Q: Where can I find a list of things that you specialize in?

Start with the " Services " section on the main site, and go from there. It's not a comprehensive list, but it will get you started. If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to send me an email. The Services section includes pages about: Sleep & Stress ...and more!

Question 1

Where can I find a list of things that you specialize in?

Accepted Answer

Start with the "Services" section on the main site, and go from there. It's not a comprehensive list, but it will get you started. If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to send me an email.

The Services section includes pages about:

Sleep & Stress

...and more!

Question 2

What sorts of things can be addressed through hypnotherapy?

Accepted Answer

That would be a BIG list.

The "Services" section of the site is a great place to start making that list.

That should be enough to get you started...

Question 3

Is hypnosis "pseudoscience"?

Accepted Answer

First, let's define "pseudoscience". According to Wikipedia:

Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be scientific and factual, in the absence of evidence gathered and constrained by appropriate scientific methods.

Pseudoscience is often characterized by the following: contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts; and absence of systematic practices when developing theories.

The term pseudoscience is often considered pejorative because it suggests something is being presented as science inaccurately or even deceptively. Those >described as practicing or advocating pseudoscience often dispute the characterization.

With that in mind, hypnosis is most certainly NOT pseudoscience. There is plenty of scientific, non-anecdotal evidence, that points to the legitimacy of hypnosis. We link to some articles of that nature in the Multimedia section of this site, but there are many, many more articles to be found.

Wikipedia maintains a List of topics characterized as pseudoscience. Note that hypnosis is conspicuously not on that list, though there are are a few of the more rediculous claimed uses of hypnosis that made the list. Those aren't things you will find at Hypnotechs.

Question 4

What is somnambulism/a somnambulist?

Accepted Answer

By strict definition, "somnambulism" means "sleepwalking" and a "somnambulist" is someone who sleepwalks. But these terms have also been adapted for use in the hypnosis community. Until you have experienced hypnosis for yourself, often the closest thing you have to compare it to is that fuzzy state that is somwhere in between being awake and being asleep referred to as a "hypnogogic" state. Because of that, hypnotists often use the word "sleep" in conjunction with their work and terms related to sleep are generally easier for someone who does not have first hand knowlege of the effects of hypnosis to understand.

In the context of hypnosis, somnambulism can be defined this way:

Somnambulism

A deep state of hypnosis, where the client may respond with amnesia, anesthesia, negative and positive hallucinations, and complete control of the senses. It is characterized by the eyes rolling up underneath the eyelids. Somnambulism IS NOT "sleepwalking" as sleepwalking often occurs without any conscious awareness. In the hypnosis context, "somnambulism" refers to the ability to transition smoothly and easily between the conscious and unconscious experience.

Somnambulist

A person capable of reaching a profound state of hypnotic trance or somnambulism. Somnambulism can be "learned" with practice and experience. Somnambulists are able to quickly and easily slip in and out of various altered mental states that we recognize as "hypnosis".

Natural Somnambulist

A somnambulist who is capable of reaching that level of hypnotic trance known and somnambulism without training or practice, generally during their first experience with hypnosis. In Kappasinian terms, this is most likely with a person who responds equally well to all suggestions, both direct and indirect, affecting both the body and emotions. This person would have a near 50/50 Suggestibility (50% Emotional Suggestible and 50% Physical Suggestible).

Want to know if you are a natural somnambulist?

Or learn more about "levels" of hypnosis with: Arons Scale of Hypnotic Depth

Question 5

Can you really be hypnotized?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Hypnosis is a natural state of mind that occurs in most people on a regular basis.

Many people associate hypnosis with a state of deep relaxation, but the process of hypnosis does not have to involve relaxation at all! In fact, one way to induce hypnotic trance is by using a "shock induction", which uses the startle reflex to make the mind open the suggestion.

If you have ever watched a stage hypnosis show and seen the hypnotist shout "SLEEP!" while yanking the arm of a subject, who then collapses in a heap, you have witnessed a shock induction.

Most people can be hypnotized. In general, if you have at least normal intelligence and even a bit of imagination, then you can too.

The process may vary between stage hypnosis and clinical hypnosis, but the end result is the same, a state of heightened suggestibility where hypnotic suggestions bypass the critical faculty and subconscious mind / unconscious mind act upon them.

