FAQs
Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy FAQs
Facts and information about hypnosis and the profession of hypnotherapy
Hypnosis is a state of altered consciousness that occurs in every person just before entering the sleep state. In therapeutic hypnosis, we prolong this brief interlude so that we can work within its bounds.
What Are the Benefits of Hypnosis?
There is no magic to hypnosis; it is simply a very effective way of changing habits and recalling events and memories from the past. Such recollections are often valuable in helping one recognize how habits began and thereby make change relatively easy. Hypnosis can be used to further any human endeavour. With hypnosis, you can:
- Develop and express awareness and intuition
- Feel worthwhile, self-confident and zestful
- Gain a happier home life; become a better husband, wife, parent, or friend
- Acquire the ability to relax completely in any situation
- Make better decisions
- Improve concentration
- Overcome procrastination
- Improve the quality of your emotional expression
- Reduce conflict and stress
- Promote health and well-being
- Regain your natural ability to sleep easily
- Sell yourself, your ideas and your services with confidence and enthusiasm
- Increase your income
- Attract and maintain worthwhile friendships
- Discover your negative mental patterns and how they affect you
- Free yourself from hostility, resentment or fear of rejection
- Select your goals in life and chart your course for their realization
- Program your mind with positive mental concepts and success attitudes
- Develop the ability to construct mental images
Yes. Because hypnosis is a natural state through which everybody passes before sleeping, all human beings have a natural ability to enter a hypnotic state. However, just as it is possible to resist going to sleep, it is also possible to resist hypnosis. But even if one resists hypnosis, that resistance can be overcome with practice.
How Do I Start a Career as a Hypnotherapist?
Completing the hypnotherapy diploma program is the first, and most important step to becoming a clinical hypnotherapist in British Columbia. From there, however, there are still many decisions to make and things to consider, such as how to put yourself “out there” and start attracting clients to your hypnotherapy practice. Don’t worry – we cover all of these important aspects and more as part of our clinical hypnotherapy diploma program. Plus, as a CCAHH alumnus, you’ll have free access to ongoing support as you grow your hypnotherapy practice!
What Type of Professionals Use Hypnosis?
While clinical hypnotherapy is a highly rewarding career in its own right, many other professionals use hypnotherapy in their daily lives.
- Mental and emotional health: psychotherapists; hypnotherapists; marriage, family, and child counsellors; clinical social workers; rehabilitation, alcoholism, and career counsellors; and an array of Human Potential specialists
- Physical health: physicians, natural childbirth coaches, chiropractors, nutrition consultants, dentists, holistic health practitioners, massage practitioners and body workers, acupuncturists, etc.
- Spiritual development: hypnotherapists who incorporate a spiritual philosophy and a belief in a higher power into their therapeutic framework
- Creative and educational endeavours: music, art, writing, speed reading, foreign language, and public speaking teachers; and presenters of general self-improvement programs
- Athletics and sports motivation: athletic coaches and trainers, and sports instructors for enthusiasts in golf, tennis, marksmanship, bowling, etc.
- Business interests: Sales and management consultants focus upon increasing sales motivation and improving interpersonal relationships with hypnosis
Why Do Some People Doubt Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is largely misunderstood. For centuries, it was associated with spiritualism, witchcraft and the like. Furthermore, often-exaggerated claims made by undisciplined hypnosis practitioners have turned many people against it. Stage hypnotists have further eroded the public’s perception of hypnotherapy by giving volunteers suggestions to do foolish things, exploiting their suggestibility for entertainment purposes. Some think hypnosis is dangerous, while in truth it is no more dangerous than sleeping.
What Does it Feel Like to Be Hypnotized?
Many people expect something spectacular, something akin to being drugged. In actual fact, hypnosis is simply a very relaxed state. Have you ever been so preoccupied with a task that you didn’t hear someone calling your name? Reading, watching a movie and being engrossed in a hobby can all create naturally occurring hypnotic trances. You are not unconscious or asleep – your mind is active, you perceive all stimuli and you are able to communicate. Hypnosis is, in two words, focused relaxation.
Courtenay, BC, is on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, approximately three hours north of Victoria and just one hour north of Nanaimo. Courtenay is the hub of the magnificent Comox Valley, an energetic community of approximately 67,000. In Courtenay, you’ll find all of the amenities you need, with quick access to the beauty and recreation of the Salish Sea, the Beaufort Mountains and the world’s largest temperate rainforest – they’re all right in our backyard!
The Comox Valley is served by the Comox Airport, with direct daily flights from Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.