The Difference Between Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis

Hypnosis is the act of hypnotizing someone. Hypnosis puts you into a state of deep relaxation and increased suggestibility. The hypnotist then delivers instruction to your subconscious such as, "Don’t smoke." With hypnosis, you may stop smoking for a while, but the chances are you will smoke again. Why? Because hypnosis never really gets to the root of the problem. Like most bad habits, smoking is usually related to other underlying needs. If you give your mind a hypnotic suggestion to stop a bad habit, like smoking, you may succeed in stopping that behavior for a while, but the pressure of the unaddressed need will eventually cause that bad habit to resurface, or create another equally annoying habit to take its place. This is the primary limitation of hypnosis. In sum, the results of hypnosis are generally short-lived and never get to the root of the problem.

By comparison, hypnotherapy combines hypnotic suggestion with therapeutic techniques. The hypnotherapist helps you to identify the underlying nature of the problem. It may help to visualize it this way: Think of a bad habit or personal problem like a dandelion growing in your garden. Trying to solve the problem with hypnosis is like removing only the top part of the dandelion and leaving the roots. For a short time, you don’t see the dandelion, but eventually it grows back. Hypnotherapy digs deeper and exposes the roots and provides the opportunity for permanent removal.

A Cautionary Note About Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis

There are many health professionals who have training in hypnotherapy. Whether you are undergoing hypnotherapy or hypnosis, I strongly recommend that you work with a practitioner who has training in psychology, as opposed to just hypnotherapy or hypnosis. Such education should consist of a Masters degree or a Ph.D. and preferably the practitioner should be a licensed psychotherapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. There is a good reason for this. Whether you are undergoing hypnotherapy or hypnosis, past traumas, disturbing events, and underlying mental health issues can be triggered. Because of this, it is important that you use a professional with extensive training in psychology who is capable of helping you should such a situation arise. This is the catch 22 of both hypnotherapy and hypnosis: You want the treatment to be evocative and get to the root of the problem, but at the same time, this has the potential to be emotionally disturbing. There are many psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists who have training in hypnotherapy, so finding someone who fits this criteria should not be difficult.

How I work

I am a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Licensed Marriage Family Therapist with a Doctorate in Naturopathy. I have certifications in nutrition, herbal medicine, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

I like to use hypnotherapy with my clients because it goes deep to the inner store-house of our beliefs and learned responses, which is why it has found wide acceptance in treating disorders such as over-eating and smoking. By getting down deep to where the problem lays, hypnotherapy can replace it with positive behavior.