Cognitive Hypnotherapy

Some issues that can be helped with Cognitive Hypnotherapy

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Phobias
• Panic attacks
• Smoking cessation
• Compulsions
• OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
• Fertility

“It is our mind alone that chains us or sets us free”
DK Rinpoche

Cognitive Hypnotherapy is a modern approach to therapy that draws upon cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnosis to bring about emotional wellbeing and positive change.

We all go through hypnotic states without being aware, for example, have you ever driven somewhere and not remembered anything about the journey, daydreaming and fantasising are also forms of a hypnotic state. Treatment programmes are tailored to the needs of the client, and various techniques may be used during treatment in addition to hypnosis, for example, NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and/or positive psychology.

Hypnosis is a safe and pleasant state, it does not mean you do not have control over your thoughts or actions, it simply means allowing yourself to enter into a trance, similar to daydreaming, you do at all times have full mental and physical control. Once in the trance, your therapist speaks to the unconscious part of your mind, the part of the mind that is usually behind the destructive behaviours and thought patterns. The unconscious mind drives up to 90% of thoughts and behaviours and it is driven by emotion rather than logic. Whilst in the hypnotic state, it is easier for the therapist to re-programme your thoughts. Depending on the issues that you have, the therapist will sometimes discuss your childhood and any negative thought patterns that you may have, these will be worked with first and later re-programmed with more positive thought patterns.

Depending on what the issue is Cognitive Hypnotherapy may be needed for one session only, for example, for smoking cessation one two hour session is usually enough. For other issues, ongoing weekly may be more appropriate. This will be discussed with the therapist in the initial assessment.