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Hypnotherapy has so much to offer the medical profession that it seems ridiculous that it has taken so long to establish itself as an acceptable method of treatment. There could be a number of reasons for this, and without getting too political I will offer a couple of suggestions and allow you to make up your own mind. The first is perhaps the biggest driver in any situation, money. The conventional medical system relies very heavily on the use of drugs, and the pharmaceutical industry is massive. Hypnosis does not use any drugs whatsoever, so if hypnosis suddenly became the preferred method of treatment a lot of incredibly powerful individuals would be losing billions. If you were one of those individuals and you were aware of this threat to your livelihood, unless you are a truly altruistic individual you would most definitely discourage the use of any form of therapy that is likely to reduce the requirement of drug treatment. Now this may not be a vindictive decision, you may very well believe that conventional drug treatment is the only way, a lot of experts are blinkered to their particular field.
Another problem that stems the flow of hypnotic supremacy is the time and skill required to administer it successfully. With conventional medicine, a doctor simply issues a prescription of drugs that the patient is able to administer at home. We are a far cry from the illusion of your caring family GP, many patients are in and out of the doctors office within minutes, hypnosis does take a little longer than this! Writing out a prescription is also a lot easier than working with a patient to develop a hypnotic treatment that is specific to them, and as humans if we are faced with a choice the easy option is usually the most tempting.
Perhaps one of the most famous Doctors ever to use hypnosis was Freud, but he soon dropped it, as he believed it to be inconsistent. The truth is that Freud was rather inflexible with his approach and what works for some does not work for others. Had he been more flexible and developed methods of induction that suited each of his patients individually he would have met with far greater success. When hypnosis failed him, Freud developed psychoanalysis, which is still in use today, despite often taking years to develop a cure and often leaving a patient no better off than when the therapy began... although if weight loss was their goal then their wallets would show great signs of improvement!
Freud gave hypnosis credibility, but he also took it away. Credibility has always been an issue with hypnosis, and stage hypnosis has often been accused of lowering the prestige of hypnotherapy. I started out on the stage and have seen many performances that do go too far, but, regardless of what happens on the stage this is not therapy and it most definitely should not be a measure of judgement. The surgeons scalpel is simply a tool, it can be used to cure disease or, in the wrong hands, it can kill. Surely death is far more serious than humiliation on stage, yet people do not judge the scalpel with the same shadow of suspicion that is cast upon hypnosis. It is merely a tool, like many tools it can be used constructively or destructively, it is the intention of the person that yields the tool that requires focus not the possibilities of the unscrupulous.
Take from the above whatever you feel, this is simply food for thought. The reasoning behind our actions are not always as obvious as we would like. If the truth about hypnosis was known and understood we would demand it. Speedy recovery without side effects, pain free child birth, release from mental constraints, the list goes on. Hypnotherapy has so much to offer and this is something that we should dearly embrace. It is also much more accessible than many people imagine, self hypnosis is very easy to learn and is an incredibly powerful compliment to any treatment. If you would rather leave that side of things to the professionals then going to see a hypnotherapist can be costly, but the alternatives are plentiful. The online hypnosis section of this site will provide you with all the help you could possibly require 24 hours a day 7 days a week, but don't go there yet, read on to discover how hypnotherapy really works.
The best way to illustrate the power of hypnotic suggestion given during therapy is to imagine the mind as a garden. Everything below the ground level we shall call your subconscious mind. Above the ground level, represents your conscious mind. This is the area of which you are aware. All of your actions, personality traits, likes, dislikes, opinions and habits etc. are the flowers, plants and weeds that grow in this garden.
If you are a smoker, there will be a weed that represents this condition in your garden. By using willpower to stop smoking you are attacking the weed from above ground level. If you manage to remove all visible signs of the weed you will be able to stop smoking. However, beneath the soil the roots will still be intact, naturally as time goes by, the roots will begin to grow and another 'smoking weed' will appear in your garden.
This can be dealt with in one of two ways. Some people will accept the weed, and start smoking again, others will attack this second weed, removing all the (above ground level) visible signs.
If you manage to successfully eliminate every weed that grows back over and over again the roots will eventually weaken and you will be completely free of smoking. This is how people successfully become non-smokers through will power alone. However, as long as the roots are still there, you will always have cravings to smoke. The roots will want to grow into another 'smoking weed' and your garden (mind) will feel as if something is missing, as though a desire is not being met.
This illustrates the difference between a true non-smoker and somebody that has simple stopped smoking. The roots continuously draw attention to themselves, and although you may have stopped smoking you do spend a great deal of time thinking about it!
Hypnosis allows us to move beneath the soil and approach the smoking weed from a different perspective. From such a unique vantage point it is possible to eliminate the roots with little concern for the weed above. As the roots die the weed is unable to sustain itself and quickly withers away.
Because there are no roots to encourage the growth of another weed you quickly become a true non-smoker.
This is where most people stop going to therapy sessions and believe that they are cured... and for the great majority this is true. However, the garden now has an empty space. A few people may automatically fill this space with another weed. This time it might not be a smoking weed but perhaps an 'over eating' one!
The trick is to intentionally plant a beautiful flower in the space provided. It does not have to be too exotic. This new flower could represent a new positive hobby such as jogging. Or it could just represent a deep breathing exercise that is automatically triggered as stress begins to build.
Hypnotherapy has three functions. Weeding out the garden by attacking the root of the problem, planting new seeds that will grow into beautiful flowers and helping the flowers to grow by regularly watering them!
Just as regular watering is required for a flower to grow, regular sessions are required to encourage the growth and development of positive suggestions. The therapy sections of this site can help to keep the garden of your mind in good shape! Use them regularly to help boost your abilities. Remember, regular short sessions are far greater than rare long ones!