Three truths about hypnotherapy and behavioral change

While hypnosis itself is an ancient tool, with its roots going back to tribal shamanic practices,
hypnotherapy as a modern healing approach is relatively new. Hypnosis itself and the use of hypnosis
for personal improvement and transformation leave many people unsure of what to expect. I address
the initial questions and concerns with potential and new clients all the time, but what most people
don’t understand is the process of behavioral change, and that’s what I want to talk about today.
Here are three fundamental truths about hypnotherapy and transformation:

Hypnosis is a powerful tool (not a magic spell)

Many people come to hypnotherapy after having exhausted other options. Clients tell me that it’s their
last resort because nothing else has worked. There are many reasons why hypnotherapy is not selected
first, and one of the key reasons among them is that it is not well known and understood. When clients
come to me after having tried all other traditional methods, they are looking for a miracle. The problem,
however, is that miracles occur quickly. All it takes is for a knowledgeable “miracle maker” to say the
right “incantations,” and voila. Almost all potential clients ask me how long it will take to fix their
problem, and quite often I hear that financially they can only commit to one or two sessions. The
expectation, therefore, is that a hypnotherapist is a practitioner of some mysterious miraculous arts that
will get things fixed by hypnotizing the client out of their condition, which shouldn’t take long.
Hypnotherapy, however, is not a miracle that the therapist perform on his/her own, and depending on
the issue, it is not usually something that can be done in one day. It is a therapeutic process of discovery
and subconscious reconditioning that is different in length and complexity for each person and issue.

Hypnotherapy is multifaceted work

Hypnotherapists use a number of techniques and approaches in order to overwrite the outdated,
unhelpful messages transmitted through the person’s neural pathways and replace them with the
messages that can support the person’s goals. This, however, cannot take place only at the subconscious
level or in one time frame. For the hypnotic suggestions to be effective, the therapist and the client
need to work at a conscious level first to identify the behaviors that should be reinforced. They need to
identify triggers of the unwanted behaviors, perhaps work out the details of how a certain task should
be accomplished, develop a plan for dealing with particular circumstances, or review the impact of
previous work. Hypnotherapy, therefore, includes a certain amount of important conscious interactions.
Furthermore, hypnotherapy works in the past, present, and future. The client may be taken to the past
to release trauma and the resulting adopted beliefs, then taken to the present to reinforce a
replacement behavior, and then taken into the future to experience the feelings of accomplishment
resulting from completing the desired change. All of this cannot always be done at the same time, and
some sessions may focus more on healing the past, while others on restructuring the present or building
the future.

Self-sabotage is a sign that hypnotherapy is working

This may sound strange, but if you understand how hypnotherapy works, you will see why this claim is
true. More than 90% of our current behaviors are shaped by subconscious thinking. These are beliefs,

views, and attitudes we absorbed in our childhood before our conscious thinking and reasoning abilities
were formed. People come to hypnotherapy to change their behaviors or to shift their attitudes and
improve their emotional state. At the subconscious level, the established behaviors, beliefs, or reactions
make sense as the only way to preserve safety and peace. However, as the person grows and changes,
he or she may become dissatisfied with a certain behavior or with how he or she experiences certain
situations. So the person will begin to experience a split. At a conscious level, the person will be ready to
change things, but at the subconscious level, the mind will continue to issues old protocols for thinking
and behavior. The job of the hypnotherapist is to help bring those two levels of the client’s mind into
alignment so that the subconscious programming doesn’t sabotage conscious desires. But the truth is
that the subconscious part of the mind is not always ready to relinquish its control without a fight. It
truly believes that they way it is programmed is the safest way to be, and so it insists on preserving the
status quo. As the person goes through hypnotherapy and begins to shift thinking, release limiting
beliefs, and develop new behaviors, the changes eventually create a tipping point at which the status
quo cannot remain intact. This generates very serious concern at the subconscious level, where the end
of old beliefs, thought patterns, and behaviors is believed to be the end to safety. And that’s when the
subconscious begins to “insist” that it’s in the person’s best interest to back out of the transformation
process because going forward will not be safe (financially, emotionally, physically, mentally, you name
it). And if people go along with their subconscious promptings instead of challenging them, they find a
way to back out of hypnotherapy. The good news, however, is that a tipping point also heralds the
nearness of success, and people that stay committed to the work very soon find themselves free of the
old programming.

Going through any transformation, whether it is changing current behaviors or releasing old thinking
patterns, can be a challenging process, and effective guidance and support are just as critical throughout
this process as the person’s own commitment to the process. Understanding some basic truths about
hypnotherapy can dispel the myths, reduce unrealistic expectations, and help people use this modality
effectively to create lasting powerful change.

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