Frequently Asked Questions About Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

• What is Hypnosis?
• What is Regression Hypnotherapy?
• How Does Regression Hypnotherapy Successfully Treat Chronic Stress?
• Does the Hypnotherapist have Control Over a Patient in Hypnosis?
• Can Everyone be Hypnotized?
• Can Regression Hypnotherapy be Harmful?
• What Should I Expect During My First Hypnotherapy Session?
• What Can Be Treated with Hypnosis and Regression Hypnotherapy?

What is Hypnosis?

The power of hypnosis resides in its singular ability to be able to take direct advantage of the mind/body connection by guiding a subject into an altered state of conscious awareness that, classically, has been referred to as a trance. While in this state, verbal suggestions offered by the hypnotherapist are able to bypass the limitations of what the individual's conscious mind has learned within this lifetime in order to access the unlimited power the human brain has acquired over eons of evolutionary development. In this way, hypnotic suggestions are able to directly influence the central nervous system in positive therapeutic ways that would otherwise seem impossible under more ordinary states of awareness.

The term hypnosis most commonly refers to applications involving direct verbal suggestions that are designed more for short-term, therapeutic benefits. For example, a smoking cessation program might involve suggestions designed to completely block the withdrawal symptoms over the few days it takes to completely drain nicotine out of the brain and blood stream. A weekly weight loss program, on the other hand, might include suggestions designed to curb appetite, eliminate cravings and/or alter the sense of taste for sweets and unhealthy snack foods and to develop the motivation to exercise on a regular basis.

More clinical applications of this form of hypnosis might involve creating hypnotic anesthesia for surgery or for an expectant mother who would like to be able to watch her newborn enter the world without any pain or discomfort whatsoever. Since blood flow to different parts of the body can also be altered through direct verbal suggestion, hypnosis has been successfully used for treating skin conditions, accelerating post-surgical wound healing, alleviating intractable pain and promoting natural breast enlargement.

What is Regression Hypnotherapy?

The goal of regression hypnotherapy is exactly the opposite of the direct suggestion form of hypnosis described above. Instead of using direct verbal suggestions to alter a bodily function, modify a behavior or eliminate an unwanted craving, the extraordinary therapeutic value of regression hypnotherapy lies in its unique ability to assist a patient in recovering unresolved feelings and emotions associated with past events in his/her life. By discharging these pent-up feelings and emotions out of the nervous system once and for all, the body is able to re-establish energetic balance so that the many signs, symptoms and conditions that were being directly caused by chronic stress can either be significantly alleviated or, in many cases, completely eliminated.

Most of us would find it difficult to accept that the past negative experiences we may have endured during our childhood and adolescent years might be having an influence on how we think, feel and behave once we reach adulthood, but they do. The fact truly is that scientific research has now shown that everything we experience in life is recorded in our brain as a neural network just as if it were being programmed like a biological computer.

Consequently, if we had the misfortune of not having grown up in a healthy, emotionally nurturing environment where our thoughts, feelings and emotions could be openly shared, felt or expressed, we may have resorted to denying, avoiding or, in the case of significant traumas, even repressing them during our childhood developmental years. Unfortunately, these unresolved feelings and emotions don't just lie within our mind and body in a state of dormancy. On the contrary, they fester and accumulate within the nervous system until they eventually begin to find expression as various mental, behavioral or physical forms of "dis-ease."

Unresolved emotions are often the driving force behind many of the compulsive behavioral disorders and physical conditions we develop as adults. Conditions such as emotional eating, bulimia, phobias, auto-immune conditions, intimacy issues, sexual dysfunction, gynecological problems, infertility, gastro-intestinal problems such as IBS and Crohn's disease and migraine headaches are just a few examples. For a full list, please refer to the web page devoted to Hypnotherapy Treatments.

For a more detailed discussion of how destructive chronic stress can be to both the mind and body, please refer to the topic of Stress and the Biology of "Dis-ease."

How Does Regression Hypnotherapy Successfully Treat Chronic Stress?

Regression hypnotherapy is able to successfully treat chronic stress by taking advantage of the enhanced concentration and memory that are two of the major characteristic of the hypnotic state. The patient is then guided back through the memories of specific events in his/her life so that they can be re-examined for any unexpressed feelings or unresolved emotions that may still be associated with them. Once they are discovered, the patient is encouraged to feel the feelings (loneliness, sadness, anger, fear, etc.) and/or express the emotions (grieving, crying, raging, etc.) they are re-experiencing as a means of releasing the energy associated with them out of the nervous system once and for all. Since the patient's adult intelligence is present throughout this entire emotional release process, it is afforded the opportunity to reprocess (cognitively restructure), with the hypnotherapist's help, how these past events will be thought about and viewed in the future from a much healthier, adult perspective.

Regression hypnotherapy is, therefore, an incredibly emancipating form of therapy that is unique in its ability to assist a patient in reconnecting with the negative energy associated with unresolved feelings and emotions that have inadvertently been allowed to accumulate within the nervous system as a form of chronic stress. As the process unfolds, the body's own innate ability to heal itself begins to show signs of recovery. The nervous system becomes progressively calmer, sleep improves, hormone levels reach a new state of complete balance and the physiological systems of the body return to optimal function. Ultimately, the mental, physical or behavioral symptoms the patient had been suffering with either subside significantly or disappear completely.

