Hypnotherapy is a complementary alternative medicine in which the suggestibility of the clients is used to help them dealing with a variety of life challenges, such as breaking bad habits, change behaviors, manage pain, cope with loss, build self-esteem, improve their performance, overcome fears and reduce stress.
The term "hypnosis" comes from the ancient Greek hypnos, "sleep," and the suffix "osis” condition/state.
The discipline that uses hypnosis in the therapeutic field is called hypnotherapy.
WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
Hypnosis is a natural, normal and pleasant state of the mind that we all experience during our everyday life. At night while you fall asleep, in those 20-30 minutes before you enter the real state of sleep, you pass through a point when you are half awake and half asleep. This trance-like state is also experienced when you are absorbed reading an exciting book, watching a movie or daydreaming. It's the same trance-like state as when you are driving along a familiar route and upon arriving at your destination, realizing you do not remember part of the journey. As a hypnotherapist, I help you attain a natural, normal and pleasant trance-like state, then give suggestions to change thought patterns and behaviors.
Hypnosis is created by an overload of message units, disorganizing your inhibitory process (Critical Mind), triggering your fight/flight mechanism and ultimately creating a hyper-suggestible state, providing access to the subconscious mind. Although the hypnotherapist guides and develops the hypnotic state, the ability to be hypnotized rests within the client's hand; the client is always in control. Hypnosis works with the power of the subconscious mind to change habits and behaviors.
The subconscious mind is considered to be the source or root of many behaviors, emotions, attitudes, and motivations. Hypnosis is believed to be a powerful tool for accessing the subconscious mind and creating improvements in your life.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM A HYPNOTHERAPY SESSION
After consulting with the client to determine the nature of the problem or challenge, I prepare the client to enter the hypnotic states by explaining how hypnosis works and what the client will experience. I conduct tests to determine degrees of physical and emotional suggestibility. I then induce a hypnotic state using individualized methods and techniques of hypnosis based on the interpretation of test results and analysis of the client's problem. The purpose of the hypnotic state is to increase motivation and/or alter behavior patterns through changing subconscious beliefs. The process also trains the client to enable self-hypnosis conditioning.
The feelings one experiences in the hypnotic state can vary from individual to individual. Many people remain fully aware of everything that is going on while in hypnosis. Some individuals experience a hyper-awareness where sensations are perceived to be more enriched and vivid. The ability to visualize or imagine is often enhanced. A feeling of deep relaxation is common, and some people describe the hypnotic state as an escape from physical tension and emotional stress while remaining completely alert.
THE POTENTIAL OF HYPNOSIS
The potential of hypnosis is scientifically documented. Hypnosis can change your perception of the external world. You can perceive stimuli/situations that in reality are not there and not perceive those that are present. Hypnosis can distort perceptions of existing stimuli/situations by creating illusions. It thus becomes possible to perceive, for example, an unpleasant smell as pleasant, a dull light in vivid color, a non-existent noise as a low-pitched sound, or develop insensitivity in any sense organ if necessary, for the benefit of the client.
Sensory experience can be modified in hypnosis; the experience of the body can be altered, and in particular, it is possible to control pain. During hypnosis, you can efficiently direct your introspection in the different sectors of your body to enlarge or reduce the sensations that come from inside your body. You can alter the sensible physiological parameters such as the heartbeat, the respiratory rhythm, or the temperature of your skin. For example, suggestions of cold and heat may lead to vasoconstriction and vasodilation, respectively. Simple suggestions of greater or lesser frequency of the heartbeat and the breath, increase or decrease of the arterial tension or muscular fatigue. Anxiety or tranquility are also able to adequately determine an increase or a decrease of the pulse frequency, of the breath or arterial tension. Furthermore, in the context of gastrointestinal functions, the tendency towards increased production of gastric juice and pepsin has been noted with Hypnosis as decreased production. This induces a feeling of satisfaction instead of provoking anger or fear.
HYNOTHERAPY RESULTS
With hypnosis, it is possible to enter one's history/past conditioning and change the criteria for processing incoming information. It is possible to change the meanings that the person has given to their experiences in the past by presenting an alternative prospective. Changes in memory continuity can also be achieved (partial or total amnesia).
Emotions are a response of the organism to moments of existence. While the voluntary control of emotions in the waking state can be a difficult task, in hypnosis these can be amplified or resized. There is also the possibility of suddenly moving from one emotion to another as a result of suggestions given by the hypnotist.
Through hypnosis, the subject can learn to decrease his emotional resonance/response. The ego-sensation can be detached from a wide variety of information and situations to which it usually is applied. For instance, in age regression, the emergence of a memory with an engaging emotional tone can be experienced not as an experience of its own, but simply as neutral information drawn from memory. The sense of the ego (self) can also be detached from one's body and be experienced as the non-perception of pain.
In hypnosis it is possible to alter the quality and quantity of voluntary muscular control. It is also possible to modify some modalities that function your organism. This is believed to be outside of any voluntary control, such as those of the neurovegetative system, of the system neuroendocrine and the immune system. All the possibilities of behavior listed cannot be thought of as achievable at the same level by all people, at least immediately, as they are involved in individual genetic predisposition and learning times.
HYPNOTHERAPY SESSIONS
As hypnosis treatments continue, beliefs switch in the client’s system, and changes can take place at any time. However, generally speaking, it is not about changing overnight, nor about wishful thinking or positive thinking. It is about steady incremental change by delivering a message to the subconscious mind to affect the automatic behaviors.
I have two offices in the Great Los Angeles area, West Hollywood and Tarzana.
Each session duration is 60 or 90 minutes. I offer these two options based on the issue/challenges the client wants to work on.
The major purpose of this program is for vocational or avocational self-improvement and those problems of psychogenic or functional origins are treated by psychological or medical referrals only (Business and Professional Code 2908)
Leonardo Lupori is a Certified Hypnotherapist Honors and Director’s awards winner at Hypnosis Motivation Institute in Los Angeles and a member of American Hypnosis Association
