Let’s talk about counseling and psychotherapeutic options, the difference between talk therapy and advanced hypnotherapy. Traditional talk therapy is typically one hour of discussion most often about what is currently happening in one’s life. Having someone you trust to talk to is a great value. We need to feel at least one person in the world understands and accepts us as we are. We need to be able to express our fears, our desires, our hopes, and our problems without fear of judgment. For this reason talk therapy is of service. It can help one negotiate through difficult challenges such as grief or other personal losses. However talk therapy has its limitations. First, it is only one hour and often less than an hour…forty five to fifty minutes long. Often the session has to be aborted just as something of import is emerging into one’s consciousness. This time limitation is a definite set back to making progress. Second, talk therapy does not typically focus on core beliefs, the root underlying cause of one’s conflicts. Typically talk therapy focuses on symptoms, the surface fallout of conflicting core beliefs. For example, a difficult relationship is symptom of underlying conflicting core beliefs about the self and relationship. Another example is addiction. Addiction is always about managing upsetting emotions. Upsetting emotions are always about how we perceive ourselves and the world, how we cope with stress. How we cope with life’s stresses is programmed in us before the age of four. Unless a therapy addresses the underlying issues of a symptom there is little progress to be made. Again talk therapy misses its chance to be of real significant help on a deep level.
Hypnotherapy in the hands of a trained and seasoned therapist is another story. But first please heed this warning: practitioners of hypnotherapy do not require a license to practice so there is little to hold them to a standard of excellence. In fact, a person can become a certified hypnotherapist with little or no education beyond high school. Choosing a hypnotherapist who does not have the education and experience of a licensed psychotherapist is playing with fire. That being said hypnotherapy with a licensed psychotherapist who has had extensive training in hypnotherapy and regression can be the best find of your life.
Hypnosis and in particular hypnotherapy that specializes in regression opens an entirely new door that talk therapy cannot touch. It opens the door to memory. Why is this so important? Unless you can remember the past and how it had an affect on you, you cannot heal or transform it. And healing and transformation is what therapy is all about. While in a relaxed and focused state you with the guidance of a hypnotherapist can recall details of your past even back to the womb. You can recall your perception of what happened. You can recall how you felt, what you decided the experience meant about you, and you can see the patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion that are still active in the present. By accessing this vital information you can transform those thoughts, behaviors, and emotions to ones that support you in ways that are healthy.
Hypnotherapy conducted by a seasoned and highly trained hypnotherapist is leaps and bounds superior to talk therapy.