Why Hypnotherapy doesn’t work for everyone
Ever since I became a hypnotherapist in September 2007, I have had occasional calls from people wanting one session of Hypnotherapy to cure all of their problems. I explain that like every other talking therapy it may in fact need a number of sessions (generally 4 to 8) to get the results that they want. Hypnotherapy is not a magic wand fix and a single session will not disappear all of a person’s issues without any effort or work on their part (in fact we are often working with our clients to un-repress events, traumas and unresolved issues in order to process and resolve them ).
Hypnotherapy is the only talking therapy that uses hypnosis to work directly with your unconscious, subconscious mind. This makes it a very effective and efficient therapy that may only need 4 to 8 sessions to work rather than other talking therapies where you may need month’s or even years of therapy.
To work Hypnotherapy needs:
The client to be open/willing to experiencing hypnotherapy and to work with the therapist. To arrive for sessions on time, to have regular sessions (Hypnotherapy is most effective and efficient with regular weekly sessions, like most other talking therapies it becomes less effective if there’s a month or two in between sessions. To complete the course of sessions not cancel or postpone sessions after the first or second session because it hasn’t worked immediately or they are feeling better.
The therapist to be well trained, experienced and ethical. Hypnotherapy is self-regulated which means anybody can have some training, read a book, watch some videos and call themselves a hypnotherapist. There are professional registers for qualified hypnotherapists, the ones that I recommend are Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, CNHC which was set up with input from the UK Government to protect the public from poorly trained, unscrupulous and unethical so-called therapists and The General Hypnotherapy Register, GHR to be on both those registers hypnotherapist must go to a hypnotherapy school recognised by them (many are not), pass their exams and abide by their codes of ethics and standards. I would also recommend only seeing hypnotherapists with the General Hypnotherapy Register, GHR, Senior Qualification in Hypnotherapy Practice (They have been in professional practise for at least 5 years with a minimum of 25 hours client workload per month). A Diploma in Hypnotherapy is the minimum qualification you need to see members of the public professionally as a therapist, I strongly suggest you see a hypnotherapist with higher qualifications than that.
Other reasons hypnotherapy doesn’t work for everyone or an hypnotherapist will not work with you are If you have a serious mental health issue such as paranoid schizophrenia or dementia, have alcohol or recreation drugs in your system, have a learning disability, there is a language barrier or poor comprehension.
To summarise the reasons why hypnotherapy may not work for you:
You are expecting your hypnotherapist to look into your eyes and shout SLEEP and you to wake up an hour later totally cured of all of your ills. You must be willing to work with and confide in your therapist. If you are not happy to do this it will not work. Hypnotherapy is very safe, you remain awake, aware and in complete control. Or your hypnotherapist is badly trained, untrained, with little or no experience and is not able to professionally hypnotist and work with you.
