When a friend tells us something like,"Boy, Jason and Jessica really know how to push my buttons," many of us know all to well how it feels to be in our friend's position. And, if we are highly sensitive people and our button pushers are expert technicians, our inner control panels may be consistently flashing as brightly and variously as that of a commercial jet in flight mode.
After a hypnotherapy appointment, how do you know if you were hypnotized? Speaking only from my practice of hypnotherapy, the answer is simple: everything else being equal, you were hypnotized if you got positive results.
How Deep Do You Want Your Trance State to Be?
Although each person reacts differently to trance induction, a good hypnotherapist will be able to choose the induction technique that fits best with your personal history, dominant learning modalities and stated desires. A skilled hypnotherapist can get you to the level you want and keep you there. Every day, every one of us goes through trance states. The following examples of everyday trance states can give you an idea of what sounds good to you, if and when you seek therapeutic hypnosis.
It could be said that the main force fueling effective affirmations is belief. If you are someone who is hard put to believe in anything, you can still make your affirmation work for you. Perhaps the following seemingly foolish questions can serve to illustrate why this is so.
One of the highlights of this German study was a strong effectiveness of medical hypnosis for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, among other applications. A key message conclusion from the study states:
Robust evidence (from meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials including at least 400 patients) of the efficacy of medical hypnosis exists for reduction of pain and emotional stress, duration of interventions, drug consumption during medical interventions, and reduction of irritable bowel symptoms.
This article by Nina L. Diamond interviews Brian Weiss, author of "Many Lives, Many Masters" and "Only Love Is Real: A Story of Soulmates Reunited" (among other books) about past lives. From the OMNI magazine archives, it is still an interesting read. Enjoy:
An article on Romper in which S.B. CASTAÑEDA describes her discovery and experience with hypnotherapy.
The Mind Prepared: Hypnosis in Surgery
by David Spiegel, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine
Along with an excellent set of references, this article is a very good summary of the state and factors of using hypnosis to reduce the pain and anxiety that cancer patients (or any surgery patient, really) feels. The first study mentioned is a 2007 randomized trial of 200 patients. A quote: