Hypnosis is really very simple.

What you may have seen on television, movies or on stage is often misleading and sometimes outright wrong.

As we live in the world, our minds take in information on two basic levels: the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious mind is closer to the "surface" and is responsible for processing things like what to make for supper, the name of the person standing in front of you, or telling the difference between a tree and a Ford Escort.

The subconscious is responsible for everything else -- like breathing, storing old memories, and responding emotionally to external events. While hypnosis itself is simple, humans can be complex creatures. So many things take place in our minds, especially in emotional charged situations, and very few of those things register consciously. It is these unconscious responses that can have tremendous power over us without us ever being aware of it.

For example. Many of the "decisions" we make about the food we eat and how much of it we eat are guided by our subconscious. A colleague's client, when she was a little girl, was told by a grown up that she was so skinny a strong breeze would pick her up and blow her away. Too young to perceive the metaphorical nature of the comment, the four-year old was freaked out, and her overeating later in life was a direct result of that memory, buried deep in her subconscious.

Through hypnosis, when the body is deeply relaxed, we have better access to the subconscious and are much more open to change.

Remember, our subconscious mind is our friend. It's evolutionary mission is to keep us safe, but sometimes it gets stuck, responding to certain circumstances in such a way that kept us safe when we were children, toddlers, and even infants, but are no longer helping us.

Through hypnosis, we uncover where and when the subconscious is playing out a drama that no longer serves us. We can also use the power of the subconscious to reinforce positive, healthy conscious decisions -- to quit smoking, for example.

When completely relaxed, the unconscious mind can be directed to focus intensely on a single event, sensation, emotion, or situation. Combine that with the body/mind's natural ability to heal and bring about positive change IF WE LET IT, and hypnosis can be quite powerful.

Please give me a call if you'd like to discuss any of these concepts or to give it a try!