People that are unacquainted with hypnotherapy always ask, "Does hypnotherapy work?" The answer is yes! In order to understand why hypnotherapy works so well, it is important to understand how our minds process information and how a thought becomes a behavior.
The step-by-step process looks like this:
1. Accepted Thoughtr
2. Imaginationr
3. Memoriesr
4. Emotionsr
5. Behaviors
Let's go through each step and identify how the thought becomes a behavior.
Accepted Thought - Everything starts with an accepted thought. Each one of us makes a decision about what is right, true, and correct for us. Once we make that decision, the thought becomes an accepted thought and that is what our subconscious mind goes to work on. The subconscious' purpose is to achieve the thoughts that we give it.
If the thought that we accept is that we are not good enough, then that is what the mind goes to work on. The subconscious is like the genie in the bottle. It does not question whether the wish is good or bad, ethical or unethical. It simply does everything it can to make it a reality.
Imagination - Once a thought it accepted, the next step is that the thought passes through the imagination. The sole purpose of the imagination is to amplify thoughts. Research has shown that it can amplify thoughts from zero to 2500 times!
A simple example is with any kind of phobia; let's take a fear of spiders as an example. If the person has a fear of spiders and they amplify that 500 times, they will be a little unhappy if they see a spider. If they amplify it 1000 times, then may move away and ask someone else to kill the spider. If they amplify it the full 2500 times, they will run, panic, and scream at the sight of a spider. People wonder what is wrong with them, but nothing is wrong with them. It is the exact same thought (spiders are gross, spiders are dangerous, etc.) but it is amplified to a much greater degree.
Memories - After the thought is amplified, we will then go into our memories to validate, justify, and defend that thought because we do not want to be wrong. We want to be right.
If the thought is that you are not good enough, then you will find times in your life when you were not good enough. It might have been a test at school, a work assignment you didn't do well on, or even a relationship that failed. But those memories will validate that thought and the mind will say that it must be true, even if there are a million times that you were good enough. That is not the thought that it is working on validating.
Emotions - Once we find memories that validate the accepted thought, those memories will create emotions.
When you think about any memory of the past, it creates emotions. It could be happiness, sadness, anxiety, excitement, or any other emotion.
Behaviors - Our emotions will then trigger our behaviors. The rule is that we tend to act the way that we feel. So, if I wake up really grouchy one day, then chances are that I will act grouchy because that is how I feel.
That is exactly how behaviors are created. So, getting back to the initial question of
does hypnotherapy work? Yes, it works really well and very quickly.
The whole point is that when you realize the thought you accepted is not true, you can replace it with a different thought. When you think differently, well the imagination of the old thought has been desensitized. You now longer look for memories to validate the old thought because you know it is incorrect. The memories were creating the emotions of the old thought which means we have collapsed the emotions associated with the thought. And, since we tend to act the way that we feel, since you feel differently, you will act differently.
This is why hypnotherapy works so effectively for changing behavior. It is all about teaching you how to use your mind in a new way to achieve your goals and overcome self-limiting beliefs.