Hypnotherapy and hypnoanalysis: how it really works

Whenever new clients come to my practice for hypnotherapy, our work together usually begins with me first explaining what hypnosis is, how this work works, and what model of thought analytically oriented hypnotherapy is based on.

Because there are still a lot of misunderstandings, misinformation and misconceptions around the topic of hypnotherapy.

The most important thing to know is that hypnosis is a natural state. Because we all constantly and repeatedly enter hypnotic trance states in our everyday lives: whether we daydream a bit and remember the last beautiful vacation, whether we let a sad movie make us cry, or whether we go shopping “as if in a trance” and end up coming home with many more packages than we actually wanted. These are all everyday trance states that each of us knows, but which few would associate with hypnosis. And yet it is so.

Hypnosis mainly means that our subconscious mind takes up more space, while our conscious mind fades a little into the background. That is why, when we remember, we may even “smell” the sea, even though we are not there. We cry at the sad movie, although our mind says “But it’s just a movie, it’s not real!”. And we buy much more than our mind intended, because our subconscious mind just likes to have fun. 🙂

And the problems, for which people start a hypnosis therapy, are actually in very many cases themselves also nothing else than a hypnotic trance! A trance produced by hypnotic suggestions, usually experienced for many years, often in early childhood, and since then automatically activated over and over again by certain so-called “triggers” or triggers.

Hypnotherapy is an excellent and effective treatment method in many cases because it starts exactly where the problem lies: in the realm of the unconscious.

Hypnotherapy enables easier access to the unconscious mind in order to identify, process and resolve existing conflicts, negative beliefs, blockages, traumatic memories and the like. Hypnotherapy is based on various assumptions and certain thought models. Understanding this is important so that one can understand what a hypnotherapeutic treatment can look like in concrete terms.

We all start learning from the first moment of our existence. From the very beginning, we are true learning machines. We come into this world and are (apart from genetic and/or spiritual “bringings”) still completely ignorant and at the same time also free from all imprints. We do not know how this world works and how we can survive in it. That’s why we need to learn. And we do this by taking in everything that happens in our environment: what we see, hear, smell, feel and experience. And every experience we have, everything that happens to us or that we observe in our environment, we absorb as learning experiences. And all of this shapes our personality – so we have all gradually developed into the people we are today. Many of these learning experiences were good, helpful and positive. Other experiences may have been frightening, scary, or shameful. We also learn from such negative experiences. Of course, we also make mistakes in the process. Get some things wrong. Relate things that may have nothing to do with each other.

But either way, every time we experience something, every time we have a new experience, so when we learn something, something is added to our personality. And in our hypnotherapeutic model, we say that a new part of the personality is created in the process. Our overall personality is therefore basically a mosaic of countless larger and smaller personality parts. You can easily understand this yourself if you think about the fact that you do not show the same personality in every situation in life. For example, you are certainly a different person with your boss or co-workers than you are with your friends, with your partner, or when you visit your parents. In each of these situations, a different part of your personality usually comes to the fore – each time you are a little bit of a different person.

These personality traits, many of which emerged very early in childhood, ideally develop naturally with us as we grow older and also have new experiences again. In this way, we grow into mature personalities and are always learning new things. This also enables us to adapt to changing life circumstances.

But it can also happen that individual personality parts do not participate in this further development. These are then basically like “frozen in time“. These parts know nothing about your present life situation, know nothing about what your world looks like now that you are an adult, know nothing about what is important to you now and what abilities you have at the present stage of your life.
And it is precisely this that can then cause problems.

This can create fears that your conscious mind may find nonsensical.
This is how problems in relationships can arise and you don’t even understand on a conscious level why the same pattern keeps playing out for you.
And so, of course, physical symptoms can arise because physical symptoms in many cases are simply emphatic messages from our inner world.

And this is where hypnotherapy comes in:
In the course of such a treatment, we examine which personality traits are the ones that maintain such obstructive beliefs, faiths, fears or other thought constructs that are problematic for you.

We find out when and why these shares were created.

We help these parts of your subconscious understand that today is no longer yesterday. That behaviors and thoughts that may have been helpful in the past are now more of a hindrance and a burden to you.

We help these parts of your personality that are stuck in time to “mature”, so to speak, so that things from the past no longer have power over you. So that you can leave the past behind and all your energy can be used to realize the present and future you desire.

So that you can live your life the way you want to.

So that you can feel the way you want to feel.