The process of accessing an altered state of awareness, one in which the person's mental focus is more limited, more absorbed and often internally directed, where the unconscious mind is more available for interaction and the conscious mind is less dominant.

A good technical definition of hypnosis is: A state of relaxation and concentration at one with a heightened awareness induced by suggestion. It is a non-addictive power for good and is a natural manifestation of the mind at work.  It could be said that all human experience is one kind of trance or another - but are we achieving the best kind of trance to achieve what we want? Hypnotherapy will help you to achieve a positive mental focus. At all times you remain in control and perfectly awake. Hypnosis for therapeutic purposes is just about relaxation and release. You may feel very heavy, relaxed, lethargic or quite light and tingly. It's just a wonderful, deeply pleasant and relaxing experience.Stage hypnosis and misconceptions

Unfortunately most people's first impressions of hypnosis are through seeing stage hypnotists on television or on stage. This can lead people to believe that they may be hypnotised against their will and controlled or manipulated or made to do something silly. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Nobody can be forced to do anything against their will unless they are tortured or brain-washed! (and you would certainly know if that was happening, especially in public!).

Realise that the people who volunteer to go up on stage at the hypnotist's request do so quite willingly, they know they will be asked to do silly, amusing things and if they were embarrassed they wouldn't go up in the first place, would they? You can be sure that those who volunteer are perfectly willing to be laughed at, they are extroverts, they know what is expected of them. That is not to say they are not hypnotised, but they are very willing.

Nobody can be hypnotised against their will, or to do anything which is against their core beliefs. The stage hypnotist's purpose is to entertain and impress people with his own abilities - whereas a hypnotherapist has a very different agenda. The hypnotherapist is not intent upon making an impression to an audience - his/her purpose is to help the person, in private and confidential, reassuring surroundings, to deal with issues which they wish to change in their life.

Why is it called Hypnosis?

Did you know? The word hypnosis is derived from the Greek word 'hypnos' meaning 'to sleep', but is actually far from being asleep (although we do go through a kind of trance state each time we decide to go to sleep)

By the time the early users of hypnosis realised this and tried to change the name it had already stuck in general usage. To understand about Hypnotherapy return to the hypnotherapy page