For centuries, people have turned to the ancient practice of hypnosis to alleviate and cure ailments. 

Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis for therapeutic and health benefits—it’s a form of communicating with the subconscious for healing and gaining insight. Because hypnosis is a tool that helps people get to the root of their issues quickly, it can be used to relieve and remedy symptoms. 

Putting Your Subconscious in the Driver’s Seat

Peter Blum of Woodstock, New York, has been a hypnotist for 40 years and describes the modality as helping people clarify what they want. The subconscious mind drives your life, so it has to be on board to make anything happen, and it needs clear directions. Hypnosis is like “putting the coordinates into a GPS.” 

In a hypnotic state, the subconscious mind is at a heightened sense of awareness, while the conscious mind is in a trance-like state. In other words, your subconscious is in the driver’s seat as the conscious mind is sitting quietly in the back. 

In this state, you’re more susceptible to suggestions and receptive to making changes—you become more capable of stepping outside your usual status quo. 

Hypnosis and meditation are similar states. Both are deeper states of concentration blocking out external stimuli. But unlike the deep state of meditation, with hypnosis there’s an end goal in mind—whether it’s releasing stuck emotions, overcoming self-doubt, or managing anxiety and stress.

You can only be in a hypnotic state if you’re open to it and a willing participant. Essentially, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

“I can’t make a person do anything,” explains Blum. “I’m helping someone access more of their potential, drawing out what’s already inside the person and how to channel that energy.” Before you can change anything, “you have to envision a different reality …Conceive, believe, achieve.”

Blum uses a conversational style of hypnosis—he asks questions and makes suggestions. This encourages the process of self-discovery. “What’s preventing you from getting what you want?” Blum might ask. “If you give up this habit, what does that look like? Can you see yourself in a new situation?”

Susan Spiegel Solovay is another long-time practicing hypnotist. She regularly receives referrals from counselors and mental health practitioners and works with people both online and in her Hudson, New York-based office to address various issues, including emotional eating, heartbreak, fears and phobias, and sleep problems.

“Habits are deeply embedded in the subconscious,” Solovay says, “they aren’t from the logical, analytical mind.” With hypnosis, you’re accessing memories and beliefs in those deep places, getting to the source of something in a compressed time frame—which produces rapid therapeutic results.

“The life someone leads is based on the stories, pictures and words in the mind,” Solovay says. The key is to change the pictures and stories to serve your highest self. “We believe the stories we tell ourselves,” she notes. “So, we want to tell stories and create images that lead to personal growth.”

“What’s the story you’re telling yourself?” she asks her clients about their particular issues.

Rewriting Your Story in Real Time

Solovay helps people develop a new story instead of repeating the old one. This repatterns the brain’s neural pathways so the person isn’t replaying the same loop over and over, continuing the same cycle. 

She says that by making new pictures and changing the inner story, you’re replacing negative thoughts with beneficial thoughts, transforming situations into more empowering experiences. See yourself reaching your goal—put a picture of it in your mind. Rehearsing positive pictures helps you get where you want to go. 

Robin Fasano is a regular contributor to Natural Awakenings.