This is one of the most common questions people ask, and naturally so. There are many definitions available but one which I like and which is recommended by the major hypnosis organizations who trained me is this: 

Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the conscious controlling part of your mind temporarily moves aside and suspends the critical function that it has, so that greater access is gained for therapeutic purposes to the subconscious mind where all your memories, emotions, major beliefs, values and imagination are stored.

When hypnotized you are mentally alert, physically relaxed, extremely focused and in complete control.

Hypnosis allows me to communicate directly with your subconscious mind and help you make positive lasting changes on a deep subconscious level. Usually when we try to make changes in some aspect of our life, we can only access our conscious mind. Using hypnosis we can access the subconscious mind where the majority of your behavior is controlled and this allows us to create the changes you seek quickly and permanently.

An example of a kind of “natural” hypnosis is what occurs when you become totally absorbed in reading a great book or watching an intense movie. I’ll bet you can remember doing this and not responding to someone speaking to you until they raised their voice and broke through your focused thought pattern. Hypnotists call this “waking” hypnosis.

The same thing happens when you drive your car along a familiar route and suddenly realize you are almost at your destination but you don’t clearly recall all the events of getting there. In this case, because the road is one you have driven many times before and are familiar with, your subconscious mind takes control of the driving. Your conscious mind is then free to wander slightly – daydream perhaps - and think about other things, unless of course an emergency arises when control is instantaneously returned to your conscious mind for decision making purposes.

To sum it all up, hypnosis is a state of deepened relaxation, focused concentration and heightened awareness during which your hypnotherapist has access to your subconscious mind in order to deal with issues that are affecting your life and which cannot be dealt with by you at the conscious mind level. 

In many cases, you may not even be aware of what the problem really is because it is buried so deeply and so long ago in your subconscious mind. Your problems today may have their origin in experiences which you have no conscious recollection of that happened when you were a child, often a small child. 

That’s why hypnosis is so amazingly powerful. Using hypnosis, I can reach your problems buried too deep for any other therapy to access and then help you make positive changes at that deep subconscious level. 

What is hypnotherapy?

To understand hypnotherapy, let’s first take a look at hypnosis.  Think of hypnosis as a process, an ongoing certain state of mind if you will, which is necessary in order to use hypnotherapy.
 
Hypnotherapy is the utilization of any technique designed to benefit you or help you overcome an issue, while you are in a state of hypnosis.  So using age regression therapy, 5-PATH® hypnotherapy techniques, or parts therapy with a person in hypnosis is hypnotherapy.
 
Interestingly enough, you can have hypnosis without hypnotherapy but by definition you can’t have hypnotherapy without hypnosis.  In fact, the combination of stress and the simultaneous naturally occurring “hypnotic state” often leads to problems which become buried in our subconscious minds and which can only be rediscovered and dealt with by hypnotherapy.
 
This is especially true if we are youngsters at the time of stress. But the same phenomenon can happen to adults also as in the case of post traumatic stress disorders among individuals whose vocations put them in dangerous or traumatic situations such as police officers, firemen, or military personnel.

What hypnosis is not

Hypnosis is definitely not sleep, although it is derived from the Greek word “hypnos” which does mean sleep. The confusion between hypnosis and sleep occurred because deeply relaxed subjects may appear to be sleeping even though they are not and at the time people did not know the difference.

In practice, hypnotherapists often use the command, “Sleep”, as a sort of shorthand in their conversations with clients. When used that way, it is just a sort of easy shorthand command meant to encourage you to enter into a deep state of relaxation both physically and mentally. I will explain about that when you come in for your first session of hypnosis.

Actually, the functions of sleeping and hypnosis each have their own electronically measurable brain wavelength patterns and they are not the same thing. There are however several different levels of hypnosis which you will experience.

Hypnosis is also not meditation, although there are similarities. The biggest difference between the two seems to be that in meditation you make a conscious effort to clear or empty your mind. Quite literally, to think of nothing!

In hypnosis, you will not empty your mind but rather focus intentionally and in great detail when necessary, on the thoughts, feelings, memories, and experiences you have had or may wish to have. You will focus with great intensity in order to deal with those experiences in whatever way is needed to achieve the results you wish to obtain. So in meditation your mind is “empty” while in hypnosis your mind is “full”.

All hypnosis is actually self hypnosis

What this means is you actually hypnotize yourself and the hypnotherapist helps you to do that. Just as an athlete performs the actions of his sport and the coach helps him refine his skills to improve, I will give you suggestions that help you enter the state of hypnosis but it is you who actually allows that to happen. 

For this reason, no one can hypnotize you against your will, because you actually do the hypnosis. Even people in stage hypnosis shows doing hilarious things are actually doing them of their own free will even though later they may claim they do not remember doing the actions. And the stuff you see in movies is just that… Hollywood exaggeration based on a grain of truth.

All hypnosis is actually self hypnosis, so you will not do or say anything while hypnotized that you do not agree with or that would offend your moral code in any way. If anyone tried to make you do or say such things, you would simply take yourself out of the hypnotic state immediately. Remember, you are always aware during hypnosis.

For this reason, hypnosis professionally conducted in a therapeutic scenario is extremely safe. After all, the primary law that your subconscious mind follows is your self preservation. Its main function above all else is to keep you safe at all times! If some sort of emergency ever occurred while you were hypnotized, you would immediately return to your normal conscious mind state without any hesitation.

What does hypnosis feel like?

Hypnosis feels different to each person. You may feel “heavy” as if you are sinking down into the comfortable reclining chair where you will sit, or you may feel just the opposite - “light” - almost as if you were floating up out of the chair. Most people feel and enjoy one or the other of these perfectly natural sensations. I have experienced such feelings when I have been hypnotized and enjoyed them both. 

However, hypnosis is a unique experience, and some people experience neither of these feelings but are just wonderfully, deeply relaxed. A combination of many sensations is normal also. You will feel your own unique combination of sensations that is perfect for you.