DO HYPNOTHERAPISTS HAVE SPECIAL POWERS?

Of course, being a hypnotherapist I’d love to say yes. Fortunately, I’m not that arrogant. Unfortunately, there are a few unethical therapists who set themselves up as guru-like figures who would have you believe in their unique almost God-given talents. Don’t buy the BS!

Now I’ve got that out of my system, the really important question I’d like to ask is, “Do I believe my clients have special powers?”

Let me answer that indirectly, initially, with a story about a client who came to me recently. Ostensibly, he came to see me to stop smoking – one of my favourite challenges as a hypnotherapist. I shall call him Paul.

Paul arrived with his brain in 5th gear telling me, very eloquently and full of insight, about all the attachments and associations he had with smoking and was quite aware that it was not primarily a physical addiction issue. Normally, these insights are arrived at by a lengthy Q&A session but Paul was way ahead of me on my checklist of questions. After more discussion, mutual exploration and agreements on why Paul was still stuck in his self destructive habit we embarked on the hypnotic part of the session.

So what about my question – Do clients have special powers?

Well, Paul was fantastic proof that this can be the case. At the end of the session we continued to explore his relationship with smoking and his feelings of what had changed. He reported that he now felt a much stronger “joie de vivre” and realised that he had come to me with a deeper hidden purpose. He had become aware, during the session, that the act of smoking had been a self “sabotaging and crippling factor” . He now felt able to see new possibilities and potentials in his life without this “blinding mechanism” and was full of reawakened passion for his future.

Paul’s special power had been to act upon his need to visit someone to give up smoking – not an easy step to acknowledge that you are stuck in a negative trance and need support to find your way out – and then to be open to real insight and inner transformation. From my point of view, he was a rare client who was so ripe for change that I watched a process unfold in front of me aware that special powers were present but definitely not emanating from me. The real desire for change can be so strong sometimes that our minds overflow with a psychological energy and freedom which we perhaps hadn’t felt since childhood.

I am reminded of a quote from the award winning journalist Lynn Povich , “Change is often rejuvenating, invigoration, fun ……… and necessary.”