Does hypnosis work?

Well unsurprisingly that is a difficult question to answer. It’s difficult because there are so many factors involved including the environment, the therapist/hypnotist and also the client. 

I think that it will be undisputed that the therapist must have a reasonable skill level in hypnosis, treatment methods and in client care. These are pretty easy for a client to determine if a person takes a little time to research who they see. However the therapist is then responsible for ensuring they themselves are OK – I remember once that I had a normal day, went to bed at a suitable time, but was woken in the early hours of the morning feeling sick. I guess I had picked up a bug or eaten something that much later on my body decided was not right for it. I managed to get back to sleep but was woken again with that same feeling about an hour later. It was at this point that I realised that I would not be in the right state to see clients the next day. So I postponed my appointments. It was incredibly hard to do, no therapist wants to let their client down and we know it can take courage to attend sessions, but running a session when you are not right is no good for either participant.

But we also cannot ignore the client in this either. The client needs to be attending for the right reasons. Many smokers attend a hypnotherapist so that they can report to their loved ones that ‘even a hypnotherapist can’t get me to stop’. This is the wrong motivation and long lasting change is unlikely to happen when the person doesn’t actually want it – although sometimes it does.

So what does it mean to want to change? It means that you know that YOU have to do something, something different. It has to be now that you make the change, not later. It has to be you that changes; it is no good coming to see a therapist because you want your loved one to do things differently.

Ultimately it is the clients’ choice if they want to fully engage in that change.