Here are some questions to ask your potential practitioner so you can get the info you need to feel comfortable before committing to an appointment. Ask those that are most important to you.

1. “How long have you been doing this work?”

Maybe the fee is very low, you’d really like to give a newbie a chance, or you have outstanding rapport with this particular practitioner. Otherwise, don’t choose a rank beginner to hypnotize you on an issue of great importance. Choose someone with at least 2-3 years of solid experience or much more. If you can save on the fee, a beginner might be a good choice for issues like mild stress or a desire to relax more.

2. “Where were you trained/certified, when, and how many CEU’s (continuing-education units) do you take per year to update your skills in the field?”

Even if you don’t recognize the name of the certifying institution, at the very least, make sure it was not a quickie online training but substantial and in person. Ask how many hours of training s/he had.

Continual training keeps us updated on the field, teaches us new techniques and gives us many opportunities to practice them before using them with clients. It also gives us the chance to meet other practitioners, hear their ideas and fine tune our own.

As a client, you deserve to work with someone who continually re-educates herself and refines her techniques. You may also want to know where she was trained.

3. “My issue is (related to) ________. Have you worked with that?”

Many of us work frequently with dieters and people who want to stop biting their nails or start exercising. But for rarer issues, you’ll want to choose someone who has worked with at least a few clients needing similar assistance.

For instance, if you tell me your goal concerns the metaphysical, I’ll refer you to my colleague who revolves much of his practice around that subject, but if you are concerned with attracting the right person for you-or reliably quitting smoking -I’m a top choice.

The more experienced the practitioner, the more likely she can work with rarer, more elusive problems or desires-if there is no local expert on the subject.

4. “Would you tell me about your process?”

What is meant here is: how does this practitioner work? If you asked me about my process, I would reply begin by asking several important questions about the issue you’ve come to change:

What is it that you want or desire? If you achieved it, what would it give you or make possible for you? And in what other ways might it impact your life? How will you know (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually) that you have it?

A lot to think about, I know.

And after you take a moment to answer and digest some of that…

I’ll ask you if you’re truly willing to resolve the issue or create the thing you say you desire.

Because there are downsides–what might you lose?

When you meet with me for your first appointment, I’ll usually test to uncover which hypnosis methods seem best for you, tell you what to expect when hypnotized, and then begin the process.

I’ll remind you that it can be a very pleasant experience, often relaxing, and after answering your questions, I’ll request that you simply follow my directions, and allow yourself to drift into the hypnotic state.

Pay attention both to what the practitioner is saying and to how you feel conversing with her on the phone and during your appointment. Both are important. On a personal note, as a client, I would also want to get a sense of both ability and willingness to individualize to respond to my needs.

5. “How many sessions will it usually take to work on this?”

Your practitioner may not be able to give you a definitive answer because she doesn’t yet know your entire situation, but a range is useful.

For instance, in my experience, nail biting has often required as few as one session, and occasionally as many as three, but rarely more. Anxiety issues may involve more sessions, as multiple issues unfold during the process.

Please don’t hold the therapist prisoner to the exact number of sessions they estimate. As your needs unfold during the sessions this may need to be reassesed.

6. “How has your success been with this issue?”

You don’t need a statistical success rate, but more a feel for the level of experience and comfort in dealing with the subject.

7. “What is the cost? And how can I get the most from our sessions?”

Clients often make the mistake of choosing the practitioner with the lowest stated rate. Most of us like to save money. But the one who quotes $85 a session may be a far weaker choice that one who charges $145, and could take three times as long to get the job done, though not always.

One may prepare you to do further work on your own for reinforcement, while another may not teach you how to help yourself-costing more in the long run and encouraging less autonomy.

Location (office rental costs) and ongoing professional education can also impact cost. Experience and ability should count in the final analysis in addition to rapport and specific knowledge about your area of interest or need.

To get more from a session, arrive with a clear idea of what you want. Give a direct explanation of your issue as you see it, when it emerges, and what discomfort or negative results it causes. Express what you would want instead (i.e., confidence in social situations vs. nervousness or fear.) If the practitioner has useful insights that expand upon the issue you described-and they feel true-encourage her to add to the interpretation of the issue.

