Advantages and Disadvantages of Hypnotherapy
1. Hypnotherapy activates a deep relaxation response in your body. This relaxation response reduces sympathetic nervous system activity, decreases blood pressure, slows heart rate, and accelerates healing.
2. Hypnotherapy puts you back in control of your life, your body, your relationships and your surroundings. You realize what an empowered part you play in how your life unfolds.
‘One of the interesting ironies about hypnosis is that old fantasy that it takes away control,’ says leading expert Dr. David Spiegel of the Stanford University School of Medicine. ‘It’s actually a way of enhancing people’s control, of teaching them how to control aspects of their body’s function and sensation that they thought they couldn’t .”Newsweek, Altered States
Under hypnosis, subjects do not behave as passive automatons but instead are active problem solvers…– Scientific American Inc
3. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. You are in control of your hypnotic state in each moment. You can choose to explore your subconscious and the images, sensations, and memories there or you can choose to open your eyes and return to the room at any time.
4. Another advantage of hypnotherapy is a phenomenal self-management skill and a method of self-care. You learn techniques, resources, and ideas that tend to become lifetime tools.
5. You skip trying to make changes by sheer ‘willpower’ and directly influence your subconscious’s core beliefs and behaviors.
6. Hypnosis is a natural healing remedy and had no adverse side-effects or interactions. You empower the bodies to own innate capabilities without complicating the profile or adding more toxicities.
7. Hypnotherapy is cost-effective, usually requiring 4 to 6 sessions. Another advantage is that its effects may last for the rest of your life! Research is demonstrating its effectiveness both as an adjunct to standard treatment and as an alternative therapy.
“This relatively simple and inexpensive psychological intervention has applications both to a range of immune disorders and for promoting health in the population at large.” -Hypnosis from a Neurobiological Perspective: A Review of Evidence and Applications to Improve Immune Function, Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London, 1999
More Advantages and Disadvantages of Hypnotherapy
1. Hypnotherapy cannot be done to you. Hypnosis will not work if you are not wanting it, willing, and focused on healing. The hypnotherapist can only guide you. You are responsible for participating fully, dedicating the time and space needed, and practicing self-hypnosis.
2. Another disadvantage of hypnotherapy is that it is not a quick fix. Though there are many recorded cases in which only one session eliminated a lifelong allergy or released chronic neck pain, it is not the norm. In most cases, 4 to 6 sessions are needed for the full effects of hypnotherapy to create last healing and change. In the case of chronic disease, you may find that 12 to 24 sessions are necessary for lasting change.
3. What is said in any hypnogogic state, if accepted willingly by your subconscious, can take a major effect on your life. How dramatically could your life change if you no longer felt unworthy or were no longer driven to seek others approval all the time? At the same time, how would your life change if you believed that nothing can help you?
Want to find out more? Listen to this description of several cases using hypnotherapy: