Hypnotherapists can be asked to help with unusual requests, and of course we help if we can but there are limits to what we can achieve.
Can you affect other people’s behaviour?
We are often asked if we can affect other people’s behaviour, such as making a ex-partner love them again; stop their boss bullying them; make relatives stop taking them for granted. Of course, we cannot directly affect others, but by helping the client to cope better with being alone and expand their life again; to be more assertive in the workplace; to stand up for themselves and begin to prioritise their own needs with family members, their lives and relationships can be improved.
Can you help locate lost items?
We are occasionally asked if we can help to locate lost items. There isn’t a direct way that hypnotherapy can help to find those misplaced items, but when we are relaxed and feeling more in control, our cognitive abilities improve and we think more clearly, process memories better – perhaps remembering where we put them! Hypnotherapy can help with that.
Can you help locate lost memories?
People sometimes express a wish to uncover ‘lost’ or ‘repressed’ memories. This is an area I do not get into because of the dangers of creating false memories. Memory is very susceptible to suggestion and every time we recall a memory, it is changed to the current view, making it prone to exaggeration and therefore very unreliable. Neither can we use hypnotherapy to delete a memory, however in the case of distressing or traumatic memories, we do have a technique whereby we can remove the emotion from that memory to make it easier to live with. This is used in phobia work and in therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Can you cure a medical condition?
We may be asked to cure a medical condition and, although we would never use the term ‘cure’, hypnotherapy can be a tremendous help with many physical conditions. Currently, our understanding of the mind/body connection is growing, and there is no doubt that the mind can affect the body. Where the condition itself may be serious, permanent, and even life-threatening, hypnotherapy can at the very least help the sufferer to cope better and get the best out of life despite the challenges. I use evidence-based techniques which have shown hypnotherapy to help in reducing the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), pain control, certain skin conditions, anxiety, insomnia, low mood and much more.
So, how do I make sure that the request of my client is reasonable and something I can help with? Well, I always begin with the question “How would you like the hypnotherapy to help you?”. If the response is something I know I can help with, then we can proceed with the therapy. If I don’t think the client has reasonable expectations, then I will tell them that that is not what I do, or that it is not possible – but happily that is rare.
How would you like hypnotherapy to help you? You can get in contact here