2248 words What Is Hypnosis? 1 This essay will attempt to explain what hypnosis is by discussing the technical processes used and some physical and psychological changes that occur to a subject when they are hypnotised. Some common myths and truths surrounding hypnosis will be explored as well as a brief history of hypnosis being told, including how it started and developed into a professional therapy that is used today. The potential for hypnotherapy to alleviate illness, change behaviour and work as a mind and body inclusive therapeutic treatment will be explored. Where hypnosis, as an alternative therapy stands with gaining acceptance from the medical model and it being offered as an NHS treatment will be discussed.
Then I will look at the place of relaxation in hypnotherapy today and why it is important and discuss a vehicle to travel to this mental state, with progressive muscle relaxation. What is Hypnosis? People generally regard hypnosis as an altered state of awareness, from everyday waking and consciousness. They usually think of it involving a hypnotist who invokes a trance like state in which the subject is susceptible to suggestion, which can be used to help people or to entertain, as in stage hypnosis. However contrary to common belief, a hypnotic state is not a deep sleep like trance and the same state actually occurs regularly in everyday life.
“What Is Hypnosis?” Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis and discuss the role of relaxation in Hypnotherapy. Introduction In order to answer the question “what is hypnosis?” I start by looking at the history of hypnosis and have selected some key figures in the story of hypnosis and given a brief overview of their beliefs and development. I have also sourced some quotations and definitions. I have also explored the physical and psychological aspects of hypnosis, firstly by looking at the four different brainwaves Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta and how the emphasis alters between the conscious and subconscious mind. For the physical aspects I will discuss the work of Edmund Jacobson and the progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) technique.
The state of mind referred to can be brought about by a trained professional who may utilise the resultant state of mind to encourage beneficial change to occur. This process is referred to as ‘Hypnotherapy’. To understand the concept of Hypnotherapy, it is first necessary to explore the phenomenon of hypnosis. In particular, those aspects that contribute towards the relaxed state that is significant to the efficacy of such. Therefore, the primary focus of this essay is to describe hypnosis and both the psychological and physical components at work.
The role of relaxation in hypnotherapy will be discussed. Hypnosis is an effective tool that can be used by hypnotherapists to help people overcome their fears, learned behaviours or reactions to an issue that is specific to themselves. The act of hypnosis allows communication between the mind and body, it depends on suggestion, imagery and relaxation techniques. Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that we all experience regularly in the form of day dreaming or driving to a destination and not remembering the journey, we may describe this as being ‘on auto pilot’. When we are able to relax mentally and physically we can focus our awareness and reach an altered state of consciousness thus allowing us to circumvent the conscious mind in order to reach the subconscious mind.
Our mind can drift from an alert state into a different level of consciousness when we do something in automatic mode for example, walking, driving and daydreaming. The notable difference between these hypnotic-like trances and clinical hypnosis are specific motivation or suggestions to receive a desired result. In this essay I will explore the psychological and physical aspects of clinical hypnosis and discuss the relationship between hypnotherapy and relaxation. Psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis Hypnosis is often still seen as something mysterious and this is probably due to the fact that there is debate about what is actually going on in the brain when we’re in a hypnotic state. Some people believe that hypnosis produces and altered state of consciousness, some believe nothing happens at all and others believe that hypnotic subjects are acting to please their hypnotherapist.
This also includes the concept of the Safe Surrogate Release which is an enjoyable physical activity to release stress in a healthy way. In the end I state what I have learned from this book. A Book for the Seriously Stressed: How to Stop Stress from Killing You Having stress in life is healthy, but when it becomes too much that’s when we have to know how to handle it in a healthy way or it will lead us on a path to destruction. Stress is a normal part of life. We just need to understand it and know the physical symptoms and the defense mechanism to use against it if things went bad.
What Is Hypnosis? Was the question I was asked for my 1st essay in Hypnotherapy Hypnosis is a state of mind brought about by the use of a set of techniques. It enlightens an individual’s concentration and increases their responsiveness to suggestion which enables the individual to make changes that they wish to make to their behaviours or their physical state. Hypnosis is a means of communication between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. It is a natural state of mind experienced as trance.
Its use in therapy, typically to recover suppressed memories or to allow modification of behaviour, has been revived but is still controversial.” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2014) This supports the statement that there are both psychological and physical aspects that are recognised as part of the hypnosis process. The psychological element is the responsiveness to suggestion or direction whist in such a hypnotic state. The client is able to access their subconscious mind without the conscious mind checking the statements are correct and therefore during this phase, the client can start to retrain their behaviour without questioning or inhibitions. This has been proven to show benefits when dealing with a wide variety of issues such as stress and anxiety, disorders, weight loss, habit cessation and also as an aesthetic. This process can be used to make a number of different suggestions in the most appropriate style for the issue being addressed.
The experience of hypnosis can be very different due to the needs of the individual, whether they are physical or psychological. Hypnosis is started with a hypnotic induction that sometimes will include a Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) technique, which we will look at later in the essay. The induction process will include instructions and suggestions. (Heap & Dryden) The person will then move into a trance like state, which will result in the person having a focused state of attention. Within the literature the use of the conscious mind in hypnosis is used to describe the state of the mind at a given time.