What are the first steps?
Before the session itself I offer an initial 30 minute FREE Screening session (available via Skype) to explore how I can be of help and to answer any questions you may have. It can be useful to get an idea of who I am as a person and to find out if we can work together. When you are ready to go ahead with a session, I’ll have you fill out a brief questionnare.
What happens during a session with James?
We will discuss what your goals are, during which I may wish to take a detailed case history and then develop a treatment plan which may or may not include hypnotherapy. Depending on the treatment plan the initial work that we do together may involve a wide range of techniques and strategies for change that is often a fascinating and rewarding experience.
Why have hypnotherapy?
Most people have something in their lives that they would like to improve upon. It may be a fear that is adversely affecting your life, it may be a habit that you would like to be rid of, or it may be a skill that you would like to improve. Hypnotherapy is now being used by people from all walks of life, from top athletes wishing to hone their skills to housewives wishing to lose weight or stop smoking. There may be the belief that certain things cannot be changed and indeed this may be true of some, but we are all in the process of evolving as we grow from small children into adults and how we cope and react to conditions or situations can very definately be improved upon.
What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is from the Greek work “hypnos” meaning sleep. It is not an ideal word to explain what hypnosis is because hypnosis is not sleep, however to an observer it can appear that the subject is asleep. Most people have the misconception that whilst under hypnosis a person is unconscious and will have no recollection of events during the state of hypnotic trance. However, that is not commonly most people’s experience. It is much more common for a person’s conscious mind to become the observer of an inner experience. It can be similar to a daydreaming or meditative state, but differs in that is is directed by a hypnotist. It is also a naturally occuring state that we all enter into at various times during the day or night, for example just before sleeping or just after waking or even whilst engaged inactivities such as watching TV.
What is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy can be defined as the use of psychotherapeutic techniques employed whilst a client is in a state of hypnosis in order to create changes in thoughts, feelings, emotions or behaviour. A hypnotherapist will guide or direct a client into an inner experience and employ various techniques such as the use of metaphor or travelling back in time to earlier memories (regression) in order to help a client resolve and heal their issues.
How Many Sessions will I need?
I know there are some of you who expect me to wave a magic wand and make your problem vanish. Hypnosis and some of the other methods I use may be powerful but they’re not magic, even though sometimes they can appear to be. Clinical hypnosis can bring surprisingly quick results, but sometimes it has to compete with the old behaviour. If a person has been suffering from anxiety for the past 20 years, it’s unlikely to go within a single session of 90 minutes. It’s important to be realistic. For those reasons it can sometimes be difficult to define how many sessions are required. Some clients can make fantastic changes with a single session, others may take longer.
Saying that, I know most people would like a general idea, so for most conditions I generally see clients for 3-5 sessions apart from smoking which is a single session.
What if you can’t hypnotise me?
I know some hypnotists would argue that anyone is hypnotizable, however for some people it can take longer or is more difficult. Hypnotic success can often depend on a clients ability to enter trance states. For clients with less ability to enter trance there are other therapeutic methods I employ which include Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Integral eye movement technique (IEMT) to name but a few. For that reason I suppose you could say that I use an integrative approach.
Who can benefit from hypnotherapy?
The answer to this question is virtually anyone. Given that hypnotherapy can be utilised to access a persons inner potential, it can help a person access new creative ways of solving problems. As is the case with a wide variety of issues and problems, a persons mind is often the key to finding a solution. So, whether you are someone with a fear of flying or spiders or a sportsperson or musician wishing to achieve more, hypnosis can help.
You will find a list on this page, that is by no means exhaustive, of conditions that can be helped using hypnotherapy.
Common Concerns
Clients are sometimes concerned that they wilI “lose control” in hypnosis. However, general consensus indicates that regardless of how deeply people may go in hypnosis and however passive they may appear to be, they actually remain in full control of the situation. They are fully able to talk if they wish to (or not, as the case may be) and can terminate the session, stand up and leave the room at any time.
It is likely that the notion of a loss of control stems from most people’s misconception of stage hypnosis, wherein participants are apparently persuaded to perform all manner of (usually foolish) acts. However, the reader should be aware that participation in a stage act is an entirely voluntary process (thus “permission” is already given to the hypnotist) and that there can be no such volunteer who is unaware of exactly what they are letting themselves in for!
How does it work?
Hypnosis is thought to work by altering our state of consciousness in such a way that the analytical left-hand side of the brain is turned off, while the non-analytical right-hand side is made more alert. The conscious control of the mind is inhibited, and the inner-conscious mind awoken. Since the inner-conscious mind is a deeper-seated, more instinctive force than the conscious mind, this is the part which has to change for the patient’s behaviour and physical state to alter.
For example, a patient who consciously wants to overcome their fear of spiders may try everything they consciously can to do it, but will still fail as long as their inner-conscious mind retains this terror and prevents the patient from succeeding. Progress can only be made be reprogramming the inner-conscious mind so that deep-seated instincts and beliefs are abolished or altered.
What is NLP?
(Neuro Linguistic Programming)
Techniques and strategies of NLP are based on the mental and physical way in which we code and store information. This coding affects all communication and behavior. It affects how you learn and how you experience the world around you. It is a key to reaching goals and achieving excellence. NLP is a model of communication that focuses on identifying and using patterns of thought that influence a person’s behaviour as a means of improving the quality and effectiveness of their lives. It offers a paradigm of how the brain works (neuro), about how language interacts with the brain (linguistic) and how we use this interaction to get the results we want for ourselves and others (programming). NLP is an effective proven vehicle for accelerated human change, radically altering the ‘old way’ of lengthy psychotherapy. NLP techniques tackle negative thoughts and behaviours at the neurological level by recoding them and often include eye movement patterns.
What is the Ultra Deep State?
The Ultra Deep State or the Sichort state (discovered by Walter Sichort) is the deepest known state of consciousness or trance. Training in this state can help with many serious illnesses. Some known characteristics of this state include: REM-rapid eye movement, total anaesthesia, rapid healing, relief from sleep deprivation, Inner peace, Spontaneous remissions.
We are still exploring and understanding the Ultra Deep state.We do not know all the answers as yet and more research needs to be undertaken.
What are binaural beats?
Binaural beats are auditory brainstem responses which originate in the superior olivary nucleus of each hemisphere. They result from the interaction of two different auditory impulses, originating in opposite ears, below 1000 Hz and which differ in frequency between one and 30 Hz (Oster, 1973).For example, if a pure tone of 400 Hz is presented to the right ear and a pure tone of 410 Hz is presented simultaneously to the left ear, an amplitude modulated standing wave of 10 Hz, the difference between the two tones, is experienced as the two wave forms mesh in and out of phase within the superior olivary nuclei. This binaural beat is not heard in the ordinary sense of the word (the human range of hearing is from 20-20,000 Hz). It is perceived as an auditory beat and theoretically can be used to entrain specific neural rhythms through the frequency-following response (FFR)–the tendency for cortical potentials to entrain to or resonate at the frequency of an external stimulus. Thus, it is theoretically possible to utilize a specific binaural-beat frequency as a consciousness management technique to entrain a specific cortical rhythm.
Set yourself free with hypnotherapy & coaching in London!
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Call Now on 0207 754 3717 or 07941 454 339
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