Be Wise With Your Brain – Relieve Your Discomfort

Learning to care for your brain when you experience discomfort allows you to enjoy healing rest. 

You may not realize that trance, the root of clinical hypnosis, is already giving you relief every day. When you drive on a highway, you may lose track of where you are located. But, it is still safe to drive long distances because you will orient to your surroundings if necessary - you can quickly put on the brakes or change lanes. Another example of this is when you are focusing on a visual task; you may lose consciousness of hearing. Or, when you are strolling on a beach, you may lose count of time.

Rest breaks permit you to recuperate and re-charge your mind and body.  They are a form of an innate relaxation response that emerges automatically to ease monotony, boost concentration, and increase pleasure. Relaxation gives our brains and bodies respite from conscious states of attention, and can relieve discomfort.

Our brains are busy! Since they are running our bodily systems, thinking about our mental processes, and protecting our well-being, the brain requires a lot of energy (20 percent of total body energy). Because of all this activity, our brains need time for quiet and daydreaming. At night, sleeping and dreaming refresh our brains and our body.

The root of Clinical Hypnosis is therapeutic healing through focused use of trance.

Hypnosis works to relieve many conditions:  chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome and insomnia. Hypnosis also helps prepare people for surgery and then recovery. Further, it can relieve unwanted habits like smoking or overeating. If you are having any of these experiences, or know someone who is, hypnosis can help.

Chronic pain occurs when the nervous system becomes weary of sending repeated acute pain signals to the brain.  This pain produces “neural pathways” to save energy. Clinical hypnosis interrupts such pathways. Some respite often occurs during and following the very first hypnosis session.  Many people experience deeper relief when they continue for 5 to 8 consecutive sessions.

Irritable bowel syndrome develops when the gastrointestinal tract is so irritated by food poisoning, food sensitivity or emotional tension that it cannot recover on its own. Therapeutic trance soothes and relieves the system.   I use the IBS treatment protocol developed by Olafur Palsson; personalizing the sessions for you. This particular treatment is most effective when people continue for 8 – 9 sessions.

Insomnia occurs when there is light, noise, heat or tension that disturbs sleep.  As part of preparing for hypnosis, you may need to arrange your bedroom for better “sleep hygiene” - considerations include darkness, quiet and coolness.  Remember, good sleep is essential for physical and mental health. For insomnia treatment, the number of sessions can vary a bit more, ranging from 5 to 10.

Surgery preparation can help soothe you prior to, and then stabilize your bodily functions during surgery.  Two or three sessions of hypnosis are usually enough to help people recover more quickly with fewer side effects.

Smoking Cessation is often successful even if you have smoked for many years, especially when hypnosis is combined with acupuncture to reduce cravings.  Several sessions are necessary to develop and implement a plan for success. It is important to choose a strong substitute. Overall, including follow-up, this course of treatment is usually 4 to 6 sessions in length.

Hypnosis can help you and those you know and love.  Reach out – call me if you have questions.

Learning more about how clinical hypnosis works leads to a better outcome.

When you make an appointment for clinical hypnosis, the first session is used to prepare you for having hypnosis. This gives you time to become comfortable with me and to ask questions you have might have about the process.  It also gives us time to plan which suggestions to use.

Once your hypnosis starts and you choose to go into therapeutic trance, your mind and body, emotions and spirit are liberated to work together for healing.  Since all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, you can choose how deeply to go into trance. “Self-hypnosis” means that you are choosing to let go of “regular waking consciousness”, and go into an “altered state of consciousness”.

Hypnosis begins with “induction”, proceeds with “suggestion and deepening”, and concludes with “re-alerting”. During the first phase, you are guided, or “induced” into a trance; cognitive processing recedes as dissociation emerges.  During suggestions, you can respond directly and meaningfully without knowing how that is happening. Deepening allows for greater integration of suggestions. When you come back into regular waking awareness, the suggestions continue to operate within you – making changes that you desire.

Modern life leaves us craving rest and desiring relaxation.  Because our mind and body are so stressed and weary, most people don’t want to come back into regular waking consciousness when their hypnosis session concludes. Try it – calm is just a phone call away. Tell others about this healing gift.