What is Hypnotherapy?
What Does a "Trance State" Feel Like?
What is a Positive Suggestion?
How Can Hypnotherapy Be Useful?
What is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is a way to relax and calm your mind, body, and emotions in order to enter a focused state where unhealthy habits and challenges can be explored and transformed.
During hypnotherapy, you are given an opportunity to gain insights into your established patterns of behaviors, move through blocks, and head toward your personal and professional goals.
Think of your mind as consisting of two parts—the conscious and the unconscious. Your conscious mind operates within your awareness and on a surface level. By contrast, your unconscious mind operates outside of your conscious awareness and below the surface.
Hypnotherapy addresses your challenges and behaviors at a deep, unconscious level—below the surface—to transform issues from the inside out. During the hypnotherapy process, Trina will teach you how to relax into a trance state.
What Does a "Trance State" Feel Like?
Relaxed and focused states, sometimes referred to as trances, are natural occurrences that are often experienced in everyday life.
For example, have you ever been on a highway and missed the exit? If so, you were probably experiencing a highway trance. In addition, becoming absorbed in a good book, a lovely piece of music, or a daydream can be an expression of a trance state.
TV trances are also common occurrences when someone is focusing deeply on what he or she is watching. When children are in "TV trances," they may not respond to hearing their names called because they are so focused and absorbed in whatever they're watching.
Trance states in hypnotherapy vary in depth to fit your comfort and desire. Trina is trained in a method that is interactive and follows an Empowerment Model.
Honoring this approach, Trina serves as a co-creative facilitator for empowering you on your path toward your goals—and you are always in control. During your hypnotherapy session, you will be relaxed, although not asleep.
At times, during hypnotherapy, you may feel like you are in a daydream. Your concentration and awareness may become heightened, allowing you to notice sounds, scents, and visuals that are part of your experience. Even though your eyes will be closed, you will be speaking and connecting with Trina throughout your entire hypnotherapy experience.
And just so you know, many of Trina's clients, after completing their first hypnotherapy sessions, express surprise at how poignant and inspiring their hypnotherapy experiences were (often with a tear in their eye).
What is a Positive Suggestion?
A positive suggestion is a positive statement that relates to your goal. When you are in a deeply relaxed state during hypnotherapy, your unconscious mind can become open and receptive to positive suggestions. A positive suggestion is often the opposite of the self-defeating behavior that you want to change.
For example, if you have a goal to lose weight, you may want Trina to offer these positive suggestions to your unconscious mind after you are in a deeply relaxed state:
- You enjoy healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables.
- You crave healthy foods that are good for your body and give you energy.
- You enjoy moving and exercising and it feels good to be alive.
- You easily release any excess weight that you are carrying.
How Can Hypnotherapy Be Useful?
Undesirable habits such as emotional eating, smoking, procrastinating, and nail biting, can be addressed through hypnotherapy by exploring under the surface of the behavior. The triggers, and any underlying negative core beliefs, are identified. The payoffs, or secondary gains for the behavior, are also investigated. After exploring below the surface of an issue, self-defeating behaviors often lose their intense hold on a person. As a result, the person then moves toward replacing negative behaviors with positive ones. Here is a list of issues or habits that hypnotherapy often addresses:
- Stress and anxiety
- Cigarette smoking
- Overeating (including unhealthy food cravings)
- Lack of desire to exercise
- Insomnia
- Challenging life transitions: Job change, relationship ending, empty nest, retirement…
- Low self-esteem
- Performance anxiety or stage fright
- Creative blocks
- Grief and loss
- Nail biting
- Fear of failure (or success)
- Shyness
- Phobias (snakes, insects, syringes/needles…)
- Life purpose or career confusion
- Fear of public speaking
- Oversized "Inner Critic"
- Childhood wounds and traumatic events
- Relationship challenges
- Test anxiety
In addition to addressing issues or habits that aren't serving us, hypnotherapy can be a tool to attract and affirm positive outcomes in our lives. For example:
- Increase confidence at work and at home
- Open up to abundantly receiving love, joy, money, success…
- Heighten creativity
