“But will I be able to be hypnotised? I am a strong person you know.”
Yes we know you are strong willed, and yes we are confident you will be able to “be hypnotised.”
As accredited hypnotherapists, we prefer to say you always have the choice to become still and focused on yourself. Accredited hypnotherapists are trained to create the right supportive environment for you to make this choice.
Or not 🙂
Your experience will be unique to you. If you sit back in a comfortable chair, concentrate on your therapist’s voice, listen to what they say and how they say it, you are highly likely to find yourself relaxing and become more still in your body.
As the tension leaves your body, so you mind realises it does not have to work so hard to be alert and keep you safe. And then it too, begins to relax. It realises it is safe to focus on the thoughts you want to consider.
Some experiences many clients share with us when they go into a trance includes:
- Their breathing slows down, and becomes deeper and slower,
- Their eyes lids feel heavy and close of their own accord,
- The skin on their face feels softer and relaxed – around the eyes and mouth in particular,
- Their hands and their legs become heavy, and sometimes tingles may be felt in the fingers and the soles of the feet,
- Their blood pressure often starts to come down, and the butterflies in the stomach settle,
- Feeling very comfortable in the chair, and not wanting to move at all.
Of course your experience may be different or it might be similar to some or all of these experiences.
Everyone can go into a trance like state. Sometimes a client questions whether they can feel they are in a trance. They say they are not experiencing any of these sensations. When we talk afterwards, it is usually because they have not learnt how to stop or quieten down the chatter in their head. Chatter refers to those intrusive thoughts, comments, and instructions we give ourselves which get in the way of us being able to just stop and be still.
Or of course it might just be that is how they experience being in a trance.
Our therapists are trained to help clients learn how to quieten down these disturbing thoughts, so each client is able to recognise for themselves their own unique way in which they go into a trance state when they choose to do so.
Client compliance does play a role in how deep a client may experience their state of trance. However, recent research studies have repeatedly shown when a person responds to a series of suggested events or mental actions, there are areas of their brain which relates to the suggested events which become active. They show different brain wave activities. This shows that hypnotic responses are real.
We all go into trance states at different times and within different situations in our day.
So I suppose the question is NOT “Can I be hypnotised?” Rather, it is “How do I experience being hypnotised.”