Ask questions if you don’t understand instructions given anytime during the session.

Keep every appointment or reschedule if you need to, with adequate notice. (Your practitioner will appreciate your respect and treat you with the same.)

Hypnosis is a way to empower, develop, and even re-create yourself. The right hypnotist can be a great guide and ally. These seven questions can help you find him or her. Enjoy the journey!

Weight Loss Hypnotherapy

Using hypnotherapy for weight loss still involves eating differently, or exercising but it can make the process a whole lot easier, by aligning thoughts, feelings and emotions together so you can find it easy to follow  a healthy diet, rather than a conflict.. You don’t eat the biscuits. Not because of strength of willpower, but instead because they are just unappealing. You eat less food at dinner time. Not because you force yourself to eat less, but because you just now seem satisfied on half as much.

Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss aligns plans, goals, feelings and emotions to help you move forward. If you can relate to any of the points below then perhaps hypnotherapy for weight loss is for you.

1. You have been on a number of diets before and the weight just won’t come off. Or it comes off and comes right back on. You would consider yourself a Yo-Yo dieter up and down, up and down.
2. When you get depressed upset or emotional you find yourself eating. Perhaps you are bored, anger or lonely, and you found self heading for the fridge.
3. The chocolate, lollies or ice cream is like a strong feeling of  ‘I just have to have it, I need it’, like a craving or addiction, that food just keeps calling for you.
4. You find it hard or uncomfortable to turn food down, when offered to you by friends or family.
5. You constantly eat and snack and yet you never feel full.
6. The weight came on quickly once you stopped smoking, or stopped some other busy activity like work.
7. You suffer an inner contest of wills. Good verses bad, little angel versus the little devil. I shouldn’t  eat this, I have to have it.  I have to exercise, I could stay in bed another minute.

Hypnotherapy works with feelings and emotions  So instead of  feeling  a contest of wills, craving or a need to continually snack instead, those feelings simple are not there and the need to eat more at dinner, or to eat certain foods can be reduced  which makes it easy to eat healthy, and make healthy decisions and in doing so,  lose weight.

People often talk about the unconscious or subconscious, like it is something apart from us.  However your unconscious and subconscious is as much a part of you as your consciousness  and where one starts and the other ends is next impossible to define.  However hypnotherapists use models of  the mind to  allow us to explain  concepts easier.

Unconscious

Our unconscious can be thought of everything we were the moment we were born. We cried, our heart beats, we breathed we have a nervous system Hands clasp, eyes open . So the unconscious parts of our brain comprise of bodily functions that keep us alive which allows us to learn and interact from the world around us.

Conscious

We are aware we have a consciousness by the contrast of sleep. When we are asleep consciousness  isn’t there. When we are awake it is. Consciousness directs our attention to what is important to us at the present moment.  The work we are doing, the book we are reading, what we are looking at.   To be able to represent the present, consciousness  has to be able to distinguish between the past and future. So our consciousness operates linear, it is aware there is as a yesterday, today and tomorrow.  I once was a baby, I grew up and now here I am today an adult and I can look forward to tomorrow.

Sub-Conscious

We know we have subconscious processes because we dream and react automatically in many situations.e .g pressing down on the break at a red light.  The subconscious mind comprises everything we have learned, experienced   about our world from the moment we were born. It’s like a great big bowel of experience all sloshing about together. Our subconscious represents how we feel act and perceive situations, it is where our feelings come from and represents our personality.

The subconscious while learning new things also has to  ensure new information fits with the person you are now.

Our mind is constantly  bombarded by  information from the world around us, Family, friends, work colleagues, T.V internet, all telling us their opinions  about what we should be doing, thinking, and acting. If  we agreed with every new piece of information that came into our heads we would become very confused, and how we act and thought would dramatically change every day.

