Why do some people shy away from using a hypnotherapist?
Why do some people shy away from using a hypnotherapist?
Photo by MK Hamilton on Unsplash
Why do people shy away from using a hypnotherapist?
In my experience there are a number of reasons why people shy away from using a hypnotherapist:
- Sceptical
- Don’t believe that it works
- Frightened
- Heard bad things about it
- Scared that they will be left in a trance
- Worried that they will tell the therapist their deepest darkest secrets
- Anxious that they might discover something about their past
- Too expensive
- Believe that they will be made to do silly daft things
Let me take each one of these in turn.
Sceptical - many people are sceptical about hypnosis and any form or alternative therapy. To me that is a perfectly valid reason why they wouldn’t want to use a hypnotherapist and I truly respect their view. However, I would question whether they knew what hypnosis really is. If after giving me a chance to fully explain what hypnosis (hypnotherapy) is and they were still sceptical, again I would fully understand them not wanting to see a hypnotherapist. In my experience, once someone has heard, in detail, what hypnosis is, most people are then not sceptical.
Don’t believe that it works - hypnotherapy, just like any therapy (even medical interventions) won’t work for every single person. However, in my experience it works for most people. But if you don’t give a go you will never find out if it would work or not. I’ve also had clients who have seen another hypnotherapist and it didn’t work but it did work with me.
Frightened - many people are frightened about using a hypnotherapist, mainly I think because they have only ever seen stage hypnosis which is all about entertainment. Once hypnosis is fully explained, most people lose that feeling of being frightened.
Heard bad things about it - I suppose this encompasses all of the above. In addition there have been some bad press and some real incidents where certain individuals have taken advantage of their clients in unethical ways. Unfortunately there will always be unsavoury people like this, just like in any walk of life.
Scared that they will be left in a trance - it is impossible to be left in a trance. Trance is a totally natural state, one which we all go into many times during the day. Once hypnosis is fully explained no-one will be worried about being left in a trance.
Worried that they will tell the therapist their deepest darkest secrets - unless the person wants to tell their deepest darkest secrets to the therapist, they won’t and can’t be made to. A lot of therapy nowadays is what we call content free. The therapist only needs the bare minimum of information to help the client. A persons subconscious mind knows the cause and also knows the answers, we as therapist help the clients subconscious mind overcome the issues.
Anxious that they might discover something about their past - generally this would be a good thing to discover as more than likely it’s what is going to help the client move on. Rarely, in my experience, do clients discover something that they are not already aware of. Perhaps if they were doing a past life regression, they might discover something.
Too expensive - for some hypnotherapy will be too expensive. I suppose the cost will depend upon if you can afford it and what benefit you can potentially gain from it. An example is stop smoking. Let us say the cost of a session for stop smoking is £200. Yes this looks like a lot of money, however, if you then look at the benefits of a far healthier life, potentially adding years to your life and saving you on average £3640 per year (£10x7x52) for a typical smoker (20 per day), then times that by the number of years smoke free, lets say 20 years, gives a total of £72800 over their life time. We could do similar calculations for weight loss or anxiety where the benefits are huge.
Believe that they will be made to do silly daft things - this comes back to stage hypnosis. No hypnotherapist would want to make a client look silly or daft and once hypnosis had been fully explained no client would believe that that’s what hypnotherapy is about.
Hypnotherapy isn’t for everyone, however, I hope the above has answered some questions.
Do leave a comment below.
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