What is Hypnotherapy?
Look into my eyes...
Let's set the record straight! Hypnotherapy is NOT stage hypnosis. In fact, one has little to do with the other, and yet there are those who still conflate the two.
Stage hypnosis is for the sole purpose of entertaining an audience (think 'cluck like a chicken'), whereas hypnotherapy is recognized as a transformative, therapeutic modality. Hypnotherapists use induction techniques to help clients reach somnambulism, which is a deep trance state characterized by intense mental focus and high responsiveness to suggestion. This allows the practitioner to bypass the critical mind and work directly with the subconscious mind. By utilizing visualizations and positive suggestions, clients may resolve issues, reach their goals, and regain control in certain areas of their life.
Hypnotherapy: From Esteemed Practice to Pseudoscience - and Back Again
In the early 20th century, hypnotherapy was a respected component of psychological and medical practice. Valued for its ability to work directly with the mind, it was used by esteemed clinicians and medical pioneers, including figures like Sigmund Freud and Milton Erickson. It was lauded for its effectiveness in treating anxiety, pain, trauma, and psychosomatic conditions. Over time, however, psychology shifted toward behaviorism and later toward pharmaceutical treatments. Public perception became increasingly shaped by stage hypnosis and entertainment, and Hollywood further reinforced this image by blurring the line between clinical hypnotherapy and theatrical performance. Meanwhile, the rise of drug-based treatments drew attention and resources away from mind-based approaches, contributing to hypnotherapy’s reduced prominence despite its continued therapeutic potential.
In recent years, hypnotherapy has experienced a resurgence. Modern neuroscience and clinical studies are validating its efficacy for conditions such as chronic pain, PTSD, IBS, and addiction. Functional MRI scans, for instance, have proven real, measurable changes in brain activity during hypnosis.
As research continues to demonstrate its powerful benefits, hypnotherapy is breaking its conflation with stage hypnosis and regaining the credibility it deserves. Mainstream physicians, psychologists, and hospitals are integrating it into their treatment protocols and restoring its place as a valuable, science-backed tool in modern medicine.
Deeper Dive into Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a natural state and not something that is being done to you. You are an active participant and in complete control of your mind and body throughout the entire process. Using techniques of "induction" and strategic "suggestion," your hypnotherapist will help you bypass the conscious mind in order to work directly with the subconscious mind, accessing resources you already have.
Because the subconscious has no power to reason, it is open to accepting and acting upon new information and positive suggestions. This powerful process can help individuals overcome various issues, conditions, and ailments to reach specific goals and desires.
To understand how hypnosis works, it's important to first understand the basic principles of the mind and the complexities of our cognitive potential. We can think of the mind being divided into three parts: the conscious, the subconscious, and the super conscious.
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Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is the intellectual, rational, and critical part of our mind. It holds our will power, concentration, discipline, discrimination and discernment.
It is the conscious mind that makes our decisions and directs us based on its reasoning abilities. The greater the conscious effort, the more difficult it becomes to succeed.
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Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind is the storage for everything we keep hidden from the conscious mind. It is the very essence and foundation for how we experience ourselves in the world. It holds memories of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and habit patterns.
The subconscious is also the part of the mind that dreams, regulates our autonomic body functions, and connects us to our creativity, imagination, impulses, desires, instincts, and intuition. It is also known as the gateway to the superconscious.
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Superconscious Mind
The superconscious mind links us to our greater awareness, our inner guidance, and the collective unconscious.
How Does Hypnosis Work?
Hypnosis is used to by-pass the conscious (critical) mind and work directly with the subconscious mind. Why is this important? In order to successfully make positive and lasting changes, one must connect to and work with the source of underlying aspects in the subconscious mind.
For example, let's say you want to lose weight. For the first week or two you are able to stick with your new plan, eating healthy foods and exercising regularly. Just when you think you are headed in the right direction, you find yourself sitting on the couch finishing a pint of ice cream! So why do we end up going back to our old habits?
