try hypnotherapy

I put off my hypnotherapy for a while because I was doing well with the stuff she gave me to work on….but after that my life took an unexpected turn in oct07 when my boyfriend of 5 1/2 years decided he was leaving me :( It took a long time to get in a place where I knew what I wanted from the hypnotherapy, but last week I had my next session…and this time I didn’t do it over the webcam I went to her office in town.

I was really scared beforehand as I’d never met her in person or been to the office…but my new boyfriend was reassuring me that it would be fine, which helped. When I turned up we chatted for about 25 mins to catch up on what had happened since the last session and what would help me now. For the rest of the session I was hypnotised.

I don’t think that I went as deep as the last time she hypnotised me over the webcam, because I wasn’t as relaxed and you can only really go as deep as you will allow yourself to. However, I could still feel myself getting more relaxed than if I had just been sat talking to her normally. When I began I had a lump in my throat and felt tense…but when I finished I was more loose and relaxed (my eyes were watering as well, which happens when I am really relaxed) like I’d been dozing or something. When we came to difficult parts like her asking me to imagine something that scared me, I could feel myself tense a bit…and she would use different images and descriptions to relax me again.

Near the end she asked me to open my eyes, and she got me to follow her finger with my eyes (I think it’s called EMDR).

When it was finished I felt uplifted and more optimistic, but not completely invincible. One thing which helped me during the session, and that I’ve remembered this week has been the metaphor she used for my behaviour (being cautious of everything worrying it might go wrong). She said that it would be like someone taking an umbrella out the whole time just in case it rains. Occasionally you may need it, but it’s not going to hurt you to get rained on a bit.

As a teenager, my parents were going through some crazy issues, which were thankfully resolved as time wore on. However, as part of their healing process, my dad decided that we should all go through therapy! I remember being a junior in high school at the time and being very pissed off about this decision! The way I saw it was that my parent’s problems weren’t mine and I resented being sucked into their issues. I was such a typical, self-absorbed kid and didn’t possess the maturity to appreciate the gift of hypnotherapy. Several times a week after school for half a year, I could be found lying on a chair listening to subliminal messages that were supposed to help my supposed ‘trauma’, but I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity. Instead, I would lay there for the hour or so entertaining my mind with other thoughts, blocking out the therapy. Now that I am older, I feel bad that I didn’t grasp the value of my dad’s desire to heal our family, or the potential positive effects that the therapy might have had at that time. But luckily, I can now see what a beautiful gesture it was and appreciate that I even had such an experience.

We didn’t actually do any hypnosis this time but it went pretty well because we were discussing what had happened in the past few weeks and what I should be doing. I told her about my nightmare last week due to my period and it made sense to her. I think everything combined…stress/bad diet/pill hormones/not enough vitamins etc. makes that time of the month much tougher. I have started a 50mg B Vitamin Complex now and things are looking up, let’s hope that’s not only due to my period being gone.

As I hoped she’d say, I am approaching this the right way – do things that I find difficult when I am feeling more positive and confident to reinforce the beliefs that I can cope. We were talking about different things that normally make me anxious and she asked me if I could make myself anxious there on the spot. I don’t find it easy to provoke anxiety when I am truly calm so I tried to think of a really panicky situation like feeling sick in a plane (no escape) but I couldn’t make myself panic because it was unimaginable – it was like a picture of someone on telly getting anxious and it wasn’t stirring any emotion in me.

With this in mind she said it would be helpful for me to try and picture anxious situations in the present time on a TV, so I will try and remember to do that next time I feel anxious. Dissociate myself a bit..(see the little pic I drew on my hand to remind me)

She suggested one technique that might be possible for me – to go to a public place where I feel safe, like a quiet corner of the local park, and make myself sick. I can totally see the logic, that you would be completely ‘safe’ not far from home etc. but being sick whilst healthy sounds horrible to me. I can only imagine allowing it to happen in a situation where it’d make me feel better, eg. food poisoning or something.

