Introduction To Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a powerfully effective modality of relaxation and other
techniques that can transform the way one lives.
Increasingly deeper relaxation allows the individual to develop selective,
magnified awareness and concentration, bypassing the limitations of the
critical, conscious mind to enter the realm of the subconscious where old
patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving may be directly faced and
transformed. The hypnotic trance allows the subconscious to be more
positively programmed through suggestions and other means.
Hypnosis may also open the individual to a more profound inner realm, called
by different names in different cultures. This realm is the source, among other
things, of never-ending support, new and more complex perspectives, and
expanded and enriched awareness of body, mind and soul.
The origins of hypnotherapy probably go back beyond recorded history, to
when people first used altered awareness to affect their inner and outer worlds.
Later, the ancient Roman and Greek Oracles, Sacred Temples, and Mystery
Schools most surely used some form of hypnosis to help devotees and initiates
to make contact with whatever they held holy and transformative. And for
millennia, to help their supplicants, shamans worldwide have regularly evoked
hypnotic reactions in themselves and in whom they help through a vast variety of techniques (chanting, rapid movement, etc.).
In the late 1770s, Anton Mesmer, a French physician, used hypnotism successfully to help his patients, though he called it "Animal Magnetism" and did not really understand the mental mechanisms he was using. Though he was quite the "rage" for some time, in the end he and his technique as then understood were discredited by the medical authorities. In the 1800's hypnosis enjoyed a revival, especially with surgical patients, but then diminished in importance as new, chemical means of anesthesia were developed.
In the twentieth century, individuals like Emile Coué, Dave Elman, Milton Erikson, Jeffrey Zeig, David Cheek, Ernest Rossi, Stephen and Carol Lankton, E.A. Barnett, D.C. Hammond, Ormond McGill, Joseph Barber, John Watkins, John Edgette, and Gil Boyne and a host of newer voices have helped promote the use and advancement of hypnosis. In 1955 the British Medical Society approved hypnosis for use in dentistry and as an effective adjunct to medical treatment. The American Medical Association followed suit in 1957.
Hypnosis is an aspect of many other mind-altering modalities, like NLP, Silva Mind Control, meditation, various forms of guided imagery, biofeedback, EMDR, Gestalt Therapy, etc. In short, Hypnosis is constantly growing in popularity as an effective means of helping people lead more pleasurable, productive, and powerful lives.
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