So many times clients come to see me after being told that they, can’t be hypnotized. What I have found in my 30 years in practice as a hypnotherapist is that anyone who is intelligent and who wants to learn how, can be taught to use their mind to create a hypnotic trance which is the best way for getting unstuck from reactions of : anxiety, worry, panic and fear.
The following is a true story and proves my belief in the ability of people to learn to use hypnotic trance for change. In my opinion, most of the time it isn’t the client that is the problem (of not being able to get into trance). What more often is the problem is a lack of rapport with the hypnotherapist, or not enough skill on the part of the person doing the hypnosis. I tell this story to let you know that if you want to use hypnosis and trance, no matter what anyone tells you, don’t give up hope. If you want to use hypnosis and trance so you will no longer feel stuck with old unwanted reactions, and so you can create new life enhancing reactions that will move you towards what you want in life, it is possible.
Using Trance to Change Insomnia:
My client Cari is a bright, kind, depressed and somewhat angry graduate student. Much of her depression is due to her years suffering with insomnia and finding no way to get free of it. Cari was exhausted, found it hard to focus, was quick to anger and this problem became so severe she took a leave of absence from graduate school. She had already tried everything she could think of, including talk therapy, RET, Cognitive therapy, medication and even tried to use hypnosis. All without any change. And as we talked I could see that this problem was very complex, it wasn’t just about insomnia the roots went really deep.
The sad thing was that she believed that she couldn’t be hypnotized.
Years before when she first started having a problem sleeping she asked a friend, who was studying hypnosis for help. She found that she wasn’t able to go under into trance. So she did then next thing and found another hypnotist who had been in practice for years. He also told her she just wasn’t a good subject for hypnosis or trance. She felt stuck and frustrated, nothing else had worked.
And, she was angry with herself, felt self-doubt and wondered why she wasn’t trying hard enough. As thoughts go she added to the worry thinking that maybe she must not want to change since she wasn’t able to go into trance. And the negative, self-destructive thoughts just added to her racing mind and not sleeping.
After trying so many things she felt stuck and felt frustrated with no where to go for help. As she talked it saddened me to hear her blaming herself for not trying hard enough, and for feeling like a failure. At this point she truly believed she couldn’t use hypnosis and trance to get to the bottom of this problem.
Somehow she found my website and had the courage to call.
The amazing thing is that even with all of this frustration and exhaustion she continued searching for help. She told me that one day my website just popped up in one of her searches. This happens so many times, clients just find me. And I’m so glad this happened for Cari since she is now sleeping peacefully and is moving on in her life to new goals.
As anyone who knows me understands I enjoy helping people. I also enjoy a challenge a figuring out the puzzle of the mind, so of course I took Cari on as a client. I love it when we celebrate our first success and again after they are freed from the issues that have been holding them back.
Cari turned out to be amazing at using her mind in the most creative ways. First we cleaned up some of the beliefs she had about hypnosis and trance, and then because she is highly creative helping her to get into a trance state was actually really easy. Using trance gave us a way to access that part of her mind that was holding the memories that were at the root of what was getting in the way of her sleep.
After talking to her on the phone I was convinced that we could work together since she is creative, intelligent and had a real desire to change this sleep patterns as well as the underlying roots that were causing. These are the qualities that make a wonderful hypnotic subject. People who have an open mind and who are willing to work together with me to get results are delightful to work with.
Trance becomes easier with practice.
After working with her we found that not only is she able to go into trance, she is really good at it. She surprised herself the first time in a light trance state, her unconscious revealed a deep wound from childhood. When the memory came to the surface she said, I can’t believe that was still bothering me. Yet all of the emotion she had been holding told us that this was something important that she had stuffed down as a child because it was too much for her to deal with at the time. After a few sessions she began to trust her unconscious and she was able to easily go back to the emotions that needed to be released.
I wish I could say that her insomnia stopped immediately, it was a process, and within 10 sessions no only was she sleeping easily but she cleared up an even deeper issue that was actually getting in the way of her relationships. The unconscious mind does an amazing job of proving me correct that people who desire to be free from emotional blocks can learn to use trance to get to the root and get the change they desire.