Have you ever felt that you could have achieved a lot more in life than what you have done so far? Is there an underlying fear of failure, disbelief, lack of self-confidence that is limiting you? Is it procrastination?

Do you have a phobia that you cannot let go of? Is there are pain in a past memory that floods your mind with negative thoughts?

Many of these problems are more common in their occurrence than what you believe. And hypnotherapy may just be what you are looking for.

Hypnotherapy relies on intense concentration and undistracted focus to help your mind address some of these problems in a drug-free and safe manner. If you were on the fence about consulting a hypnotist for some of your problems, then here are 5 benefits of the therapy that you probably were unaware of.

#1 – Treating addictions

Hypnosis can be used to treat addictions, no matter how severe they are or of what nature. Alcohol, smoking, opioids or gambling, a hypnotist can help you quit these habits for good. However, due to the very nature of the condition, de-addiction may require multiple sessions and may involve the use of other closely related therapies like psychotherapy or Neuro-Linquistic Programming (NLP). A quick analysis of the problem by a skilled and certified hypnotherapist will show you your options.

#2 – Weight Loss

Not what you expected, was it? The use of hypnosis for weight loss is a widely debated topic. But there have been multiple instances where people have achieved excellent results with it. In fact, there have been clinical studies to prove that hypnosis increases the effectiveness of your weight loss diet by 30%. The hypnotist can help you find and weed out the psychological causes for you being overweight including craving for food.

#3 – Pain management

You can manage chronic pain caused due to conditions like arthritis with self-hypnosis. Usually, the life for someone with these conditions is excessively dependent on painkillers. By helping you manage and prevent the onset of a severe attack of conditions like migraine, hypnosis helps reduce your dependency on toxic medications. With continual practice, you can even stop using painkiller medications completely.

#4 – Phobias

One of the most common uses of hypnotherapy is for the treatment of phobias and fears. In most cases, the hypnotist may use direct suggestions to help the patient identify the triggers for these negative thoughts. Whereas in severe cases where the phobia is a trigger for panic attacks and anxiety, the hypnotist may use systematic desensitization.

#5 – Recover memories

Many a time, traumatic childhood incidents are buried deep into the subconscious mind and there’s no memory of it whatsoever. However, these incidents can affect behavioral patterns of the person for life and even cause anxiety, depression and lack of self-esteem in the later stages. Hypnotherapy can help people identify and recover such memories and work to understand their link to current day behavior. In other instances, hypnotherapy has also been used to help recover memories that were considered permanently lost due to an injury or a childhood accident.

You’ve seen it a million times in movies. A hypnotist in a dark room dangles a crystal in front of their eyes and they go into a deep trance and blurt out a lot of things that they were never supposed to.

In other instances, a hypnotist makes a man from the audience levitate in front of hundreds of others.

So, when your physician suggests that you try hypnotherapy, you skedaddle. After all, you don’t want to appear ridiculous, nor be controlled by a stranger who eerily says ‘Look into my eyes’.

Thankfully, both those instances only happen in exaggerated cinematic portrayals or stage hypnosis, which is nothing but an elaborate show put on to entertain you.

Hypnotherapy is nothing like it. If you were falsely led on to believe that it would be something like what we mentioned above, then let’s debunk some of the common myths that surround this very effective alternative healing method.

#1 – The Hypnotist will be able to control my mind

False! You will be in complete control of your mind and also be able to refuse or reject any suggestions made by the hypnotist that you do not agree to. In fact, most of the suggestions will be shared with you in an interview that happens before every session.

#2 – Only dumb people can be hypnotized

In fact, it is quite the contrary. While anyone with an IQ that exceeds 70 can be hypnotized, the people who often act dumb during on-stage hypnosis are extremely intelligent. They voluntarily put up a show to entertain you.

#3 – The hypnotist can make me confess truths

No. They cannot force you to say anything that you don’t want to. The sessions are discreet and they cannot be used in court as a testimony. Moreover, most people can lie easily when they are hypnotized.

#4 – I will be asleep or knocked out

Quite the opposite! You will be in a heightened awareness stage and be aware of what’s happening around you or what’s being asked to you.

#5 – It is a miracle cure for many conditions

While there have been cases where people have been able to quit smoking or get rid of a phobia in a single hypnosis session, these are just a handful. In most cases, it might take four to five sessions or even more, depending on how deep rooted the problem is.

#6 – I will have no memory of the session

You will remember everything that was asked to you during the session. In fact, hypnosis harnesses the power of the subconscious mind and is even used to recover lost memories by skilled hypnotists.

#7 – Hypnosis is dangerous

If that were the case then you would never be able to sleep every day. Oh yes, you go into the same trance like state each day before you sleep and wake up. The same intensely focused state is achieved when you are fully engrossed in a task or while watching TV. So, you are hypnotized multiple times during a day. It is called environmental hypnosis. When done in a clinical setting, monitored by a hypnotist, it becomes therapy.

Hypnotherapy, a form of alternative therapy that utilizes Hypnotism, is used for the management and sometimes treatment, of conditions that are hard or impossible to treat with conventional medication.

While their applications are many, it is currently being used mainly for treating anxiety disorders or phobias.

Despite many positive results and exceptionally good success rates, the therapy continues to be looked down upon by mainstream doctors and physicians.

Many, even refute the effectiveness of the therapy. But the averseness to hypnotherapy lies not just with healthcare providers.

Even patients are reluctant to try it for the fear of letting their mind in control of the hypnotist. This misinformation stems from the portrayal of stage hypnotists in mainstream media, where they appear to control the mind of the entire audience.

Hypnotherapy on the other hand, is performed in an entirely different way.

How Hypnotherapy works

Hypnotherapy puts you into a deep, but fully conscious state of hypnotic trance that allows you and the hypnotist to get a deeper and closer look at your phobias. It is like being cut off from the rest of the world where your mind has zero distractions and is able to tackle the phobia better than ever.

Think of it like an amplified state of awareness where you know what triggers the phobia in you and how to cope with it. The Hypnotist may use positive messages and reassurances to prevent you from going into a panic attack.

Also, you will be taught a series of techniques that help you deal with such situations in future. Some of the common ones are the STOP technique and the use of imagery to cope with phobias.

Misconceptions about hypnotherapy

Like most other alternative forms of therapy, very little is known about Hypnotherapy. And most of the so-called facts that are floating around are nothing but myths.

So, if you are considering hypnotherapy for treatment of your phobias, it is important to know what not to expect from it.

1. Your hypnotist cannot control your mind: While you will be in a state of trance, you will still be in complete control of your mind and your actions. You can refuse to answer any question that you deem unnecessary and you can choose to break out of the trance at any time during the session.
2. Nobody can force you against your will: We recently received an email from a young girl who was misguided into thinking that the hypnotist could make her do anything that he felt like. Walk on all fours or bark like a dog, for example. That’s completely untrue. Like we just said, you are in total control and consciousness. After the session, you can recall everything that occurred during it.
3. You will not be unconscious: Last but not the least, you will be completely conscious. Hypnotherapy cannot be compared to getting knocked out after drinking one shot too many.