Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Hypnotherapy NZ

It’s something we do—something we actively engage in—rather than something that is done to us.

It’s a process you choose, and are motivated and willing to engage in. If you don’t want to experience hypnosis, you won’t. It’s as simple as that.

The hypnotist communicates with the hypnotee through words and body language.

Since ancient times, there have always been people who have been aware of the effects of their words and ideas upon others. Some have realised that they can take this awareness and systematically apply it, to change the way people think, feel and behave.

Not all of them have called themselves hypnotists. They may have been called leaders, healers, mystics or shamans, advertisers. Nowadays they might be called a politician, salesperson, thought leader, manager, therapist, coach or magician.

Most researchers agree that hypnosis requires the subject to engage in intense focus or concentration on one or more specific ideas.

This is also called selective attention or everyday trance – we select a single idea or thing on which to focus our conscious attention. This focused attention leads to a heightened state of awareness of the idea or thing being focused upon, and everything we're not focusing on drops out of our conscious awareness.

Selective attention is our natural learning state. In order to learn anything, we must focus our attention on it.

Hypnosis has been called the art and science of suggestion. During the hypnosis session, the hypnotist delivers goal-directed suggestions that facilitate achievement of the outcome the hypnotee is seeking.

In addition to suggestions, the hypnotist may use imagery, metaphor, and stories.

We all have a set of innate resources that we can draw on in order to help us create the changes we want to make. These resources include our beliefs, our values, and our imagination.

An example of a temporary change in subjective reality would be where it’s suggested to a person that their hand is stuck to the table and that becomes their reality until the hypnotist tells the person their hand is no longer stuck, at which point the person’s reality returns to normal.

Helping someone to permanently alleviate or eliminate the symptoms of IBS is an example of permanently altering someone’s subjective reality.

Gut-directed hypnotherapy is a science-backed approach that helps reduce IBS symptoms by calming your nervous system and restoring healthy communication between your brain and digestive system.

• Reduces gut hypersensitivity
• Calms your nervous system
• Improves bloating, pain, and urgency
• Promotes more predictable digestion
• Backed by 30+ years of clinical research

The best way to prepare is to adopt a hypnotic mindset. A 'hypnotic mindset' simply means that you:

• Have an intent to experience hypnosis
• Are motivated to experience hypnosis
• Are confident in your ability to respond to the suggestions you receive
• Are optimistic about the outcome of hypnosis
• Expect to automatically experience the responses and changes being suggested or imagined

If you adopt the hypnotic mindset, you can experience hypnosis—because you're already an expert in the key components of hypnosis. You use them multiple times every day. You can:

• Communicate – speak and listen
• Focus your attention
• Use your imagination
• Respond to suggestions

As I said above, if you don’t want to experience hypnosis, you won’t. It’s as simple as that. It’s a choice. You have to want to engage in the process. If you don’t, then nothing is going to happen.

Everyone’s experience of hypnosis is different, because we are all unique individuals.

Hypnosis is a very focused and pleasurable experience. Most people describe it as very enjoyable.

You are aware of everything that is going on around you. You are alert and focused on the hypnotist’s words. You hear everything that’s said but, like with any communication, you’re unlikely to remember all that was said.

Because you’re alert and focused, you are in control. That means you can end the session anytime you wish. You can also reject suggestions if you want to.

No. In hypnosis, a professional hypnotist would not make you say or do anything you do not want to.

Change starts from the moment you decide to change, and change can be happening even when we think it isn’t—so there’s no need to feel disappointed when, as occasionally happens, a hypnosis session doesn’t seem, at first, to have made any difference.

Change can be instantaneous or it may take a few days, weeks, or months to achieve the result you desire. Each of us is unique, and we change at a rate and speed that is unique to us.

In the meantime, you can notice what you notice. Clues that you have moved, or are moving, toward the desired outcome will emerge, so be alert for even the smallest things that you’re doing differently.

No.

No. Hypnosis creates a state of relaxation and focused attention. This can be light to very deep. It is literally impossible to become “stuck” in a state of relaxed, focused attention.

Can you imagine getting “stuck” in reading an absorbing book or watching an enjoyable film? Should you need to, you can bring yourself out of hypnosis at any time.