When we try to break bad habits, we tend to make the decision in our conscious mind, using our will power to enact change. This typically works for a short period of time, but it does not resolve the issues that initially created the habit. Moreover, your conscious mind may be in conflict with deeply rooted beliefs and patterns held in the subconscious mind. Remember, the harder one tries using will power (the conscious mind), the less chance there is of success. Therefore, your bad habit is likely to return.
Once an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind, it tends to remain until it is replaced by another idea. You can probably guess that the longer the idea remains, the harder it is to replace it with a new idea. This is how many habits are birthed. First comes the thought; next comes the action. If we want to change our actions, we must first change our thoughts at the subconscious level.
More on "issues"
Many bad habits, negative behaviors, and limiting beliefs are products of childhood experiences. Unhealthy programming at a young age can set us up for a lifetime of self-sabotage. Before we develop our own full reasoning mind, we are bombarded with the ideas and beliefs from the influences around us, both good and bad. As we grow, we continue to absorb external information which translates into how we see ourselves and the world. It is likely we will have conflicting beliefs which may cause us to struggle with change, confidence, and intention.
Issues may also arise from a single impact learning experience, which leaves a lasting imprint of the event, whether we are aware of it or not. Imprints can be either positive or negative and can happen at any stage in life. Imprints are common with emotions. The idea that we can repress our emotions is categorically false. The truth is that they always find a way to express themselves and affect us either psychologically, emotionally and/or physically.
There is no separation of mind and body. Because they are interconnected, they are always interacting. It is impossible to be emotionally distressed - angry, overjoyed, sad - and not have a physical reaction. Likewise, it is impossible to be hurt, sick, or in pain and not have an emotional response. The phrase "gut reaction" is not just a saying without meaning. We actually have neuronal fibers in the immune system and small intestine that send messages to the brain. The body interprets what you are telling it and acts or reacts accordingly.
Negative self-talk
Negative self-talk is particularly damaging, because the subconscious mind does not distinguish between what is real and what is simply words. It cannot tell the difference between the truth and imagination. WORDS MATTER! Negative beliefs will attract their own confirmation to prove themselves right. A negative mind will never give you a positive life. Hypnotherapy is used to "reprogram" the files containing the limiting influences of negative experiences from the past.
Hypnosis allows individuals to suspend critical judgement of the conscious mind and access their subconscious mind to uncover disempowering beliefs or patterns. While in hypnosis your awareness and suggestibility is heightened, making memories more vivid and emotions easier to tap into. Reason (conscious mind) is easily overruled by imagination (subconscious mind). Hypnosis works by forming images in the subconscious mind to help remove, alter, or re-educate the old ideas.
By creating a new and empowering belief system, we are no longer beholden to any way of being that is keeping us from a positive path forward. We can change and adapt. The creativity of our thoughts allows us to shift from powerless to powerful just by changing the way we think.
Manifesting
Every moment we influence everything around us with our thoughts. If we focus and hold on to thoughts that diminish our potential, our subconscious mind believes that is our truth and intention. What we focus on we tend to manifest. Remember that: WHAT WE FOCUS ON WE TEND TO MANIFEST. Just as negative thoughts can create negative expectations, positive thoughts can create positive expectations.
Human brains evolved with a built-in “negativity bias” because, in early environments, noticing threats was far more important for survival than savoring positive experiences. Missing a potential danger like a predator or a hostile rival could be fatal, while overlooking something pleasant rarely had the same cost. As a result, the brain’s threat-detection systems, including structures like the amygdala, became highly sensitive and quick to prioritize negative information. This bias helped our ancestors stay alert and react quickly, but today it can make us dwell more on problems, risks, or criticism even when we’re relatively safe, essentially trapping us in a glass-half-empty mindset. Sadly, while our brain is focusing on what's going wrong, it's filtering out all of the things that are going right. It's like doomscrolling life, and the more we engage our fear center, the easier it is to become overwhelmed, negative, sad, irritated, and exhausted.
The great news is that it's quite easy to train our brains to seek out and notice all of the things around us that are inspiring, beautiful, helpful, and actually supporting our lives. This has a compounding effect: the more we practice noticing what IS good, the more we begin to feel good. Just by simply shifting our focus, we can shift our mindset. And by shifting our mindset, we can change our reality.