So our subconscious filters out the majority of the new information so we are not overwhelmed or, slots it into a preconceived basket about what the information means,  this then  gives stability to who we are as a person

This filter is comprised of perceptions, thoughts, and previous experience.  Hypnotherapists  call this function the critical faculty. It means that before we accept something new into our lives  it is compared against what has come before in our lives, if it fits we use it, if it doesn’t we tend to ignore it. A problem occurs when earlier experiences were perceived wrong in the past which then in turn affects a person negatively in the present. So when new thoughts are given they are not accepted.  For example a spider crawling over a baby when they are young and can’t move may be perceived as dangerous, however as an adult logically at a conscious level the person understands a little spider won’t hurt them however the old unconscious perceptions remains. This kind of flow on affect from misconception as a child to adults can affect our ability to have self confidence, feel loved, good about ourselves, create strong loving conne3ctions with other people.

Hypnosis is a process of bypassing this filtering process. So when statements are made they are readily accepted into the subconscious instead of being analysed and filtered by previous experience. Hypnosis is a means of updating old thought process that are outdated and  bringing alignment between current desires and  subconscious behaviours.

Step 1. Think of a symbol, word or object that represents what it is you want to achieve. For example, for more confidence a symbol may be a lion, or for relaxed and energized, running water.

Step 2. Say to yourself. ” I want to achieve(insert) and become fully alert after(5,10,15 minutes) opening my eyes and feeling great.

Step 3. To enter hypnosis, sit or lie down comfortably and allow your gaze to become a little fuzzy like it’s looking everywhere at once, and not on one thing in particular. Then notice one at a time three things you see. Then three things you hear. Then three things you feel.  Then repeat, but this time 2 things you see, hear and feel. And then one thing you see, hear and feel.

Step 4. Next close your eyes and notice one thing you can imagine seeing, one thing you can imagine hearing and one thing you can imagine feeling.  If you are not sure you are doing it right, it’s okay, just pretend you are doing it right. That is all that is needed. Then repeat, two things you can imagine, seeing, hearing, and feeling.

Step 5. Continue increasing the number of times you imagine seeing, hearing feeling sensations, and at a point in time your mind will simply give up and relax completely.

This may take a little practice but is a great way to introduce yourself to hypnosis.

Begin by concentrating on external sensations and steadily decreasing them. Then move onto internal sensations continually increasing the number. At some point you will slip into hypnosis.

START on the left side and work across.

Quit smoking with hypnosis

So if you were to double your chances of quitting smoking by nicotine replacement therapies what does ‘double’ really mean?

To make this claim pharmaceutical companies have to conduct controlled trials and they go something like this. You get 200 smokers, and divide them into two groups, A and B. You tell group A they all have to try and give up smoking today. Then you tell group B they too have to try and give up smoking today, and here, you can also use these nicotine patches to help you do it. After one year they then ask both groups into the lab, give them a blood test for cigarette chemicals, and then total the results of who are free of these chemicals.

If you did the above your results will likely be something like this. For group A you will find about 7 people would have quit at one year. For group B using the nicotine patches you will find about 14 would have quit. There you go, so you have doubled your chances of quitting. From 7% to 14% Sounds okay, doesn’t it?

Except there is a catch no one has told you about. There is also a group C. And group C were given patches too. Except their patches had no nicotine in them. Group C just thought the patches contained nicotine. Instead they were something like everyday sticking plasters. And with just the thought that they were using something that helped them, 12 people in group C quit. (This is called the placebo affect). So lets look at the results after one year
Non smokers after  1 year.  Group A -  No patches  7 Group B – Nicotine Patches – 14 Group  C – Pretend Patches -  12

But there is more. If you use a nicotine patch often the nicotine, will cause a skin irritation, or a tingling sensation. That is, in group B, people will feel like something is happening. Group C doesn’t get this same affect. However if you were to give group C patches that didn’t contain nicotine but still contained something that caused the skin to tingle, (Chilli powder maybe) it is very probably their results would then match that of Group B.

If you used nicotine patches and still find yourself smoking. Don’t worry. Plenty of other people are in the same situation as you.

So if you are looking to quit. there are a range of options to go about. Nicotine replacement products are one. There are quit smoking programs, there is doing it yourself cold turkey and of course there is hypnosis. For more information on using hypnosis to quit smoking contact Paul at Lifestyle Hypnosis.

