Hypnosis treatment: types, techniques, training. Hypnosis for sleep and calming the nervous system

According to a study by psychologists, the human subconscious is not capable of inventing anything new, previously unknown.

Everything that it “produces” is based on acquired knowledge, experience, and instincts. All memories, imagined images are based on real events that are deep in human memory, even if he himself does not realize it.

The technique of hypnosis allows you to use this psychological pattern to help people remember and re-evaluate events experienced in the distant past. Or restore significant facts and details of the incident, forgotten due to stress, shock, or violent intervention.

What it is?

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness generated by the directed action of a hypnotist or self-hypnosis, which is characterized by an intermediate state on the verge of wakefulness and dreamless sleep.

Arises from focusing on:

• the voice of a specialist or musical accompaniment;
• specific subject;
• own breathing;
• impressions;
• memories.

In a state of hypnosis, a person is completely relaxed, in a blocked state of consciousness, while being able to see and feel uncontrollable images of the subconscious.

During hypnotic influence, the hypnotist gains access to the unconscious sphere of the personality, thereby having the opportunity to influence the system of beliefs, attitudes, habits, and preferences of the subject.

Hypnosis as an anti-stress remedy

Information coming from the outside world is processed by a mysterious part of the mind - its subconscious. It decides what to do next with the information received: store it or let it into consciousness. At the same time, very negative events, thoughts, and actions can be hidden so deeply that a simple effort of will cannot pull them out and realize them.

Hypnosis opens access to negative data storage. Using special techniques, the hypnotist puts a person into a hypnotic trance - a state between sleep and reality. Staying here allows you to:

• eliminate obstacles to obtaining information built by the consciousness;
• obtain reliable information about the past;
• find a painful memory, problem;
• change a negative attitude towards a difficult situation to a neutral or positive one.

Replacing destructive emotions with positive ones is the essence of hypnotherapy. The body does not see the problem that was being addressed, so it does not waste emotional energy searching for solutions. Accordingly, the likelihood of disorganization of personal behavior is suppressed, and the array of problems is reduced.

Hypnosis is an effective and safe way to relax a patient. Its benefits in combating stress are obvious:

• working with the root cause - emotion, and not with its manifestations;
• no other treatments are required as the symptoms disappear;
• the resolved problem is not returned;
• absence of contraindications, side effects, negative consequences;
• painless, natural use;
• speed of action;
• no age restrictions;
• the body's resistance to stress is formed.

During a hypnotic session, the foundations for competent and painless resolution of difficult situations are laid in the patient’s subconscious. Faced with another negative factor, the subconscious will act according to the implemented scheme - to treat the problem without long-lasting and unnecessary emotions for the body.

Hypnotist: how to choose the right one?

Hypnosis presupposes trust in the specialist performing it and dialogue between the participants. During the actions of the hypnologist, a partial blocking of consciousness occurs. Complex cases allow for complete disconnection from reality. The patient hears and perceives only the hypnotist.

For the sessions to be productive, it is important to find a specialist whom you can trust without fear. Sympathy for the interlocutor helps to perceive the suggested information deeply and firmly.

When choosing “your” hypnotist, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

• listen to your intuition - it can determine whether you should trust this specialist;
• read the reviews of other patients - ideal if you personally know those whom he helped;
• clarify education, work experience;
• study licenses allowing you to engage in relevant medical activities;
• pay attention to the techniques used;
• discuss the upcoming procedure - the hypnotist should not shy away from answering questions that concern you, no matter how amateurish or strange they may seem to him.

Choose your hypnotist wisely. If something seems suspicious, do not agree to hypnotic trance sessions.

Meditation as the key to self-hypnosis

Meditation is the process of relaxing the body and focusing attention on one's own breathing, bodily sensations, or a foreign object. As a result, the mind is cleansed of negative thoughts, unnecessary experiences, and irritants from the outside world.

Using meditative techniques, a person is able to enter a trance-like hypnotic state and, through self-suggestion, achieve a state of serenity and harmony for sleep and calming the nervous system.