Hypnosis can amplify this practice by creating a safe space in which the subconscious mind can shift out of the negative and into the positive. Misconceptions and negative beliefs may be accessed, processed, and re-educated with new information in order to transform your life into a reality with endless possibilities, empowering beliefs, and positive expectations.
One way to think of the process is to pretend your mind is like a computer:
•Uninstall negative thought patterns and install positive thought patterns
•Delete old programing to change bad habits and negative self-talk
•Upgrade your programs for personal improvement and new skill learning
•Download helpful apps to open your world to greater possibilities
•Empty the trash to make space and let go of things no longer needed
While we can’t prevent hardship, we can learn to navigate it more skillfully. Life will always include difficult moments such as loss, setbacks, uncertainty, emotional and physical pain, etc. These are not flaws in the human experience but part of it. In fact, facing challenges can cultivate resilience, tenacity, and determination in ways comfort never could. Hypnosis is not a magic wand that removes life’s difficulties, but it can help you develop the emotional intelligence, management, and regulation needed to respond in healthier, more balanced ways. With realistic goals and the guidance of a skilled hypnotherapist, you can harness your inner resources to move through challenges with greater ease and create meaningful, lasting change.
Hypnotherapy May Help You With:
Stress Management
Artist Block
Creative Expansion
Burnout
Depression
Sleep Issues
Pre-Op Preparation
Post-Op Healing
Memory Recall
Fears & Phobias
Motivation
Pain Management
Mindfulness
Self-Care
Public Speaking
Body Image
Relaxation
Sports Performance
Social Media Dependence
Trauma
End-of-Life
Weight Issues
Emotional Balancing + Regulation
Pregnancy + Birthing
Children's Hypnosis
Self-Compassion
Self-Esteem
Perimenopause + Menopause
Excessive Worry
Anger Management
Harmful Habits
Finding Lost Objects
Sexual Issues
Regression
Phone + Screen Dependence
Trust Issues
Relationship Issues
Learning + Testing
THE TIME IS YOURS. THE TIME IS NOW.
HYPNOTHERAPY IS A COMPLEMENTARY PRACTICE AND IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL CARE OR TREATMENT.
IT DOES NOT REPLACE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT OR ADVICE FROM A LICENSED HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
HYPNOTHERAPY RESULTS WILL VARY FROM PERSON TO PERSON.
Legal Disclaimer: Hypnotherapy is a self-regulated profession and does not qualify for State licensing. The American Council of Hypnotist Examiners is a professional organization, chartered by the State of California, to establish training standards, standards of professional practice, and a code of ethics.
The ACHE's Ethics Committee can suspend or revoke certification. Certification is awarded to those who attend state licensed schools, with state approved hypnotherapy instructors. Although the state does not regulate curriculum or a required number of hours of training, the American Council of Hypnotism Examiners has the highest requirements for certification of any major Hypnotherapy organization in the USA. The ACHE is the only major Hypnosis Certification organization in the US that requires its approved schools to have the necessary state license or official exemption. The ACHE logo is the Hallmark of Quality for the Hypnotherapy profession. Be sure to look for it.
Nicole Hunter, C.Ht. is not a licensed psychologist or physician and does not offer medical or psychological services. Services to be provided are not diagnostic. Individuals previously diagnosed by a physician or psychologist with a clinical disease or disorder must first obtain a referral from their doctor to Higher Wellbeing for hypnotherapy sessions to work on issues specific to their diagnosis.
While hypnosis may be an effective technique for many purposes, the effectiveness may vary from individual to individual. Testimonials on this site are individual experiences. Results made by our company and its clients are estimates of what we think you may achieve. Higher Wellbeing makes no promise or guarantee for specific results or progress. As with any self-improvement program, results will be based on your individual capacity, previous experience, level of motivation, ability to take action or make change, and desire to follow simple instructions. Higher Wellbeing makes every effort to ensure that we accurately represent our services and their potential for self-improvement results. Ultimately, your success is based on your motivation and desire.