Flammer, E.,Bongartz, W (2003). on the efficacy of hypnosis: A met-analytic study. Contemporary hypnosis, 179-197.

Viswesvaran C, Schmidt FL. (1992). ‘A meta-analytic comparison of the effectiveness of smoking cessation methods.’ J Appl Psychol.1992 Aug:77(4):554-61

A habit is any action that can be performed  without having to pay conscious attention to it. For example, getting out of a chair, has a habitual pattern to it, the way you walk, run, the side you sleep on in bed, etc. Habits are good, they are routines that save us time and energy.

Habit Hypnosis

However habits do not just magically appear. A habit is formed from repetition.  And we repeat things because whatever that activity is, it is important enough to us at the time that we have to keep doing it.

Things that are important to us are important because they fill a particular need in our life.  A need is anything that when filled, bring us closer to comfort, happiness, or satisfaction. We have a need to sleep. In order to meet this need we go to bed usually at a certain time, sleep in a certain room and on a particular side of the bed.  So we have a habit of preparing ourselves for sleep. Habits are formed to satisfy needs by expending the least amount of energy to fulfill them. Habits free up our consciousness, and by having habits we can direct our attention to thinking, or planning to other tasks.

A habit is easy to break if there is no longer the need behind that habit which formed it in the first place, or if the need can be satisfied in another way. Let’s look at some examples;

1. Is it easy to break the habit of sleeping on the right side of the bed? Yes. Because the need is sleep.  And you can fulfill this need by sleeping on either side of the bed.
2. Is it easy to break a habit of Nail Biting? As a child thumb, sucking and nail biting fills a need of comfort.  As an adult these needs can be filled in many different ways. So nail biting as an adult is easy to break, however it helps if you know the right technique.
3. Is it easy to break the habit of  smoking ? No. Because as long as a smoker smokers, they  continue to create a need. That need is to satisfy the withdrawel of nicotine from their body. This need for nicotine is met by the habit of smoking at certain times of the day and in certain situations to obtain more nicotine.   The need comes first(nicotine), the habit comes second to satisfy the need. ( However there are ways of using hypnosis that can change how the withdrawal effcts of nicotine are interpreted by the mind and this can make stopping easier).
4. Is it easy to break the habit of eating sweets at work Maybe? You may have a habit of eating sweets to fulfill the need of hunger at certain times of the day. To change this habit you take an apple to work, which then fulfill this need.  However if you were in the habit of eating sweets every time you were bored at work, this would may be  more difficult to break. Because the sweets are fulfilling a need, breaking up the boredom. So first you would need to fulfill the need to have challenges or interest at work  in another way, e.g. find more interesting work, e-mail your friends. Then the habit of eating sweets at work is easier to change.

If you find it difficult to break a bad habit, it is because the habit is fulfilling a need for you. What you have to identify is what that need is. And then find a way of satisfying it in another way. Once you can do that the habit is easy to break. Alternatively, if you can’t form new good habits, it is because there is not enough satisfaction in what the habit sets out to accomplish to sustain  it.

If you could imagine wearing a pair of  binoculars strapped over your eyes since the day you were born. Everything you have experienced in life has come through those binoculars.  Because the binoculars have been there every second of your life you can see everything about the world except the binoculars themselves.  You know nothing about them . Are  they zoomed in or out? What colour are they? If the binoculars had a darker tint over the lenses, you would never have known , you would simple assume the world was a darker place.  Even though those binoculars have been with you all your life a person watching you for a few minutes can tell a lot more about those binoculars than you can ever know yourself.

Our perceptions are a lot like those binoculars. Everything we sense about the world comes through them, but at the same time we know virtually nothing about the perceptions ourselves.  Faulty perceptions are easy to see in others, yet next to impossible to see in ourselves. We are not aware of them filtering everything around us and yet they are constantly there.

Our perceptions are naturally tinted by early life expirences. However, sometimes how we interpreted these experiences were wrong, and so since the interpretation was wrong so are our current perceptions of life. As we grow up the perception remains, tinting our view of the word, which affects our quality of life and what we think about ourselves and the types of interactions we have with others.
A skilled hypnotherapist  can help give you a sense of your own perceptions, where  they are holding you back, and at the same time help change them. Much like taking away the tinted view of the world through the binoculars, a hypnotherapist can give you a clearer outlook on life and in doing so a better quality of life.