Does a Hypnotherapist Have Control Over a Patient's Mind While in Hypnosis?

Absolutely not. Both entering and staying within the hypnotic state are completely under the control of the subject. The hypnotherapist only acts as a guide. To achieve the trance state, a subject must first consent to allowing the conscious portion of his/her mind to be guided into a relaxed, secondary position as a passive observer so that the hypnotherapist can communicate more directly with the subconscious mind. Consequently, the patient's conscious mind is still present and maintains the capacity to reject any suggestions that are being offered by the hypnotherapist. As a matter of fact, a hypnotized person maintains free will and can readily exit the trance state at any time during a hypnosis session.

Can Everyone Be Hypnotized?

Yes, everyone of normal intelligence who possesses the ability to maintain a normal level of concentration can be hypnotized. The depth of hypnosis that each patient initially achieves, however, can vary depending upon several factors. Among them are the particular phase of the brain's 24-hour, circadian rhythm at the time of the hypnosis session; the amount of sleep a person has been getting on a regular basis; the amount of understanding the patient has obtained about what he/she will be experiencing while in hypnosis (in order to allay apprehension) and most importantly, the amount of unresolved emotional material the person may be harboring at the subconscious level without being consciously aware of it. In any case, as a patient becomes more familiar with the hypnotic state, he/she is able to achieve a deeper state of trance and achieve more benefits from the process.

As a rule of thumb, the more unresolved emotional material a patient may be unknowingly guarding at the subconscious level, the less deeply into hypnosis he/she will be able to enter into during the initial phase of a regression hypnotherapy process. Over the years, however, I have discovered the clinical secrets that enable me to greatly facilitate each of my patient's discovery process and assist him/her to access both the memories and unresolved emotions associated with earlier life events even if he/she is unable to enter into even a light state of hypnosis at first. In essence, under these circumstances, the initial phase of the therapeutic process constitutes a necessary trust-building period.

Can Regression Hypnotherapy Be Harmful?

In my 35 years of private practice, I have not had one single patient who was not completely satisfied with the therapeutic value they received from their regression hypnotherapy process. It is important to mention, however, that there were a number of recorded cases during the mid-1990's where far less experienced practitioners were found to have corrupted the patient's recall process which precipitated the "False Memory" controversy that prevailed during that time period.

It takes many years of experience to learn how to work with the subconscious mind and to understand that it does not necessarily record or retrieve memories in the same rational way that the conscious mind does. An explanation as to why this is true, however, is well beyond the scope of this website. What is important to the therapeutic process falls into two realms. The first is whether or not the material a patient uncovers about a past event is accompanied by a discharge of the negative, emotional energy that had been associated with it. The second involves the patient's adult intelligence being able to completely re-interpret the event re-experienced from a healthier perspective (referred to as cognitive restructuring). The combination of these two processes puts complete closure to the event so that it can no longer exert any further negative influence on the patient's health, behavior and well-being from the subconscious level in the future.

What Should I Expect During My First Hypnotherapy Session?

Prior to your first hypnotherapy session, you will be required to fill out a Confidential Patient Information Form for Hypnotherapy that will give you an opportunity to describe your primary reason for seeking treatment, provide both a history and current assessment of your mental health and level of stress as well as other characteristics that may give an indication of your overall health.

You will also be required to read and sign an Informed Consent to Treatment Form. Please note that although Mr. Raymond Jette' has over 35 years of experience in private practice treating the mental, physical and behavioral health needs of thousands of patients, he is still considered a lay practitioner (not a licensed psychologist or mental health professional). Consequently, he does not accept patients who are currently under the care of a psychiatrist without a written referral.

At the beginning of your introductory session, your hypnotherapist will discuss with you in detail the main reason(s) why you are seeking hypnotherapy intervention and will go over any pertinent information you have provided on the Confidential Patient Information Form for Hypnotherapy with you. This will be followed by a question and answer period regarding the hypnosis phenomenon as well as an assessment of what will be the best approach toward addressing your main concern(s).

The more informed a patient is prior to entering into this introductory discussion, the more time efficient the first session will be. Consequently, it is highly recommended that each patient read all the information provided on this current web page as well as under the topic Stress and the Biology of "Dis-ease" hyperlink prior to his/her first appointment.

Depending upon the nature of the complaint, the second half of the first session will be devoted to either Direct Suggestion Hypnosis or Regression Hypnotherapy. In the latter case, it is perfectly understandable that many new patients may experience apprehension toward immediately being induced into the hypnotic state and regressed back to childhood or adolescent life events that may contain negative feelings and emotional content during the first appointment. Consequently, sometimes it is better just to use the remainder of the first session to experience the hypnosis phenomenon and save the regression process for a subsequent session.

You may download the following forms and fill them out prior to your first hypnotherapy session or you may arrive 15 minutes earlier than your scheduled appointment time to fill them out at that time:

• Hypnosis and Regression Hypnotherapy Registration Form
• Informed Consent for Hypnosis and Regression Hypnotherapy Form

What Can Be Treated with Hypnosis and Regression Hypnotherapy?

Click on     Hypnotherapy Treatments to view the list of symptoms and conditions I have been able to significantly alleviate or completely eliminate over the years with either direct suggestion hypnosis and/or regression hypnotherapy.