Three common objections to hypnosis
Even in Los Angeles – original home of the “hip hypnotist” – people seek hypnotherapy solutions as a last resort. Pain management, phobias, addictions, weight loss … there is a long list of problems for which hypnosis is typically very effective.
Sigmund Freud - hypnotist
People are afraid of failure.
- “I can’t be hypnotized.”
- “Will you make me behave like a chicken?”
- “I tried it. It didn’t work?”
Hypnosis is a natural state of mind. We are all in a trance of one sort or another much of the time. The trick is to use the state of hypnosis, or trance, to your best advantage. Anyone can experience the pleasant state of hypnotic relaxation, and everyone can benefit from it when it is used by a skilled practitioner.
Stage hypnosis is usually performed as comedy. While it demystifies hypnosis, it also inevitably misrepresents the power of the hypnotic process. Your choice to volunteer as a hypnotic subject for a stage show may indicate a certain willingness to goof around. When you approach a hypnotherapist to help you effect change in your life, you have something very different in mind.
Unfortunately, as in all professions, there are some poorly trained or ineffective practitioners of hypnosis who advertise themselves as hypnotherapists. Hypnosis is an art, and hypnotherapy is a collaboration between artist and patient/client. It is not a question of it (hypnosis) working. It always works. The question is whether the power of that work is communicated, prepared for, executed, followed up etc. in a way that fully addressees your issues and needs.
Pat Collins, the 'Hip Hypnotist' (with Lloyd Bridges)
There is a lot of misunderstanding about hypnosis. Hypnosis. or trance is a natural state of mind. To paraphrase one of the greatest hypnotists of all time, Milton Erickson, “Everyone walks around in a trance of disempowerment. The work is to change that to a trance of personal empowerment.”
There are very few things that produce rapid permanent positive change as effectively as hypnosis, and those that do usually have elements of hypnotic trance built into them. Even Sigmund Freud, who began his career as hypnotist, acknowledged that hypnosis was the single most effective modality to help bring about permanent positive transformation.