Instilling certain attitudes into yourself will allow you to change your habits, way of thinking and behavior. Thereby having a positive impact on well-being and self-realization in general.

Types of hypnosis

The main task of introducing a person into hypnosis is to gain control over his fears, experiences, addictions and physical condition.

According to the degree and methods of influence, the following types of hypnosis are distinguished:

1. Classical (directive) hypnosis. Direct influence method, in which the individual voluntarily agrees to conduct a session and fulfills the hypnologist’s conditions. Involves an instant shock method of inducing a deep hypnotic state. Suggestion is carried out in the form of specific rigid installations in directive form. It is used in medicine to get rid of drug and alcohol addiction, smoking, obsessive depression and stress.

2. Ericksonian (permissive) hypnosis. Unlike the classical method, in this case the suggestions are soft, unobtrusive. The hypnotized person does not lose control over the situation and has the right to accept or reject the proposed settings. The method of the American psychotherapist Milton Erickson implies an individual approach to the problem of each client, providing the opportunity for personal awareness of problems and unfulfilled desires.

   
   The introduction to a trance state is carried out gradually, starting with a normal conversation. After which the hypnologist begins to work with the patient’s imagination, allowing him to realize the source of the problem and find a solution. Visualization plays an important role. Images of getting rid of a problem are deposited in the individual’s subconscious, helping him to cope with psychological difficulties in the future. The method helps to get rid of stuttering and aerophobia, increase a person’s social adaptation, and instill confidence before public speaking.

3. Regressive hypnosis. While in a deep trance, the subject remembers past events in detail, without controlling his consciousness. A hypnologist is able to suggest to a person that he is at an early age.

   
   From this moment it is possible to track fears, stress and emotional experiences that have long been forgotten by the patient, but have a negative impact on his mental and physical health, character, and behavior. At certain stages of the session, the specialist softly makes the necessary suggestions to help identify and eliminate the consequences of psychological trauma.

4. Self-hypnosis - acts through body relaxation, concentration and self-suggestion of positive attitudes.

   
   Allows you to quickly relax at home, cope with stress, take control of your feelings and sensations, normalize sleep, learn to manage emotions and desires. For the successful practice of self-hypnosis, regular exercises are necessary, leading to the harmonization of the soul, body and the surrounding world.

Ideomotive phenomenon

When we remember some sad incident from our life: insult, resentment, disappointment, our mood deteriorates and a negative emotion arises. And if we imagine something pleasant, inspiring, invigorating, then our mood improves and a positive emotion arises. For example, if you remember some joke or anecdote, it can make you smile. This is an ideo-emotive (ideo-affective) phenomenon. Its essence is that an idea, image or some kind of fantasy, in addition to conscious control, is realized in emotion and evokes an affective response.

How and where to learn hypnosis

Mastering hypnosis for beginners is possible both independently and under the guidance of a specialist.

The main task of immersion in a hypnotic trance is to focus on the internal state of a person.

Methods on how to learn hypnosis yourself at home:

• Master the technique of concentration. To do this, you should start by focusing your gaze on the selected object without blinking. Doing this exercise regularly will help you develop a subjugating gaze.

• Mastery of ideomotor skills, which allows you to use a concentrated gaze to send commands to your opponent to perform certain actions. You can practice on your immediate surroundings, sending a signal to the person to straighten his hair, look around, or take an object.

• To successfully conduct a session, you need to establish a trusting relationship with the subject and choose a comfortable location.

• Focus on the patient's gaze, listen to his breathing, and mentally capture internal sensations.

• In a calm, confident voice, inform the person that he is walking along the road and with each step he is plunging deeper into a hypnotic trance. At the end of the journey he will be able to be completely in a state of hypnosis.

Hypnosis lessons will not give instant results. Persistent, systematic training is required. Anyone who wants to learn how to master hypnosis has the right to choose the most optimal and accessible way of learning: from books, at trainings, in specialized educational institutions.

