By Sheila Granger, author of No more diets! Believe in a healthier, better you.
No More Diets!
Number 1: A beginning, not an end.
Many of the people my practitioners and I see have been on a journey through a range of what are commonly viewed as acceptable approaches or treatments before they get to us.
Hypnotherapy can be successfully applied to all manner of issues, including addictions to substances ranging from sugar to alcohol and drugs; sexual problems; chronic pain; phobias; anxieties; lack of self-confidence and even professional performance.
Almost without exception, the clients who approach us about such things have already visited doctors, consultants, rehabilitation centres, counsellors and diet clubs – the list goes on. And those things have not worked for them.
So, they arrive with a preconception that this is the last resort, when the reality is that our minds are such powerful organs, if more people truly understood their capability to impact on our lives for good or bad, they’d start not end there.
Number 2: So, what is hypnotherapy?
We’ve all used phrases like ‘mind over matter’.
Yet, fundamentally, we struggle to really believe that the mind can alter our physical experience. Somehow, it’s easier to place our faith and trust in things we can reach out and touch, be they tablets, devices or hospitals, even if the evidence is telling us nothing is changing for the better.
Hypnotherapy is a centuries-old method for re-booting our minds and harnessing their power to positively improve aspects of our lives. In fact, I believe it is the quickest and easiest way to make someone snap out of the things that are doing them harm and start developing more beneficial habits.
And weight loss and food relationships, which I cover in my new book, is one of the areas where I have seen it achieve the most impressive results.
Number 3: Lifting the hood on your mind
The human mind is basically split into two parts – our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. The conscious part is the ‘tip of the iceberg’ which guides our daily activities, from making sure we eat to getting from A to B or fulfilling our daily work tasks. It is also the little chatterbox inside our heads, which knows very well what we need to do to keep ourselves happy, healthy and on top of things but somehow, all too easily, keeps giving in to bad habits like overeating, and self-destructive thoughts centred on why we can’t do or achieve certain things.
Then there is our subconscious, a far bigger area, which is the conflagration of everything we’ve ever thought, experienced or had said to us, and ultimately drives some of the things our conscious self then does. The subconscious never forgets any of these influences and will continue leading us to do certain things because we got what it saw as a positive result at some point in the past. For example, comfort eating, the first time we do it, makes us feel better, at least in the short term. So, our subconscious thinks ‘I know, that worked well so I’ll make them do it again, and again’.
I often liken the mind to a self-learning computer, which is hardwired to run the same programs over and over again. Occasionally, it needs rebooting to ensure it’s producing the outputs the user is actually looking for. That’s where hypnotherapy comes in.
Number 4: Can anyone be hypnotised?
This is the most common question I get asked. Most people’s only brush with hypnosis before they visit a practitioner is watching stage hypnotists on television, making people cluck like chickens or say outrageous things. These experiences make them understandably wary of the idea of going ‘under’ and being made to do things that are, well, downright embarrassing. Perhaps they consider themselves quite strong willed and can’t imagine ever succumbing to such ‘nonsense’.
The answer I always give is that everyone, without exception, can be hypnotised. The reason I say this is that, in reality, most of us are in a trance, most of the time.
Think about it. How many times a day do you do something in an automated state, where you can’t remember the process you actually went through? Maybe you drove your car and couldn’t recall how you got to your destination, or cooked dinner on ‘autopilot’ while mentally sifting through the events of your day. This is very common because, while our conscious minds are focusing on the practicalities of the things we need to get done today in the here and now, our subconscious is only too happy to oversee our habitual activities in a kind of automated state.
Therefore, it’s also not a case of being strong or not strong, literally everyone is susceptible to hypnosis in one form or another.
Number 5: Does hypnosis put you in a trance?
The reality is the complete opposite of this and hypnosis will actually snap you out of the trance-like state you inhabit every day, in order to change the behaviours that are doing you no favours.
You could almost liken it to when you go on holiday and, as soon as you switch off and start to relax, the day-to-day clutter in your head starts to dissipate and you think afresh about all those aspects of your life you might like to change, or new activities you would like to try. Or you suddenly remember something important that has thus far been crowded out by all the other noise.
Hypnosis provides a shortcut to stepping back from the world in a similar way to reassess, which we all know we need to do every now and again.
Number 6: How does hypnosis actually work?
Like anything in our lives, if we concentrate on one thing for long enough, we are likely to become good at it.
The fact is our brains are wired so that they just will not update their systems until they are presented with something better. The power of hypnosis is that it enables this to happen instantly, with very little conscious effort.
This is how someone can come to a practitioner like me for help with an issue such as smoking cessation and straightaway stop craving cigarettes, whereas, if they went cold turkey, stopping would be a really hard slog.
It’s not a case of one size fits all, though, and working with a practitioner is important so that they can get to know you and work out the best approach and methods to suit you as an individual.
It is virtually impossible to hypnotise yourself because you will always find yourself battling against interference from your conscious mind. Nor can you be hypnotised against your will – you always have to want to do something a hypnotherapist asks you to do, or you simply would not comply with it. Even people who are made to cluck like a chicken must want to do that on some level, otherwise they wouldn’t, it’s as simple as that. It is always important to choose a practitioner you have a strong rapport with for the therapy to be as effective as possible.
Number 7: Is there anyone hypnotherapy can’t help?
Certain people are not suitable to undergo hypnotherapy. These include children under five, whose language isn’t advanced enough to understand the necessary instructions; and those with a serious mental health problem that results in a chemical imbalance in their brain, such as schizophrenia or clinical depression. In these latter examples, this is because hypnotherapy works by heightening someone’s senses, and thinking and feeling more vividly in this way can lead to them being more likely to do something that isn’t good for them.
About Sheila
Sheila Granger is an internationally renowned clinical hypnotherapist. She has trained more than 2,500 practitioners worldwide in her groundbreaking methods. Through this and her own practice, she has helped to improve the lives of tens of thousands of people, in countries ranging from the UK to Holland, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States.
The Virtual Gastric Band therapy featured in this book is, perhaps, her best known invention.
Sheila regularly tours the world, contributing ideas to the development of hypnotherapy practice, and has won awards for her work including, most recently, ‘Hypnotherapist of the Year’ from the International Association of Counsellors and Therapists, for her ‘outstanding support and dedication to the hypnosis community’.
No More Diets ! Believe in a healthier, better you became an ‘Amazon Bestseller’ within seven hours of launching earlier this month. You can purchase a copy via Amazon at https://amzn.to/2wLJL0f
Discover more about Sheila’s hypnosis work via her website at www.sheilagranger.com.