Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis as a therapy tool, to allow the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind to communicate.  There are two ways this is done. Analysis helps us to get information about what is in the subconscious part of the mind forming our core beliefs, and suggestion is used to change the core beliefs, if necessary.

Core beliefs are formed throughout life and stored in the subconscious part of the mind, as memory templates.  These core beliefs come from the things we learn from other people, (both wanted and unwanted things) and the experiences we have, and they are interpreted by our emotional state at the time of learning and stored with the emotional state attached.  

We measure words, events and experiences by these memory templates to make sense of them.  Each time we encounter something, we unconsciously search our memory templates for something similar to make sense of what we are experiencing.  If we find something similar, we categorise it as the same, including the emotional state that goes with it, and our subconscious instructs us to behave in the same way we did the first time we encountered it.  If it is something we can’t recognise as similar to something else, it is assessed as new and placed in the memory store as a new template.

For example, a core belief that spiders are frightening may be based on the memory template formed at the age of three, which says mother screamed and behaved in a frightened way when she saw a spider, therefore spiders must be dangerous and life threatening.  The details of the memory aren’t consciously available, but the feeling of being afraid is, because the subconscious is designed to keep us alive, and if it believes spiders are dangerous, it will initiate the correct response to make sure we avoid the spider.    

Suggestion therapy can be used to change memory templates which affect our feelings and behaviours, by taking away the emotional reaction which is stored along with the other information.  When a memory template is attached to a neutral emotional state it no longer has the same effect on us.

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