For most people, the experience of hypnosis is profound. Your heart rate drops and smooths out and your brain activity settles into something closer to an active sleep state than full wakefulness. For many of us, the closest state we have to compare to in daily life is that of "lucid dreaming'. Of course, the hypnotized subject remains in complete control and has an awareness of what is going on around them at all times.

If you'd like to experience hypnosis, reach out to your local hypnotist! We LOVE what we do. You don't need to be seeking some type of behavioral therapy, or need to change something in everyday life. Most of us are always looking for a new hypnotic subject and would be more than happy to gve you a demonstration of the power of your subconscious mind / unconscious mind.

Question 6

How is hypnosis done?

Accepted Answer

Hypnosis is a state of intense concentration or focused attention marked by increased suggestibility. The hypnotic trance state is created by way of an "induction". An induction is a way get the conscious mind to take a back seat and allow access to the unconscious mind.

There are many forms of hypnotic inductions that can lead to the hypnotic trance state. They range from the progressive relaxation technique that can take minutes to hours, to "instant" inductions that can have a person open to verbal suggestions in split second.

When used as a form of therapy, hypnosis is often induced using one of the relaxation techniques, but more rapid inductions also have a place in the office.

For street and stage hypnosis, the more rapid inductions are used almost exclusively.

At their core, all inductions have one thing in common, they must create a trance-like state by bypassing the critical faculty of the conscious mind allowing hypnotic suggestions a clear path to the subconscious.

For more analytical subjects, confusion techniques and indirect suggestions are often the easiest way to accomplish hypnosis. For the less analytical a wider variety of inductions and more direct suggestions are called for.

When hypnosis is used as a form or therapy, especially in conjunction with other behavioral therapy techniques, deep trance is not necessarily required. Things like pain control for physical chronic pain can be accomplished at remarkably light levels of trance.

Of course, on stage, a deep level of trance is often a plus as it enhances the effectiveness of hypnosis as an entertainment tool.

Question 7

Can you be hypnotized with your eyes open?

Accepted Answer

Yes! While it's common for people to close their eyes while being hypnotized, it's not a requirement.

You have probably seen examples of people being in hypnosis with their eyes open, just think of every stage hypnosis show you have ever seen. As active as some of the shows are, it's critical that people be able to see where they are going as they run around the stage being "the world's greatest race car driver" or something similar.

During the "induction", the process of transitioning into hypnosis, the eyes are commonly closed. However that's just to help the subject concentrate and is completely optional. Once the person is in hypnosis, eyes open or closed doesn't matter.

In a therapy environment, most people close their eyes during the induction and keep them closed unless they are specifically instructed to open them for some reason by the hypntherapist. However, in my experience, about 20% of subjects will spontaneously open their eyes partially or fully during the session. If you are a new hypnotherapist, it's a little disconcerting when it happens as the subject has a bit of a "lights are on but no one is home" look to them, but after a while you get used it.

In general, hypnosis has no dependence on the state of the eyes. Open, closed, whatever works for you!

Question 8

Are the people on stage under the control of the hypnotist?

Accepted Answer

No they are not under any control but their own. In fact, you have probably seen someone during a stage show who simply didn't react to some skit, so the hypnotist moved on to others. That person might not have felt like doing what was suggested, might have objected to the content or might simply have been feeling really good at the moment and chose to ignore the hypnotist. In hypnosis, you don't relinquish control, you just remove the barriers that were previously in place that prevented you from "going all in" with what you are imagining.

What you see during a stage show is a group of people playing "make-believe" with an intensity that you would not understand unless you had experienced it. The altered state that they have entered allows them to ignore distractions, remove all traces of being self-conscious, and to "get lost" in the suggestions they are recieving. To make them real. If you have seen children playing and seen the intensity with which they can visualize the environment and components of what they are doing, you might realize it's been a while since you have imagined something that vividly.

As adults, we forget how much fun it was to imagine that the ground beneath the monkey bars is "lava" and to do so with such focus that there's no way we are going to be the first to drop. The people on stage have rediscovered how much imagination and play can be.

That is one of the greatest powers of hypnosis!

Question 9

What do you mean by "Stage Hypnosis"?

Accepted Answer

Stage hypnosis can encompass several types of performances.

The most obvious is probably the stage shows you see at the fair, in a club, at a corporate event or even at a graduation party. The hypnotist tests the suggestibility of the audience members then brings those who most likely to put on a good show up onto the stage. From there the comedy begins, with routines that demonstrate hypnotic phenomenon in a humorous way. At it's best it's hilarious, fresh and a fun experience for all. At it's worst, it's demeaning, predictable, not funny and even dangerous.

