At Balance, I combine Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with Hypnosis to help clients overcome challenges such as sleep issues, low self-esteem, eating problems, and much more. Hypno-CBT employs the techniques and concepts of hypnotherapy and cognitive-behavioural therapies with a philosophy of evidence-based eclecticism. Hypnosis can help with an enormous range of different issues. 1. Anxiety management. 2. Pain management. 3. Overcoming sleep disorders 4. Treating certain psychosomatic or stress-related illnesses. 5. Phobias Hypnosis is also used to conquer habits such as nail-biting or smoking cigarettes, and for personal development in areas such as sports performance, public speaking, or creativity. • Hypnosis is a special way of using various naturally-occurring psychological and physiological states. It’s a collaborative process in which you allow yourself to follow the guidance of the therapist by using your imagination to evoke positive emotions and rehearse behaviour change. • Everyone can, in principle, be hypnotised. It has been shown to help if you relax, think positively, and imagine the things being suggested. • Hypnotic “trance”, so-called, is an increased ability to respond to positive suggestions, usually accompanied simply by relaxed attention to the ideas being suggested. • Hypnosis is definitely not a state of sleep or unconsciousness. Roughly 90% of people report being aware of everything that happens, and relaxation helps but is not essential to hypnosis. • Hypnosis is definitely not a state of mind control. You cannot be made to do anything against your will. On the contrary, normally you must want to accept suggested ideas and actively imagine responding to experience their effects. • Hypnosis is completely safe when used in a responsible and professional manner. Nobody has ever been “stuck” in hypnosis. • Comedy stage hypnosis has very little to do with clinical hypnotherapy and has been shown to foster misconceptions which can prevent people from benefiting from treatment. Take what you see on television with a generous pinch of salt. • Hypnotic suggestion is a means of experiencing certain helpful ideas at a level profound enough to directly influence our emotions and behaviour. • Hypnotherapy, except for smoking cessation, usually requires more than one session. However, it is probably one of the briefest forms of psychological therapy, and in clinical studies the average number of sessions is around 4-6. • Hypnosis is essentially a simple, down-to-earth, and common sense therapy. For example, by relaxing, thinking positively, and picturing your goals, hypnosis can help you to progressively improve your habitual feelings and behaviour.