After practicing hypnotherapy in Atlanta since 1988 one of the things that I’ve learned is that it’s my clients who are ultimately in control when they are in hypnosis. I appreciate that my guidance is extremely helpful to my clients. And, many of them have let me know, directly or indirectly, that they taken my ideas and suggestions and implemented them in some very creative ways.
For example, I was using imagery of taking an airplane mind with one of my clients who was in a very deep hypnotic state. When she finished her hypnosis session, she let me know that she didn’t like riding on airplanes, so she took the train. I was delighted and fascinated by her creative response.
When she told me that she took the train, she was also telling me that she was the one who was in charge.
It is my job as a hypnotherapist to create a context in which my clients can create solutions to their problems, or enhance their existing skills.
For example, one of my clients had difficulty playing his best golf game when he was with his buddies. Playing by himself or with his wife he did dramatically better. He was putting pressure on himself to play well when he was with his buddies and the tensions and self talk that he created got in the way of him playing his best game. So, I helped him to remember, while he was in hypnosis, that by forgetting himself and just enjoying each and every shot that he could play his best game. Two days after our session he shot an 83. Previously when he was playing with his buddies his score would typically be 97 or 98.
Another client got creative and solved a problem as a result of a question that I asked. He had a fear of flying. He told me that even while he was sitting on the ground in the airplane that he would be gripping the armrests with white knuckles. I asked him what he would think if he saw himself sitting there, completely safe, through a window on the side of the plane. He laughed. And, by simply shifting his mental perspective and laughing at his anxiety while he was in a completely safe situation he lost his fear of flying.
And, even though my question precipitated my client’s healthy and dramatic response to the thought of flying. It was his creative imagination that made the fear silly to him, and which eliminated his fear.