit from it.
There are an awful lot of techniques by which hypnosis can help you solve certain problems. These can include cognitive behavioral therapy, regression, something with symbols and family constellation can also be used depending on the problem.
What problems can you solve with hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is best known for its ability to help people quit smoking[2], but that is certainly not the only thing hypnosis can help with.
When you physically cannot find what can explain a complaint, for example, hypnosis can also be of service. For example, this is often the case with chronic pain.
In addition, hypnosis can also help with complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome[3], fibromyalgia[4] and migraines[5].
Then you have other mental problems, such as depression, addictions and anxiety that hypnosis can offer you help for.
Steps in hypnotherapy
When you decide to see a hypnotherapist for your problem, there are a number of steps that make up the therapy. For many problems, three sessions are enough to get rid of them with hypnotherapy, however, in some cases more sessions may be needed.
The first session often includes an introductory conversation. During this conversation, you are not in hypnosis. In this conversation, you tell more about your problem and how you deal with it. The hypnotherapist may ask you some additional questions about this to determine which hypnotherapy techniques will best help you get rid of your problem.
In the second session, the actual hypnotherapy takes place. This session is usually the longest and can easily last more than an hour. You are first put into hypnosis in this session. This is done with suggestions that help you relax and that allow you to go along with the suggestions of the therapy itself.
While in hypnosis, you are in complete control over what you will and will not do. Hypnotherapy is therefore very different from show hypnosis in this. This also helps you tell things and participate in the therapy in such a way that you can solve your problem with the help of the hypnotherapist.
You will have many thoughts during therapy about hypnosis, as well as about your problem. For example, memories can be recalled that you had actually forgotten a long time ago, but only if you thus want to retrieve that memory. This is because in hypnosis you do only what you want to do and the hypnotherapist helps you with this.
A safe environment is created during therapy that helps you be honest with yourself about what you can and cannot do to solve the problem.
You might also work with guided visualizations from the hypnotherapist that help you relax or reduce or even completely resolve physical problems.
When therapy is over, the hypnotherapist will bring you out of hypnosis and make sure you feel clear and refreshed.
You might be given homework in the form of an mp3 that you can listen to at home for self-hypnosis or things to do.
The third session verifies whether the therapy has achieved lasting changes. If it has not, you will receive additional sessions to help you.
How do you know if you have a good hypnotherapist in front of you?
A hypnotherapist is not a protected title because it is part of alternative therapy. Therefore, anyone can just call themselves a hypnotherapist.
To check if you have a good hypnotherapist in front of you, you can always check where he has received hypnotherapy training. For example, I represent those with a diploma from the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands. You can also find good hypnotherapists on bestetherapeut.nl.
In addition, you can also look at the credentials a therapist has about the problem you want solved. If others have pleasant experiences and were able to solve their problem with that hypnotherapist, chances are he/she can help you get rid of your problem as well.
Research also shows that good hypnotherapists have the following characteristics.
- They hold what has been said in confidence in trust.
- They are sensitive.
- They are flexible, if you don't want something they go along with that and you are not pressured to do something against your will.
- They have perseverance.
- They have empathy.
- They give you a realistic picture of what results you can expect[6].
Is hypnotherapy for me?
Now you may be wondering if you should go to a hypnotherapist for your problem. Many people do not go to a hypnotherapist until they have exhausted all other options.
For example, mainstream care may not solve your problem or indicate that you will suffer chronically from their condition and "have to learn to live with it."
Especially if you think you have a mental problem, you can sometimes save yourself a lot of headaches by going to a hypnotherapist sooner, rather than giving hypnosis the last chance to solve your problem.
Do you also feel that you don't feel like spending years on a course to solve your problem, as is often the case? Then hypnosis can save you a lot of time.
Hypnotherapy for children
Children can also benefit from hypnotherapy. The great thing about young children is that they are often already in hypnosis. That's why they learn new things so quickly.
Child hypnotherapy can help your child become more empowered. A meta-study, a type of research that summarizes other studies, shows that child hypnotherapy can help when your child suffers from anxiety or has experienced a traumatic event[7].
This research also indicates that children are easier to hypnotize and that children's imagination and imagination can be used during hypnotherapy to solve problems.
Hypnosis is linked to solving psychiatric problems by these researchers.
How do you become a hypnotherapist?
Because a hypnotherapist is not a protected title, being a hypnotherapist is also attractive to coaches, psychologists and possibly psychiatrists.
So you can just call yourself a hypnotherapist, but of course that's not the best way to be a good hypnotherapist. You can join the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands training program to be a hypnotherapist.
In total, we have three training courses. After attending the first training you will already be able to help people experiencing problems and have mastered some useful techniques. In particular, regression is a technique covered in the 1.0 training.
Then you can continue learning in the follow-up courses 2.0 and 3.0. After completing the third course, you will know all the techniques you can use to help people experiencing problems.
A variety of techniques are taught in the courses, including Erickson's hypnotherapy, Stephen Books techniques, ideomotor signals, regression, the family constellation, conducting socratic conversations, effecting report, conversational hypnosis, gestalt therapy, anchoring and all kinds of hypnosis inductions you use to get clients into hypnosis.
Want to learn more about hypnotherapy and whether it's for you? Then come to the free online master class.
Or register directly for our training at Hypnosis Institute Netherlands.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763416306030
[2] https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001008/abstract
[3] https://gut.bmj.com/content/52/11/1623.short
[4] https://europepmc.org/article/med/2023202/reload=0
[5] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207147508416172
[6] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207148408415998
[7] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359104508090601
