Hypnosis What Is It?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 22:18

Hypnosis … what is it?

Let me tell you right away: hypnosis is a natural state for humans. According to research by scientists, every mentally healthy person falls into a hypnotic state every 90 minutes of wakefulness. This is the state when you are already awake, but you do not want to think and move. This is the state when you got on the bus, relaxed, and "woke up" just before leaving. This is a state when you are thinking about something with such concentration that you completely do not notice the person who is addressing you…. The examples above are natural, spontaneous trance.

But trance states can also be induced artificially. To do this, you need to be able to "turn off" the work of the left, rational hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, the client's psychological defenses are completely disabled and it becomes possible to work with his unconscious programs.

Hypnotic trance is a deep concentration of attention on the words of a hypnologist, without distraction by extraneous thoughts and stimuli.

Many psychologists use hypnosis in their counseling practice. Hypnosis is a suggestive technique and belongs to behavioral psychology, that is, hypnosis is able to influence and change a person's behavior. In terms of the effectiveness of behavior correction, it is hypnotization that occupies the highest line.

So, in addition to knowing the techniques for turning off the work of the left hemisphere, it is necessary to create the most suitable conditions for hypnotization in the office. The color scheme in the office should be kept in golden-green hues, since these colors are the best to relax. It is better to place the chair in which the client will sit in the corner of the room. The client's eye level should be below your eye level. The client's chair should not be high so that the knees are slightly higher than the hips when he is sitting. Ask your arms and legs not to cross. Do not allow the client to hold any objects (bag, clothes) on his lap during hypnotherapy - this will be perceived by him as additional psychic protection from you.

During the induction of trance, I advise you to fix the client's right hand (if he is right-handed, and the left-if he is left-handed) with your hand - just put your hand on his leading hand in the elbow area. With all these manipulations, you will give a signal to the client's unconscious that you are in charge here and you can be trusted.

Tweaking, or mirroring, is copying a client's behavior. Adjustment is necessary to unconsciously evoke the client's sense of trust in the hypnologist, to remove the client's psychological defenses. The principle is based on the fact that people in love unconsciously copy each other's behavior (for example, one yawned, the other immediately starts yawning). There are practically no psychological defenses between loving people, they trust each other and easily inspire each other with various kinds of information.

The adjustment is made by copying the position of the client's body. The basic representational communication system is copied for the client's better understanding of your words. For this purpose, I ask you to describe the front door and the corridor. Visuals describe a visual image. Audials will surely say whether the door squeaks or the floors, or not, describe different recalled noises. Kinesthetics talk about a cold or heavy door, etc. In the future, I will definitely use this knowledge not only during communication and adjustment, but also during suggestion, creating images that are understandable to the client.

It is necessary to adapt to the rhythm of the client's breathing.

In the literature, you can find many recommendations on how to adjust to the client, how to breathe, how to look, what words and phrases to use…. From experience I will say: it is very difficult logically, thinking over to adapt to the client. A much simpler and more effective option is to mentally love your client, to convince yourself during therapy that you love him. Top-level tuning is automatic! And adjustment is 50% of success.

All these recommendations will greatly simplify and speed up the introduction of the client into a trance.

Hypnotizability tests.

In all hypnosis guides, you can see a list of tests for hypnotizability. They allow you to reveal how hypnotizable (suggestible) a person is. I believe that only pop hypnotists should conduct such tests, since they need to identify people with the highest hypnotizability from a large number of people in order to show all sorts of "miracles" on them. In psychological practice, one has to work with both highly hypnotizable and low hypnotic people, so such tests do not solve anything. For a psychologist, it is important to know something else about the client: is the client mentally healthy, or is there organic brain damage. Any mentally healthy person can be immersed in hypnosis: someone quickly, someone slowly. But you can immerse it. Another thing is mentally ill people and people with brain damage (after strokes, for example). It is almost impossible to immerse such people in hypnosis, or perhaps for a short period of time (which may not be enough for therapy).

What else is important to pay attention to before plunging the client into a trance is the usual or feedback to suggestion. There are people, instilling lightness in the body, we get heaviness; instilling drowsiness, we get cheerfulness … There are not many such people, but they are. To put them into a trance, it is necessary to add the particle "not" before each suggestion. For example, if you want to achieve relaxation, then say: "Do not relax, keep the tension as much as you can!" After such a suggestion, the client can relax. It is worth giving reverse suggestions until the client is immersed in hypnosis. Then you can switch to ordinary direct suggestions. Such a feedback reaction to suggestions is a psychological defense, at the request of the client, you can get rid of it during hypnotherapy.

Stages of immersion in a trance state:

• preparatory conversation - comes down to conveying to the client the safety of hypnosis, explaining as colorfully as possible all the benefits and benefits of hypnotic trance;
• start entering a trance with concentration on external objects (on the hypnologist's hand, on a point or on the voice);
• transfer the client's external attention to internal sensations (we ask you to feel the air that is being inhaled and exhaled, or ask the client to notice how heavy his body has become, how it presses on a chair or couch);
• we switch to the work of only the right, figurative hemisphere, starting to actively inspire various images and not letting the client think for himself. From that moment on, your voice becomes his rational brain, his consciousness. This is how sustainable rapport develops;
• at this stage, the necessary trance suggestions take place, the therapeutic work is in progress;
• if necessary, we carry out post-hypnotic suggestions, for example, instill a sense of fun and laughter at any suggestion from other people to return to bad habits. If you plan to continue hypnotherapy in the future, you must give the following suggestion: “The next time I say to you the phrase:“Close your eyes and plunge into a deep trance”and clap your hands lightly, then you will instantly find yourself in the state in which you are now."
• we make a way out of the hypnotic state. For this, an ever-increasing lightness is instilled in the whole body, joy and lightness in the soul. Conclusion from hypnosis is usually carried out on the count of "three".

How do you know if a client has entered a trance or not yet?

To determine the state of consciousness of the client, you need to observe him. In a trance, the face is smoothed, any tension disappears. Breathing becomes even. If the eyes are open, then the dilation of the pupils and the immobility of the gaze are noticeable. If it is suggested that the body is warm and heavy, then the skin turns a little pink. Sweating often increases, beads of sweat are visible on the forehead and neck. There is a feeling that the person fell asleep while sitting (if sitting in a chair). In a deep trance, swallowing movements are completely absent, there are no coughs and sneezes. When something unpleasant is suggested (for example, aversion to alcohol), saliva is swallowed, etc. If the hypnotist's hand is raised and then suddenly released, it will remain hanging, as if stiff (this is called catalepsy). Moreover, in this "hanging" position, the hand can be for quite a long time, even if the position is very uncomfortable.

I think my recommendations will be useful to those psychologists who use hypnosis in their practice. Good luck to you!