Where to learn hypnotherapy:

1. Training in courses, trainings and seminars from professional teachers. Systematic classes with practical work will bring maximum results.
2. Specialized literature, articles on the Internet, audio materials, scientific publications of psychotherapists.
3. The Moscow Institute of Hypnosis conducts individual training courses under the guidance of honored doctors of the Russian Federation. Convenient class schedule, 90% practice, limited groups of students, regular scientific research. At the end of the training a certificate is issued.
4. Alternative Hypnosis Laboratory is a thematic group of social networks. The YouTube channel has published many videos with educational material on regressive hypnosis, methods of its use, and the results of its impact on humans.

Tactics

It is impossible to put a person into a trance state without his desire. Effectiveness is determined by the emotionality and hypnotizability of the subject.

The trance state is divided into several tactics, depending on the properties and specificity of the disorder.

Classic method

The hypnologist, using certain words, puts the client into a state of trance. Puts the necessary information into his consciousness. There is a change in the subconscious and an attitude toward relieving stress or improving night's rest. In this situation, the subject can follow the instructions that are required of him.

Ericksonian influence

There is another definition of Ericksonian influence - non-directive. This type was developed by the American scientist Milton Erickson.

A distinctive feature of Erickson’s influence is that the subject’s consciousness does not turn off - he is in a sober mind.

Information is presented in the form of a story. It has a coded meaning that affects consciousness and encourages action.

A. Rakitsky's method

Andrei Rakitsky’s method is becoming more popular every year. It is based on listening to relaxing sounds: sea surf, rustling leaves, sound of rain.

A distinctive feature is the accompaniment of sounds with a certain rhythm. Scientists note that it is very similar to the rhythm of the heart and helps improve brain function.

This is a kind of relaxation for sleep.

Methodology of Elena Valjak

The principle of Elena Valjak’s technique is also based on retorsion by sounds. A distinctive feature is the use of a soothing female voice. Visual effects can be used to ensure that the patient is completely immersed in the process.

Sleep affirmations help you relax as much as possible and fall asleep quickly.

Self-hypnosis method

Hypnotic sessions can be carried out independently by listening to audio recordings with encrypted suggestions. With self-hypnosis, sleep requires a rich imagination and fantasy. Even after the first session it is possible to achieve positive results.

After systematic procedures, a reflex setting is formed. Focus and patience help relieve depressive disorders and improve the process of falling asleep.

Influencing the subconscious with the help of audio is the most accessible and safe form. With this calming hypnosis, the person’s consciousness does not turn off. It just means complete relaxation and distraction from the problems of the day.

Advantages

There are a number of benefits to hypnotherapy for both the patient and the hypnologist.

During regular psychosessions, the client may lose balance, allow himself to shout, be rude, or behave inappropriately. In a trance state, the patient is passive and therefore more receptive to the information received.

Hypnosis provides only relaxation and stress relief. The main task of a hypnologist is to influence a person’s subconscious. The subject approaches his problem with restraint and thoughtfulness, weighs the positive and negative aspects, and looks for a way out.

Upon awakening, the information received can be discussed with a specialist. Then repeat the session. This is the basic principle.

Contraindications

Despite the safety and harmlessness of this technique, hypnotic sessions have a number of contraindications:

1. Acute mental disorders.
2. Pregnancy period.
3. Pathological abnormal deformations of the heart.
4. Chronic neuralgic disease – epilepsy.
5. Schizophrenia.
6. Acute chronic pathologies.
7. Oncological diseases.
8. Alcohol intoxication or use of psychotropic drugs.

If you have chosen hypnotherapy to combat insomnia, you should carefully choose a specialist and the clinic where the therapy will take place.

Classes will help you get rid of insomnia for a long time and normalize psycho-emotional situations. Quite often, five sessions are enough for you to return to healthy sleep.

Hypnosis treatment

An experienced hypnologist in several sessions, with the consent of the patient, is able to relieve him of many ailments of a psychological and physiological nature.