Another type of stage hypnosis is the hypnosis demonstration. In this type of performance, the purpose is to educate, rather than to entertain. Hypnotic phenomenon takes front stage and the comedy takes a back seat. In this type of show, the purpose is for you to walk out with a better understanding of what hypnosis is and more importantly, what it is not.

The final category is the seminar presentation. The purpose of this type of performance is once again educational, but in this case, hypnosis is only used to prove a point about some other topic. A classic example is a performance given before a group of salespeople, where hypnosis is used to show illustrate how a mindset can have a large impact on the success or failure of a sale.

In stage hypnosis, the hypnosis is real, or at least it should be. It's highly unethical to plant "shills" in the audience, but it does happen.

Question 10

What did Sigmund Freud think of hypnosis?

Accepted Answer

When the young Sigmund Freud made his way to Paris and Jean Martin Charcot’s Salpêtrière School in 1885, he was drawn by the study of neurology. However, once he was exposed to the study of consciousness, his interests began to evolve in to a passion for psychology, including hypnosis.

Freud was first exposed to hypnosis just a few short years before he went to study under Charcot in Paris. While studying with his mentor and later colleague Josef Breuer, Freud was able to witness, then later practice hypnosis in a clinical setting.

At the time, Breuer was working with a young woman suffering from what was called "hysteria" at the time. Bertha Pappenheim, "Anna O." as she came to be known, was suffering from a variety of physical and mental conditions that defied explanation by the current medical community. These included non-specific pain, speech disturbances and period refusal to eat or drink.

Breuer used hypnosis to try to alleviate her symptoms using relaxation. During these sessions, Breuer allowed Anna O. to speak freely and to explore memories that she seemed to recall without trigger or reason.

After two years of therapy with Anna O., Breuer defined the foundational principles of what would come to be called "psychoanalysis" (the talking cure). This new type of therapy being developed in Vienna was later to form the foundation of Freud's methods.

Breuer would later distance himself from Freud because if Freud's insistence that virtually all trauma could be traced back to sexual conflict.

While starting his private practice and further developing his version of psychoanalysis, Freud utilized hypnosis with many of his clients, preferring a dominant, assertive, paternalistic technique of hypnosis.

As Freud continued to develop his own theories and practices, including variations of psychoanalysis and free association, he began to move away from hypnosis as a modality. Freud later wrote that he felt his methods were more effective and that traditional hypnosis "did not effectively do away with client resistance, yielding only incomplete information and temporary results".

It was partially due to Freud's personal role in developing psychology as a field of academic study that Hypnosis is not taught at most universities to this day.

But in spite of the setback caused by Freud’s rejection of the practice, Hypnosis continued to become more widely accepted around the turn of the Century, including by such organizations as the British Medical Association in 1892.

Interestingly, as even his own protégé Carl Jung, noted, Freud's obsession with sex detracted from the effectiveness of his methods. As time has shown and Freud's theories have been increasingly discredited and his methods dropped from modern use, hypnosis and the use of hypnotic suggestion have been increasingly validated by modern scientific methods.

In his 1977 book "Clinical and experimental hypnosis: in medicine, dentistry, and psychology" Dr. William S. Kroger wrote:

In the light of the historical development of Freudian theory, perhaps ‘we need a psychoanalysis of current psychoanalytical resistance to the use of hypnosis.

Current research in hypnosis does not substantiate a single reason for Freud's avoidance of hypnosis... Since scientific hypnosis was in its infancy in Freud's time, one can hardly blame him for adopting a negative attitude. However, there is no valid reason why Freud's successors should continue to use this embryonic period in the historical development of hypnosis to criticize contemporary hypnotherapy. Masserman recognized that hypnosis was the core that underlies all forms of psychotherapy...

Shortly before his death, Freud spoke very resignedly about the poor results of psychoanalysis in an article seldom mentioned by his loyal followers. As Rado observed, 'Digging into the past yields diminishing returns.' Others question the value of recapturing early fantasies and memories. This is not to imply that many of Freud's observations in human behavior will not be of enduring value. Contemporary technics in hypnoanalysis could not have developed had it not been for his penetrating insights.

Are Freud and his sexuality based version of psychoanalysis destined to be a footnote in psychological history? Many now think that may be the case.