Hypnosis For Weight Loss

Now in a therapy room using weight loss hypnosis techniques you are probably not interested in any of the above. But there are some aspects to a stage hypnotists bag of tricks you’ll want your hypnotherapist to include in your session.

What a stage hypnotist is able to do, is rapidly induce que controlled behavior. You see a red light while driving you apply the break. The phone rings you answer. I throw a ball, your hand goes out and catches it. There is the stimulus the red light. There is the reaction, putting your foot on the brake. There is the stimulus the ringing of the telephone, and there is the reaction, picking up the phone. There is no need to consciously make the decision to take action.

A hypnotist on stage is using a similar process, just speeding up the time it takes to learn the reflex response. When I say the word sleep, your eyes close. When I say lion, you roar like a lion. When I click my fingers you act like a washing machine, etc

When it comes to weight loss hypnosis a hypnotherapist should be including some cue controlled reactions.
When I see  chocolate it makes me feel disgusted. When I open the fridge door, I look for healthy foods. When I serve my portions I put half as much on the plate. The type of behaviours you want to develop are discussed with  the hypnotherapist.

For some people these cue controlled behaviors incorporated into their hypnosis sessions works very well and changes in eating habits may occur very rapidly. For others the effects are more subtle.   But remember this is only one small aspect to hypnotherapy for weightless. If it works for you great, you are going to get off to a flying start.  There are many other techniques to help you lose weight through hypnosis, and your hypnotherapist will be able to find the best tools that work for you.

Paul Dixon is a Hypnotherpaist based in Takapuna Auckland and works out of the Cheri Clinic.

So you want to stay motivated. Motivation comes in two forms, internal and external.

External motivation is anything happening in the external world that drives you towards losing weight. Life events such as planning to have a baby and increasing the chances of fertility, looking for Mr or Miss right, the big wedding day or an overseas holiday are all external motivators. Because the motivation is tied to an event, once the event passes so too does the motivation and old eating habits tend to return and with this comes the weight.

Internal motivation, is when we take action for the benefit of ourselves. This motivation can be divided into goal directed motivation and anxiety directed motivation. Anxiety driven weight loss occurs when a person steps on the scales, finds their weight has jumped, and panics. In this scenario people take action so as to move away from discomfort.

Anxiety driven behavior can produce an initial surge of activity, with crash diets and exercise regimes, however as the weight begins to come off, the anxiety lessens, and as it was the anxiety which was the motivator once it is no longer there the person is back eating the old foods, and the exercise program is a distant memory.
However goal directed motivation tied to the value, belief and worth of who you are is different than anxiety driven motivation. If your sense of self worth increases, your sense of appreciate of yourself rises with it. And as your sense of appreciation rises it is easier to spend more time looking out for yourself and ensure you eat right.  If you have had children or a pet or someone in your life you love you look after them, it isn’t a struggle it doesn’t require motivation, you simple take action because you value and appreciate them. The same applies to you.

You also probably know of or met someone who really is a slob, who you just  feel has a low value of themselves to get that way. Well it is all by degrees. The reflection of that person is really no different than the reflection of yourself in the weight you are right now.

Self worth is a learned process, formed by previous life experiences.  We are not usually consciously aware of our own sense of value. Hypnosis is one method to change any old and outdated misconceptions of ourselves that may still be lurking in the back of minds. Beliefs or ideals that quietly sit there directing our behavior. “Why bother, It isn’t worth the hassle”. “You’re not worth the hassle”. “”Never worked before, Will never work again”. “You are just not pretty, why bother trying”.

If you lack motivation, and give up too quickly, if the diet is always tomorrow and the exercise always next week, then perhaps it is time to appreciate yourself a whole lot more. With hypnotherapy it can become a whole lot easier to perceive yourself differently from both a conscious and subconscious perspective. When you appreciate something you remain motivated to look after it, and with this comes a better healthier looking you.