A Helping Hand
Article appeared in Latest 7
Jonathan Conway, Hypnotherapist & NLP practitioner, answers your questions on changing the way you view the world.
Q. I want to run Brighton Marathon one day. Can Hypnotherapy help me perform better in sports?
A: Yes, absolutely*. Using hypnosis to visualise being successful in sports is very powerful.* It can also be helpful to use the anchoring techniques of NLP to help you get into a resourceful winning state and also to model success on other successful performers in professional sports*.
Q. I wish I had more confidence. Can hypnotherapy make me more outgoing?
A. Yes. Hypnosis can be a careful tool in helping a person focus on the things that help them to feel better about themselves and help you to find the resources that every person has to do this*. As you begin to notice your success there is likely to be a cumulative effect. In my experience confidence from the inside out is likely to be more effective and longer lasting than doing things with a short term boost in confidence. Also the more accepting a person can be of themselves the better they are likely to feel in their lives*.
Q. I would love to fly abroad but have such a fear of flying after a bad experience when I was younger. Can hypnotherapy help me to overcome this phobia?
A. Flying phobias are usually connected with a past flying experience that didn’t go well such as extreme turbulence or engine failure whilst on board a flight. It is a feeling of being out of control sometimes accompanied by panic and anxiety. Hypnosis accompanied by an NLP Fast Phobia cure can help with overcoming a flying phobia and to help the person have a positive flying experience*. To do this, the flying experience needs to be reframed to something more positive, in particular, the language that is used in thinking about the flying experience*.
Q. Can hypnotherapy cure physical pain?
A. Pain management is a complex topic and before a non-medically trained hypnotherapist uses hypnosis for pain control it is important that the person has had a medical investigation beforehand. Once this has been done – and with a medical practitioner’s approval – hypnosis can be a powerful too in assisting with pain control*. Hypnosis can help to change the perception of the pain into something more manageable and something which the unconscious mind is able to control*.
Q. My new job means that I need to give public presentations. How many hypnotherapy sessions would I need to improve my public speaking performance?
A. Speaking in public is one of life’s greatest challenges and fears. Hypnosis and NLP can really assist a person to speak fluently and confidently, and to create a greater level of rapport with the audience*. Even two or three sessions can make a significant and valuable change to someone’s ability to be a competent public speaker*. The first task is to help the person build up some positive resources. NLP Anchoring techniques can be useful here followed by visualization and also learning a practicing self hypnosis techniques*. Like all new skills it is necessary to practice and the more times you are able to do so, the easier it will be to perform well in presentations*.
Q. I’m seeing a hypnotherapist to help me to kick my smoking habit. Am I going to be able to handle passive smoking after my hypnotherapy?
A. The biggest part of smoking addiction is not the physical craving but the psychological need to have a cigarette. Once the urge to smoke is replaced by other healthier and creative behaviours the person will have a sense of freedom and be in control of the unconscious urge to smoke. It is also probable that the hypnotherapist may have given some hypnotic suggestions that the person will no longer be attracted to the smell of nicotine and therefore passive smoking should not bother the person*.