With the help of hypnosis it is possible to:

• Influence people’s self-affirmation, overcome internal complexes, fears, improve memory, normalize sleep.
• Coping with sexual disorders, a depressed state of consciousness, depression.
• Overcome excess weight, stabilize digestion, cure ulcers and gastritis.
• To improve the condition of cancer patients after operations and intensive care.
• Cope with allergic and dermatological manifestations, accelerate the healing of wounds and burns.
• A hypnosis session for a married couple will allow you to find the sources of adultery, cooling towards each other, scandals and disagreements, and misunderstandings with children. Identification of the original problem and joint sessions will help spouses tune into a common harmonious mood, appreciate the love and attention of their partner, trust their children, thereby saving the family.
• Overcome addictions: alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling.

Treatment of alcoholism with hypnosis

It should be noted that effective treatment is only possible if the patient is aware of his addiction and agrees to coding.

Sessions against a person’s will and at a distance will not produce results. Hypnotic effects are used for therapy, to consolidate the result, to eliminate the psychosis and nervous breakdown that occurs in a person when he abruptly quits drinking.

Coding for alcoholism using hypnosis is characterized by:

• lack of influence on the internal organs and metabolic processes of the body;
• long-term exposure;
• the ability to conduct sessions at home;
• the absence of medicinal stimulants and antidepressants that negatively affect the psyche.

To clearly understand the essence of what hypnosis is - a tool or a weapon, you need to find out the goal and be guided by the main rule: “do no harm .

Hypnotherapy is not entertainment; its main task is to gain control over a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior to harmonize psychological and physical health.

Stress as a reaction of the body

To understand how hypnosis affects the harmonization of the emotional state, let’s understand what stress is and how it works.

Any life event accompanied by psychological discomfort and suffering is considered stress. The concept has become stronger that such a negative reaction must be gotten rid of, otherwise the body will be harmed. Many people advise taking everything calmly and abstractly, and not allowing yourself to react to what is happening.

But stress is a normal physiological reaction of a healthy person to external stimuli. It occurs every time factors appear that threaten to disrupt the state of internal constancy of the body. Accompanied by a surge of adrenaline to quickly resolve an external challenge.

Tasks of stress in neutralizing negative situations:

• launch the process of self-regulation of the body through rapid adaptation to new conditions;
• restore the lost balance of the body;
• mobilize internal resources;
• eliminate the action of the stimulus.

The tool for solving these problems is our reactions. If they pass quickly, without consequences, then stress is considered positive. When emotions, especially negative ones, do not go away for a long time and interfere with a person, then he becomes negative.

The factors that trigger stress are varied and numerous. The brain does not care whether a positive or negative problem has caused an internal imbalance. It reacts to all stimuli in the same way - it triggers a self-adaptation mechanism.

When to deal with stress

The body's response to stress is not always harmful to human health. Small negative stimuli are even useful. They invigorate and stimulate the brain to search for solutions. Life without stress is dull, varied, leads to early aging, loss of goals and interests.

A state of stress becomes the cause of complex problems if there are factors:

• prolonged, negative experience of emotions;
• low threshold of individual emotional sensitivity;
• negative interpretation and subsequent assessment of the event;
• intense reaction to stress;
• attaching great importance to the stimulus;
• simultaneous action of several stress factors.

If everything that happens is perceived in a “minor” manner, the stressful situation does not go away for a long time, there is no strength to neutralize the negativity, or signs of depression appear, then it’s time to act. You should get rid of stress and its consequences in such situations.

It is impossible to reduce the level of negativity and restore peace of mind only with therapeutic treatment. Antidepressants and other medications do not act on the original source of the problem. They only temporarily block the symptoms of an emotional disorder in the body.

The results of treatment of stressful conditions improve if psychotherapeutic measures are added to traditional treatment. The psychotherapist explains to the patient his condition, talks about ways to overcome difficult situations, teaches how to manage thoughts and emotions. But these manipulations do not affect the causes, but eliminate visible emotional manifestations.

To understand negative reactions and the subconscious, a hypnologist is needed to help people by putting them into a hypnotic trance. He can deal with the patient’s problems and discover in the subconscious the situation that served as the beginning of the disease.