How Relaxing Hypnosis and Soothing Guided Imagery Can Help You Achieve Success Scott E. Weiner, CH, Certified Hypnotist Ph.D. in Philosophy How often have you already been in trance today? Did you enjoy it as much as you could? Did the trance experience create greater relaxation and success for you? I’d like to present to you some ideas about how hypnosis could help you to relax and create a better, happier life. What is trance? Let’s start with the trance experience. Thanks to Hollywood, unfortunately, there are often misconceptions about hypnosis. One way that I like to describe what trance is to clients comes from the description by psychiatrists Herbert Spiegel, M.D. and David Spiegel, M.D.: “a state of attentive, receptive, intense focal concentration with diminished peripheral awareness . . . a form of intense focal concentration which maximizes involvement. . . .The hypnotized person is not asleep, but awake and alert.” The peripheral is the background of other things happening and potential distractions that you could sense consciously. So as you concentrate and pay attention to your focal point of awareness, your awareness of the peripheral fades away. Thus, the Spiegels like most hypnotists think of the “the hypnotic trance as part of the everyday experience. . . .” (Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis, Chapters 1-2) So trance is an everyday type of absorption, like when you are being absorbed in your work, or playing a sport, or daydreaming, or watching a great movie (TV’s 24 does it for me!), or “being elsewhere in your mind.” Trance as a natural everyday experience of being absorbed means you and others naturally and spontaneously go in and out of trance throughout the day. Next time you are on the subway you might notice how many passengers are in trance, absorbed in their thoughts. Hypnotists think of hypnosis as really self-hypnosis. While the hypnotist is the guide or facilitator to help clients easily get in touch with their ability to go into trance, it is clients themselves who imagine what they want to and become absorbed in their imagination. What is the importance of trance? Many hypnotists consider hypnosis a way to “program” your mind with suggestions to do the things you want to do. This is why I call hypnosis “the easy way” to make changes. According to psychiatrist Milton Erickson, M.D., who was the foremost medical hypnotist, trance is “a state of special awareness characterized by a special receptivity to ideas . . . a state of heighten receptivity to ideas through focused attention and decrease in critical judgment of the ideas.” (Life Reframing in Hypnosis) What would happen if you were having a conversation with a friend or a boss and that person gave you ideas to help you change? For many people, you might respond like this. You might get defensive, make excuses, and not really hear what the other person is saying. But when you are in trance, you are so relaxed, you don’t want to dispute the ideas that you want to hear. You are receptive to these are ideas, which are called “suggestions.” Some examples of suggestions are: “You are a non-smoker today and for the rest of your life,” “You are relaxed and feeling refreshed,” “You let go of your negative feelings and let them fade, fade, fade away and vanish … and you allow positive energizing feelings to grow and expand where you used to have negative feelings,” etc. The importance of the altered state of consciousness called “trance” is that — unlike in normal consciousness where you are judging as well as paying attention to peripheral distractions — the client is not judging, dismissing, or defending against the very ideas the client wants to hear to change. In trance, the client’s focus is highly concentrated and easily takes in the helpful suggestions. In creating suggestions and imagery, I use the client’s wording and imagery. (In my Client Information Form, I ask clients to describe the “New You” and the Benefits being the “New You.”) Dr. Erickson also stressed that hypnosis is an excellent way to get in touch with your creative potentials and options to create solutions to your challenges. Although you may have for years been consciously trying to solve some challenges to achieve success, through hypnosis you can ask that creative part of you, the “creative unconscious/subconscious” for potential solutions and options. How can Hypnosis help people? In the Hollywood misconceptions often is lost just how helpful hypnosis can be to help you achieve your goals. First of all, hypnosis can be extraordinarily relaxing and refreshing. Clients are often surprised at how wonderful they feel and often compare it to a “mental massage” or “spa for the mind.” Second, you probably know some of the most common ways hypnosis helps people change habits and behaviors: stop smoking, stop overeating, lose weight, stop nail biting, increase confidence, improve performance, sleep better, and reduce stress. Third, hypnosis and guided imagery can help people release and transform negativity (stress, anger, blame, pessimistic thinking, etc.). Fourth, guided imagery, visualization, and mental rehearsal can help prepare you to take the actions that lead to success and change to a more optimistic, energizing attitude. World-class athletes do this frequently to improve performance, though they might not call it hypnosis. Fifth, did you know that hypnosis can also help people to perceive less pain, so they feel more comfortable? Hypnosis Can Help with Discomfort? Yes! As amazing as it sounds, clients who come to me for pain management (after being diagnosed and referred by a doctor) can learn to perceive less pain through the use of imagery and suggestion. In fact, before there was chemical anesthesia, hypnotism was used for anesthesia in surgery, including for amputations! Welcome to the Mind Spa Hypnosis can be thought of as a Mind Spa to help you relax, enjoy your life more, and make the appropriate changes you’d like to make. I see clients by appointment. Call me at (914) 699-1238 for free phone consultation or to schedule an appointment. Or email me at Scott@ScottEWeiner.com. For more information about hypnosis services at or my background visit www.ScottEWeiner.com. Copyright 2007 Scott E. Weiner, All Rights Reserved. To see Soothing Photos of Cornell and Ithaca, click here. For more information, about Scott E. Weiner's sessions, click on the following links: Disclaimer Approach and Background Hypnosis Sessions F.A.Q.s Corporate Background What Clients Say Hypnosis Information for Medical Professionals Gift certificates for Hypnosis and Guided Imagery Sessions Hypnosis to Reduce Stress Hypnosis to Stop Smoking Hypnosis to Lose Weight Hypnosis to Stop Nail Biting Hypnosis to Improve Sleep Hypnosis for Pain Management (requires written referral from your doctor) Send email to Scott E. Weiner Office Locations Copyright 2004-2007. Scott E. Weiner. All Rights Reserved. |
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