Yo I was always a little hesitant about hypnosis, ever since my stepsister dated a professional hypnotist. He wasn't Paul McKenna in terms of fame, but I once saw him take the stage in a church hall and make a group of people fall in love with him using only his mind. Truth be told, I've always found hypnosis a little creepy, and the thought of someone else taking control of my senses terrifies me.
That said, 20 years ago I underwent hypnosis to curb my cravings and it worked: I stopped smoking 40 cigarettes a day. Could I also banish my stress and negative thoughts? They usually come to see me in the morning, usually around 6am. There is no particular thread for them. I just have this general feeling that I'm not good enough and that everything is going to go wrong. I waste so many hours catastrophizing. Once I get up and out of bed, it usually dissipates, but there's still that soft whisper of negativity that hurts my happiness.
As much as I tell myself to keep things in order during the day, I struggle to avoid falling into a spiral of “stinking thinking,” as they call it in therapy. But perhaps hypnosis is the answer I've been looking for. David Beckham, Reese Witherspoon and Mel B are among the stars who have reportedly banished negative thoughts in this way. Could it really be as simple as “look me in the eyes…”? Abracadabra and my mind is fixed?
Hypnosis occurs when someone enters a state of relaxed consciousness, in which the subconscious is open and receptive to suggestion. The goal is to reconfigure a person's mind, giving them new ways of thinking and feeling. It's an unregulated industry (anyone can become a hypnotherapist), but there is growing evidence to suggest that hypnosis is effective for many people experiencing problems such as pain, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias.
“It's the oldest Western form of psychotherapy,” says Dr. David Spiegel, a US-based psychiatrist at Stanford University and leading hypnosis researcher and co-founder of Reveri, an interactive hypnosis app that helps people control stress, pain and insomnia. , fears and quitting smoking. “But it is still tainted by fears about mind control, or [ideas] of stage hypnotists who make people do stupid things. It is sometimes considered unscientific because it is not a “biological science”; For example, it is not a drug. That can be a good thing. I am a doctor, I prescribe medications. But not all the time.” Despite hypnotherapy's track record of success, he says it is “rarely used and used by a small number of health professionals; it has been derided as a show trick, considered useless or even dangerous.” , none of which is true. Hypnosis is an underrated means of controlling consciousness with enormous therapeutic potential.”
British hypnotist Aaron Surtees, who runs City Hypnosis and has appeared on the Channel 4 show. Embarrassing Bodies and How to lose weight well, says that “virtually any mental problem can be solved through hypnotherapy,” as long as the person is “open and wants to change.” Surtees also has a hypnosis app called Subconsciously and his clients include Ant McPartlin and Charlie Brooker. “Many of my clients are Hollywood stars, with anxiety and addiction to tobacco,” he says. He also helps bankers regulate their stress and anxiety, and treats top-level footballers and athletes to “improve performance, concentration and confidence.”
Hypnosis is increasingly popular in our fast-paced society: it's the appeal of the quick fix
Zoe Clews, hypnotist
Hypnotism seems like a magic wand to me. Could the dark skies of my mind turn technicolor after just one session? I went to see hypnotist Zoe Clews at the Marylebone in London. She has a long list of celebrity clients and specializes in anxiety, depression and complex PTSD (an initial two-hour session costs £295, while 90-minute follow-up sessions cost £245). A team of 12 people works with her, who specialize in other topics, including the fear of public speaking. She tells me that being hypnotized is “increasingly popular in our fast-paced society; it's the appeal of the quick fix.” She claims that hypnotherapy has much faster results than traditional therapy “as it works to override the subconscious, which is the real powerhouse when it comes to change.”
Clews is bright and cheerful company, dressed in a peachy-pink satin pantsuit. Her voice is incredibly soothing: it's almost as if she's the living embodiment of a clinking ice cube melting into a cold drink. That's also one of the images she uses to help me. I'm told to imagine my stress dissolving like that ice cube, as Chews guides me into a “trance state.”
When Clews started in the profession 22 years ago, he says his career choice was considered “strange,” but not anymore. Psychotherapists refer their clients with complex traumas when they have phobias that they cannot overcome. “Hypnosis really focuses on the issue and is forensic about changing something specific,” she says. While there are some things that hypnosis can change easily, she says, like smoking and phobias, others take longer because “there's more damage.” These include, for example, complex post-traumatic stress disorder. “It could be between five and 20 sessions.” But she is confident that a single two-hour session will be enough for me.
Only 30 percent of his clients “go out like a light,” Clews tells me. The idea scares me. But the benefits are not affected if you remain alert, as I do. Like many people who try hypnotism, I'm afraid I'll end up on all fours barking like a dog, talking to fairies, or dancing with a broom thinking he's a really attractive man. But it's nothing like that, he assures me.
“When a stage hypnotist works with someone for entertainment, they will have done suggestibility tests to check that someone is good at hypnosis,” he says. “It can be subtle so you don't see it, because what a stage hypnotist will want is someone who goes into hypnosis as quickly as possible.” Hypnotherapy is about “healing damage” and “freeing people” from all kinds of conditions, she continues. In my case, I have to let go of negative thought patterns, fears, subconscious blocks, limiting beliefs and unhelpful behavior patterns.
She gets to work clearing away layers of my negative thoughts, first by talking about my childhood. She then works with my subconscious to let go of those feelings, so that I am ready for a more abundant life. “Health, wealth, happiness, joy,” she says. The most interesting thing is that she is going to “cut the cord” on the toxic people in my life, “to reduce the impact on the nervous system.” As she explains, “if a friend misbehaves, you say goodbye, but when it comes to family or coworkers, you often have to deal with it.”
She warns me that I may feel “gross” when I am “cutting the cord,” but “it's only temporary and I'll feel a lot freer afterwards.” Not only this, but he wants to help me let go of historical stress and find a “window of tolerance,” he says, to reconnect to “a state of calm” and ask the subconscious to keep me “grounded and connected to a world.” feeling of security and inner stability.”
They tell me my nervous system is “wrecked” and “I'm stuck in the flight or fight response.” “My job is to get you out of there,” she says. “Turn down the volume in case of acute stress.” As I count down from 10 to zero, I continue to panic about losing control; I had no idea he was a control freak. When I'm told to imagine the letters of the alphabet falling in front of me, my mind is distracted enough to enter a very relaxed state.
It's almost as if you're in a room filled with pink air. I feel “as light as a feather”… “as light as a feather”…. “as light as a feather.” I can hear Clews licking his lips as I step into a quiet space. Not once do I feel like I've lost consciousness, even when I imagine cutting wires with half my family and watching them scurry around like little mice while I'm in my light.
That night I fell into a deep sleep. And when I wake up, I feel happier. I still have nagging feelings of fear and negativity, but I dismiss them more easily. I have an MP3 of the session to listen to at home – to help my subconscious accept my new reality. I don't know if it's related to being hypnotized, but by the third day I'm having the most mind-blowing coincidences that I think could affect the course of my destiny.
Luck feels on my side; People are offering to do incredibly nice things for me, and the difficult people in my life are reacting better. Has my subconscious activated a new reality? Am I watching it unfold in front of me? I will certainly believe in it. After all, there is nothing stronger than the power of the mind.