She suggested having the next session before my next period, so that might be a good plan…I’ll see how it goes in the next fortnight.

Oh, and with my eating I said that I notice sometimes I don’t chew my food properly then my stomach has a lot of work to do. She said that it might be an idea to focus on the physical act of eating and to close my eyes for a couple of mouthfuls of each meal to remind myself to do it properly. I will try this cos I know it’s a problem at the mo. I don’t much like eating but part of that’s the 3-4 hours it’s going to take for my stomach to feel comfortable again…this time might be shorter if I let my mouth do a lot of the work first.

Ahhhh, this was much better. First we talked about how I’d been doing and I explained that I’d been listening to the Paul McKenna Confidence hypnosis recording most days to get used to the hypnosis process. I didn’t expect it to do anything as it’s not personalised for me but as it’s helping I am continuing.

I am feeling calmer and more relaxed on the whole if I don’t have commitments (places to be/people to see) so I can pick and choose when I do stuff but I still don’t feel able to do things I really want to be doing like meeting a good friend near town because I don’t feel like I would be relaxed and might panic. I am also still having times of panic and major anxiety. BUT on the plus side, I can go and do things if they don’t involve too much contact with other people…like going for a walk in the woods which is very nice if it’s sunny..and exercise (if nothing else) when it’s rainy. At the moment the thought of talking to people is unpleasant because if you panic when you’re talking to someone you have to make an excuse to leave (which makes you panic more trying to think up a lie).

I get on well with the lady so I ask her all the questions that come into my mind because she’s understanding & non judgmental. I asked her whether we’d deal with emetaphobia directly and she said that she thought at the moment it was like a protective coat of armour and if we removed it whilst I still had regular anxiety I might be faced with a situation where I would be sick..so we’d work on lessening the anxiety and then remove the phobia. This was exactly what I’d said in my entry here so I couldn’t have been more pleased to hear that.

We did about 15 minutes of hypnosis and it was much easier than last time because I was more used to what was going on and I could concentrate on her voice rather than the voice in my head that in the first session was going “AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!!!”

One weird thing that happened though…at the end of the hypnosis she asked me a question and I wanted to answer it but my mind went blank and I felt like I might not be able to speak. Was this being hypnotised? I eventually managed to do it by opening my eyes and taking a few seconds to think, took a little bit longer to engage my brain though. It wasn’t scary but just sort of like when someone talks to you when they think you’re awake but you’ve been napping.

I just had my first hypnosis session over a webcam. My issues seem to be overcoming emetaphobia and general anxieties/fear of losing control which has taken over my life. At my worst I could hardly eat anything, was pacing round and round my flat unable to sit still for constant worrying, and the thought of leaving the house was very difficult/at times impossible. It was really daunting at first because although she explained the process well I was still anxious of what to expect and when we began the hypnosis I was feeling really vulnerable. I am not sure whether or not I was hypnotised but it just involved using my imagination to create different situations. Maybe she was easing me in.

I think I did something slightly wrong because I was meant to be imagining good things, and if a horrible thing appeared I was meant to switch it off…but I tried to subject myself to it to “beat it” must have misunderstood what she’d said. oops! Anyway that made me cry a little but I overcame that as she guided me through positive imagery. It was sort of just like listening to my Paul McKenna CD but it was personalised for me and I could communicate with it (I was talking throughout this whole process).

I had been been speaking with her on the phone using a technique called Chinosis, but as this was the first hypnotherapy session I was probably equally nervous over the actual process as I was over my issues. She said this was normal so I really hope that next time I will allow myself to be more relaxed by it to let the suggestions really enter my mind.

But for now, nothing bad has happened and I conquered my fear of the hypnotherapy session at least! lol.

I’m encouraged by reading the entries naughtyminx78 has made under this goal, but still really scared about trying this. I’ve been working with a qualified hypnotherapist lady over the phone for two weeks and so far we’ve just been talking and using other techniques that she does, mainly one called Chinosis to calm me down.

