What a Hypnosis Session is Like: A Guide for the Hypno-Curious

People choose to be hypnotized for various reasons. If they participate in a hypnosis stage show, it may be for fun or novelty, to satisfy curiosity or enjoy the spotlight for a moment.

Those who arrive at my office to be hypnotized come to make changes in their lives, some urgent and important, others playful.

I have hypnotized clients to quit smoking, lose weight, fully embrace an exercise program, gain confidence and skill for sports or educational endeavors, attract love and relationship, encourage fertility and help allay allergies (with physician permission), dispel worries or fears (of dogs, needles, blood), and more.

When they arrive at my office, new clients all have one thing in common. They wonder: What will the experience be like for me?

Maybe you wonder too. Here's the scoop:

If you were to visit a hypnotist, you would likely be asked what you came for specifically: What do you want to change about yourself? What do you want to be, do, have/feel? Improve, eliminate, or think about differently?

If the change you desire occurred, what differences would be noticeable in your daily life? What might you see, hear, feel, taste, smell, or sense?

Then after some discussion about what hypnosis is and isn't, and answering your questions, the hypnotist would assist you into the hypnotic state.

It is likely that you would begin to experience some of these signs of hypnosis:

- Softening or slackening of facial muscles
- Limpness or relaxation of the larger muscles of the body
- Wet eyes
- Temporary eye redness
- Changes in swallowing
- Changes in breathing rate or depth
- Body twitching
- Eyes rolling upward

All are temporary, harmless, and indicate that a receptive hypnotic state has been achieved-a state in which appropriate, hypnotic suggestions can be given.

But how you experience hypnosis depends a lot on you, and on the hypnotist who is working with you. Some people tell me that they felt like they were floating at times; some it seemed that they were sinking into the chair.

Sometimes they describe their bodies as feeling loose and heavy, very heavy, and relaxed.

Watching their trance, I might notice fingers moving or twitching. Eyelids may twitch and then quiet as the skin of the face relaxes and slackens.

Some clients, as they emerge from trance, describe feeling cool or warm, or mention tingling in their fingertips.

For many, none of this occurs or is recalled; yet the habit they came to remove or create-or the perspective they wanted to change-is altered as desired!

So how can you judge the value of the session?

Ask yourself: did I receive some or all of the results desired, or am I progressing more steadily on that path? Was it educational?

Am I enjoying the feeling of being more knowledgeable about what can be done through the mind? And finally: would I like to learn self-hypnosis so it can be another a tool for taking care of myself? ©2009 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.