Adventures in Hypnotherapy Part 2
I had my first session of hypnotherapy this past Thursday. I went in, we talked about my personal history. She clarified some things about my medical past. We spoke about what my learning disability really is and some potential solutions. We spoke about some of the under lying causes and problems. After the psychological medical history was taken we spoke about some of the misconceptions of hypnotherapy.
Misconceptions:
* you are out of control
* you are not aware of what is happening
* you will not remember what happened
* the therapist can implant false memories
* you will make a fool of your self
* you have no control over your body
* you cannot come out of hypnosis until they bring you out
* the ability to be hypnotized indicates a weak mind
* you are paralyzed
* it will “cure” you
Essential hypnosis is deep guided meditation. You are bypassing your conscious mind and your defenses so you may speak directly to your subconscious mind, allowing your to integrate change into your life more quickly, honestly and effectively. It is not a cure all. You will not be fixed the first time around. If it did that, I would get hypnotherapy for everything. That would be amazing! It is better as a therapy tool. Our issues are symptomatic of underlying issues and those issues need to be dealt with in order to effectively over come the symptom. Though one session will not “cure” you, it can have a big impact and make a noticeable difference.
Before going into the actual hypnotic state, my therapist did a guided visualization to bring me to a highly relaxed state. We went to my “happy” place, which was an amalgamation of different components. It was in New Mexico at my former family home. My horse was there. I could smell the crisp air, it was fall. The sunlight had a slightly golden color to it, indicating late afternoon light. Dave was there, but more as a presence than standing next to me. My family was there, but also as a presence or an energy. I was surprised at how visceral was the visualization. I was more surprised at the sadness embedded in my happy place. It wasn’t overwhelming sadness, more in the sense that I was going back to a time that no longer exists, or maybe never existed. All the different facets existed, but not at the same time. I mentioned my sadness to my therapist. She said that was very common. In fact most people have some sadness in their happy place because it is usually a memory and therefore a time past.
The next time I went to the happy place, I brought all the beauty and joy and love forward to a more contemporary environment. I brought it to my current backyard. Sitting by the fire it, surrounded by the lush green of the garden, being there with Dave and breathing in the wonder that is my life (when I remember to remember that wonder). There was no sadness there. I thought about that idea of sadness at our happy place. It made me think that maybe our happy place should be somewhere now as opposed to a past place. If our happy place is somewhere that can no longer exist, or may never existed, then aren’t we depriving ourselves of being happy? So I choose to make my happy place somewhere that exists now. Because I am happy now. The memory is good and beautiful and full of love, but it is not now and I want to embrace the now.
After I was thoroughly relaxed she took me into a hypnotic state. We went very deep into meditation. I heard her voice and sometimes my mind would wonder to somewhere else, then I would hear her voice again. I heard the positive messages she was telling me, all the reaffirming words and I tried to open myself up and allow complete acceptance. I really enjoyed the hypnotic state. It is the same as very deep meditation, which is relaxing and comforting.
She recorded the session so I could listen to it later and do self-hypnosis. This way the message would have more time, and therefore more potential, to really sink in and affect change. Yesterday I listened to the CD and went into a meditative state. Not as deep as with her, but very nice and relaxed. Afterwards I took my quiz and I got an 87%…that is the highest I have gotten so far during this class! I am very happy with the results. I am going to continue to use the CD and will probably see her again. After one session, I would say, hypnotherapy was a success!
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