What is hypnotherapy?

Contrary to the popular belief, hypnosis does not involve the client going into a deep sleep. In fact, the client is fully conscious and in control at
all times throughout a hypnosis session.Hypnosis is an induced state of relaxation for the body and mind. Once the body and mind are relaxed, the subconscious mind can be communicated with in order to make positive suggestions so that changes can take place as the mind is more suggestible.

[Terrence Watts] - The conscious critical faculty (‘CCF’) works like a filter between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. In a conscious state of mind, when you learn something new it goes through the conscious mind and filters through to the unconscious mind. However, if you have already learnt something similar then the CCF will reject the information as it has something stored already. It filters out any information that does not fit in with your belief system. For instance, you have been told from a child that the grass is green and the sky is blue, you were not born knowing this information - it was learnt, that information is stored in your unconscious mind and can be retrieved when you need it. Now say somebody says to you the sky is purple and the grass is not green its black. The information will filter from your conscious mind but will be rejected by the CCF because it retrieved the learned belief/fact that the sky is blue and the grass is green. You will dismiss this information. However, in hypnosis a client is not in a state of normal consciousness, their subconscious is accessed and suggestions can be made which bypass the CCF. The subconscious mind is non-critical and non-logical unlike the conscious mind so it is more susceptible to suggestion under the state of hypnosis. This is how we can change beliefs, feelings and actions in people under hypnosis.

The CCF is a lot more complex than this, however it is like our human built-in survival kit in the mind. You will only act and trust what you know is true and tested by your unconscious mind. However, our conscious mind isn't always correct. For instance, if you are constantly told as a child you are useless, worthless and stupid then you will grow up believing this to be true, this in turns knocks your confidence and stops you from trying to achieve your goals as you believe you are not capable of doing so which is simply not the case. This is why hypnotherapy has a high success rate for treating a wide range of issues from phobias to confidence issues, weight management, stopping smoking and many more.