How Hypnosis Works

HOW HYPNOSIS WORKS

Think of the mind as having two different parts that have different functions: the Conscious Mind and the Unconscious Mind.

The Conscious Mind:

Thinks
Makes plans
Decides
Determines good, bad, right, wrong
Reasons
Accepts
Rejects
Does math
Figures things out

The Unconscious Mind:

Runs the physical body
Holds all of our memories
Drives all of our habitual behaviors
Gives rise to all of our emotions
While the Unconscious Mind only does these  things, these are the things that make up the vast majority of what we feel, say and do, day in and day out. We are largely driven by our Unconscious Mind. The Unconscious Mind is a HUGE part of us!

The Unconscious Mind is programmed!

From the time of conception until age 7 or 8, you are essentially an Unconscious Mind running around. You are like a  little sponge, soaking everything up. You are like a computer that is downloading massive amounts of data. You spend those early years being programmed.You have been programmed by your family, your peers, your teachers, radio, television, magazines, newspapers, billboards: by your culture and everything in it!

You learn most of what you will learn during the course of your lifetime during that early formative period. You learn how to walk, how to talk, how to relate to other people, and so much more. You acquire your attitudes, your beliefs, and your values. Fortunately, the vast majority of the programs that you take in are good, and work well. If they didn't, you probably wouldn't be here! The Prime Directive of the Unconscious Mind is to preserve and to protect your body. It's #1 job is to protect you from danger. And it has done a pretty good job of doing just that...even if there are some things that it's doing that you (from the perspective of the conscious mind) aren't too happy about.

GIGO

Because some of the programs that you have don't work so well. As the computer geeks say, "Garbage In...Garbage Out...GIGO". Faulty programs create faulty behaviors. And so it is faulty programming at the Unconscious level of the mind that causes most of the problems. You consciously know what you want to do or what you want to stop doing. But you find it very difficult to change, because the Unconscious mind just keeps grinding out the same old responses.

Beliefs

And, it is your Unconscious Mind that holds all of your BELIEFS, ATTITUDES and VALUES! Kinda scary to think that all of that stuff was actually installed - programmed -  in you before you even had the capacity to make your own decisions about life. So...if you were repeatedly told that you were... stupid...or clumsy...or plain...or bad...or that "you can't"...Don't you think that that stuff holds you back now? It does, does it not?

The Unconscious Mind is dumb

The Unconscious Mind doesn't know the difference between a good behavior and a harmful behavior. It can't reason (reasoning is for the Conscious Mind). It doesn't know that the habit of brushing your teeth is a good habit and that smoking or over-eating are bad habits. As far as the Unconscious Mind is concerned, they are all just behaviors. And the Unconscious Mind works very hard at maintaining habitual behaviors (running programs), good or bad. We consciously know better than to have that second helping, but we find ourselves reaching for it anyway. We consciously want to be more calm when our teenager is being a teenager, but we blow up. We consciously want to stop smoking, but our hand keeps sticking cigarettes in our mouth. What's going on? Why can't we change and do thing the way we KNOW would be better?

The Unconscious Mind overrides the Conscious Mind

The programs in the Unconscious Mind are very powerful, and the conscious Mind is usually not strong enough to maintain a change in behavior for very long. The Unconscious Mind doesn't listen to the Conscious Mind. The two parts of the mind don't communicate. And that's the problem! In ordinary consciousness, the Unconscious Mind just doesn't get the messages from the Conscious Mind that things need to change.

Hypnosis to the rescue!

When you enter into the mental state of hypnosis, it is as if the Unconscious Mind comes to the surface. You can work with the Unconscious Mind and the Conscious Mind at the same time. You can establish communication between the two parts of the mind, and begin to get them to cooperate.
When the Conscious Mind and the Unconscious Mind come into agreement, and begin to work together, the changes that you desire can happen quickly, easily, deeply, and permanently. When the Unconscious Mind understands that you want to stop an old habit because it is harmful, then it can erase the old program that runs that habit. And if the Unconscious Mind understands that you want to begin a new behavior because it is good for you, then it can begin to run a new program that moves you in the direction that you want to go.
My overall goal, as I am working with my clients, is to negotiate with the Unconscious Mind to stop producing behaviors that cause problems, and to begin generating new behaviors that work better. Hypnosis, and the other techniques that I use are the ideal approach to make this happen.