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

What is "Street Hypnosis"?

Accepted Answer

Hypnosis has been around for thousands of years (that we have a record of). For much of that time, it was only practiced in a very formal, ritualized fashion. In the past 100 years, it started out as a medical treatment, then diverged from that. From there it split into hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis, both of which were pretty rigidly defined and predictable.

But over the last decade or so, a new generation of hypnotists has broken out of those boxes and taken hypnosis to a new and completely uncontrolled environment, the "street". In much the same way you might see a magician performing in a park, these practitioners of street hypnosis perform with no stage and no rehearsal. It's new, fresh and often unpredictable.

Question 2

My friend tried hypnosis and it didn't work. It's fake, right?

Accepted Answer

Okay, let's unravel this before we jump to any conclusions. There are lots of reasons your friend might have had a less than ideal experience.

What were the credentials of the hypnotist? Maybe it was some guy who once read a book and was trying an induction for the first time.

Maybe your friend wasn't in the right frame a mind.

Was there alcohol involved?

Most people are unclear about whether they were hypnotized after the first time because it wasn't what they expected.

Did the hypnosis not work or are you saying the suggestions didn't stick afterward? Either way, I am betting the hypnotist was inexperienced.

Question 3

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 4

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 5

What is "Ericksonian" hypnotherapy?

Accepted Answer

In the 1950s, Milton H. Erickson developed a radically different approach to hypnotism, which has subsequently become known as "Ericksonian hypnotherapy" or "Neo-Ericksonian hypnotherapy." Given that dysfunctional behaviors are defined by social tension, Erickson coopted the subject's behavior to establish rapport, a strategy he termed "utilization." Once rapport was established, he made use of an informal conversational approach to direct awareness. His methods included complex language patterns and client-specific therapeutic strategies (reflecting the nature of utilization). This divergence from tradition led some, including Andre Weitzenhoffer, to dispute whether Erickson was right to label his approach "hypnosis" at all. Erickson's foundational paper, however, considers hypnosis as a mental state in which specific types of "work" may be done, rather than a technique of induction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy

Question 6

What Are Affirmations?

Accepted Answer

Positive affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself in the hopes that they will transfer from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind. They can be related to self-esteem, changing a habit or eliminating negative self talk.

This process of self affirmation can be made as simple as reading the statements off a sticky note on your mirror as you brush your teeth, or made part of a dedicated period of repeating daily affirmations while doing nothing else.

In general, it is suggested that positive affirmations tend to be more successful, especially for beginners or in the areas of self-esteem and self affirmation, so most experts recommend you create them as positive statements rather than negative ones.

Many have pointed out similarities between the power of affirmations, so called "positive thinking" and even the "law of attraction", so whatever your choose to call them, maybe a few positive affirmations are just the thing your subconscious mind has been waiting for to break a habit or start a new one.

Question 7

How do I pay you?

Accepted Answer

Most of my clients pay in advance using my booking system to get the best possible price. It accepts all major credit cards using processing by Square.

Otherwise:

With special arrangements, payment is due at the time of service. This works best with packages, like a pre-paid package deal for a fixed number of sessions. I do that from time to time for things like smoking cessation or weight loss where I know that several sessions are going to be required, but in most cases, it's payment at the time of service before each session.

I accept cash, check and pretty much every major credit card you may have.

Question 8

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 9

What if I want to experience hypnosis, but don't need therapy?

Accepted Answer

That's fine.

Sometimes you just want to try something. I get it. We still have to do all the required paperwork, but if you don't have anything specific to work on that's completely okay. I can demonstrate some hypnotic phenomenon, show you what real focus feels like and send you away to sleep like a baby that night.

Question 10

Who or what is "HypnoTex"?

Accepted Answer

"HypnoTex" is the A.I. (artificial intelligence) assistant that indexes the Hypnotechs site and offers quick answers to questions. HypnoTex reads and re-reads every word on every page of the Hypnotechs site, then creates an index and a collection of responses. When you ask HypnoTex a question, it's able to use that pre-built index to show you the answer and links where you can find more.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/spfA9tNOws/resources/rpQpFdz9Vt/HypnoTexSlug.jpg (HypnoTexSlug.jpg)

Programming HypnoTex is an ongoing process, so it's constantly improving. When it has difficulty finding a satisfactory answer to a question a user has asked, it logs both the question and it's response so that it can be reviewed and either guidance given about how it should have responded or a new FAQ or content piece created to cover the question. Beware! HypnoTex is not aware that he's a replicant. Please don't tell him.

Need to find something on Hypnotechs.com? Ask HypnoTex. He is located in the lower, right-hand corner of every page.