Yes, with very few exceptions. Very young children may have difficulty, and also people with severe brain damage. People may not be hypnotised against their will. Other than that, we find the ‘trick’ to hypnotising someone is spending time with them to find the best approach to working with them. We won’t do the same thing with everyone.

It’s quite possible that the person you saw did not give enough attention to the induction of trance – a most important element. Hypnotherapy is NOT relaxation therapy or guided imagery. Hypnotherapy involves the formal induction of a trance state, which needs to be maintained throughout the work.

You also need to have rapport with and confidence in the person you’re working with. Even the “best” hypnotist in the world isn’t right for everyone!

The ability to imagine is unrelated to the ability to experience hypnosis. Change resulting from hypnotherapy requires only that your intent and willingness are in place.

Only if you want to be, but not because of your relative “strength” of mind. We understand that there are parts of us that want to change, and parts of us that are happy with the way things are. While we accept that this is often the situation, we assume that if you’ve booked a session then you want our help. It would be a waste of your time and money if you were to resist that help. We’ll always tell you if we don’t think hypnosis is right for you.

Hypnosis is beyond willpower. Change occurs when your willingness aligns with your intent. By using hypnosis techniques to influence your subconscious mind, you can experience rapid and lasting change to habits and patterns of behaviour, even if you don’t know how you’re going to be able to achieve it.

In hypnosis, you’re perfectly capable of saying no or terminating the hypnosis session. Just as you’d refuse to jump off a bridge simply because someone told you to, so too would you reject any suggestion made to you in hypnosis that you did not agree with.

Very occasionally, spontaneous hypnotic amnesia does occur after a session, however this is uncommon, and most people will remember what is said to them during a session.

Absolutely not. A hypnotist cannot make you say or do anything that you don’t want to say or do.

Hypnosis does not require that you are relaxed, although it is more pleasant when you are, and relaxation may be a side-effect. But the hypnotic trance can be achieved when you are standing, running, angry, hurt, sad, in shock…you get the picture. Hypnotherapy is not relaxation therapy.

There is no difference really – hypnotherapy is just the therapeutic application of hypnosis, utilised to help people achieve personal change. All hypnotherapists are hypnotists, but not all hypnotists are hypnotherapists. We talk about this a little more in this blog post about Hypnosis vs. Hypnotherapy.

Your experience of trance will probably vary from time to time, and different hypnotists work in different ways. There is no one “right” approach to taking people into trance. Having said this, it is likely that there will be similarities in your experience, even if the therapist you are seeing is working with you in a different way.

It is important that you feel comfortable with the therapist that you choose. The person you call should be happy to give you information over the phone before you make an appointment. Ask questions! A good hypnotherapist will encourage their clients to be educated about the process.

Ask around – you’ll be surprised how many people have been to a hypnotherapist. A referral from a friend is a great way to know that the person you are calling is reputable. It is always advisable to choose a hypnotist who is a member of a recognised Association, as these have Codes of Conduct that must be adhered to, and members will have had to demonstrate their ability to practise with skill.

The use of ‘direct suggestion’  (“You will no longer stutter” / “Stop Smoking!” / “You are a happy and relaxed person” ) has to be done with care and thoughtfulness. A hypnotherapist trusts in the wisdom of your subconscious mind, and the subconscious mind does not interpret words in the same way that we do when we’re using our conscious, rational mind.

There’s a description of the way Milton Erickson understood the use of Direct and Indirect suggestion, which pretty much sums up our approach:

…[the therapist] notes that Direct suggestion . . . does not evoke the reassociation and reorganization of ideas, understandings and memories so essential for an actual cure . . . Effective results in hypnotic psychotherapy . . . derive only from the patient’s activities. The therapist merely stimulates the patient into activity, often not knowing what that activity may be. And then he guides the patient and exercises clinical judgment in determining the amount of work to be done to achieve the desired results…

(Erickson, 1948, quoted in Hypnotherapy, An Exploratory Casebook by Erickson and Rossi).

It is the “reorganization of ideas, understandings and memories” that are going to help you make the change. In this way, suggestion is best when it is not an instruction or command but rather something of an ‘internal’ communication with your inner wisdom.