My instructor, Patti Sapp, gives a brief description on how hypnosis works.
How the process works.
We will arrange an appointment discuss what you feel most concern you and the goals you would like to achieve. The inital consultation and hypnosis will take around 90 minutes. Subsequent appointments will take approximately 60 minutes.
Where will the session be held?
I have an office for in-person visits. I also do Zoom or Google meet.
What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is simply a state of relaxed focus. It is a natural state. In fact, each of us enters such a state – sometimes called a trance state – at least twice a day: once when we are falling asleep, and once when we are waking up. That kind of fuzzy, timeless state between dreaming and awake is a trance state. When a nine-minute snooze-button seems to give you enough time to have an-hour long dream, that’s a trance state.
There are many other times that people enter a natural state of trance. Driving, watching TV, listening to music, working on a favorite hobby or activity in the “flow” state. These are all “altered states of consciousness,” and all are various levels of trance. Trance is normal, natural and common.
Some people leave their first hypnotherapy session saying, “I wasn’t hypnotized – I knew what was going on the whole time!” Well of course you did! Hypnosis is not a state of amnesia or of no awareness. Just the opposite true, in fact: hypnosis is a state of very heightened awareness and focus.
Hollywood has perpetrated many myths about hypnosis, and not remembering anything from the hypnosis session is one of those myths. Only under special circumstances would a person forget everything from a session.
Much more can be accomplished when the person undergoing hypnosis remembers everything.
What can’t be treated with hypnotherapy?
Serious psychiatric or mental health problems are referred to a qualified psychotherapist or psychiatrist. Medical problems with the physical body must always be treated by a physician, who can, at his or her discretion, prescribe hypnotherapy for pain control, hypnoanesthesia or relaxation.
Drug addiction, family dynamics disorders, clinical depression and other such problems need to be treated by doctors and psychiatrists, who can, at their discretion, prescribe hypnotherapy as a supplementary treatment.
Will I bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken?
Let me guess: you’ve seen a stage show where a hypnotist made people do all these crazy things. Or, perhaps you have ideas from Hollywood’s movies and TV. The stage hypnotist carefully selects his subjects (watch how many volunteers he has sit down), and he chooses people he knows WILL bark like a dog. They will because somewhere inside them is a part that loves to entertain. And they will do it because, deep down inside, they don’t believe there is anything wrong with barking like a dog.
Hypnosis can not make you do something that is against your morals or ethics. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, in truth, and no hypnotist can make you do something that you really don’t want to do. That’s why some people can be hypnotized to stop smoking and yet they still smoke. You have to want the change, agree with the change, and then hypnosis is an instrument for helping make that change better, faster, and permanent.
Will I lose control?
This is another Hollywood myth. You always have control, and you can always hear what’s going on. Hypnosis is nothing but a state of relaxed deep focus. It is a natural state that you enter at least twice a day (while waking up and while falling asleep!), and probably much more often than that. If at any time you are in trance and you wish to be fully awake, you can just count to yourself “1 – 2- 3” and open your eyes.
How much does it cost?
The initial appointment usually lasts 90 minutes and costs $175. Follow-up appointments are $150.