Sometimes I get really excited about the prospect of trying this hypnotherapy and changing my life and other times I get SO scared in case parts of my fears are removed and not others, leaving me in a right mess. That’s the worrier in me, but hopefully I will build up the courage to try it some time soon!

I had my fifth, and probably my last hypnotherapy session on Thursday. I was not going to go to it because I felt that I had really dealt with everthing I wanted to address. However, I felt quite flat after my session on Monday and then I felt quite despondant and down for a few days. I think various doctors appointments and then going back to work didn’t help.

So I decided to go on Thursday and I am so glad that I did. I had an amazing session where the hypnotherapist asked me some questions when I was awake and some when I was hypnotised and I realised that I know the root cause of my problems. I didn’t even know that I knew but then it all made sense….and I know where it came from and I know how to solve the problem!

I never dared dream I could find the answers to so many questions inside myself. I guess that is the key of hypnosis – it allows you to hear and listen to your subconscious which knows what you need and how to get it.

I have felt even more wonderful since that final session. I feel the strongest sense of self that I have ever done, I feel confident that I can change the things I want to change and the thinking disortions I have maintained for so long are evaporating. I am overflowing with love for all those around me and for myself and I feel an intense warmth and happiness within.

These hypnotherapy sessions have acheived more progress than over a year of counselling and group work therapy did for me. Hypnotherapy is astounding and I highly recommend it!

Today we had quite an intense session, I felt that I was in a deeper state of hypnosis than I have been previously.

The hypnotherapist took me through my childhood back to the source of my stress, anxieties and self-judgements then I disposed of them. At the end I felt this overwhelming warm bright light of freedom and felt an astounding deep belief that I change anything about my life that I want to.

Towards the end the hypnotherapist asked me questions about what was right for me and I surprised myself by what came out of my mouth! I don’t think I knew before – it was buried so deep under what others thought and said and about what I had read and analysed – rather than just what I know to be true.

The changes that these four sessions have made to my life have dumbfounded me. I did not think it was possible to change with the ease and simplicity that has happened over the past two weeks. It is unbelieveable!

I went to my third hypnotherapy session on Thursday and again it was absolutely amazing….I just cannot believe the difference it has mad to my life!

During the session we spent some time again reviewing my progress and spent some time reinforcing the anchors. Then once I was in a state of hypnosis we did a regression to key points in my childhood where I then forgave myself and others and stopped judging myself and others. All my anger just disappeared without a trace of blame whatsoever. Phenomenal.

What strongly came out of this session for me was a deep belief that whenever I feel anger I can address it through forgiveness, trust and hope. It is working!!!!

I cannot put into words just how much these sessions have transformed my life. I never in a million years believed that such a few sessions could impact on every single aspect of my entire being – not just the eating issues I wanted to address, but the stress and anger management that are also crucial to my health and well-being – it truly is amazing!!!

I was not disappointed with my second hypnotherapy session yesterday!

We spent the first part of the session reviewing how things have been since the last session and identifying the areas that I am still concerned about such as not wanting to eat the kids leftovers anymore.

Then we did some NLP type work where I imagined certain feelings and then ‘anchored’ them making a circle with my thumb and forefinger. This is now a tool I can use when I am feeling stressed/anxious/nervous/angry or whatever to invoke feeling of calm/relaxation/contentment etc. It seems to be working so far!

Then I went into a state of hypnosis and the hypnotherapist made suggestions. Again I can’t remember exactly everything (and I know I don’t need to) but I know it was about trusting myself and having strength and confidence. There was also lots of focus on dealing with situations that trigger me and having new coping mechanisms of realising that everyone is human (including myself) and approaching difficulties and relationship with love and understanding for myself and others.

I know that once again I came away feeling absolutely filled with confidence that I can beat these problems and I can put that part of my life behind me and move on.

.....and last night the leftovers went in the bin!

Looking forward to the next session!