Hypnosis is best described as a very deep state of relaxation, where you feel you are in a stable, normal, natural, healthy state of mind.
A Qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist uses hypnosis to enable the client to achieve a state of mental, physical and emotional relaxation.
When in hypnosis, the conscious mind (that busy, critical, analytical part of the mind) takes a break. Hypnosis allows people to quieten the conscious mind and tap into the "storeroom" of information that lies in the subconscious mind and make positive changes to thought patterns, habits, effects of trauma, pain, anxiety, grief, etc. that are having a negative impact on the client either mentally or physically and often both.
In this state, where your conscious mind puts down its walls and allows your powerful subconscious mind to be activated, you are still fully in control at all times and contrary to how hypnosis is sometimes portrayed in movies or on television, you don't lose control over your behaviour while under hypnosis.
You generally remain aware of and remember what happens during hypnosis, and anything that you ever hear that does not feel relevant or right for you, you are fully in control to simply allow those words to float right on by you.
We often go in to a similar trance like state in every day life without even being fully aware of it, like when we zone out while watching a movie or when daydreaming, or if you have ever had one of those times when you drive somewhere very familiar, but once you get there, you have the sensation that you don't even remember driving for some of the trip home, and you were just on "autopilot", this is when your conscious mind has "taken a break" and your subconscious mind, which is similar to our "Auto Pilot Mode". has literally taken the wheel. This is because our bodies experience what are known as ultradian rhythms.
These rhythms form the basis of common, everyday trance or hypnotic states, when we may find ourselves daydreaming or just taking a break.
The application of Hypnotherapy simply put, is when therapy is done under hypnosis, and therapy conducted whilst a client is under hypnosis, is remarkably effective, because unlike many "talk therapies" that deal solely with the conscious mind, that is responsible for critical thinking, logical thinking, short term memory, willpower, etc. Hypnotherapy deals with the subconscious mind, which represents around 90- 95% percent of your total brain function and that controls all of the systems in the body, your behaviours, habits, feelings and emotions, long term memory, beliefs, values, creativity, imagination, addictions, relationship patterns, involuntary body functions, developmental stages, intuition and spiritual connection. By tapping in to this part of your mind that is in charge of your automatic thinking, you have the amazing ability to rewire your mind to respond differently and make changes that you didn't think would be possible and had previously just accepted as, "It is just how I am, I can't change it", where in fact you absolutely can!