Clinical Hypnosis

Michele Lucas, LCSW, BCD
Certified by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis

Some basics about hypnosis might help you better understand the process.

Hypnosis is simply a state of intensely focused concentration, with partial or complete exclusion of awareness of outside activity.  Hypnosis works much like a magnifying glass in the sunlight.  Focusing our attention allows us to use our mind in a far more powerful way.   In simple terms, hypnosis is best described as being so absorbed in something (daydreaming, concentrating intently on a project, watching a movie, reading a book you can’t put down) that awareness of things going on around you fades into the background.  And when the activity ends, it is common to need to reorient to the external world.  This is also the case with hypnosis.  This hyper-focused state occurs spontaneously and frequently as part of normal brain activity.

Hypnosis allows us to use more of our mind. Napoleon Hill, famous motivational speaker and author, said “What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” Now the world of quantum mechanics is discovering objective evidence to support this view.

Hypnosis is a vehicle for utilizing the power of the mind with intentionality.  For example, it’s believed that we are consciously aware of between 5 and 9 bits of information in any one moment.  The vast storehouse of information we hold from our life-long learning is organized and archived in the unconscious mind, leaving space and energy for attending to and learning from the current situation. Hypnosis can help retrieve archived information and learning and apply it to help solve a problem in the present.

It’s important to know that everyone experiences hypnosis in their own way.  Some people are disappointed because they expect to feel in a trance-like state.  This usually happens when there is an inadequate understanding of how hypnosis works.   However, research supports that even when a person thinks hypnosis hasn’t worked, targeted symptoms still improve within a few days.  More commonly, people describe hypnotic trance state as experiencing more than one level of awareness simultaneously.  Most people in hypnosis are conscious of what is occurring in the moment, while simultaneously becoming aware of other information that seems to simply pop into awareness.

People often ask, what is the best way to use hypnosis for change?

The answer is simple, and profound.  Imagination changes our internal experience.  If you don’t believe it, just begin to imagine something dreadful.  Even before you are consciously aware of it, your body goes into the fight, flight or freeze mode.  This occurs because parts of the brain are unable to discern between what is really happening and what we fear might happen. Negative imagining contributes to anxiety, depression, low-self esteem, and physical illness; and always makes an already difficult situation worse. Recognizing and changing spontaneous, negative imagining is important to improving our quality of life.

So why don’t we engage more in imagining positive things, especially when we know it can change our mental, emotional and physical well-being?   Actually, the answer to this has to do with survival instincts left over from earlier stages of our development; and somehow we’re more suspicious of believing we have a role in creating positives in our life than we are of believing we have a role in the negative things that occur.

Try a quick experiment yourself to test this out…

Here’s a quick experiment to try with yourself that will help you to experience the role your mind and imagining plays in how you think and feel. Close your eyes and say “no” to yourself a few times. Notice how “no” registers physically in your body. Then try the same thing with saying “yes” to yourself. What happens? What differences do you experience?

Can everyone be hypnotized?

Most people have differing talents for hypnosis.  This has to do with our sensory system and imagining.  For example, our sensory system enables us to imagine by seeing things, hearing particular sounds, experiencing physical sensations that go with what we’re imagining, and we can even imagine smells and how a particular thing tastes.  However, many of us find we’re only able to imagine well in one or two of these sensory modalities. So remember that everyone experiences hypnosis in their own way.

What is Clinical Hypnosis?

Clinical Hypnosis is specialized to focus on emotional and psychological conditions for which people enter psychotherapy.   It can be the primary treatment of choice for some conditions, or an adjunct to other kinds of treatment, such as medical or surgical.  When combined with other therapeutic modalities, it can enhance the outcome of therapy or treatment, and it’s also useful for retrieving information archived in the unconsciousness.  Specifically, Clinical Hypnosis is an effective treatment for a variety of psychological and emotional conditions, including but not limited to…

• Anxiety, panic, specific phobias

• Behavioral Problems

• Depression

• Resolving internal conflict

• Improving performance and goal achievement

• Enhancing concentration, academic and athletic performance

• Habit disorders like smoking, teeth grinding

• Strengthening self esteem, self efficacy and confidence

• Stress management and relaxation

• Interruption and repatterning of intense emotional states

• Relationship problems

• Eating and body image disorders

For more information about how hypnosis can be helpful for you, please call Michele at 203-852-9874
or e-mail at therapydoeswork@yahoo.com.